Where it All Started - Queen Studios' Time to Read

As many of you know, our team strive to produce the most realistic collectables possible. Taking that in mind. Our team sit and watch copious amounts of movies and tv-shows. Finding ideas, and creating collectables that are truly masterful. But these ideas are not only taken from the screen. The team flick through an extensive amount of comics. Discovering the origins of these MCU and DCEU worlds. And sometimes, our team find something that would fit perfectly into the QS repertoire. These heroes then get put into production and become a part of our collection. And it’s my job to ask around the office, read up, and discover exactly where these collectables came from, and sometimes it’s a real rabbit hole. In anticipation for the release of QS’s Carnage and Venom 1/1 scale busts, rather than give you a brief introduction, we would like to share the stories we love, and the origins of these awesome characters.

So, for those who don’t just want to know exactly where your collectables originate from, here is the origin of some of Queen Studios most popular comic book collectables.

Green Scar Hulk 1/4 Statue

Queen Studios Green Scar Hulk 1/4 statue was sort of a pet project for many of the QS team. The visceral story presented to us by Greg Pak paints the Hulk in a light where he’s not just smashing stuff. Pak’s story humanises the Hulk whilst also weaponizing him. The story sequels the brilliant Planet Hulk Series. The Hulk has been exiled from earth by the Illumanati, an entourage of earths greatest heroes. Now, on the Planet Sakaar the Hulk has to work his way through the Sakaarian gladiatorial ranks, a become this desolate world's leader. Before the fighting, the Hulk and Banner agree that they need to work together, Banner’s smarts and Hulk’s strength, to survive.

Once the fighting finished, the Hulk manages to bring peace to the various conflict on Sakaar. In celebration, the people of Sakaar turn the Hulk’s shuttle into a monument, however the ship’s warp core engine detonates in a massive explosion, killing hundeds, including someone the Hulk holds dear.  

As Hulk’s ship was created by the Illuminati, it’s only right that he assumes that they’re the terrorists who detonated this dirty bomb. Hulk returns to Earth for revenge with his allies, the Warbound: Hiroim, Korg, Elloe Kaifi, Miek, No-Name of the Brood, Arch-E-5912, and Mung. Starting an all-out war with Earth’s greatest heroes. Starting one of the Hulk's great strories yet, World War Hulk!

The Amazing Spider-Man Spider-Verse 1/4 Statue

When someone threw Spider-Man into the hat of ‘what will we create next?’, you’d think it was easy. Peter Parker. “But, what about Miles Morales? Didn’t the first Spidey die?”. “Yeah, and what about Spider Gwen?”, “my favourite is Ben Reilly!”. A simple task soon became quite tricky. Fortunately, one of the team had just finished reading the The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Verse, on the back of watching 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. So, After much chatter around the office, the QS team finally came to an agreement. And it just so happened, that this series had over 50 web-slingers to choose from, so there wasn’t a shortage of names to choose from.

The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Verse is a tale of multiple-universes, or the Spider-Verse, and what happens when they get twisted together. The series includes almost every radioactive spider/pig bitten character ever mentioned in Marvel history… It broke some records too. The story was written by Dan Slott and pencilled by Olivier Coipel, Both modern Marvel veterans. The arc follows Morlun and his family ‘The Inheritors’ as they go from verse-to-verse hunting down web-slingers, or Spider Totems. Morlun and his gang manage to tear through forty-five 'Fallen Spiders'. Meanwhile the rest of the web-slingers band together to create a 'Spider-Army' to stop the massacre once and for all.

Against all the other comic books stories mentioned in this post, this series is one that will really get you obsessed with its universe. The constant addition of new Spider-folk really keeps the story fresh. And it’s great to see the camaraderie between all the Spider-Armyand their banding together to destroy a common enemy. And this is where they QS design team drew thei main inspiration for the QS 1/4 Scale The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Verse statue.

Batman Who Laughs 1:4 & DC Comics Batman on Throne

The Batman Who Laughs is an evil version of Bruce Wayne and one of the main antagonists of the DC Comics universe. Truly the opposite of the Batman we know and love. The Batman Who Laughs is a product of what happens when the Joker wins. The Batman Who Laughs is a “Jokerized” version of the Bat, and the leader of the Bat god, Barbatos’ Dark Knights. Whose goal is to bring the entire Multiverse into complete and utter darkness. This story isn’t for the anxious, although dark its story telling is masterful. Everything the original Batman stands for is torn apart and used to create possibly one of DC’s most powerful enemies. This is the epitome of what happens when The Dark Knight breaks his one and only rule.

Its difficult to summarise this story without giving to much away. But, if you’re a fan of the darker DC stories then this one is for you.

Comic Spider-Man 1:1 Bust

 In an early issue of the 1962 magazine “Amazing Fantasy”, we were first introduced to Spider-Man created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Spider-Man’s alterego Peter Parker is an science whizz in high-school living with his adorable aunt May in New York. Peter was one day bitten by a radioactive spider, leaving him with some pretty awesome superpowers. From that day on peter could cling to walls, detect danger with his spidey senses eventually shoot webs.

Spider-man is one of those comic books where you can pretty much start anywhere. And the QS team, rather than pick on specific Spider-man to base a 'Comic' Spider-man from they decided to pick all the best qualities from Marvel's greatest Spider-man artist. The QS Comic Spider-man bust QS Comic Spider-man bust was created by merging various designs taken from Ditko, Romita and Macfarlane. So, although you could start anywhere with Spider-man, maybe start with these great artists.

Absolute Carnage

Finally, our two favourite symbiotes, Carnage and Venom. These two are a first for QS. We haven’t produced any life-size 1/1 comic busts up until now. Carnage and Venom belong to a race of amorphous extra-terrestrial parasites known as Symbiotes, which form a symbiotic bond with their hosts and give them super-human abilities. Up until recent years, and because of the massive success of the MCU Carnage kind of got put on the back burner at Marvel, but 2019’s series Absolute Carnage spiced thing up. Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman have made Absolute Carnage one of Carnage’s best stories in a long time. Not only has the series elevated Carnage into the stratosphere, but it’s also brought Venom with it.

Absolute Carnage incorporates every single character who has ever been diseased by a symbiote and every symbiote that has ever been, going all the way back to when Peter found the mysterious dark suit. The five-issue series follows Cletus Kasady, Carnage’s host. He’s on the hunt for every single person who has worn a symbiote. Each issue Carnage causes destruction across New York finding these symbiote hosts. It all builds up for an almost stalemate final issue finale between Venom and Carnage.

Venom

Our final favourite symbiote, Venom. No one expected it, but 2018 wasn't just the year of Tom Hardy's Venom. Donny Cates and Donny Stegnam's dark ride shone a new light on Eddie Brock and his symbiote buddy. Without criticising to much, Venom was pretty much dead in the water's of New York after Sam Riami's Spider-Man 3. But thanks to Cates gripping story and Stegman's dark and moody artwork, 2018 was the year of Venom. If you can't get hold of the comics, try grabbing the trade paperbacks. This series is gory, frignening and above all Marvel's best 2018 series.

Let us know in the comments below which comic book character you'd like to see turned into a statue or bust, and don't forget to mention size and which series your character is from. Stay tuned for more from Queen Studios.

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Post by Luke Wainhouse