Heroes Return 1 page 29 splash by Ed McGuinness and Mark Morales

Another great and quite intense splash from the Avengers Heroes Return event by the all-star team of Ed McGuinness and Mark Morales.

This post was prompted by a friend who reacted to my last week’s post by saying that Belasco is a pussy while Mephisto is true OG devil of the Marvel Universe. This got me thinking that I could have a theme following his strange belief.

So here we go, Mephisto in full badass demon dog mode not being particularly pleased with Mr Coulson’s performance in dealing with the Avengers.

Ever since I saw that new form in the books, I was hugely impressed and frightened by that character design. And I knew I wanted an example of it. I kept passing or missing on previous pages featuring the demonic animal but circumstances allowed me to go for this one which is pitch perfect.

I don’t know if that was what Ed went for but it immediately evoked the Omen movie to me, a personal fav’, and obviously that particular quite intense scene with the doberman attack.

As regards the character design itself, it’s just fantastic, the perfect demon dog: the steroids body, the overlong fangs sticking out of his mouth and the chipped bat-like ears. The Mignola Hellboy floating fiery and hellish crown is a super nice touch as well.

The tilted angle and upward shot that Ed chose really add to the creepiness of the scene and his imposing stature.

Let not forget to mention how the positioning of the 3 cubes expertly leads the reader’s eye from top to bottom and left to right into turning the page to the next.
And the clever use of light source and textures, from those solid black to the very very fine crosshatching by Mr Morales…

Just a phenomenal splash all around. Thanks Ed ;)

Now can you please give the cosmic cube back, doggy? No? Well, you can certainly keep it if you prefer to…Nice, NICE doggy…