That great harmonic convergence between Tim Tebow sports fan and comic book nerd will have to wait. Despite what you may have heard, there is no actual Tim Tebow comic book out there … at least not yet.
What does exist are three Superhero-esque Tebow art renderings by three different Marvel Comics artists, which were produced by Marvel Custom Solutions in association with ESPN. The art was shown this past weekend in a short TV segment on SportsCenter and during ESPN’s NFL Sunday Countdown, casting Tebow as a superhero (with Chris Berman voiceover). See it here.
This all makes perfect sense, if not perfect entertainment. Marvel Comics is owned by Disney, which also owns ESPN.
“Right now an actual comic book is just in the rumor stages,” Greg Van Every, the subscription manager for Mile High Comics in Denver, told Off the Bench. “Marvel used three different artists to depict Tebow as a superhero, and showed the art during one of the games this past weekend. They’re judging the popularity of the art, and then going from there. There’s no actual comic book just yet.”
So I’m guessing a lot’s going to depend on how Tebow and the Broncos do against Pittsburgh in the first round of the playoffs. Anyway, in case the comic book does get of the ground, someone had better decide what a possible story arc would be. Will Tebow have superpowers? An armored suit of infallibility developed by Tony Stark? Will he be a wisecracking hero quoting Bible verses, in the Spider-Man tradition? Or will this be more of an illustrated biography kind of thing (bo-oring …)?
Superhero-sports figure crossovers are nothing new, of course. Stan Lee, former president of Marvel Comics, spearheaded the superhero-hockey NHL Guardian Project early last year for SLG Entertainment, in which artists created superheroes based on each NHL team’s nickname. That got mixed reviews.
In October of 2010, Marvel teamed with ESPN the Magazine to give each NBA team a superhero-themed comic book cover. Most were very cool indeed.
And who can forget NFL Superpro? God, make the nightmares stop.
Art: courtesy Marvel Comics.
***
Tebow Time for Marvel and ESPN [Marvel.com]
Tim Tebow gets the Marvel Comics treatment [ComicBook.com]
A real page-turner: story behind Tebow as Marvel Comics sees him [ESPN]
