you know what sucks? the official ‘X-Men: First Class’ posters

Blah. But at least it’s not as bad as one of the official U.S. posters:

That’s so appalling bad I figure it can only be a joke, or perhaps a child’s first experimentation with Photoshop. Except it isn’t. Someone got paid a shit-ton of money to create that poster.

You know what doesn’t suck? This fan poster by artist Phil Noto of Your Nice New Outfit:

This fan poster by Dane Forst doesn’t suck, either:

Both of those fan poster are available at the X-Men movies Facebook page, so clearly Fox knows about them, and is aware of the talent and passion fans can bring to something like X-Men. So why are they paying gods know what sort of small fortune to the supposed designers who made those crappy official posters?

On the other hand, perhaps X-Men: First Class the movie in fact lacks the verve and creativity the fan posters suggest. Perhaps Fox is engaging in truth-in-advertising by offering us bland, limp official posters.

If that’s the case, then thank you, 20th Century Fox.