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

-Remember how we all spent years thinking Black Manta looked kind of ridiculous? Like how we all thought Aquaman was lame? The reward for our callous behavior is that Geoff Johns goes out of his way to write Aquaman bad ass and now Ivan Reis puts equal effort into making Manta look kick ass. Snark triumphs again!

-Loosely continuing the "back in the day" theme I've got going here, back in the day when the Phoenix Force was first introduced, guys like Dave Cockrum and John Byrne made it look cool enough, but they only had so many tools at their disposal. Today, with state of the art rendering and coloring techniques, the folks drawing and coloring variations of the Phoenix across AvX get to go all out and ramp this cosmic bad boy up to 11. Alan Davis uses great perspective and shading on Secret Avengers while Jim Cheung just brings the intensity on Avengers Vs. X-Men. Man, I never knew I needed a Phoenix bursting out of Captain America's chest until I saw it, but yeah, needed it.

-I like a lot about that Batman, Inc. cover by Chris Burnham, can't narrow it down. Is that Halo and Looker?

-Words on a cover can easily make things too busy, but Phil Noto really nailed their use on his Buffy cover this month. The placement and the juxtaposition against the image draws me in rather than scaring me away; skills.

-Good month for Buffy covers. That Drusilla one by Georges Jeanty is striking. Great use of white space and moving the action to the bottom of the page.

-Great layers to DC Universe Presents by Ryan Sook. Each bleeds into the next.

-Deadpool #56 by Dave Johnson is my current computer desktop background at work.

-Terry Dodson draws a fantastic Black Cat. I mean, he draws many characters well, but something about this one in particular really brings out his A-game. It's that mischievous smile and the glimmer in her eyes. Glad to see him taking her on again.

-Adam Hughes can draw dudes too.

-That's one crazy wolf by Simon Bisley on the Hellblazer cover.

-Dale Eaglesham doing something very different on Hulk, very outside the box. Cool to see since he's dynamite as a classic super hero artist, but he's a clever designer as well.

-I don't talk enough about Stephanie Hans' Journey Into Mystery covers (tremendous book, by the by). The more characters she puts on, the better. Beautiful colors.

-Jerome Opena and Dean White on Uncanny X-Force are simply a dream team. Rad to see them getting cover duty.

-Chris Samnee, what are you doing on these Wolverine covers? I love it.

ACTION COMICS #10 by Rags Morales