Heroes for Hire

"We didn't start the fire! It was always burning since the world's been turning! We didn't start the fire! No we didn't light it but we tried to fight it!" Great song by Billy Joel. I just felt it was appropriate given the fiery nature of this latest character design/illustration line up. My friends and I had discussed awhile back about what comic book heroes we could try to rethink. We decided on going with the original Heroes for Hire, Luke Cage and Iron Fist from Marvel Comics.

Luke Cage for myself hadn't gone through too much alteration from his current look but what I wanted to focus on was the person. I pictured in my mind which actors I felt would play these heroes so for Luke I saw Lawrence Fishburne and for Iron Fist it was a bit of Leonardo Dicaprio and the rest kind of invented itself. Cage has impenetrable skin and I thought the first thing I would do if I were him is not wear shoes ever again! I mean that kind of freedom would be great! Clothes would kind of be optional but for the sake of appearance I'd wear the simplest, cheapest clothes so it wouldn't cost so much to replace, which would happen frequently given the hazardous nature that comes with crime fighting. I've always felt that the only thing that looked okay about Iron Fist was his mask and the rest being completely goofy and impractical. It's ironic here how his mask is the only thing I didn't include. I liked the look of Daryl Hannah's character in Blade Runner, a replicant named 'Pris'. In the movie she airbrushes black paint across her eyes which I thought looked like a mask and I loved that idea. Iron Fist's mask is airbrushed in my design and wears a bandanna with his costume. For his costume I wanted to blend elements of his original look which I think seemed more of a uniform or GI with kind of an outdoors look like a sports jacket. I would explain Iron Fists' origins and powers but it's a bit complex. In a nutshell take Kwai Chang Caine from 'Kung Fu' and mix in a bit of Green Arrow with a dash of mysticism and fantasy and you have Iron Fist.