Tony Daniel’s run on the MV Creations Icons of Evil one-shots in 2003 and 2004 is the kind of pre-superstar work that gets reappraised in hindsight. Daniel was at the time a journeyman cover artist with credits at Image, Top Cow, and Dynamite; he would not land his Batman run until 2008, and his Detective Comics regular slot did not come until 2011. The MOTU work sits in the transitional period where he was sharpening the painted-cover technique that would later define his Batman: Battle for the Cowl and his New 52 Detective Comics covers.
The three Icons of Evil covers are the headliners. Beast Man (2003) shows the character three-quarters profile, lit from below with a dim red key light, a tight crop on the upper body that emphasises the fur and the jaw. Trap Jaw (2003) goes the opposite direction: full-figure, low-angle, with the cybernetic arm extended at the reader and the laser-jaw open. Tri-Klops (2004) frames the character behind his three-lens visor with each lens catching a different highlight colour, an effect Daniel built in successive painted passes over a tight pencil base.
The cover technique on these three pieces is the same approach Daniel would later use at DC. Tight pencil base. Inked overlay. Painted colour on top with mixed digital and traditional media. The Beast Man cover in particular has been cited by Daniel himself in convention panels as one of the first jobs where he locked the workflow that became his signature.
The interior work is rarer. Daniel handled select pages on the Image MOTU issue 5 and issue 7, mostly action sequences featuring the Evil Warriors. The page composition is more cinematic than the surrounding artist’s work, with wider panel borders and more dramatic camera angles. These pages have surfaced occasionally at Heritage Auctions; one Trap Jaw splash page from Icons of Evil hammered around $1,200 in 2019.
For collectors, the Icons of Evil three-issue set is the must-have. NM raw copies cluster at $15 to $25 each. Original art is rare and pricey. The 2014 art-book Tony Daniel: Sketchbook included two MOTU studies in its retrospective section, the only published reference to the preparatory work for the painted covers. Daniel has not revisited the property since 2004.
Catalogue source: heman.fandom.com (CC BY-SA 3.0).
