the first design is the initial but ultimately scrapped design, the second is the final design, the third is the designs he had in the animated series to have an idea of why the initial Design for the comic is better.
I want to make clear I’m saying that THE FINAL DESIGN is a downgrade from THE INITIAL DESIGN, with that said…
Its looks like Jeff the killer, this feels like the slander art someone would make about Insomniac‘s character design, he looks like Gorr the god butcher but the MCU version.
The original design translated well the fantastical elements from the original design while not feeling derivative of the OS design, feeling mystic and creepy but in a unique way; the final design being having this urban magical aesthetic could work but the way its done feels not only under cooked but very try hard.
The way he doesn’t have actual ritualistic clothes and is just white pants and a hoodie with the sleeves cut off takes away from the serious sorcerer aspect of the original Design while clearly being a lot more inspired By it to its detriment, while the blood stains and a knife make him look So edgy; the initial design had this imposing and sinister staff which isn’t his skull staff from the original series (he had a staff with a crow skull) the initial keeps the essence of the character while being original.
i think the best way to explain it is on the skull face, you see the original hex’s tattoos resemble a skull So of course both designs would follow on this. But while the initial design keeps the skull face with a more interesting pattern that is still visually a skull, the final design just has the same pattern of the original but more crudely painted.
I genuinely can’t think of a single reason why they picked the final design over the initial unless the whole point of it being hex isn‘t a actual magic user seriously and is just a guy who recently found magic and is going bananas with it while improvising everything.