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

[Rich Johnston]

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 ShooterOtto 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.

[Meyeraustin]

Those speed lines behind Superboy's head are hilarious since they imply his head was pointing away and to the left before he got the shocking news.

[Joe Kalicki]

That was like a decade before Jim Shooter wrote his first Legion script.

Or, rather, drew it out with crayon because he was a little kid.

[richbob]

That was like a decade before Jim Shooter wrote his first Legion script.

Or, rather, drew it out with crayon because he was a little kid.

Yep -- this is Adventure #247 and Shooter's debut was Adventure #346. I believe Otto Binder gets credit here instead.

As for Hitch's book, I was hoping for a more interesting premise.

[Ganymede]

Now I'll be hearing Cosmic Boy using Simon Cowell's voice! And a spaced out Saturn Girl! "You have no powers that are useful to us, but your costume is AMAZING!"

[Xanadude]

And the logo itself seems to be remarkably similar to the one for Brian Denham's American Woman series from Antarctice Press. GCD :: Series :: American Woman

[thekamisama]

Any way we can see a swipe file on Brubakers new Fatale leading man looking almost exactly like 215's Vic Boone?

[Greygor]

Isn't this also Wild Cards - Inside Straight which is based round the Reality Show - American Hero

[Kevin T Brown]

Yep -- this is Adventure #247 and Shooter's debut was Adventure #346. I believe Otto Binder gets credit here instead.

As for Hitch's book, I was hoping for a more interesting premise.

But in Shooter's re-created reality, he wrote this story while Binder got the credit.