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alexmax — DC Universe Vol2: JLA Reserves
Published: 2010-01-03 21:19:17 +0000 UTC; Views: 56479; Favourites: 1032; Downloads: 1480
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Description
Second set of characters, this time it's the turn for some of the Justice League reserves.The Atom: The classic Ray Palmer look.
Steel: Another of my favorite characters, surely second only to Lois as far as Superman supporting characters go. Mostly based on the redesign by Doug Mahnke (I believe) after Y2K.
Black Canary: The "Ed Benes version" of the fishnet uniform.
Hawkgirl: The somewhat recent uniform, but with long braided hair.
Plastic Man: It's Plastic Man!
Green Arrow: Inspired in an old, unused design by Bruce Timm for the JL cartoon.
Zatanna: Pretty much the standard, classic Zatanna look, except I've rarely seen her drawn with tall boots.
Last time, I forgot to mention that other than Bruce Timm, with these designs I'm borrowing A LOT from artists like Sean "Cheeks" Galloway, Ed McGuinness, Khary Randolph, just to name a few.
Next up, I'm doing either the DC esquires or some villians.
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Comments: 54
I loved the Ray Palmer Atom. Excellent art, good stories. More analysis than the current Superman's bludgeon approach. He generally ended a fight with an uppercut. (A 6 inch man with the strength of a 6 foot man is no opponent for YOU to tangle with ! Get my drift ? )
Steel - I only know him from the Reign of the Supermen cycle. And from the animated Superman episodes.
Plastic Man - I read the early 40's stories, but the violence and killing drove me away.
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Okay, time for review #2:
Atom: I approve of using the classic Ray Palmer look, as it is another one of the few superhero costumes that I would say is pretty much "perfect". It's a good design, and I also like how you didn't make him too muscular, since that wouldn't really make sense for Ray's character. The effect of him growing back to his full size (or is he shrinking?) is also a really cool visual and one that makes sense for the character. So good work here.
Steel: That is one awesome suit of armor, and you did a bang-up job of portraying it, including Steel's take on the "S" symbol. I normally prefer Steel's full-face covering helmet, but I actually like the design of the helmet there, as well as the nice detail of the "hook" on the end of the hammer. The one thing about it that I'm unsure of is how his eyes look blue, but is that because of something to do with the helmet, or something else entirely? Regardless, this is overall another winner.
Black Canary: My favorite Black Canary design, I think. I not only like the design and how you drew it, I also like the particular pose you gave her in the picture. Makes perfect sense for a martial arts master of her caliber to be in a fighting stance, and the accompanying look of determination also feels very much like her. One thing I might have done differently though is had her be next to Green Arrow for obvious reasons.
Hawkgirl: I approve of your choice to use the more recent costume, because of how much better it is than her kind of garish Silver Age look, and I also like how her wings look like natural bird wings instead of being Nth metal wings (a concept I have never liked, to be honest). The only thing about the design that I would object to is the hair, which to me looks too much like a piece of knit-wear rather than actual hair. That could just be because of the way it's drawn and the details you gave it, but even so. I think the hair is my one gripe with an otherwise sound take on Hawkgirl. I also think you got the right expression for her.
Plastic Man: Oh God, another costume I don't love. I understand this is Plastic Man's classic look, but it looks too much like he's enjoying a day at the beach. Were I enjoying a day at the beach, I'd probably be wearing a similar get-up, but as a superhero costume, it could be better. That said, you did capture the goofiness and the zaniness of Plastic Man pretty nicely, and I think it's safe to guess that he's a favorite of yours. I do like how you have him showing off his powers by stretching his limbs to the extent that he is. One thing you could have maybe done to add to that is to have one of his hands shapeshift into something, since that is Plastic Man's other chief power besides super-elasticity. Just a thought. It's cool that you're showing of his powers here, I'm just thinking that you could have conceivably gone even further with it if you'd wanted to.
Green Arrow: If this design was indeed considered for the DCAU, it's a pity they didn't go for it, because I actually like it better than the classic look that they did go with. I've always felt like Green Arrow needs to have that ranger's hood, and not just because of the obvious Robin Hood parallel: it also just looks cooler than the goofy feathered cap. Really, this design is better on the whole, though because I don't like them I'd have altered the buccaneer boots, and I would have also likely turned the gloves into more the kind of gloves one would expect a Medieval forestman to wear, being shorter and looking like they were made of some kind of boiled leather. The mask looks cool though, and I also love how you retained the Boxing Glove arrow, which may be kind of goofy, but is also pretty awesome all the same.
Zatanna: I don't mind that you chose to use Zatanna's basically default look, as you put it. Not at all. In fact, I praise you for it, because that outfit is another one that numbers among what I consider to be the perfect superhero costumes. It's sexy, snazzy, and classy all in one, and makes perfect sense for someone who is both a superhero AND a Stage Magician. So praise to you for retaining it in it's entirety. I know you claimed that you wanted to give her the longer boots, but actually, these are shorter than the thigh-high boots she's sometimes been given. Not a criticism, but more an observation. They look a bit like the buccanner boots I've expressed repeated contempt for at this point, but I think that Zatanna's able to make them work. That they're black leather maybe helps. The one thing about this portrayal that I would cite as room for improvement would be the complete lack of any "special effects". Given how insanely powerful she is and also how versatile her powers are, Zatanna I feel should be depicted as casting some kind of colorful and visually stunning spell, especially since that color stands as a nice contras to her black and white costume. The rabbit in the hat that you did is nice (and appropriate), but I still feel like more could have been done with her magic in this picture. But that's a small criticism, and overall, I think this one's my favorite of this set (which is also saying a lot).
