Comic Book Character of the Month: Raphael

Tweet

In light of the release of High Renaissance this month, January 2012's Comic Book Character of the Month is Raphael.

More photos after the jump!

Comic Book Character of the Month: The Flash

Follow @gonewallace

Comic Book Charcter of October 2011: Cyborg

Follow @gonewallace

Comic Book Character of the Month: The Riddler

Comic Book Character of the Month: Kick Ass

Comic Book Character of the Month: Bizarro Superman

Comic Book Character of the Month: The Human Torch

Comic Book Character of the Month: The Almighty Thor!

Yo, cuzzes! Y'all may remember the Comic Book Character of the Week section that suddenly disappeared. Well I'm bringing it back but instead of every week, its gonna be every month and I'm gonna post cool artwork that pays homage to said superhero. You can check out the artists by clicking the pictures. The first Comic Book Character of the Month is The Almighty Thor!

Comic Book Character of the Week: Ironman

Comic Book Character of the Week: Batman

This week's Comic Book Character of the Week is The Batman. The Batman, created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, made his first appearance in Detective Comics (DC) #27 in May 1939. As a child, multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne watched helplessly as his parents(the physician Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha Wayne) were shot and killed by a petty mugger. Upon witnessing their death, the young Wayne took an oath of vengeance against crime so that no-one else would have to suffer the tragedy that he had.

Wayne spent years venturing the world, learning many forms of combat and training himself to physical and intellectual perfection. Upon his return to Gotham, Wayne sat alone in his study dwelling upon his wealth, his new-found abilities and the fact that criminals are a "cowardly, superstitious lot"; the best way to get to them was through sheer terror. At that moment, as if a sign from God, a huge bat flew in through his study window. This bat provided Wayne with the inspiration he had been searching for. He donned a long, black cape and a cowl with huge, pointed, black ears and became the creature the criminals of Gotham would now know and fear: The Dark Knight... Batman.

Although Batman has no powers per Se, when compared to the normal human being what he can do often appears to be superhuman. First and foremost is Batman’s keen intellect and second is his mastery of many martial arts, hand to hand weapons, and close quarters combat.. Batman is considered by many to be the greatest detective in the world. With his mind, and supercomputer in the Batcave, he has been able to solve many problems, from seemingly random attacks by the Joker to the toughest riddles of The Riddler.

The Comic Book Character of the Week: Astro Boy

Comic Book Character of the Week: Lobo

In light of the announcement of his upcoming movie, this week's CBCW is no other than Lobo. Lobo is a Czarnian bounty hunter, possessing exceptional strength and fortitude. He enjoys nothing better than mindless violence and intoxication. He is also arrogant and self-centered, focusing almost solely on his own pleasures, although he proudly lives up to his word. Lobo is the last of his kind, having killed all the other Czarnians, cannot stay dead, as both Heaven and Hell threw him out.

Along with his superhuman strength and durability, he has the ability to survive unaided in space, a healing factor that heals ludicrous amounts of damage, an equally ludicrous sense of smell which allows him to track objects between solar systems, and the ability to regrow an entire new Lobo from each drop of his own spilled blood.

Lobo has had several encounters with the likes of Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Guy Gardner and Wolverine to name a few.

Guy Ritchie has recently announced that he will be directing a Lobo movie so look forward to seeing this anti-hero's big screen debut sometime in the near future. Stay up.

Comic Book Character of the Week: The Incredible Hulk

In the left corner, standing at ten feet tall, wearing the purple trunks and this week's Comic Book Character of the Week, The Incredible Hulk has sometimes been a simplistic character, simply punching things again and again (the recent story arc, World War Hulk, was particularly guilty of this). But when writers like Peter David, the definitive Hulk scribe, get hold of him, he becomes more than a combination of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein. The Hulk and Bruce Banner become a psychologically complex, nuanced being with an incredibly complicated history involving Banner’s battle for control, which has led to Hulks green and gray.


Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, The Hulk is the strongest and most powerful being ever to grace the pages of a Marvel comic book. His ability to increase his size and strength as his rage increases, makes him an unstoppable force in the Marvel universe. (Yes, even more so than the Juggernaut and Colossus). It’s been fun watching The Hulk become a major, major player in the Marvel Universe of late, with Planet Hulk, the aforementioned World War Hulk and the current Red Hulk storyline. So far he's already had two television series, six television movies and two feature films. Long may Hulk continue to smash.

