It’s a new season we’re kicking off this weekend, and that means a jumbo size forecast that covers all the new goodies! And goodies they are, character-wise: I’m excited that so many relatively obscure characters are getting dropped straight into the game from the comics. So let’s not dally, nor dilly: Forecast Faithfuls, buckle in, because we’re going to be shooting into space to see just what’s up with this Big Purple Guy and His Employees!
08/05
Season Artist Showcase: PANDART STUDIO’s Heralds of Galactus!
Artist: PANDART STUDIO
Source: Season Pass/Super Premium Pass/General Pool (Spotlight)
We’re kicking off with the season theme for the month: the Heralds of Galactus, rendered in PANDART STUDIO’s reliable sheen. I’ve been sometimes critical of PANDART in the past, but in many ways, they’re a fine fit for the season: the original heralds are iconic in an OG comics way, but they’ve got few covers to their name. They need high quality renders in their ‘base’ depiction, and that PANDART is very serviceable to accomplish that. The likes of Stardust, Red Shift, and Terrax given that sort of attention is great, and I’m hopeful that we see lots more to buoy depictions of these deep cut characters in the mainstream eye.
We’re also getting Galactus and Shalla-Bal (sorry, Silver Surfer First Steps) fresh out of the latest film, and the PANDARTs do what they do best: give us a quite appealing first second-look at these characters. There’s some real fun in seeing the direct explosive carnage front and enter for big G, and Shalla-Bal receiving the full Silver Surfer treatment in PANDART stylized detail might be my favorite of the bunch. Finay, we’re getting an amusing couple of variants in the pass, featuring Gambit and Deadpool reimagined as the heralds of the world-eater himself.
This feels more in line with the variant covers you see on comics that are purely speculative: what if we Venomized the Silver Surfer, or what if the Hulk was Spider-Man, and the like. It’s the spirit of those covers, and it’s a fun way to open up possibilities for variants for a season theme!
Season Shop Variant Artist: Envar Studio’s Heralds of Galactus!
Artist: Envar Studio
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
Envar Studio is the second season artist tackling the Shop variants for the new cards, and they’re bringing a flatter, more animated-looking series of variants for the Heralds; they pair well with the PANDARTs to make a bit of a spectrum: while PANDARTs aren’t quite ‘realism,’ they may draw folks that don’t like the more overtly simplified Envar variants here. But for folks that do, I actually think that this is some of the best looking work Envar’s put out, bringing a cartoon-ized look to Shalla-Bal and company as if they were pulled from an animated show featuring all the wielders of the Power Cosmic.
It’s a great thing to have two artists reliably tackling season duties, and having them occupy different niches like this is nice: it’s a bonus that Envar (who I’m also sometimes critical of) are putting out some of their best looking pieces in this season that we’ve seen in a bit.
Jon Lam’s Conquest Reward Knull!
Artist: Jon Lam
Source: Conquest Shop
I mean, if you squint, Knull is related to the cosmic nature of Galactus and his Heralds! Of course, he’s primarily just this season’s unrelated conquest reward, and that’s okay! Jon Lam’s brought some A-Game here, and it’s fair to applaud the fact that it feels different stylistically enough that it stands out from Knull’s saturated variant catalogue. I like that he looks a bit more ghoulish here, feeling more like those metal roots that I feel like his original design clearly has.
Leo Chiola’s Galacta Bundle!
Artist: Leo Chiola
Source: Bundle
Leo Chiola steadily gains more presence in SNAP as he tackles Galacta here, using her updated Rivals design (don’t they all, really) and adding some dynamism with some heavy foreshortening on her hand in the foreground summoning that nebulous polygon of power. It’s a bit more energy and action than her existing variants so far, and it’s a welcome break from just putting the cute Galactus-As-Girl character in a coquettish pose—Rivals has brought the character to the forefront as an actual cosmic force, and she deserves to be reckoned with in her art as much as she is in the metagame.
PANDART’s Silver Surfing Jeff Bundle!
Artist: Eduardo Mello/PANDART STUDIO
Source: Bundle
Mello teams up with PANDART here to cover his lineart for this What If…? bundle tackling Jeff as empowered by the Power Cosmic! It feels like right up the same alley as Gambit and Deadpool in the pass: characters interpreted as heralds more like the premise of a variant cover than as a reference to an actual event in the comics. And it works! I like Jeff’s stoic silver face as surfs forth in that classic swoosh, ready to find a new planet for his hungering master. As always… it’s cute!