Maybe it's just because I think you chose overall better designs this time around, but I nevertheless consider this to be an overall stronger set than your previous one, and definitely a good assortment of characters. Personally, I think this group could conceivably make for a good Justice League all on their own without anyone from the previous set involved, except for maybe Batman and Flash, but that's because they're my favorites.
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Cool, glad you liked this. In the earlier "waves" I was trying to be more stylized, aping other artists. In later waves it turns more into a more simplified/pseudo-animated version of how I normally draw.
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Awesome! You've covered a lot of my favorites with this line-up. I really dig how chunky you made Steel's armor.
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Thank you!
Honestly, it's pretty much taken straight out from the comics after Y2K (the Jeph Loeb/Joe Kelly tenure in Superman comics, when Doug Mahnke was drawing S:MoS). I liked that suit, because it felt like he was wearing a metal armor, and not just some skin-tight metallic costume.
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Yeah. The original metallic tights were a bit strange. I like this design much better.
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I hate DC for dissapearing old Ollie, he was the best character, at least my favorite.
Did you did all these on vectors only? is awesome!
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Thank you!
Yep, it's all vectors, except from some barely noticeable textures on the backgrounds. Mind you, I do rough sketches on pencil and paper, which later are traced into the final vector artwork.
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Where the fuck is black GL, this Hawkgirl was with black GL.
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I see you already found John in the GL lineup. Problem solved.
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Repalce Plastic man, Hawkgirl, and Steel with Flash, Hawman, and Hal Jordan and you got TEAM MINDWIPE!
Actually, just put Atom, Flash, Zat, and Hawkman and you got Team Mind Wipe. Might throw in Black Canary too since she digressed in character to decide to do that later on.
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"Team Mindwipe"... are you referring to Identity Crisis? That particular story was what broke the camel's back and made stop reading DC stuff. It's was not that the story was bad, my problem with it is that pretty much everyone was written out of character, hero or villain. I guess it would've been cool if they had a murder-mystery crossover involving the "street level" heroes like Batman, Green Arrow, the Birds of Prey, etc. and leave out guys like Superman and the other more "cosmic" level superheroes. Then, there was the rape. Also, the whole mindwipe thing, yet another attempt at making Batman cooler than everyone else... like Batman needs that.
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Yes, I'm talking about I.D. Crisis. What did it for me with DC was the complete ruination of not just Doctor Light, but Superboy-Prime, Inertia, and Barbara Gordan.
The rape wasn't the worst thing about the series. it was the complete failure to fallow through with everything beyond making references to it whenever Dr. Light showed up. What REALLY did it for me was how the heroes all became Karma Houdinis after it.
Anyways let's not talk about the bad taste this series left in our mouths. Let's talk about whether or not you got my last comment about doing a top 3-5 of the heroes main villains
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Oh, oh. That was you. Let me answer that one. (you probably wont like it) :-|
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Looks cool! Woulda liked ta actually see this group together!!!
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Hehe. Thank you. I'm not sure I originally inteded this particular lineup to be a "team", but yeah, now that you say it I would totally buy a comic with these 7.
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I have no idea why Steel looks like Stallone's Judge Dredd (only black of course..) but overall this is awesome..
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Hehehe, Steel did have a helmet *very* similar to the one I did in the years 2000,2001,2002. For some reason I like that better than the skin-tight armor he normally has had.
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awesome! Thank you, I think you are the first to mention the Atom in this lineup
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hihi that's because I like the atom a lot :3
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Thanks for the comment, I plan to add the 5th lineup of this series this weekend.
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Thanks for the comment! 
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ARROW WILL PUNCH YOU WITH AN ARROW! Yes he will!
Much love to these guys - I like the dynamism in their poses!
Say, where did you get the info on Green Arrow`s alternate design? I`d love to know more about the DCAU!
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Those "old Bruce Timm designs" like with Green Arrow or Black Lightning are in a JLA Special Wizard made like in 1998 or so. There was an article there detailing what Bruce Timm wanted for a Justice League Cartoon, basically replacing the Superman: The Animated Series, no Batman, etc.
Also, Green Arrow has had the "hoodie" on and off since the 80's, I think.
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Hmm..I`ll try and hunt that issue on the net 
Yeah, I think it was Mike Grell who gave him the "hoodie" but I prefer the hat! It looks funkier, mostly because of the feather! XD
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All these are BRILLIANT.
I'd love to see some more JLA Reserves, specially Red Tornado, Firestorm and Hawkman!
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Thank you very much.
Hawkman is "planned" to appear in one of 2 JSA lineups, while Firestorm and Red Tornado should be in the 3rd JLA lineup along with Ice, Fire, Booster Gold, etc. I just wish I could get back to doing these faster, but work has me tied down at the moment
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