Mental Covers: Joining The Team.

As evil begins to strike in stronger force, Mental is forced to join the only superhero team around, The Team!

This is just a basic idea back from what I know as the Second Stage of Mental. Back then there was a team called The Team (appropriately enough). They were comprised of 'Soda Mutants,' people who had been mutated thanks to a special chemical added into soda by Captain Mental's arch enemy, Dr. Mask (Nowadays, Mental dosn't really have an arch enemy). They formed a team, and after a while of serving as allies, Mental finally became a member.

The Team was comprised of...

Sparkplug: Teenager who can turn his body into a bolt of lightning.

Soundwave: Egotistical teenager who can change the sound of his voice.

Dr. Stone: Skilled surgeon mutated into a large rock monster.

Stabenslash: School teacher with Wolverine style abilities.

Spiderette: Sarcastic and angry girl who has spider powers.

Mystic: Psychic sarcastic, dry and droll teenager mutated into a floating blob.

Miya the Ogress: Unofficial member. A large green girl with enormous eating habits.

Awesome Covers: Amazing Spider-Man 625

This one I just love! The Gauntlet saga has brought back most of Spidey's more famous enemies, and they have all taken a level in badass. For some this is a bit different, they have become legacy characters. Namley, Vulture and Rhino. The New Vulture is a snarling mutant out for revenge, and the new Rhino is a technological warrior who must defeat the old Rhino to gain his title. Here we have a somewhat basic image of the two Rhinos going head to head, but it just looks kick ass! This wouldn't look nearly as good if it were other villains, but Rhino's main attack plan is to charge at his opponents, so having to Rhinos doing that is pretty cool. And it's also Old vs. New, which is almost always good.
We also see that the New Rhino is much larger than the Old, giving him an advantage, but the Old Rhino dosn't seem detered from the fight by it, that is how you draw a still image of a badass.

This is the sort of cover that grabs you and drags you in and makes you want to read the story inside. This is why I like these sort of covers, I often don't care for basic group shots, or extreme face close ups.
As for the story inside, it's pretty damn good, which makes the mission of the cover a massive success. It even gets a little tear jerking. My only complaint is that it gives us an example of that lifelong comic book cliche, that heroes villains always have to come back. They retire, they return, they die, they're revived. This is also a problem when you kill them off for good, because then you don't get to enjoy the character being around any more, it's a freaking paradox.

Oh, that and I don't really like the art that much.