Cover Alert: Scream (2021) #1
Artist: In-Hyuk Lee
Source: Whale Track Reward
This Scream cover from her 2021 series is likely the whale track reward in the online webshop—don’t forget that if you purchase things for SNAP on that webshop, you can accrue points that will qualify you for bonus rewards, including (if you spend enough) this Scream variant! And it’s a great cover, with In-Hyuk Lee really capturing the more graphic, color block aspect of symbiotes, with that yellow and red emerging from the black shadows behind her in a cool way. I am surprised Scream has such a deep catalogue to pull from for variant covers:
Cover Alert: X-Men: Phoenix - Warsong (2006) #5
Artist: Marc Silvestri
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
No, it’s not Esme in this cover either, but it is three of her sisters, empowered by the Phoenix Force! (Esme was dead for this, I think.) Actually, in the storyline, Phoebe, Mindee, and Celeste use that power to resurrect Esme and Sophie, though it isn’t long until their dead again, at least for a bit. Comics! And while I’m endlessly amused that it’s basically impossible to find an older cover for Esme because she’s dead for a lot of the pre-Krakoa stuff, I can appreciate that it’s a sick cover by Marc Silvestri that gives the Cuckoos an awesome fiery look. Does it matter that it’s the wrong identical quintuplet? Well, it depends, superfan to superfan. But what I will say is that for 1200 Gold, it still might be worth consideration.
Creative House Pocket’s Kate Bishop and Polaris
Artist: Creative House Pocket
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)/Bundle
Creative House Pocket’s tackling two cute gals in a dramatic, anime-style pose here: Kate Bishop, going to 1200 Gold in the general shop, and Polaris, heading straight for a bundle. Creative House Pocket fans will enjoy that these also seem to have som real extra color and rendering work on them, with Kate Bishop rocking in that uncharacteristic but refreshing red and pink and Polaris being rendered with some great lighting and shadow: more so than we often see from the studio! While I feel like Kate is repping a holiday that I’m not quite aware of (unless Fall really does start early elsewhere, with those leaves floating down) but Polaris is in an evergreen (ha!) outfit that matches her classic look. It’s a little bit for everyone, and if you’re interested check out the shop or bundles in the store for the two of them!
Viktor Farro’s Ultimate Infinaut!
Artist: Viktor Farro
Source: Token Shop (Ultimate)
Farro’s back, this time hitting Ultimate rarity levels as Second Dinner continues to leverage how great of an artist they have—seemingly on speed dial! This one is more of a portrait on the hopelessly enormous Infinaut, which almost feels inherently meta, but moreover the explosion of colors and that bright white light emanating from his eye really feels like it captures some of that cosmic awe all of the best (and more enduring) Marvel cosmic characters should embody. This game’s breathed new life into a one-off character like the Infinaut, and Farro has tackled the character as if he were a household name, with a price tag like it to boot. Still: incredible work that might be worth trimming the excess of tokens you’ve got. I know I do!
08/06
Ludo Lullabi’s Rhino Bundle
Artist: Ludo Lullabi/Studio Grafit
Source: Bundle
Ludo Lullabi’s work on this Rhino (colored by Grafit, once more) feels right in line with similar hulking linebacker-types he’s done elsewhere in SNAP: Abomination and Surtur come to mind, off the top of my head. And that sort of round heft that he infuses big characters like Rhino with helps sell the obvious ridiculous storytelling beat that an actual person looks like that. But it’s also pleasing to the eye, and communicates so much movement in the picture. (The Red eyes, as you might guess, communicates “villain.”) It’s a good piece!
Cover Alert: Silver Surfer (1968) #1
Artist: John Buscema/Joe Sinnot
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
This Silver Age Silver Surfer (ha!) brings some Buscema art as colored by Sinnot into SNAP, which is always going to be a win. But it’s also a nice acknowledgment by Second Dinner that, even with all the reprints starting to creep up through the woodwork, they’ve got a commitment to having older version cards still get supported. It was the same during the Fantastic Four’s time in the First Steps season, and it will hopefully hold; this Surfer captures the melodrama and sheer power crackling behind those cosmic eyes as well as the alien solitude in that black vacuum. It’s always a treat for new SNAP players to get a glimpse at the history that really helped shape these characters into who we are now… and at Super Rare? Steal!
Lemon Art’s Stardust
Artist: Lemon Art
Source: General Pool (Unknown)
Lemon Art also seems to have this Stardust variant lurking somewhere, even though PANDART and Envar seem to be the main variants we’ll be seeing of Stardust and his similarly herald-ish kin. I believe Lemon Art is another studio that will be helping establish the variant catalogue going forward. I like the colors and the flat planes on his body, and it’s a great look for a third option between the main two we’ll be getting. Someone like Stardust is going to need it, anyway, so I imagine seasons like this may have more commissions from studios than normal. Look forward to more, true believer!
