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Swipe File: America's Got Powers, Wildguard, Idolized And… Superboy?

Published Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:00:39 -0600

Last updated Mon, 08 Jul 2019 03:32:10 -0500

Yesterday, Bleeding Cool told you about America's Got Powers, the new Image comic from Jonathan Ross and Bryan Hitch, about Tommy, the only one of his San Franciscan peers to be powerless. And who finds himself working in the stadium where all of the powered are competing on reality TV to be in the world's biggest super hero team.

A few Bleeding Cool readers found this rather familiar.

One stressed Aspen's Idolized from David Schwartz and Micah Gunnell, a series running this year with… superpowered people entering a reality TV show to join the world's biggest superteam, that had resaders vote on the design of the characters.

Or indeed Wildguard from Todd Nauck, an Image comic with… superpowered people entering a reality TV show to join the world's biggest superteam.

Now, from what I've read, America's Got Powers has an interesting twist, that of a Midwich Cuckoos-type of characters competing against each other, and a powerless lead, which should bring out all sorts of petty insecurities, boastful posturing, and at its heart, a mystery.

But to be fair, auditioning to join a superhero team has been around for a while now. The Avengers did it, Justice League International did it and Who Wants To Be A Superhero actually did it on the television, but there's precedent for using the three judges format and the In or Out button format of America's Got Talent from quite some time ago.

See? ~~Jim Shooter~~ Otto Binder invented everything!

In Swipe File we present two or more images that resemble each other to some degree. They may be homages, parodies, ironic appropriations, jokes, coincidences or works of the lightbox. We trust you, the reader, to make that judgment yourself. If you are unable to do so, please return your eyes to their maker before any further damage is done. The Swipe File doesn't judge, it's interested more in the process of creation, how work influences other work, how new work comes from old, and sometimes how the same ideas emerge simultaneously, as if their time has just come. The Swipe File was named after the advertising industry habit where writers and artist collect images and lines they admire to inspire them in their work. It was swiped from the Comic Journal who originally ran this column, as well as the now defunct Swipe Of The Week website.

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