Simple Spawn

In the early 90s Todd McFarlane made a character who was intended to be a new definition of cool. He may have been generically tragic. He may have been an obvious attempt at being "cutting edge". He may have even been a 70% rip off of an earlier McFarlane creation in Venom. I would say he is all of those things but still more. Despite being of similar design to Venom, he maintains a great sense of originality. Part of this is story telling but the other is design. The difference maker for me is the cape. The splashes of red in his costume, made more integral when they took the red out of his full body suit. This is a hard design to make changes to and it is easily memorable. The only thing you can do is make themes like Medieval or Gunslinger Spawn. (Gunslinger Spawn is awesome, google him.). Because of the Venom similarities in the 90s, I opted to go with a biker look to him. I like simplifying characters to strip them down to their basics. I enjoy the challenge of removing detail while keeping the character recognizable. Enjoy.

The other Summers Brother.

Alex Summers aka Havok. The forgotten one somehow gets more and more forgotten as the years go by. Today people don\\\'t even remember that he once led the Xmen before they had 10 different teams and books. They forgot that he gets along very well with Wolverine in contrast to his big brother Cyclops. They also forget that he is one of the more powerful Xmen to this day. My goal here is to give him a costume people may remember him in. It still maintains his need to contain his powers through his chest piece. It keeps his Xmen colors. It can cover his head like his old costume and it has a jacket like his 90s costume. I thought he needed a haircut so I took care of his hair too.

Justice Icons

I was recently tasked with redesigning DCs most iconic characters. The Justice League. To speed up the process I used the simplistic yet sophisticated style of Bruce Timm. No one, I repeat, no one understood how to put characters into cartoon form better than Timm. Everything from Batman: the Animated Series to Justice League Unlimited was a flawless take on the DC universe. For my redesigns I opted to make two for each character. Each character having a solo career as a hero, and each having an official Justice League uniform.

First is Batman.

I reversed his typical color scheme to slightly mimic his look from the current movies. The front of the belt is also from said films. The symbol extends to the outer edge of the cape.

Next is Superman.

I took the capes connection at the neck from Superman: Red Son. I changed the yellow to white to give him a more patriotic look, reversed the symbol colors, and removed the underwear from outside his pants.

Wonder Woman.

If she is meant to be an amazon warrior, while also being a superhero, she should look the part. I never understood her big hair so I streamlined her look but left in the things that make her who she is. Lasso, wrist guards, tiara, all present.

Hal Jordan.

I wanted his new suit to look similar to his current uniformed the green stops above the waist at a point. Rather than have the symbol on the suit, the suit is the symbol.

Martian Manhunter.

I didn\\\'t want him to be half nude anymore. So I gave him a full body suit similar to his suit from Countdown. I flared his boots very long because that is how Alex Ross designs them and he is amazing. The hood I added just to sort of make his red eyes more intimidating in the darkness it would provide.

Aquaman.

I wanted a more royal, or medieval look to him. I looked at some outfits from Game of Thrones and tunics. I also looked at his Kingdom Come appearance and took away from it that I should combine royalty and super heroics. The beard commands respect and I used more colors on this one than any other despite seeming to only have two.

The Flash.

I know very little regarding Barry Allen because I find him boring, on top of which he died when I was 5. I prefer Wally West as the Flash because he is awesome and was great in the Justice League cartoon. My favorite appearance though was Kingdom Come where he wore Jay Garrick\\\'s helmet and was not much more than a red blur. His face was covered in red there so I did the same thing. The boots are now sneakers, because his power is speed, so boots never made sense.

Justice League.

The suits on the right only make sense together. Rather than be a collection of individual heroes, they are a unit.

There is no Batman. Part Deux.

