In Retroactive I’ll take you on a visual comic cover tour of the past covering all the covers for a particular series. Each entry will cover an entire year and I’ll always have one comic from DC and one comic from Marvel. At the end of each edition of Retroactive I’ll select my overall favourite cover for that year for each series. Last time on Retroactive we covered Nightwing 1996 and Daredevil 2009. If you need a refresher, just click HERE. Below you’ll find the two series that I’m currently covering. Click on that specific logo to be instantly taken directly to that series. The last section is reserved for my Top Picks from each year. Click the logo or travel to the fourth page to view them.
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Nightwing 1997
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Daredevil 2010
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The Speech Bubble 
When I saw Nightwing Vol. 2 # 5, I instantly thought it would have won the gold medal, because it has a lot of action packed details: a heated fight scene, a damsel in distress, raging faces, flames and so on.
But then I saw the Annual, which shows another classic scene that is really eye – pleasing for me: a femme fatale trying to seduce our hero while hiding a knife behind her back.
At the end I decided to pick the Annual, because both these covers show an intriguing situation, but the Annual is more beautiful from an aesthetic point of view.
Even choosing the bronze medalist was a hard task, because there are 3 covers I really like:
– Nightwing Vol. 2 # 7, because that snow creates a wonderful atmosphere;
– Nightwing Vol. 2 # 8, because I like extremely muscular characters and I also appreciate how light and shadow are combined on those muscles;
– Nightwing Vol. 2 # 11, because showing Dick aged so fastly definitely is a question – raising artistic choice.
After long consideration, I decided to give the 3rd prize to Nightwing Vol. 2 # 11.
The other gold medal goes to Daredevil # 504.
The first thing that caught my attention was Matt being sit in a subway with his head down, clearly devastated by sense of guilt: this detail creates a strong emotional connection with the reader, and it is so eye – catching and question – raising that it deserves the gold medal alone.
And then I gave Matt a closer look, and I noticed that his anatomy and his costume have been drawn in an extremely meticulous way: the vertebras, the muscles of his arms, the shoelaces… every single detail has been drawn to perfection.
The third reason why I give this cover the gold medal is the lighting. Notice that the light comes right – to – left instead of coming from on high: this means that a train is approaching to our hero, but Matt is so desperate that he doesn’t give a damn about saving his life.
“At the end I decided to pick the Annual, because both these covers show an intriguing situation, but the Annual is more beautiful from an aesthetic point of view.”
I had a good feeling that the Annual would win you over as soon as I saw it. For me it nabs my third place award with #13’s excellence capturing 2nd. I love the close-up on our hero, the lightning in the background, and the Bat-signal illuminating Nightwing. Other covers I enjoyed are #4’s claustrophobic and unusual angled cover and #7’s display of athleticism.
“Notice that the light comes right – to – left instead of coming from on high: this means that a train is approaching to our hero, but Matt is so desperate that he doesn’t give a damn about saving his life.”
Whoa! That is an excellent observation. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your analysis of the cover so much in fact that you’ve changed my mind and made this cover my 2nd place choice. Coming in third is #511’s shocking image as our “hero” stands triumphant over his former friends.
Thanks, as always, for sharing your selections!
Thank you as well for your compliments and for your replies! : )
Nightwing vol 2 #6 featuring Nightwing and the Tim Drake Robin is a brilliant cover. Its fun cover as well, there was a great dynamic between these character that I feel is sadly lacking now in the New 52, so its nice to revisit this classic cover again. Daredevil #503 with the Kingpin looming in the background of the city skyline as DD stands on the edge of a rooftop is a great cover as well, dark and foreboding, love it!
So many amazing Nightwing covers that all three of us really ran the gauntlet with our choices with very little overlap. Nice choice!
As for your pick for Daredevil, it just misses my Top 3 but that doesn’t take away from its captivating image.
Thanks for providing your choices! And have a great New Comic Book Day. 🙂
Thank you always enjoy Retroactive so much, its a brilliant feature. Cheers & wishing you all a very happy new comic book day as well 😀