Tomato's skinwork: Atomik (01/09/21)

[Tomato]

CSA Alfred. He's been exposed to Joker toxin (and no, I'm pretty sure it's just joker on n52 e3, because lazy) and he masterminded the n52 Secret Society for awhile.

Technically he had brown hair in canon, but I thought the green looked better so I kept it green.

[windblown]

CSA Alfred. He's been exposed to Joker toxin (and no, I'm pretty sure it's just joker on n52 e3, because lazy) and he masterminded the n52 Secret Society for awhile.

Technically he had brown hair in canon, but I thought the green looked better so I kept it green.

Interesting, I didn't know that. I like the green hair too.

[Tomato]

Finally done. Ugh that took longer to finish than it should have.

So, if you'll allow me to gush about the character for a bit... Much like Deathstorm, who took an established evil Firestorm character from before the New52 and folded it into the Crime Syndicate, "The Outsider" aka E3 Alfred is loosely based on "The Outsider" from the post Crisis continuity... aka that time Alfred died and came back as a bizarro looking dude in a speedo that tried to kill Batman.

No, I'm serious, that was a thing.

Anyway, Johns took that concept and updated his version to be an Alfred who has been exposed to his universe's Joker toxin and been saved, albeit with lingering side effects. He ends up appearing at the end of the very first Justice League arc of the N52, and works behind the scenes throughout several books(mostly as the big bad of JLA) prior to Trinity War and Forever Evil. Easily one of the best characters to come out of that storyline, even if some of the payoff for Trinity War makes me roll my eyes.

That said, this will likely be the last of the N52 Syndicate you'll see me do as presented. I've done the Morrison versions of the rest (and plan to keep those), I have rough ideas for my own takes on Atomic and the Malevolent Family (kudos to Benton for the latter name, and yes Mazahs is JUST the Wizard's name in the CSAT) but frankly the new 52 versions of both are... awful, just... awful.

Anyway, my next step is to get these last 3 skins finished off and uploaded to Heroforce.  After that, another little mini-break from CSA stuff with another secret Benton project. After that... we'll see.

[Tomato]

Aqualad and Deathstorm uploaded to Heroforce. Outsider is also coming, it's just getting late and I don't have time to finish him off as well.

[spydermann93]

Deathstorm and Aqualad downloads don't seem to work.

[Tomato]

Hrm. I told it to upload all dependent files and I guess it skipped the zips. Fixing now.

Edit: Fixed, but those who tried to download it earlier might still have issues because the browser still thinks it's broken. In that case, open the download link in a new tab/window, and refresh the page.

Edit 2: Outsider has been uploaded.

[Cyber Burn]

Really been enjoying watching the progression of your work with these guys. I appreciate you sharing their development. Plus, it's kind of been encouraging me to want to get back into the game.

[spydermann93]

Got them to work by using a different browser (was using Chrome; used Edge).

Probably have to clear my cookies like you suggested.

[Tomato]

Tbf, I had similar issues when I worked on it this morning. Chrome just would not bother to actually load the link once they were finally uploaded. It was driving me nuts.

[BentonGrey]

Awesome!  You're producing so much great stuff, 'Mato!  I've got a tone of new toys I've got to get added to the DCUG.  I can't wait to rework Aqualad!

[Tomato]

Benton project.

[BentonGrey]

 

[Tomato]

And to go alongside Aqualad, the original Aquagirl, Tula. This one was fun to put together... it's mostly her classic design, but I also incorporated some elements of her Young Justice design.

[BentonGrey]

I love this skin/skope and this design!  'Mato and I went back and forth in our conversations about it, but he had great ideas throughout.  The result is even better than I expected!  He took the classic costume and improved on it in subtle but important ways.  Fantastic! 

[Podmark]

Very nice. I quite like the belt.
The pattern looks like it would be a pain.

[windblown]

That's so nice!! I love the eyes and the costume is really cool.

[Sioux City Dynamo]

Tomato, I have always liked your work.  Your latest creations are outstanding!

[Tomato]

So for anyone trying to keep up with my insanity, this one requires a bit of an explanation. As many here remember, I went through this whole thing working with the community, trying to come up with a CSA Equivalent for Aquaman, because there wasn't a canon one. I eventually skinned a version of "Aqualord" based on Cyber and Syn's designs (Cyber's in particular iirc. He'd probably argue that he didn't do much, but I never would have been able to create the skin I ended up with if not for his version.) and it was more or less my headcanon version of the character for what I now refer to as the CSAT, or "CSA according to Tomato" (nomenclature I've shamelessly stolen from Benton).

