With the year winding down, cosplayers are always looking for inspiration for their next projects – so when it comes time to replicate looks for heroes like DC's Supergirl, Marvel's Gwen Stacy and Emma Frost, cosplayers turn to the source material. Covers are particularly designed to be eye-catching; before the advent of online distribution, a unique cover on a magazine stand was the only way to get a reader's attention. Now an extremely talented set of cosplayers have recreated all three looks and more in a detailed Marvel and DC collaborative photoshoot posted online.
Paradoxically enough, even though readers will spend the least amount of time looking at covers, a great deal of work goes into creating them. A cover can introduce an entirely new superhero to the world (like Amazing Fantasty #15 and the debut of Spider-Man), and a cover can also detract readers immensely if the audience finds something terribly wrong with the art (Spider-Woman #1 and her odd proportions is a classic, controversial example). With all that said, it's no wonder why more and more cosplayers are turning to recreating classic covers for their next projects.
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On the website Instagram.com, the artist patloika has created a series of photographs incorporating cosplays from other artists along with their own recreations of classic covers. Maidofmight recreates Mary Jane on the cover of Spider-Man (and DC's Supergirl), caitlincontagious is Emma Frost, and arachnobite suits up as Catwoman. Black Widow is portrayed by genevievemariecosplay, hendoart represents Spider-Gwen and sarahlovesham portrays Kate Bishop. Collectively, these cosplayers bring together the best of modern cover art.
Occasionally, comic book covers can even eclipse the stories within. Iron Man #148 contains the famous Demon in a Bottle storyline, but most readers are only familiar with the cover: a delirious and addicted Tony Stark sporting a 5:00 shadow, staring into the mirror with his Iron Man helmet staring back at him. Some covers do not even allude to the story; Amazing Fantasy #15 depicts Spider-Man swinging while carrying a civilian through the air, but this event never happens in the story.
The cosplayers depicted above merge digital art with creative costumes in the best possible way. Some costumes are harder than others, and superhero outfits are always difficult for cosplayers to create, primarily because of exaggerated proportions of the characters and/or the impossible-to-create elements for some superheroes (like Ghost Rider's famous flaming skull or something as relatively simple as Batman's white eyes behind the mask). But when it comes to Supergirl and Gwen Stacy along with other love interests of heroes, the cosplayers can recreate famous covers with resounding success.
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