The Alternate DC Comics Covers of Fringe

There was a subtle (I can't say very subtle, there's a shot where the Red Lantern cover is right in your face) inclusion in last night's Season Two finale of Fox's Fringe, which you can read my full review of here.

While the episode, and other alternate universe episodes of Fringe, included the usual subtle differences: an actual bronze Statue of Liberty, money with different Presidents on it, photographs of older versions of people that were killed in our world, etc; "Over There (Part 2)" included alternate DC comic book covers, framed on the wall of Peter's new apartment. And thanks to a helpful post at DC's The Source Blog, the covers from the episode have been posted online:


Their World


Our World

As cool as the concept of the alternate covers may be, I still prefer our world's originals. I mean, in concept, alternate comic book covers are an awesome idea, but the execution's a bit off. For instance, the Red Lantern one which was featured front and center on screen is perplexing, as the titles are all Silver Age, but the art is far too over-rendered to be conceivable from that era. You could maybe excuse it because in the Fringe alternate universe, the technology is better than our own and perhaps that also means they could have digital inking in 1970... but that's going a bit too far.

I still like looking back and forth between the real and alternate versions, but the over-rendering of the fake versions really bugs me, and that's just something about modern mainstream comics in general that really bugs me.

If you missed last night's Fringe or just want to get a second look at these covers on-screen (or even better, watch Leonard Nimoy's fantastic final acting appearance), watch the episode over at Hulu.