Picking up where the Justice League Series left off, I wanted to do something based on the two most well known & high profile villains of DC Comics. It's well known that the Justice League comes together when a very dangerous worldly threat arises, but outside of League business, the heroes (mainly Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern) also have their solo lives and missions protecting their individual cities from members of their own rogues galleries of villains. For this one we take a trip to Metropolis, home of Superman/Clark Kent, and Gotham City, home of Batman/Bruce Wayne.
1. Lex Luthor
First Appearance: Action Comics #23 (1940)
Inventor, philanthropist, scientist, and power hungry billionaire who's been on both sides of the law. He is the owner of Lexcorp, an international conglomerate that has its hands in many different business ventures and its name can be found all over many things in Metropolis. Although appearing to be a standard businessman to most of the general public, there are a few who have always been skeptical of him and know Lex's evil side all too well...Clark Kent/Superman, Lois Lane (who have done stories on him), and even Bruce Wayne/Batman (Wayne Industries at one point had attempted to do business with Lexcorp on a project) to name a few. Lex has always secretly hated Superman due to jealousy, feeling that he should be seen as the hero of Metropolis and not the man of steel. The two have done battle on different occasions, whether it be through Luthor secretly working with villains and sending them after Superman, or physically battling the Man of Steel with his high tech power armor. At times, Luthor has even been able to somehow come into possession of Superman's weakness, Kryptonite.
The shoes:
The shoes were basically a pair of all white Nike Dunks converted to resemble Luthor's power suit. Since Lex doesn't technically have an actual costume I went with the power armor which he's sometimes worn in the comics when engaging in physical battle.
The Joker
Real Name: Unknown
First Appearance: Batman #1 (1940)
He's known as the Clown Prince Of Crime. The ultimate psychopath with a twisted, sadistic sense of humor. He's the reason the citizens of Gotham City don't like clowns. The number one nemesis of Batman, The Joker is almost seen as the yin to Batman's yang. Although he doesn't possess and special super powers, he's still seen as one of the most dangerous human beings in Gotham City. He's been known to possess deadly concoctions such as razor tipped playing cards, a squirting flower that shoots acid, and a poisonous gas that causes people to laugh hysterically as they slowly die of poisoning (usually leaving the bodies with smiles on their faces). There have been many versions of his origin, the most well known being that he was once a failed stand up comedian who turned to a life of crime when agreeing to help mobsters with a robbery. The robbery goes awry when Batman shows up & the comedian falls into a vat of acid while attempting to escape, leaving him horribly disfigured, leaving this and some other events to drive him insane and eventually becoming The Joker.
The shoes:
I wanted to use a simple base shoe for this custom. It would've looked good with almost any shoe but I went to my go-to shoe, the Nike Air Force 1. I wanted something colorful yet dark and twisted to represent the Joker's personality. I've seen a few Joker themes done before but most of them represented the Heath Ledger version & I knew I didn't want to go with just one specific incarnation of the character so I tried to do something that could easily represent any era or version of Joker, although I usually always prefer to go with the comic versions.
The DC Universe is a broad one and I may just continue this as one big comic book sneaker universe (P.S., I haven't forgotten about Marvel....got something planned with them as well that i'm brainstorming on). Again, this is a continuation of my Justice League themed series (click here to view). Will there be another part to this? Stay tuned.....
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