A new season means an extra-size forecast, with all the goodies you can expect at the beginning of the season—and all the hype is on Marvel’s First Family as we celebrate the season for Fantastic Four: First Steps! So let’s get to digging into what this new season will look like. Say it with me, guys.
Fantastic Forecast!
07/08
Season Pass Variants (with a Masterpiece Cover Alert)!
Artist: Adi Granov/Greg & Tim Hildebrandt
Source: Season Pass
Whatever your feelings on the season’s focus on overt reprints (I’ve got strong feelings, but they’re neither here nor there!), it’s hard to argue that getting Adi Granov to be the featured season artist is anything but a home run for the First Steps season. The fact of the matter is that he’s an artist that genuinely has the skill and vision to translate the film likenesses of these characters to the page without feeling like an uncanny celebrity likeness, which is not what most artists can boast! And he’s got a good grasp on the knit-sweater-retro vibe that the film costuming is going for too, giving us by and far the best Pedro-Pascal-As-Reed-Richards piece currently datamined.
Second Dinner is also making an effort to make it clear that reprints don’t mean the original editions are getting left in the dust; the phenomenal 1994 Marvel Masterpieces III trading cards for the F4, done by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt (and honored as variant covers in recent years), are coming to SNAP, capturing that classic vintage grain and sensibility to these iconic characters that’s refreshing after seeing so much modernization/reinterpretation from these characters over and over again. We’ve got Johnny and Sue in classic 90’s F4 outfits to start, and be on the lookout for Reed and Ben soon. It’s an incredible season of featured art, and having these pieces in the Season Pass is a deeply compelling argument for your ten dollars.
Conquest Reward: Zoltan Boros’ Orka
Artist: Zoltan Boros
Source: Conquest Shop
You know, every month I harp on how these variants are never relevant to the season, but with an Atlantis connection, Orka may be the most related Conquest Reward character for the season we’ve had in over a year! (The bar’s really low.) But it’s not low for Zoltan Boros’ energetic, grimacing style pumping action and masculine energy into this Orka—and, frankly, making for the strongest piece from Boros we’ve seen so far. I really enjoy the dynamism and level of foreshortening in the piece, and the definition on that hand in the foreground brings the overall piece into sharp clarity. It’s a great Conquest reward to get this time around!
Andrea Guardino’s Web Track Khonshu!
Artist: Andrea Guardino
Source: Web Shop Reward
The month’s web shop spending reward is likely to be this Promo Khonshu done by Andrea Guardino, and it’s one of those purchasing exclusives that makes me a bit sadder that I’m not a purchaser—Guardino’s carved out the niche of being a go-to SNAP artist for the mystical, mythical characters in the Marvel pantheons, and Khonshu is the latest of the bunch to get that dramatically inked treatment, with dark and intricate shadows and strong lighting and composition to really make the God of the Moon larger than life. For anyone interested at all, make sure to purchase anything through the Marvel SNAP webshop!
Justin Fields’ Mysterio Bundle
Artist: Justin Fields
Source: Bundle
Justin Fields’ latest bundle feature is none other than Mysterio himself (complete with identical Mysterio? Token, ha!) Fields’ rendering tackles the more technological, digitally-empowered take on the master of illusion, with that patterned green glow and the metallic sheen on his costume and drones. It calls back the MCU take on Quentin Beck with a phony little Doctor Strange-esque hand sign (which I adore) and fans of that adaptation may be especially tempted by this Fields variant. As always, it’s quite the bundle—but if you’re a fan of Fields, they’re all something to seriously consider.
Cover Alert: Venom War (2024) #2 Peach Momoko Variant
Artist: Peach Momoko
Source: Bundle
My big stinkin’ secret is that as much as I admire Peach Momoko’s art and adore that she’s so prevalent in the game, I’m not usually chomping at the bit to use her work for myself. Something about how abstracted some of her departures from the characters are, maybe—but that’s neither here nor there for this Misery cover, which I love! There’s something inherently silly about Misery’s original design that adaptations need to reckon with, which is the fact that she looks like a full symbiote wearing a very human red-haired wig.
