Finally continuing this Monday feature (replacing “My Custom Mods”) in which I talk a bit on how I selected artwork for feats and battlefield conditions that didn’t come with art, originally. Today, it’s Halloween! So we’re looking at some of the spookier arts I picked.

Blackest Night

This BFC inspired by DC Comics’ big zombie miniseries had an image from issue 2 of the Blackest Night event that was a no-brainer to use.

I have never seen this Print-and-Play-only BFC used.

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Another, less-obvious CardArt was a feat from Icons:

Darkness Within

An easy pick would’ve been to use a villain, doing villainous things to some flunky. But my concept of the card was more complex; to me, it depicts a hero doing something villainous and thus being overcome, albeit momentarily, by the darkness within.

At the time, the best image I had in my collection was from one of the worst comics in my (or anyone’s) collection: Aquaman #11 of the 2002 series. The titular hero had just come to the penultimate issue of a drawn-out wretch of a year-long arc whose eventual ending was telegraphed back in issue 6. Here, Aquaman’s just punched the lights out of his arch-enemy — who’s just shot Aquaman in the back after pretending to have reformed. Seems like pretty normal, straightforward superhero stuff, right?

WRONG. In this stupid take on the Sea King, hitting bad guys with his magic water hand is Bad. Anger is Bad. And it releases his dark side, which nearly destroys the world.

I’m oversimplifying, and inadvertently making it sound cooler than it was. IT SUCKED. And it basically killed that book and the character so dead that even its soft-reboot couldn’t save it.

But it did give me this one stark image that illustrates “darkness within” emerging quite well. So there’s that, at least.