X-23 vs. OMEGA RED
By Rob Willis
Commission
11x17 in. Ink on illustration board
Not For Sale
I posted this on IG last Friday night and and went completely viral. As of this writing it's gotten 85K+ views, 11K+ likes, 124 comments, 264 reposts, and almost 1K sends. So this is far and away the most popular artwork I've ever posted to Instagram. When this was originally posted here on CAF a while back, it was featured in the newsletter and selected for discussion on the CAF weekly update. That was before I had a high-res scan, so I'm reposting now.
When Jim Lee relaunched the X-Men in 1991, the series' most dynamic adversary by far was mutant cyborg, OMEGA RED. But it was Capcom's X-Men vs. Street Fighter video arcade game that really won me over, as Omega Red was my favorite character to play. As I type this I can hear him yell, "Omega DeSTROYer!" while those tentacles fill the screen and zap opponents full of voltage. Nostalgia is powerful stuIff!
One of the most interesting characters to debut in the modern age is Laura Kinney aka X-23, and the MCU version we've gotten by way of Dafne Keen has been exceptional.
Thus far the two have yet to do battle, so I thought it would make a fun commission.
After seeing Rob Willis' stunning work on instagram I reached out and here we are. I sincerely hope that a situation arises by which this sees publication in a Marvel comic book, because this is freaking awesome —and who doesn't want to see Wolverine's five-foot-something clone ventilate a seven-foot, four hundred pound, death-spore-tossing, Russian cybermutant?
I have to admit that I had a very different image in my head when I pitched this idea to Rob. And I am very glad that I didn't share it with him because what he came up with is so much better. There is an inherent arrogance to the way Laura is calmly limbering up as Arkady approaches that is ubiquitously her. It's the absolute embodiment of what the character is all about. Is she hyper-extending her left arm as a kind of flex (both mental and physical) or is Rob using exaggeration to sell the drama? You decide.
This is the calm before the storm that makes writers of us all, because you can't see this image and not immediately imagine her going full, feral, berserker at blinding speed in close quarters, where Red's size becomes a handicap.
MARVEL: MAKE THIS HAPPEN!