Several approaches that I appreciate opt instead to have Liz Allan’s face fully visible, leaving her hair as a key identifier but letting her emote as a full (synthetic symbiote-infested) person. Momoko doing this lets her inject that trademark pensive expression so many of her female characters have, giving Misery a rueful look that might even match her name, even as the rest of her is still surrounded by big pointy tendrils. It’s a great piece, and perhaps the bundle I’m most jealous of this week.
Jimbo Salgado’s Fantastic Four!
Artist: Jimbo Salgado
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
Jimbo Salgado’s a new name hitting SNAP, and he’s also contributing to Second Dinner’s reassurance-by-action that we’re not leaving the original Fantastic Four cards behind in the dust: it’s a full set, rendered in an action-y comic style that’s maybe not the most distinct personality-wise but perfectly serviceable shiny new alt-arts for the First Family’s Non-First Steps First Cards—my personal favorite is Johnny, who’s fiery powers tend to let artists flex their color work and take bigger swings with the composition. It’s all something a reprint-skeptic like me can certainly appreciate, let alone any fans of the good ol’ Fantastic Four!
07/09
Sam Nielson’s First Steps Debut: Mister Fantastic and H.E.R.B.I.E.
Artist: Sam Nielson
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
Of course, the season’s celebrating First Steps, and the First Steps F4 (owing to their position as cards unique to the film’s specific take on the family) need a full suite of commissioned pieces to flesh out their roster. Sam Nielson has a very elastic, cartoony style to start with, so starting off with the most elastic and cartoony characters in the First Steps family is a good sign of what’s to come from Salgado—expressive faces, and exaggerated compositions, with some solid lighting helping bring all of it to life.
Possibly the most contentious aspect of all of these variants (by Salgado or otherwise) will be the closer adherence to the actor likenesses playing these characters, and it will likely be most pronounced with Reed. Folks that aren’t a fan may be hard pressed to find a variant for Mister Fantastic First Steps that they like, but if you enjoy the more caricature-esque style these variants may lean into, keep your eyes peeled all month.
Sunghan Yune’s Sasquatch Bundle
Artist: Sunghan Yune
Source: Bundle
It’s not all cosmically-empowered spacefarers, though—we’ve also got the normal smattering of characters getting variants each month. Sunghan Yune’s more ferocious looking Sasquatch feels almost feral, sporting the colors of the telling white Heather Campbell-eXiles Sasquatch and giving some serious killer-in-the-mountains, wendigo vibes with all those teeth. Yune’s work in the game so far has a focus on that more extreme energy, and fans of that extra edge may really find this bundle speaking to them.
He Tianyou’s Captain Carter!
Artist: He Tianyou
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
He Tianyou’s back, tackling another eXile in this Captain Carter piece! Tianyou’s penchant for really pushed anatomy that prioritizes dynamism stretches to its limit there, with Carter’s torso clearly elongated a smidgen longer than normal. I give a lot of leeway for this sort of exaggeration, especially when an artist like Tianyou clearly tries to push dynamism every chance they get—it’s quite understandable, though, if it crosses others’ believability line (especially because her torso isn’t really foreshortened or anything. Still, all of the strengths Tianyou traditionally exhibits are on display here, and fans of those colors and energetic compositions should definitely consider.
07/10
Ivan Fomin’s Hit-Monkey Bundle
Artist: Ivan Fomin
Source: Bundle
Ivan Fomin is back with with some classic “funny animal” energy with this Hit-Monkey, munching on a banana and holding a banana sword out to the camera. Now, obviously, he’s a funny animal by design, but there’s something particular about such an in-your-face, “isn’t this goofy” spirit to the piece that brings me back to an entire childhood of funny animals doing adult things. It’s a weird, roundabout tirade to say that Fomin captures the spirit of Hit-Monkey quite well, and it feels like a classic Second Dinner-commissioned piece that leans heavier on its gag being amusing to get your interest. Fomin’s rendering backs that up, not really reinventing the wheel but certainly helping to sell the joke. Check it out, if you’ve got a penchant for the goofy!
Cover Alert: What If? (1977) #22!
Artist: Bob McLeod/Rich Buckler
Source: General Pool (Rare)
It’s an older cut this cover around, with another entry in the classic What If ? series of covers-turned-variants featuring a benevolent Doctor Doom. (It’s likelier than you might think, but not by much.) The fact that it’s a What If? Cover is going to be lost amid the more general fact that this cover is a classic comics Doom finally hitting SNAP, with those deep greens and shadows and that iconic original Doom mask emoting in the face of his own heroism. I like the piece a lot, and like with most of these, the work and attention behind capturing the spirit of these older covers without ruining the SNAP card layering and parallax is really impressive.