Then DC finally made their own version in Sea King and... Hrm. I said at the time I'd probably have been fine with it had it come out earlier, but the book released super close to when I made the skin, and I didn't want to throw out the work I'd already done. Plus... I get hung up on trying to keep color schemes intact where possible, and in Aquaman's case in particular I really like the orange and green color scheme he has. Sea King changed his primary color to purple, and while I do prefer that to Flashpoint Aquaman (he wears Red and Black because he's EEEEEEVVIIIILLL) I wasn't a fan of the color change. Combine that with the fact that he was immediately killed, and then his corpse was puppeted around for a meh JL Dark tie in... and yeah, I was content to just toss the character in the pile of N52 designs I'm not going to do.

In time, however, my opinion has... softened. Mainly this is due to a conversation with Benton, where he advocated for the design: he liked that the n52 version incorporated several elements from his 90s design, as well as having a few that the Aquaman movie would later incorporate, such as the plating on the sides of the belt. The design is effectively a pastiche on both designs at once, which fits nicely with my post-Emerald Archer design philosophy. The design was also used in Lego DC Supervillains, where we actually get to see Sea King properly... he's basically a cartoon pirate, but that's more than the comics gave us.

So yeah, when the time came to do Sea Squire with the Terrors and then the other N52 CSA members, I knew doing my own version (one with proper colors and a few more movie elements) based on a skope Dean made that Benton sent me. For anyone curious, the other design has been retconned to being the equivalent of Aquaman's 90s design, where Arthur got his head shaved (Thor Ragnarok style) and his hand forcibly restored. I wouldn't be shocked to see a minor update to that skin in the near future, one incorporating the DCEU style tattoos in place of the old ones (I put the work into them for Sea Squire, and I'm not 100% happy with the originals) probably to be released alongside this version.

Seashell and wristband are from Dean's skin (haven't bothered to replace them yet) and I'm probably going to mesh my own hook to get the look I want.

[BentonGrey]

Looking good, 'Mato.  I think you've come up with a design that works well for what you wanted.  Here are a few thoughts of varying levels of quality:

Possible tweaks: I wonder, how would it look if the armor sections were black (or perhaps dark gree), matching the pants?  I feel like that might not work, but I wonder if it would provide more balance to the design.  Actually...yeah, maybe green for the armor and the pants could work?  It creates a problem for the side armor, but that could be gold to match the hook?  None of this may be helpful or good, ha.

Also, I just want to say that I've enjoyed being part of the conversations about these characters, and I find your descriptions of your process really interesting!

Aqualord: Man, that's such a great design.  It was my gold standard, and I had even put it in the DCUG.  (Ha, stealing my name scheme!)  I would probably still stick with it if it weren't for the fact that I love the subtext of making the evil version of Aquaman long-haired and hook-handed.  That's just so perfect, especially given the ethos of the DCUG.  Still, my ideal version might well be a mash-up of that design and this oen and the N52 version. 

Yeah, the N52 version...ha, such a mixed bag.  At least he existed...for a moment?  I guess?  Such a shame.

Interesting backstory for the original design!  Cool!

[Sioux City Dynamo]

Really like the CSA work!

[Tomato]

All the Sea Kings.

[spydermann93]

Freakin' awesome, 'Mato!

[Podmark]

Those are some nice Sea Kings. I'm not even sure which one I like best.

[Tomato]

I'm really happy with them. I think the green pants gold sides one is my favorite, but I'm happy with all of them.

That said, moving right along, because I can



There's a non blacked out version in the FR Discord, but it honestly shouldn't be that hard to guess. I will not, however, be using the canon name from CoTE... I get why, and it works on a Meta level if you're in the know about it... but I'd rather not have links and filenames with that in them.

[spydermann93]

But Tomaaaato! It's such a good name!

lmao

[BentonGrey]

Cool!  Who'd have thought we'd ever see an Anti-Matter version of him? 

As for the Sea King versions, I agree, I think the green pants/gold sides is a nice update to your first new design.  I still love that old one, though, and the movie-style tattoos look pretty good.  I think they'll work out much better in-game.  Plus, the additional meta-commentary of it is great. 

It's really hard to say which I like better, as they're both really good designs that are doing different but equally cool things.  I think my ideal version would be the body design of the original, with its dominant green, orange as armored highlights, with the orange armored sleeve being the hook-hand, tattoos on the other, bearded and long hair.  I think that would be the best of all evil-Aqua worlds. 

[Tomato]

Black Thunder!

[Tomato]

[Podmark]

Great stuff!

[naitvalis]

I really like all the details and the designs, black thunder is a professional piece!