My very own (sorta) homemade "The Death of Captain Marvel" statue.

A few weeks ago I needed to get the wheel rims replaced on the car and so, literally without any wheels and stranded on Ontario Street for about an hour, I took a stroll down to Value Village to see if I could #FINDtheFIND and, sure enough, I did. For me, "The Find" was a small plaster reproduction of Michelangelo's "Pietà," depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus. Goddam creepy, right? Of course, truth be told, when I saw it on the shelf what I immediately flashed on was one of my all-time favorite comic-book stories, the original cover for the graphic novel "The Death of Captain Marvel" by Jim Starlin. That's why I couldn't pass it up.

My plan? To paint that sucker to be just that, a passable version of the cover image of the personification of Death herself cradling the estranged Kree captain and cosmic protector, Mar-Vell, as he succumbs to his final battle with both the cancer consuming his life from within and a re-animated Thanos of Titan, called back to life to claim Mar-Vell's for his beloved Mistress. While there's already a beautiful version of this cover art in statue form, produced by Art Asylum back in 2002, it goes for about $200 . . . and that's if you can even find it!

So, starting with the faux-bronze statue as I'd found it . . .

. . . first I spray-painted a flat black basecoat . . .

. . . which, once I started applying the primer coat for the parts to be painted, immediately came to life as Mistress Death's cloak.

I threw a second primer coat on to make sure the paint colour would stand out . . .

. . . sketched the features of Mar-Vell's uniform and Death's face in pencil . . .

. . . and, after carefully painting some more definition in the more detailed areas, I quickly filled in the colour for the base and stone portions.

Then, once I'd filled in the larger areas of blue and red on the uniform, the whole thing really came together . . .

. . . and with just a few touch ups to Death's face and the eight-pointed star on Marv's chest, I was pretty pleased with the final outcome.

Of course, when looking at them side-by-side, mine still doesn't compare with the Art Asylum version, but for only a fraction of the cost, it's good enough to sit proudly on my shelf!

-DE