I thought Colan was well-suited to NIGHT FORCE in 1981-1982, and SILVERBLADE and NATHANIEL DUSK with Don McGregor, but just completely unsuited to BATMAN and DETECTIVE. What I've sampled of his TOMB OF DRACULA run is good work. I think Colan was at his peak in the 1960's and early 1970's on DAREDEVIL (part of which he was working under the pseudonym "Adam Austin").
Of the artists on Batman by 1982 when Colan took the reigns, Aparo is the only one I truly liked. And even Aparo was beginning to decline at that point.
Of all the artists to take on Kirby characters in that era, Jim Aparo is the only one who could have been tapped for a series who I think (despite having a very different style from Kirby) did a beautifully rendered version of Kirby characters that felt compatible with the Kirby material. The Demon, Mister Miracle (and with him other New Gods characters) and Kamandi all appeared in BRAVE & THE BOLD during the 1970's period, and all of them were well handled by Aparo. Some nice single issue stories, a series by Aparo would have been great.
As this B & B 128 cover gives a sample of. As I recall, there were 3 issues with Mister Miracle, 2 issues with the Demon, and 2 issues with Kamandi. Which together approach or exceed many Kirby runs of that period, such as Kirby's SANDMAN, FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL, JUSTICE INC., OMAC, OUR FIGHTING FORCES, NEW GODS and FOREVER PEOPLE runs.
So I guess we did get a pretty good taste of what an Aparo NEW GODS run might have looked like.
