Floating Heads--OK, Axis, Here We Come!!

You know what we haven't done for awhile? Floating Heads!!

This time out--The Invaders!!

All right, 2 demerits for just plugging the generic John Romita Cap head there...and the generic Torch head. At least Subby is reacting to the scene!

Look--Bucky!!

Frank Robbins floating heads? BONUS!!

SPOILER ALERT: Namor wasn't doomed.

I probably shouldn't count this because of the hands...but we have so few floating heads covers. I'll let it slide.

And then we jump nearly 4 decades ahead...

Man, All-New Invaders was such a good series...

NEXT: We'll hop over to DC!

Floating FF Heads!!

It's been awhile since we checked in on covers with floating heads!!

Last time we looked, the Avengers were still the all-time leader in floating heads covers. Could Marvel's First Family, the Fantastic Four, match them?

Nope.

I think one of the reason is that, with a smaller team, it was less difficult to get them all on the cover, so less need to resort to the floating heads scheme.

Indeed, the FF didn't even have their first floating heads cover until issue #46!!

Having broken the seal, Kirby proceeded to give us more...

...but why did so many have to feature the Inhumans?

Putting heads on the corners of the "molecule" worked well.

And that was it for the Lee/ Kirby era.

The next few years didn't feature very many...

When Kirby  came back, he gave us a few more...

Byrne had a couple...

And you have to love the corner box begging the the higher-ups not to frak up his lovely cover with Assistant Editor Month "humor."

And as sad as the 1990s were for floating heads...

At least they had some!

After that one, I couldn't find a single one. It's been a pretty dry century.

Stay tuned for further explorations of...FLOATING HEAD COVERS!

Floating Heads--Defenders Style!!

We had fun with the Avengers and floating heads on the cover the other day, so I thought, why not continue the merriment with the Defenders?

Memory is a tricky thing. I would have bet you 50,000 quatloos that the Defenders had featured floating heads almost as often as the Avengers. I could swear I remembered that...

But not so. In fact, the Defenders didn't have their first floating head cover until #26!!

Maybe it's because this was one of the first comics I owned, so repeated exposure to this cover made my mind falsely remember that the Defenders did this a lot more often then they actually did.

It wasn't until #51 that they resorted to the floating heads again...apparently they were waiting for the greatest menace possible!

Another year+ went by until...

Almost 5 years passed until...

Them, merely a year later, they pulled out all the stops!

And that was it for the classic Defenders run.

But unlike the Avengers, the 21st century was much kinder to the Defenders, floating head-wise:

And this:

And while you can argue that this is not strictly your classic floating heads, it's clever enough a conceit that I'll count it!

Let's hope Marvel brings back floating heads to the new Defenders series...

Floating Avenger Heads!!

There is an important tradition that has sadly been lost in recent years...

Floating heads of Avengers watching solo Avengers (or occasionally villains) in action on the covers of the Avengers!!

And, yeah, villains can watch, too.

It's almost as if Marvel was afraid to feature just one hero on the cover. Like the title and the corner box full of faces wasn't enough!

Yes, other teams books used this approach too--Defenders, Invaders, West Coast Avengers, etc...

...and I'm sure DC did it, too, on some of their team books. But I'm not going to look at Outsiders covers, no matter what!

But the Avengers was clearly the grand champion of "disembodied heads watching their teammates struggle on alone."

The tradition continued on into the 70s...

Not all were done terribly well...in this case, they're not even pretending to watch the action!

Now this one was more like it!

This one is a personal favorite:

That's Jim Starlin, with the floating heads drawn by John Romita!

They do it the next issue as well, but the heads don't seem interested again (probably because it's a fill-in reprint):

But we're back in fine form just a few months later!

This one was the first issue of Avengers I ever purchased new off the newsstand, so it has a special place in my hear. Plus, it's the rare example of the floating heads talking:

This, of course, is one of the greatest ever:

I shouldn't count this next one, as it's really just an expanded corner box. But what the hell, right?

Oh, the shame...

The tradition continued through the 80s...

Wow--this must be the only time people were happy to see Starfox!

Nice variation on the concept using computer screens...

Pretty...

Broody, broody Namor...

Hell, even Jarvis got to be the star of a floating head cover!

We should have known that the Worst Avengers Lineup Ever was in trouble when, in only their third issue, they're relegated to floating heads, while the West Coasters and Quasar steal the spotlight.

Man, the Avengers just like to stand around watching Namor, don't they?

And then, like with so many other thing, the 90s ruined it all.

They started well enough...

But the pickings are less then slim for the rest of the decade. Which is why I had to include this one, which is more montage-y than floating heads-y.

The very last issue of the 90s tried to revive  the tradition...

...and the 21st century had a decent start...

But that was pretty much the last bang.

This one, again, is more montage-y than floating head-y...

And, well, this one shows us some torso, so it's not really floating heads, is it?

And from that point, the pickings got even slimmer, and the franchise split up into 47 titles, so I stopped my search.

Dear Marvel...with a new Avenger movie on the way, can we maybe revive the tradition?!?! Floating heads, please!!