DC Taps Howard Porter For UFC 181 Poster

What’s the best way to make the athletes of the UFC appear larger than life? How about getting a well-known artist from DC Comics to do a poster for one of their upcoming pay-per-views?

That’s exactly what the UFC did for UFC 181: Hendricks vs. Lawler II, its final pay-per-view card of 2014. The world’s premier MMA promotion talked with DC about doing something special for the event, and the company decided to give Howard Porter a call.

The artist jumped at the chance, as he’s apparently a big MMA fan. With some help from colorist Alex Sinclair, the artist best known for his JLA run with Grant Morrison managed to do a pretty awesome job making Johny Hendricks, Robbie Lawler, Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez look like they have super powers:

Athletes turned into comic book heroes has been something of a trend this year, what with Gatorade doing the League of Captains and Tim Duncan guest-starring with the Punisher, but there’s something to be said for the visceral nature of UFC fighters that makes them easy subjects for this kind of transformation. Porter agreed, telling Fox Sports:

"They made the job very easy. It’s really just drawing from life. They really are superheroes."

UFC posters often make their way to bars and restaurants that show the PPV cards, so if you’re a fan of Porter and the UFC, you might want to ask one of your nearby establishments how you can acquire one, as I’m sure they’ll be popping up come November.

(via Bleacher Report)