I thought it'd be a fun exercise to see what others feel is THE definitive image of their favorite characters. Let's be clear, we'll agree on some, but I'm sure that more often than not we won't all think that any one image perfectly encapsulates a character. This isn't a thread for flame bait. It's for all of us to share with each other our thoughts and some awesome art!
I'll start off with two characters that are near and dear to my heart. Although neither was the very first image of either character, over the years these two images have come to dominate in my mind what each character represents.
This first one is of Batman, from Year One.
Stark black and white, just like Batman's morality. Dark, gritty, and yet fully the picture of a super hero, this is THE picture that made me realize that Batman could be more than the Adam West or Super Friends version I was used to up to that point.
The other is of Batman's greatest enemy, The Joker.
It's from The Killing Joke, and I'm sure I'm not surprising anyone with this choice. It's one of the most popular images of the character of all time, and with good reason. It perfectly captures what makes The Joker such an indelible character. His insanity is so clearly on display. The way he's grasping his head with his hair caught between his fingers and dripping with water from his dunking in the chemicals that caused him to become the Joker, it almost looks like insanity itself is seeping from his pores. And then the background of nothing but "Ha-Ha's"....it's just the definition of iconic. As I said about the Batman picture from above, this image of The Joker also showed me how The Joker could be a very serious, very scary character. It's hard to look at it and ever think of clowns in the same way again...unless you were already afraid of them that is.
So...who's next?