My previous post promised a secondary team of Bat-family members. This time comprised of Red Hood (Jason Todd), Batwoman (Kate Kain), and Huntress (Helena Bertinelli). I envision this team as similar to The Outlaws, currently led by Jason Todd. His middle child syndrome has maybe calmed down a bit since Bruce Wayne passed but he still maintains his tougher stance on criminals. The ears on the helmet and the symbol are his tribute but also his pledge of allegiance to the Batman family. He was so bad as Robin that fan voted to have him brutally murdered as a teen, a terrible Red Robin which lasted only a few issues, and as Batman was immediately defeated by Dick Greyson. Red Hood is the only success this character can have. I picture him as somewhat militaristic in his leadership role. Next is Batwoman. I confess I don\'t know much about her aside from her being a lesbian. I put her on this team because of her existing color scheme. I also confess that I don\'t find much wrong with her existing costume so redesigning her was tough. The changes were minimal but the symbol and cape are directly connected going over the shoulders. I added some light gray just to match Jason. The boots are extended for more red and I opted for a topless cowl on her head and face so bat ears can come out of her hair. Last is Huntress. She was difficult because she is a good character who has never, not once, had a decent costume, in about 8 different costumes. They have all been terrible. She is hardly shown gliding so there is no need for a cape. Her mask hides no facial features so it\'s useless. She was too violent so she was not allowed to be Batgirl. She is vengeful and angry, but has worn some of the sluttiest superhero outfits ever imagined. I had to fix this and I think I succeeded in giving her a believable look she could wear in comics. I think this would also fit if she were not on the team. This costume with the red and black changed to purple and navy blue would be just as effective.

There is no Batman. Part 1.

The first word in concept art is concept. What is the reason or story behind the design. For these I thought of the squandering of Batmans death from Final Crisis. Bruce Wayne is Batman, there should be no replacement. It diminishes his work if someone else can just be the same. Dick Grayson is not a substitute for him. He is Nightwing, which is a good thing because he has come into his own as Nightwing. Putting him in the bat-suit just made him seem like diet Batman. Now if you want to kill Batman off and make his death have an actual impact on others, you use his death to inspire. The Batman family doesn't have him to rely on so they have to borrow a slang phrase and step their game up. Below from left to right is Tim Drake as Robin, Dick Grayson as Nightwing, and Stephanie Brown as Batgirl. Like Dick for Nightwing, Tim has embraced the Robin character. The Red Robin costume from Kingdom Come, just doesn't work without Alex Ross painting it. If Batman inspires after death than certainly a black cape and cowl work here. I kept the R symbol but placed it in the center like a classic hero, as if to remove the idea of him as a sidekick. The Red tunic has the shape of a bird including the part under the belt mimicking a birds tail. Nightwing has always taken the look of a darker but still bird-based theme. With Batman dead, it was time for a significant change, and it turns out bats fly at night and have wings too. The core design is still Nightwing but the upper body has the colors reversed to mimic some of his older Nightwing costumes which always featured more blue. The bat replaces the featured wings and the now his head is covered. One thing I think Dick would do to keep differentiate him from Bruce is uncover his nose. Stephanie Brown got to be Batgirl for about 12 minutes before the relaunch and no one remembers. It was a role where no one really did a decent job after Barbara Gordon. Helena Bertinelli is better and more known as the Huntress, Cassandra Cain never speaks so getting to know her as a character never going to happen, and Barbara had grown into the Oracle role better than anyone would have guessed, so in my opinion, Stephanie Brown, who was basically useless as Robin or Spoiler, was the best chance to make Batgirl a character again and I don't think she was given a fair shot. This design is equal parts Huntress, Batgirl, Spoiler, Robin, and Batman. To be her own Batgirl I thought she might go overboard on the bats. Two on the boots which is a Batgirl staple, one on the domino mask, the utility belt, and as opposed to a symbol on the chest I made it a functional part of the suit, attaching the cape.

The New Kingpins of NY.

I had this idea for a long time about a marvel world where everything is reversed because Captain America dies in WW2. America takes a few years longer to advance in technology and pick itself up by its bootstraps. Most of the Fantastic Four die in the space accident and Sue Storm survives but never tells anyone about her powers or status as The Invisible Lady. She marries Victor Von Doom who pursues a career in politics and eventually becomes president. While his intentions are good, the country and world is too broken to fix. Good is bad. Bad is good. Frank Castle and Remy LeBeau are partnered up assassins with a specific agreement of Frank handling humans and superhumans, while Remy handles mutants and they split all earnings.

They come up with an idea to make a killing while inciting a street war between rival crime families called "the Masks" and "Club X". The Mask family is lead by another partnership. The Kingpins of New York City are Peter "the Spider" Parker, whose Aunt May was shot by a burglar leaving him with his grieving Uncle Ben who was too distraught to pay attention to Peter's shifting morals. Seen below with his girlfriend Felicia "the Cat" Hardy.

The other Kinpin is Matt "the Devil" Murdock. A blinded District Attorney who hated the chief of police Wilson Fisk due to his involvement in his father's imprisonment and subsequent death in prison when he was young. Seen below with his girlfriend Elektra "the Hand" Natchios.

I based the girls faces on female MMA fighters Gina Carano and Rhonda Rousy.