McFarlane’s Inspired Rendering of Gotham’s Caped Crusader

Todd McFarlane’s covers for The Incredible Hulk and The Amazing Spiderman has inspired numerous homages in all genres of the industry. Some of these covers — The Incredible Hulk #340 (February 1988) and The Amazing Spiderman #300 (May 1988) — steal the show when discussing iconic covers for these beloved Marvel characters.

McFarlane’s covers of the period were drawn in a static but dramatic pin-up style. This style, in fact, contributed to much of McFarlane’s success in the industry. The webbing on his Spiderman covers, for example, features coiled & twisted strands which became iconic for the character. McFarlane also began to play a game with fans with issue #303 by drawing spiders in the webs for his covers for The Amazing Spiderman. It’s a knowing wink to fans, fun for fun’s sake.

McFarlane’s iconic Hulk #340 cover features a lone head-and-shoulders rendering of an enraged Wolverine with polished adamantium claws unsheathed and ready-for-battle. What makes this cover special is McFarlane’s revolutionary use of Wolverine’s razor-sharp claws: the Hulk is reflected back to the reader in their mirror-like surface.

This exquisite adaptation — to our knowledge, nothing like this had been done before! —  accomplishes two very important things at once. First, it places readers into the cover, as though they are each the Hulk, staring down Wolverine. Second, it calls to mind the first full appearance of Wolverine in The Incredible Hulk #181, where Wolverine and the Hulk do battle both on the cover and in the story. In short, McFarlane’s cover for The Incredible Hulk #340 is another knowing, playful nod to fans.

McFarlene provided yet another iconic cover in 1988, this one for Batman #423 (August 1988) for the other industry giant, DC Comics.

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Sources: CBR.com (“Comic Book Legends Revealed #475“)