And the cover

Marvel Age Annual #1

Marvel Superheroes Puzzle 1983

 

Although it may be hard to see, there are 44 distinct versions of Cerebus on this cover.

And one of the Avengers by Byrne. Notice that the same characters appear in their various looks at the time the poster was drawn.

zuckyd1 wrote:

I'm posting this page from Detective Comics #1027 both because it fits the topic and because some people over at CMRO are indeed trying to "catch them all" to see whether it pulls any additional characters into DC continuity (and thus into their DC reading order). 

Hmm. A fair few I don't immediately recognize, but the utility belt (bottom right) looks like Doc Savage to me:
[img]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51QeFUuCEVL._AC_UL474_SR474,450_.jpg[/img]
The guy in the red hat with a guillotine in the background is presumably the Scarlet Pimpernel. Sherlock Holmes is obvious. Between Sherlock and Pimpernel is D'artagnan, based on his general look and the fact we can see the "D'a" on the poster. In the upper picture the guy kneeling looking into the window is the Grey Ghost, introduced as one of Bruce Wayne's inspirations in the Batman: The Animated Series cartoons.
The green crimefighter is presumably a "not quite close enough to sue" version of the Green Hornet. The guy in the fright mask standing behind the chimney is the Spider/"dark millionaire," a Shadow/Spider analogue from Planetary. Guy in red cloak leftmost would be the Crimson Avenger.

zuckyd1 wrote:

Yeah, that could be Doc Savage. The clothes are the colors he often wears. Although most other pictures of him don't have the pouches and none that I've found have that sort of buckle.

Yes, the illustrations of Doc don't match the descriptions in the text that closely. I agree that the illustration I found doesn't have a matching belt buckle, but his utility belt was certainly a thing, he fits the era, and he was one of the real world inspirations for Batman's equipment, so so I figure on balance that it is probably meant to be him.

zuckyd1 wrote:

A few other they were able to identify (or guess at) are the Whip (lower left corner) and possibly the Spirit (small guy in blue between two chimneys) and the Shadow (small guy with flowing scarfs near the upper left).

They'd definitely fit the general look, though they are so indistinct as to make confirmed identification impossible unless the artist provides it.

zuckyd1 wrote:

And I think this one might be Night Raven.

Thanks!

Could be - the colors are about right, and he does seem to have a featureless mask. Again, it's impossible to say for sure without the artist confirming, but Night Raven seems a reasonable guess.

Notably, all the identifications for the ones who are indistinct are characters who remain copyrighted to other companies; assuming the identifications are right, that would make sense of why they are hard to identify with certainty. Most of the remaining unidentified are seen more clearly, and have some distinctive features to their appearances. This makes me suspect they are either old DC characters, or pulp era characters that have gone public domain, because them there's no fear of someone complaining about the unauthorized use of their characters.

A few from artist Ulises Farinas:

"I drew a character from each episode of MST3K as my wife and I watched the entire series chronologically."

Last edited by zuckyd1 (10/18/2020 12:32 pm)