Comic companies in the past few years have gotten wise to the collecting aspect of comics in a way which they never had before.  The idea must have come from comic conventions, where publishers made alternate overs available for purchase (or sometimes to give away).  The alternate covers caught on, and it became clear that there was money to be made by those that were willing to invest a little bit in variant covers, as truly some diehard fans would buy them all, as well as it served as a crossover for some others that would otherwise be uninterested in buying a comic at all.  A lot of times these covers had a fairly basic premise, for instance showing characters common to the series in the city where a convention was based.  Equally some covers were left blank for artists to fill in at the conventions.

In the past few years there has been an influx of these new titles, often times with a singular inspiration for an entire month for an entire publisher.  This specifically happens at the big two publishers, as for instance in a somewhat shameless move by Marvel and its head company Disney, they decided to add in a string of variant covers for Tron Legacy right when the movie was being released (Tron Legacy being a Disney movie.)  Other themes have followed since them between the two two companies, as well as occasionally with others, although the theme to note in this case specifically is the one which DC has ongoing at the moment, over its #40 issue of the new 52, and that is to pay homage to well known movie posters.

Tron Spider-Man

Some have been a bit forced, such as the Aquaman cover with Arthur as Free Willy.  Others have been a bit more inspired and required a bit more imagination, as for instance the 2001: A Space Odyssey poster for Green Lantern, which mixes up too famous sci-fi Hals in a space setting.  While the theme is a bit of a stretch at times, what doesn’t fit in exactly is the main cover to this week’s Jungle Book: Fall of the Wild.  As opposed to being a variant cover, it was the main cover and was evidently inspired by the movie poster for Life of Pi.  The cover even kind of fits, as Mowgli has been kidnapped off of her island and has animal companions in tow.  Due to its theme though, it fits almost too well in with DC Comics’ similarly themed month, which could cause some confusion as to what certain people might be purchasing.  Perhaps that confusion was part of the appeal on Zenescope’s part, for fans hoping to collect all the covers and then see another that fits.  More likely though, the decision to use this cover was probably made long ago, and it was just coincidental timing that saw the Life of Pi cover go to press for instance during the same week as the Wonder Woman 300 poster cover.