17 Incredibly Cool Mash-Ups of Comic Book Superheroes and Rock Gods
From Morrissey as the Hulk to Joy Division’s Ian Curtis as Batman, artist Butcher Billy melds Marvel and DC characters with alt-rock icons.
To the delight of comic book aficionados and postpunk obsessives everywhere, artist Butcher Billy recently unleashed more of his signature superhero/singer mash-ups, which envision everyone from the Cure’s Robert Smith as Nightcrawler to Billy Idol as a seahorse-riding Aquaman. The latest batch of Billy’s renderings are from the Marvel Universe—that’s Spider-Man, The Hulk, Wolverine, Thor, The Avengers, Iron Man and The X-Men, for those uninitiated to basic comic book geekery. The Marvel images are a follow-up to Billy’s DC Comics creations, with spins on Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and The Flash.
“As a child of the ’80s I was heavily influenced by everything from Saturday morning cartoons on TV to the music coming from the radio,” Butcher Billy explains. “Ian Curtis or Johnny Rotten are as iconic to me as Superman or Batman. Real people or imaginary characters, the incorruptible ideals of perfect superheroes or the human flaws and desires sometimes so desperately depicted in song lyrics—all of those influences affect us to the point of defining our character and personality, career paths and life choices.”
So what’s next for the culture-clashing Brazilian artist? “I’ve been setting up a concept called ‘Butcher Billy Bullies Banksy’. You can expect something like that coming from me this year,” he says. “Also I’ve been obsessing about Vincent Van Gogh recently—I’m sure I’m gonna come up with something.” We can hardly wait.
Photos by Butcher Billy