Wolverine: Origins #3. Not sure if this vertical layout ultimately worked, in retrospect it feels a bit stiff and posed with Wolverine’s body lacking any real tension for me, but it was fun getting to draw Nuke.
Mike Deodato Jr. 2007 | Thunderbolts 112-115: American Eagle
Color: Rain Beredo
“I must have been crazy. Hell, I must’ve looked like I was about to break into the chorus of ‘YMCA.’”
With nothing but a single appearance in an old Marvel Two-in-One and a few brief, fleeting stories in the Marvel Comics Presents anthology book, American Eagle was probably known more for appearing in the first issues of Marvel Handbooks than for any great character-defining moments of badassery on the page.
Until Ellis and Deodato came along.
Beginning as a (presumably well-intentioned?) Indian stereotype from 1981, and redesigned into an “edgy” be-mohawked incarnation in the 90s (never mind that Strongbow isn’t Mohawk — who, ironically, didn’t even wear mohawks — or even Pawnee, who kinda did), but Navajo.
Anyway, Ellis brings this maligned-from-the-get-go character into his outstanding Thunderbolts story so Deodato gets to redesign the character with:
a no-nonsense conventional clothing foundation (leather jacket, as his main mode of travel is a motorcycle),
some colorful superhero accents (striking red boots and gloves),
With the redesign in place, Ellis and Deodato construct a scene of complete badassery in which the Eagle thoroughly hands Bullseye’s ass to himself. These issues made me love American Eagle!