08/07
Justin Fields’ Onslaught Bundle!
Artist: Justin Fields
Source: Bundle
Justin Fields’ next big bundle is Onslaught: someone a little less tech-y than Fields’ normal fare, but someone that benefits nonetheless from Fields’ sense of gravitas from rendered detail. That horrific lil face peeking out from under his helmet also helps sell that this isn’t a juiced up Magneto but a psychic entity inhabiting that form, which is neat for folks who aren’t necessarily aware of more obscure Marvel characters. Yes, if you came to Marvel from SNAP, Onslaught (while noteworthy) really is more of a X-Men footnote than you might think, with an effect like that. Either way? This hugely influential SNAP card (influential character or not) has received a great bundle draw from a great artist.
Jon Lam’s Mirage
Artist: Jon Lam
Source: General Pool (Rare)
Jon Lam fans are eating good this week, with a terrific Mirage that might be my favorite work from him yet. Something about the more extreme angle combined with the pleasing simple colors of that yellow X-Men uniform really makes it all pop, and it comes together in a dynamic way with that glowing arrow drawing the eye down. At Rare, it’s got a competitive price, even when Mirage otherwise has pretty stiff competition for killer variants, but honestly the win is for folks looking for Jon Lam’s best looking work in the game yet.
08/08
Creative House Pocket’s Thor
Artist: Creative House Pocket
Source: General (Super Rare)
Creative House Pocket’s here with a Thor, taking that anime style and applying it to a Thor clearly inspired by the hairdo in the era around Thor 2. That sort of movie-cover crossover is fun to see sometimes, and the strength of the piece itself is helped by that strong light from Mjolnir helping light up the rest of it. If you’re a fan of that design, or if you’re a fan of Thor-as-Anime in general, give this a shot!
08/09
Cover Alert: Hercules (2015) #1
Artist: Clay Mann/Chris Sotomayor
Source: General Pool (Rare)
This Hercules run in 2015 feels codified by this cover by Mann and Sotomayor, recontextualizing the Greek hero as a modernized, get-with-the-times interpretation that deals with his own personal issues even as he broadens the arsenal he works with. The outfit feels exactly like that, borrowing more cues from futuristic X-Men suits with belt over his chest than any heroic Greek garb. But it’s still Herc, and him walking forward like he’s going to kick your butt specifically definitely carries an inherent weight of coolness with it. The background is also a plus, which unfortunately might play strange with splits. But if you want an affordable, great alt-art for your Hercules? (Or if you just want to read Hercules)? This cover, from issue 1, is a good place to start.
08/10
Ryan Benjamin’s Corvus Glaive!
Artist: Ryan Benjamin/Elmer Santos
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
Ryan Benjamin is actually a veteran from SNAP’s original base art run, contributing to many, many cards you’ve no doubt seen so many times they don’t even register. But teaming with Elmer Santos on colors, Benjamin brings us a Corvus Glaive that feels both classic and a good deal more detailed than some base art variants that feel otherwise similar, setting this one apart from the actual base. Something about the black inks and the way they’re lit feel genuinely comic book-esque in a way some art in this game doesn’t as much, and Benjamin is a veteran who knows exactly how to tap into that. Folks wanting that classic Infinity-type art for the Black Order, this might be a stop for you!
08/11
Cover Alert: Blade (2023) #5 Stormbreakers Variant
Artist: Carlos Villa
Source: General Pool (Rare)
I’m so glad that we’re getting more Stormbreakers covers in the game—for folks that don’t know, Stormbreakers is Marvel’s program to highlight fresh artists making a splash in current Marvel comics, and they will do variant covers to showcase those artists to Marvel’s huge audience. Carlos Villa was one of them, and he brought us this great Blade mid cut, with that unmistakable gush of black blood clearly emulating the cool samurai/anime trope of the delayed spurt of blood after an impeccably talented swordsman strikes. Folks high on Blade content coming from Rivals might appreciate a variant of Blade focused more on that sword; I have it on good authority down the road at the hero shooter, the Daywalker is quite the Vergil-style sick swordsman, and it’s nice for that to be echoed here.
Wrapping Up
That does it for me, whew! New seasons are always a scramble, but I want to make sure you get the information you need to make the JPEG-pixel purchasing decisions that we all make when it comes to this game. But let me know: what’s your thoughts on this batch? Nay, this season? I want to hear it all, so please leave a comment, and as always, thank you for reading!