Comic Book Character of the Week: Venom

An alien symbiote with a thirst for violence and flesh, Venom started out as a living costume for Spider-Man. The creature is a sentient alien with a gooey, almost liquid-like form. It requires a host, usually human, to bond around for its survival. In return the Venom creature gives its host enhanced powers. Created by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane, Venom made his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man Issue #299 in 1988. When Spidey rejected Venom’s attempts for control, he latched onto the Daily Bugle’s Eddie Brock, spawning a decades-long quest for vengeance.

Arguably Spider-Man’s biggest nemesis, Venom is the comic book equivalent of a movie boogeyman like Freddy Krueger – he’s meant to be terrifying and villainous, but readers thought he was so cool that eventually the symbiote became less obviously evil (he always tries never to hurt bystanders), appearing in his own title. In fact, he was so neutered that not only did he occasionally team up with Spider-Man, but Marvel created an even more evil symbiote, the mass murderer, Carnage, in order to mitigate Venom’s crimes. Currently, the symbiote is not bonded with Brock, but that remains his most famous persona. He made his on screen debut in Spiderman 3 in 2007 (for 15 minutes) and there is a Venom spinoff movie in the works.

Comic Book Character of the Week: Colossus

Yo, cuz. This week's Comic Book Character of the Week is no other than Colossus. Created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum, he first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1 in May 1975.

A Russian mutant, Peter Rasputin, is a member of the X-Men and is by far physically the strongest X-Man. Even without his mutant ability to transform his entire body into a form of organic steel, he still stands at a towering 7'5. While in his armored form, he requires no food, no water, or even oxygen to sustain himself and is extremely resistant to injury.

Throughout the series he is portrayed as quiet, shy and innocent as he only reluctantly agrees to use his powers in combat. He feels its his responsibility to use his abilities for the betterment of human and mutant-kind.

Comic Book Character of the Week: Deadpool

When he first appeared on the scene in 1991, Deadpool was a minor character, hailed as the mutant answer to Spider-Man. Or, rather, the mutant rip-off of Spider-Man, right down to the red costume with colored rings around the eyes, the extraordinary agility and a propensity for delivering one-liners in the middle of a fight.

He originally appeared on the pages of the New Mutants, trying to kill either Cable or Domino. But the Rob Liefeld/Fabian Nicieza creation quickly became a fan favorite and established a demented identity of his own. The constant regeneration of his brain cells has turned the former Weapon X subject certifiably insane – so much so that he realizes he’s in a comic book, and frequently refers to the fact.

Although he began life as a villain, the Merc With A Mouth was given his own comic book title in 1997, his own movie in the near future and is now officially a hero. Well, an anti-hero. And one of the most entertaining ones around. Props to Empire Online.

Comic Book Character of the Week: Rorschach

This week's Comic Book Character of the Week is no other than Rorschach. Choosing just one of the Minutemen – the stars of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ classic comic, Watchmen – was tough. But from a purely iconic point of view, it had to be Rorschach. Who was in the first picture released from Zack Snyder’s Watchmen movie? Rorschach. Who dominated online casting debates? Rorschach.

Like The Punisher, Rorscach can be easily dismissed as a fascist whose belief in moral absolutes – there are no shades of grey; only black, white, good and evil – drives him to take the law into his own hands.

But in the hands of Moore, the freckled, ginger Walter Kovacs is a taut, tortured, complex creation who, as well as being at the centre of some of Watchmen’s most memorable sequences (the prison riot, for one), ends up being perhaps the most pure out of the graphic novel’s characters, the only one who – SPOILER WARNING – isn’t interested in compromising himself for the greater good. Props to Empire Online.

Comic Book Character of the Week: The Joker

Aight, cuzzo. I'm starting this new thing on the blog where I shout out a Comic Book Character of the Week every week. This honor only goes to the toughest of characters so stay up. This week's character is the Joker.

The greatest comic book villain ever, and as versatile a character as his nemesis, the Batman. The Joker has been a merry prankster of crime (poisoning all the fish in Gotham Bay so they sport his literally trademarked grin, then suing fishmongers for copyright infringement) and a gleefully sadistic bastard (responsible for permanently crippling Batgirl and temporarily killing at least one Robin), and always done his best to get under the ultra-grim Batman’s skin by taunting him with sick jokes.

There’s a sense that Joker is the only one of the rogues’ gallery Bruce Wayne really hates –many comics (eg: Frank Miller Jr’s The Dark Knight Returns, Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s The Killing Joke, Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum, Michael Green and Denys Cowan’s Lovers & Madmen) revolve around Batman and the Joker as opposites or mirror images.

Heath Ledger's portrayal was phenomenal, but it is a shame we may never see a movie adaptation as good. RIP Heath Ledger. The Joker first appeared in Batman #1 in 1940 and was created by Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson. Props to Empire Online