Kerrith Johnson Casts Superheroes And Their Alter Egos In Motivational Posters [Art]

Forget anti-heroes. Forget irony. Forget deconstructions of the superhero genre. Kerrith Johnson boils each Marvel and DC superhero in his "Believe" series down to a single, iconic and uplifting characteristic. Pairing each motivational word with a hero and his or her alter ego, he invites us to look at Iron Man and believe in progress, to look at Starfire and believe in passion, and to look at Supergirl and believe in ourselves.

The tagline for Johnson's "Believe" series is "Keeping heroes iconic but positive." Enhanced by their golden backgrounds and their dingy overlay, the posters create a sense of nostalgia for a time when superheroes represented paragons of virtue, reminding us that their attitudes more than their powers make them figures to aspire to. They're posters that could easily adorn walls in the DC and Marvel universes as well as out own.

But even as he revels in superheroic role models, Johnson doesn't forget the fun of villains. As a companion to his "Believe" series, he's just launched an "Accept" series: "Keeping villains iconic but nefarious."

You can see more of the "Believe" posters and Johnson's other illustrations at his deviantART and his Tumblr.