Top Five Actual Pieta Covers

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published Aug 13, 2009

In general, we refer to any cover with one character holding another character outstretched in his/her arms as a "Pieta" cover, after the famous Michelangelo statue of Mary holding Jesus' body.

Well, I was just doing a bit about La Pieta at Legends Revealed here, and it reminded me of the last time I did a bit on this style of covers some folks noted we should draw a distinction between covers likely influenced by La Pieta and covers CLEARLY homaging La Pieta.

So, here are the the top five covers that are homaging the actual La Pieta (check here to see an archive of all the top five lists featured so far)...

HONORABLE MENTION

This Greg Lauren Hellblazer cover is a bit too subdued for my tastes, but it's still a strong piece of work.

This Alvin Lee Deadpool cover is a strong one, and even ties directly in with the Deadpool story arc (which involved the whole "Deadpool doesn't seem to be able to die" plot point), but since it clearly follows in the footsteps of another cover on this list, I knocked it down a bit.

3 (TIE).

This was a clever cover approach by Pat Broderick.

First, he does a bit about how Captain Atom and the villain Plastique share some compassion...

and later, we revisit their relationship...

Very nice little sequence there, separated by almost exactly three years!

This is probably the most famous cover on the list, and Jim Starlin does a magnificent job, but I just think there's another cover that's a bit more on point than this great cover, which spotlighted the cover of the first Marvel Graphic Novel - the death of Captain Marvel!

Okay, so this member of Harbinger is forced to sacrifice her child for the good of the world and she meets him later on when he's an adult and has taken on a sort of savior-like role for the world.

Come on, do you get any more spot on for having a La Pieta cover homage than this Howard Simpson cover?!