Taking A Look At A Couple Of Covers

When I first saw the cover for Amazing Spider-Man #619, I thought it reminded me of another cover, one that it might be homaging. I did a little looking around on Grand Comic Database, and found the cover I was thinking of. Let's take a look.

Here's the Spider-Man cover, with the cover for Captain America #332 on the other side. That's the issue where Cap turns in his uniform and shield, rather than be a government tool*. The Spider-Man cover is by Marcos Martin, the Captain America cover by the team of Mike Zeck and Klaus Janson.

Hmm, they aren't as similar as they were in my head. The pose is similar, though Spidey's palms are turned upward more, They each have blood/red fluid streaming around them, though Spider-Man's interacting with it more, as it's running over him and pooling in his hands, but you can see the red is moving around the Captain's feet. Of course, Spider-Man is surrounded by dead people while Captain America stands alone in front of a flag, but it holds a similar meaning. Spider-Man wants to protect everyone, so the dead around him would be a failure. Cap wants to serve America, and by extension, its people, but with the color running out of the flag, it suggests something's gone wrong. Cap isn't able to protect them anymore, because he can't be Captain America anymore.

I think the poses suggest different things. Spider-Man's says "sad or depressed" to me, while Cap suggests fatigue. I think the difference is in the faces and the hands. You can see more of Spider-Man's face, and the eyes seem sad to me**. Cap's face is hidden, and his arms are hanging down at his sides more. Spider-Man can hold his arms at a 90 degree angle, palms facing upwards, but Cap can't even muster that much energy. He can barely curl his fingers, and as he's looking down in their direction, I see it as him looking at his hands, trying to gauge if he can go on fighting.

* Which unfortunately leads to the tenure of John Walker, future U.S. Agent as Captain America. Unlike Rogers, Walker is very good at being a tool.

** I'd imagine that the blood pouring over him, which reminds me of someone caught in the rain, is also contributing to my impression of him as being sad.