At this year’s New York Comic Con, Marvel Comics CEO Joe Quesada announced a partnership with ESPN to produce an extended series of promotional images featuring the game’s brightest stars and the staples of the Marvel Comics universe. There are 33 promo images in all (including one for each team) created by 31 different Marvel artists (including Quesada himself), and the first two to surface -- both released at last weekend’s Con -- are quite promising.
The first image (displayed to your upper right) parallels Kobe Bryant’s five-ringed mitt with the Infinity Gauntlet, from the comic of the same name. Also pictured are LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, Kevin Durant, and a handful of Marvel types all vying for what could be Kobe’s sixth.
Additionally, we have a LeBron James-themed recreation of a famous Spider-Man frame:
Promotional images from NikeTalk.
So far, so good. As I mentioned before, these are only the first two of what is an extended series of such images, one with infinite possibilities for both fantastic imagery and eye-roll-worthy symbolism. Luckily for us, ESPN and Marvel seem to be hitting the former.
Images created by and courtesy Otaku But Gangsta.
