Common Elements, redux

Today's Comic Art Friday is brought to you by Folgers Coffee. Most mornings, so am I.

Previously on Comic Art Friday, we looked at a couple of entries in my "Common Elements" series of commissioned artworks. This week, I have a couple of brand-spankin'-new additions to that series to show you.

Let's start with the artwork whose "common element" is easier to identify. Engaging in heated confrontation below are a pair of bionically enhanced superheroes. The guy with the upper hand in the duel to this point is Deathlok the Demolisher, a second-string staple of the Marvel Comics universe for the past 30 years. The guy looking for a little help is Cyborg, a member of DC Comics' Teen Titans. The guy wielding the magic pencil is the dynamic Arvell Jones.



Deathlok and Cyborg are such similar characters (in every aspect except deportment) that, when Cyborg first popped up in the revamped Titans in the early '80s, I thought he was a lawsuit just waiting to happen. I was apparently mistaken about that. I now chalk this up as another instance of two independently developed comic book heroes possessing a remarkable array of similarities — like Superman and the original Captain Marvel, or Aquaman and the Sub-Mariner.

Deathlok debuted in 1974, a crucial year in comics history as I view it. He was one of several characters who first appeared that year — Wolverine and the Punisher being two others — that began the blurring of the line between superhero and supervillain, or at least between hero and antihero. Five years later, writer/artist Frank Miller would take an existing character, Daredevil, down this same dark road (in another five years, Miller would repeat the process with Batman) — and most of the rest of the superhero field would follow.

Another interesting fact about Deathlok is that over the years, he's been several different people. The original Deathlok was a U.S. Army colonel named Luther Manning. But there have been at least three other Deathloks — the best-known of whom was a black man named Michael Collins (it's he who's depicted here, according to the artist) — in the character's three-decade history.

It was a treat to have the opportunity to commission Arvell Jones to draw this Common Elements piece, as Arvell was one of many artists who worked on Deathlok back in the day. Arvell and Deathlok's creator, artist Rich Buckler, were two members of a sizable contingent of comics creators who emerged from Detroit in the 1970s — a group that included such future stars as Jim Starlin, Terry Austin, Keith Pollard, and Al Milgrom. According to Arvell, Buckler originally gave the name "Gideon Blade" to the character who eventually became Deathlok.

Arvell Jones is notable also as one of the relative handful of African American artists who've been prominent in the field of superhero comics. He was a friend and mentor to many other comics creators, including the aforementioned Keith Pollard, Mike Netzer, and Denys Cowan. Since the early 1980s, Arvell has focused his creative energies in other areas, advertising in particular. But when I heard that he was interested in taking on some comic art projects again, I leapt at the chance to include his work in my collection.

Here's another Common Elements scenario where it helps to know something about the characters in order to figure out the linkage between them. The Viking warrior woman brandishing the sword is the Valkyrie, a key component of Marvel's '70s superteam the Defenders. Her odd-looking companion brandishing the tail is Nightcrawler, one of the most popular members of the X-Men and their European-based offshoot, Excalibur. The two heroes are being confronted by some nameless, unseen terror that exists only in the mind of artist Dave Ross.



Aside from the fact that both characters are more familiar as members of teams than as solo adventurers (although Nightcrawler currently appears in his own series as well as in the various X-titles), they share a more esoteric common element. Nightcrawler's real name is Kurt Wagner, the last name given the German pronunciation (VOG-ner) because the character is himself German. And, of course, German composer Richard Wagner gave the musical world the opera entitled — wait for it — The Valkyrie. (Or Die Walküre, if you prefer the original language.)

Dave Ross (the comic book artist, not the radio commentator) is probably best known for his work on such Marvel titles as West Coast Avengers, Daredevil, Excalibur, and Alpha Flight — the latter being especially appropriate, given that both artist and characters are Canadian.

By the way, both Arvell Jones and Dave Ross are represented for their commission projects by super-nice gentlemen — Jeff Jaworski and Tom Fleming, respectively. Good art reps are worth their weight in pizza. That's high praise, coming from me.

And with that, we conclude Comic Art Friday for another week. Go share some of your own common elements with the people you care about this weekend.