Cover Alert: Incredible Hulk (2011) #7.1!
Artist: Michael Komarck
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
Bruce Banner stays getting absolute banger variants as a largely underpowered card—which is amusing for SNAP players and a big ‘duh’ for comics fans aware of how often we’ve seen Bruce-Turning-Green in covers over the years! I’m a big fan of Komarck’s work in Magic: The Gathering (I did some research after seeing this variant) and it’s serendipity to find out that he’d done this variant for Hulk years ago. Bruce as his original tortured scientist bursting into a roaring Hulk is a classic cover for the character, but it’s classic because it works: a piece like this carries so much more story than many other incredibly lavish pieces you might see in a SNAP card. I love framing Hulk as coming out of Bruce like his literal shadow, and that the painted quality of the art helps elevate this piece into something genuinely incredible.
07/11
Diogo Saito’s Debut Venomized Shang-Chi
Artist: Diogo Saito
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
Diogo Soto’s a newcomer to the SNAP variant game, and I can appreciate the way the rings and lighting really help frame him in shadow—working to make that alien presence feel a bit more intimidating. It’s a straightforward piece, though, ultimately; featuring Shang-Chi flexing those MCU-style Ten Rings, Saito sticks to well trod ground when he puts the Venom symbiote and its teeth aplenty on Shang-Chi’s face. Of course, it stands out more than just an alt-art, and fans of symbiote stuff in my experience are more than happy to snap up any variant featuring everyone’s favorite black ooze.
07/12
Combo Break’s Klaw
Artist: Combo Break
Source: General Pool (Rare)
Combo Break’s a name we haven’t seen in a while; base art veterans alongside the likes of Jonboy Meyers or Sanford Greene, the Combo Break studio is a name I remember when it came to the artists that help set up SNAP’s base look. They’re back with this Klaw, and I really enjoy the focus on that pink coloration as Klaw makes some sort of getaway. The expression is a bit funny (he seems more stressed than nefarious) but I do like the way they capture that classic Klaw hollow mouth, with those edges and corners only approximating a human mouth in the face of his existence as living sound.
07/13
Hicham Habchi’s Debut Ares
Artist: Hicham Habchi
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
Hicham Habchi is a new artist coming to SNAP this week, and they bring with them another Ares, a character who rapidly seems to be amassing a series of one-off variants from various artists coming to SNAP. He’s pretty closely in his base art’s garb (not that he doesn’t have a pretty consistent design from the comics too) but Habchi manages to bring some of that imposing power out of the piece through composition and those strong lighting effects. I also really love the thick inks outlining the whole piece, bringing it all into much sharper relief than ordinary lines otherwise would have. I’m interested to see more from Habchi, but if you’re satisfied even now with another Ares variant, be on the lookout!
07/14
Cover Alert: Spider-Man: Black Suit & Blood (2024) #3 Variant
Artist: Jonboy Meyers/Ryan Kinnaird
Source: General Pool (Rare)
We’ll wrap up on an especially neat cover pull from yet another recent miniseries: Spider-Man: Black Suit & Blood is actually but one entry in a larger limited prestige-format Marvel has run called Black White & Blood, where the color constraints of each issue are… well, you get the idea. This cover by SNAP veterans Jonboy Meyers and Ryan Kinnaird gives us a great glimpse at their work in comics proper. As you might expect, without the (necessary) constraints that SNAP imposes on these artists, both Meyers and Kinnaird really show up with some A-game here, rendering our lovely, angry black-suited boy in some truly dynamic posing, with the terrific red-tinged lighting adding some visual interest to the familiar symbiote sleekness and lining up perfectly with the premise of the piece. Flex, Mr. Kinnaird—you deserve to flex on everyone that discounts your work in SNAP, every once in a while.
Wrapping Up
And that’s an unstable-molecules-assisted wrap on the forecast this first week of the season; how’s everyone else feeling about yet another season under the Second Dinner Summer Sun? Let me know what variants you’re looking forward to, and let me know which ones you think I’ve under, over, or just rated! And until next time, I’ll see you down below.