[SuperScrounge]

Yes, he does look like an evil villain here. Look at his eyes. I'm a cartoonist. Those are the eyes I would draw for someone doing evil. True the cat doesn't look that good either, but it's Supermouse who's the reader's eyes go to. The last bunch of Supermouse covers have had this guy acting like a bully. It's kind of like the Superdickory thing. Show people covers of Superman doing nasty things out of context and Supes looks like a dick (& sometimes even in context). But to answer my own question, yes there are covers of earlier issues where he doesn't look like an evil villain.

Link to the book: Supermouse 17

[crashryan]

I agree with SuperScrounge, it's all in the eyes. The expressions of heroes whacking bad guys on the cover seem to have usually fallen into one of two categories: Grim Determination (popular in the Bronze and Silver Ages) and Jolly Smile (popular in the Golden Age). Super Mouse (formerly known as Supermouse) certainly does act like a dick on several covers. I note especially #15, where SM prepares to use a can opener on a White Knight, who appears to be a Good Guy. One place where the evil grin does work is #11, where SM captures a cat by jumping from a mirror. There it reads more like "Gotcha!" than "I'm going to get sadistic pleasure out of this." A good example of the latter is #42, where SM urges a swordfish to poke a diver (cat) in the butt.