Ben was recently featured on the blog “Covered” (coveredblog.blogspot.com) for his rendition of “War is Hell” #2. Considering it a challenge, I took it upon myself to create a cover of my own…one that would not only trump Ben’s, but send him crying under his bed sheets. I went through the small stack of superhero comics I have in my room and came across Bogdanove’s “Fantastic Four Vs. The X-Men” mini series. For years Ben has claimed that this is the greatest X-Men story of all time, so while roaming around NYCC this year I decided to pick it up for $4 (not bad). I sat down with it after the show, excited to rekindle my childhood.

I couldn’t tell if this particular series was terrible or if all superhero books are terrible and I just never noticed when I was younger. The best (worst) part of the series is the covers. What’s depicted on all 4 covers has nothing to do with the contents of the books…but the best part is that each one has something terrible happening to little Franklin Richards (possibly the most annoying character in Marvel history). The first issue has Reed laughing at a crying Franklin after beating Franklin’s mother to a pulp. The second issue has Wolverine telling Franklin to STOP crying after he kills his father. The third issue has Havoc wearing a Dr. Doom mask(?) and shooting Franklin from behind. The fourth and final issue is of the X-Men being lynched (nothing actually bad happens to Franklin in this one…it’s just weirdly gruesome).

For “Covered” I decided to redraw the first issue with Reed laughing in his son’s face as he mourns the death of his mother. I tried to copy the colors as closely as I could and heavily referenced the way Austin inked the original (is it me or did Austin ink every book in the 80’s?) I was very happy with the way it came out…unfortunately it wasn’t good enough, as I got a rejection e-mail the following morning from Covered. I figured it would be a shame for the world to never see it, so I’m posting it below on this blog (with the original next to it). Enjoy and let me know what you think.

–Dov