Rescue Me: The Cheetah

In the "Rescue Me" challenge, I pluck one of Scourge's villainous victims from the mists of obscurity and give them a hypothetical makeover. I mean, even more hypothetical than my usual makeovers, in the sense that I have a policy against helping supervillains. In this case there's no harm, since they're dead!

This time I'm making over the old Captain Marvel villain, the Cheetah. This guy had a couple of aesthetic strikes against him. Starting with the fact his name doesn't even come close to matching his appearance. Since when do cheetahs have brown fur? The guy needs a full-body dye job, but I suppose that's impractical. (And speaking of dye jobs... look for an exciting personal announcement at the end of the week!) But I'll at least give him a new villain get-up. The one he had, with the Doctor Strange-size collar? And the chest-belt, whatever the hell that thing was for? It blew. Chunks. So here's how I would have dressed him.



Since he got his powers from a Kree robot(!) I gave him a Kree-style costume to match! It's the whole "hero's opposite" thing, like Black Adam and the Reverse Flash. In this case, it means a cheetah head symbol based on Captain Marvel's star logo, a partial cowl like on one of my favorite costumes, and bikini "overwear" -- the only type of overwear I'd ever endorse. Muy macho!

Tomorrow: I continue the cat theme with Rescue Me: Lionfang!

Rescue Me: The Basilisk

Here's the Basilisk in "Fantastic Four" #289 (April 1986) and it's the first time I ever saw him. I thought, "Hey, this guy's kinda cool!" And on the next page, Scourge blasted him through a window on one of the higher floors of Four Freedoms Plaza.

Apparently a lot of people -- or a very small group of people with great influence-- thought it wasn't worthwhile to keep the Basilisk around. I'm not sure I understand why. According to Wikipedia, the Basilisk had superhuman strength, stamina, and reflexes, and could project beams of intense heat, cold, and force from his eyes. He could fly. Hell, he created a volcano in the Hudson River! Seems like a decent enough supervillain to me.

I can only think of a few things wrong with the Basilisk, from what I've read:
1. His real name: Basil Elks. Pure comic book, that, but it plays better in DC comics instead of the arguably more realistic Marvel Universe where the names are mainly alliterative. You don't generally get a lot of characters walking around with civilian names like Hugh Mantorge or Will Verene.
2. His powers, at first glance, seem generic. What's worse, he got them (in an accident, natch, this being Marvel) from a Kree gemstone. And then he boosted them by using a second Kree gemstone. Criminy. First Moonstone, then this guy. I don't know what the problem is with the Kree that they can't keep their power-bestowing gemstones on their own freaking planet. That shit's like the Marvel version of Kryptonite. But don't forget he's got the eyebeam gimmick, people! And he's called the Basilisk! That's his hook!
3. His costume, which features the World's Largest Ascot. Thurston Howell III only dreams of owning an ascot like that. But the costume is not a huge obstacle. I could have fixed it. Behold!



Keep on truckin', Basilisk! In some legends, the basilisk has yellow scales. So for the Marvel capital-B Basilisk I designed a golden/bronze-y glam rock armor for him. Dig the KISS boots. Since he's green and scaly, I wanted to show off a lot of his actual skin. That's why I didn't give him a helmet or cover up his shoulders. Also, you may notice that I didn't draw in any nipples. That's because, since he's reptilian, I figure he wouldn't have any nipples. Nice, huh? It's a real win-win situation, since I enjoy drawing topless males, and a lot of my readers hate seeing (male) nipples.

Tomorrow: Megatak!

The Hell--?! Artwork?!! (Moral Realignment Challenge: Apocalypse And Jubilee)

From Marvel Comics solicitations for October 2005 (on Earth-427B):

BEST OF ESSENTIAL APOCALYPSE VOL. 1 TPB
Written by STAN LEE, ROY THOMAS, JIM SHOOTER, DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT, BILL MANTLO & WARREN ELLIS.
Cover and pencils/inks by JACK KIRBY/GEORGE ROUSSOUS, ROSS ANDRU/FRANK GIACOIA, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, SAL BUSCEMA/JOE SINNOTT, ERNIE CHUA, BOB HALL/DAN GREEN & LEONARDO MANCO.
Just in time or Halloween, it's a collection of the first and best appearances of everyone's favorite gray goliath, Apocalypse! Includes his debut in 1960's "I Awoke The Mega-Mummy!" from "Journey Into Fantasy" #45, his reappearance as one of the Defenders in 1971's "Marvel Main Attraction" #1 (also featuring Doctor Mordo, Attuma The Aqua-Warrior, and Planet-Eater Lad), his first battle against the psychotic super-powered delinquent Jubilee in the pages of "Red, White & Blue Skull" #183 (1975), the groundbreaking story in which Apocalpyse saves a young man from a gay bashing and also comes to terms with his own homosexuality in "Rampage Of Apocalpyse" #7 (1977), Jubilee's terrifying transformation into the Kree-powered menace "Firestone" in "Awesome Apocalpyse" #54-55 (1978), Apocalpyse's titanic tussle with a fellow hero in "Bullseye: The Man Who Never Misses" #159 (1980), and his triumphant return from Comics Limbo in the mature-readers-only "Apocalpyse: Prince Of Death" #1 (1995).
180 PGS./B&W/MARVEL PSR...$9.99
UPS: 7200411582-00111

Boy, I really need to get that Illustrator program, don't I? I can't seem to get the hang of Jeremy's colored pencils at all. (I lost my pastels; so sue me.)

Annnyhow, here's my interpretation of Steven's idea of realigning Jubilee and Apocalypse. I did some reading-up on Apocalpyse and found out he was an ancient mutant who swiped some Eternals technology for his body-suit. So I figured if he was a good guy, he wouldn't have the suit. Ergo: Mega-Mummy! Good Apocalpyse is strong like the Hulk and has regenerative capabilities. Bad Jubilee is a mutant street-urchin who uses her powers to start fires and kill people, and to make her more of a match for Apocalypse, I juiced her up a la Moonstone. I ended up redrawing her a bunch of times and I'm still not happy with her but to be honest I'm also not that interested in her. What I was most into for this assignment was imagining Good Apocalpyse's publishing history as a cross between a Marvel Monster and the Hulk.

I'll try for more artwork posts this week.