The Parademons are Steppenwolf’s main weapon against the Justice League, but they looked a bit different in the original concept art.
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The hallmarks are all there of course, but there’s a much more organic design in the original take than the one that showed up onscreen. Red flesh tethers the metallic armor pieces together, appearing as if the armor is welded on. These Parademons forego the hoods and goggles in other versions, and the wings have a more fluid look to them and also extend much further than the final wings, and two of the extensions are insect-like claws.
The art comes courtesy of concept artist Jerad S. Marantz, who worked on Justice League with costume designer Michael Wilkinson. The art comes from the Justice League Art book that recently released, and you can view it in the image below.
“Early #parademons#conceptart for #justiceleague This was a great project and be on. There were so many talented artists and so much hard work that went into this project. This was an early Concept for the Parademons I got to do with costume designer @michaelwilkinson You can see it featured in the art of the movie book that just came out.”
The final versions of the Parademons look closer to their comic counterparts. They are wearing just about full armor, with the only primary visible skin being the lower half of their faces, revealing green skin. Their grins are mangled with sharp teeth and they wear hoods and red tinted goggles and feature more fly or insect-like wings as opposed to the large flowing ones seen here.
Just like in the comics, these Parademons use numbers and force to their advantage, overwhelming targets as they zip around in the air. They’ve also got substantial strength too, seen when one of them rips the roof off of Batman’s Batmobile. It’s not like Batman drives a Toyota Tercel here, so gotta admit that’s impressive.
Steppenwolf at one point mentions Darkseid, so this won’t be the last time we see these guys in force.
Justice League is in theaters now.
