Marvel’s latest “let’s sell comics as collectibles instead of stories” alternate-cover scheme is rather blatant in the way it’s cashing in. Jim Lee, who’s currently a higher-up at competitor DC comics, illustrated some trading cards for marvel about 20 years ago. Now, they’re reprinting the work in July as a series of 29 variant covers on the following comics.
All-New Wolverine #22 (Archangel)
Amazing Spider-Man #30 (Bishop)
Avengers #9 (Mystique)
Black Panther #16 (Storm)
Cable #3 (Cable)
Captain America: Steve Rogers #19 (Gambit)
Champions #10 (Cyclops)
Daredevil #23 (Domino)
Deadpool #33 (Deadpool)
Defenders #3 (Shadow King)
Doctor strange #23 (Mr. Sinister)
Generation X #4 (Jubilee)
Gwenpool, The incredible #18 (White Queen)
Invincible Iron man #9 (Colossus)
Iron Fist #5 (Sabretooth)
Jean Grey #4 (Dark Phoenix)
Mighty Thor #21 (Sentinel)
Ms. marvel #20 (Lady Deathstrike)
Old man Logan #26 (Professor X)
Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #2 (Psylocke)
The Punisher #14 (Forge)
Royals #5 (Magneto)
Spider-Man #18 (Shadowcat)
Thanos #9 (Strong Guy)
Uncanny Avengers #25 (Rogue)
Venom #152 (Polaris)
Weapon X #5 (Warpath)
X-Men Blue #7 (Jean Grey)
X-Men Gold #7 (Mojo)
They’re pitching it as promotion for the launch of a new Astonishing X-Men series. given that, I was surprised to note that Jim Lee never worked on a title by that name. His books were Uncanny X-Men and (just plain) X-Men.
Jim Lee’s work was inked by Scott Williams, but the art has been recolored for these covers.
All-New Wolverine #22 (Archangel)
Amazing Spider-Man #30 (Bishop)
Avengers #9 (Mystique)
Black Panther #16 (Storm)
Cable #3 (Cable)
Captain America: Steve Rogers #19 (Gambit)
Champions #10 (Cyclops)
Daredevil #23 (Domino)
Deadpool #33 (Deadpool)
Defenders #3 (Shadow King)
Doctor strange #23 (Mr. Sinister)
Generation X #4 (Jubilee)
Gwenpool, The incredible #18 (White Queen)
Invincible Iron man #9 (Colossus)
Iron Fist #5 (Sabretooth)
Jean Grey #4 (Dark Phoenix)
Mighty Thor #21 (Sentinel)
Ms. marvel #20 (Lady Deathstrike)
Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #2 (Psylocke)
The Punisher #14 (Forge)
Royals #5 (Magneto)
Spider-Man #18 (Shadowcat)
Thanos #9 (Strong Guy)
Uncanny Avengers #25 (Rogue)
Venom #152 (Polaris)
Weapon X #5 (Warpath)
X-Men Blue #7 (Jean Grey)
X-Men Gold #7 (Mojo)
Leaving aside the tackiness of pulling something out of the archives in order to put a big name who’d never work with you on your solicitations, this is another example of marvel having little vision beyond the traditional, shrinking direct comic market. This very 90s-style art, often using characters with little to no connection to the book’s content, will not sell to anyone but the die-hards. Yet their money, buying multiple covers, is what’s keeping comic shops, and publishers focused only on them, afloat.
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