The Cool Kids Table: Art Attack: May 2012's Coolest Covers

-On Animal Man Annual #1 and Avengers Academy #30, Travel Foreman and Giuseppe Camuncoli both do something that makes their covers stand out in a perfectly logical and yet unexpected way, that being taking characters whose chief physical characteristics are physical deformities and actually making them visually a bit gross. Swamp Thing is a shambling swamp monster and Mettle is basically an accident victim with no skin, but the tendency for artists will often just be to make them look super heroic and bad ass; Foreman's Swamp Thing is a creeping mass of gelatin while Camuncoli's Mettle appears horribly uncomfortable in his own proportions. It solidifies what makes these characters unique when artists go for it like this, and it makes their work stand out in the process.

-On his variant to Avengers Vs. X-Men #4, Jerome Opena demonstrates how to make a simple concept very powerful. And dig those Dean White colors.

-Captain America dinosaur! Captain America dinosaur!

-There is seemingly not only nothing Paolo Rivera can't do, but nothing he can't do with his own spin. This month, he does sexy like you've never seen before on the cover of Daredevil.

-Dave Johnson is a genius with composition. I'm loving seeing the techniques he's been using to make his Deadpool covers break from the pack and am anxious to see how that black space is ultimately utilized. His Fury MAX stuff is pretty damn hot too.

-Breaking: Adam Hughes draws gorgeous ladies.

-It's always fun to see Ethan Van Sciver apply his detailed style to new designs, in this case Batwing and OMAC at the least.

-Hey, remember how I said a couple months back I was intrigued to pick up Glory based just on the cover? I did and I liked it!

-That Grim Leaper cover unsettles me and I can't put my finger on exactly why.

-Incredible Hulk #7.1's cover is currently the background on my work computer.

-What in the blue hell is happening on that Wolverine cover by Chris Samnee? I must know.

-Young Justice #16 feels a bit like an homage to the original Young Justice #22, itself a bit of an homage to New Teen Titans #8. Cool stuff.

AMERICAN VAMPIRE #27 by Rafael Albuquerque