House Of M 3 splash page 23 by Olivier Coipel & Tim Townsend

This was my last purchase of 2019 and one of the big ones for me that year.

I had just been unable to buy a cover that I really liked on ebay when this one popped up a few days afterwards and the star aligned instantly for me to be able to buy it. And ease the pain ;)

A fantastic splash from House of M by the superstar deluxe team of Coipel & Townsend.
House of M is probably the (last) Marvel crossover I enjoyed the most. Civil War or Secret Wars were nice but I always loved What If/Elseworld type of stories and it pushed all the right buttons in that department, on top of being well written and drawn by Bendis & Coipel.

Now what to say about this iconic one?

This was the first (re)appearance of Hawkeye in quite the majestic way after his death in Avengers Disassembled. He is perfectly badass here. Many artists draw him well and Coipel certainly owns a place in that club.

And Cloak, another B-list character who I LOVE (thanks to Leonardi’s great run on his co-shared serie), is suitably mysterious, drenched in shadows with his hood covering his face, convening a nice and menacing hip hop vibe on the scene. His cape really looks alive with movement in all its folds.

Not that I care much about these things but in this day and age of recycling splashes for newer prints of sold out issues, this one would certainly have qualified.

This also concludes both the book and a nice 3 pages sequence I own from that issue.
I’m also thankful that the word balloons were digitally added in this case so that we can enjoy the full impact of the art.

Here’s to more HoM art still.

This is part 5 of my CAF 2020 B-Day party.

PS: MANY THANKS to Tony for being extremely accommodating on this transaction ;)