Holiday edition, baby!
The variant forecast stops for nobody, but I hope everyone is having a wonderful winter season, whether wintry or not. And for any folks looking for a quick reprieve from a big ol’ family reunion, or folks spending a quiet holiday with some quality gaming, or for folks who don’t celebrate Christmas but play Marvel SNAP, take a gander at the set of variants getting released! Hopefully you’ll feel all the more festive by the end either way.
12/24
Spotlights!
Artists (in order): NetEase Games, Jon Lam, Sean Galloway
Source: Spotlight Caches
We’ve got the release of none other than mild-mannered Bruce Banner coming to the game, and he’s coming with the appropriate matching RIVALS variant as his Spotlight! Many of these feel a little like a hat on a hat, because the base designs in SNAP are all clearly already modeled on RIVALS designs (see Peni, Doom 2099, etc.). So if you’re looking for a Bruce that’s not wearing NetEase’s stylized l’il gamma belt, you might keep waiting… but if you’re a fan of RIVALS and a fan of Hulk standing there like he’s Bruce’s JoJo Stand, you might dig it! The real winner for me personally here is Sean Galloway’s Ravonna, rendered wonderfully in his clear style and light colors— I love the color of the jacket with that nostalgic yellow shade on her shirt, and her clear expression works well with Galloway’s style. Jon Lam’s coming in third for me, with a High Evolutionary that’s perfectly solid (and quite imposing, with that look-up-at-him composition!) but not necessarily anything novel or new, and it might be a hard sell for folks when you already shouldn’t be playing High Evolutionary on the board too often.
Brett Bean’s Bruce Banner
Artist: Brett Bean
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
Folks looking for a different and perhaps more classic Bruce Banner should look no further than Brett Bean’s wonderful mid-Hulk Out Bruce, grimacing in that incredibly expressive style of Bean’s has his arm begins to green. I’m a fan of how tangibly horrifying Hulking out can be (Immortal Hulk variants where, Second Dinner!) but Bean also makes it classic and fun in his cartoonized style, and I love Bruce’s lab coat and half-moon glasses selling just who he is before the other guy comes out. It’s also Bean’s first entry into the general shop pool for gold, and hopefully not his last; any Banner enjoyers, keep your eyes peeled for this one!
Vincenzo Riccardi Loki Bundle
Artist: Vincenzo Riccardi
Source: Bundle
Vincenzo Riccardi’s colorful, borderline psychedelic style continues with an appropriate match in Loki, framed by the iconic rainbow Bifrost in the background. Riccardi is one of the artists that had a surprisingly large recent drop in the game, jumping up rather quickly to one of the more prolific artists in SNAP. It’s reminiscent of very full and detailed colored pencil drawings, and maybe even a piece you’d see at a church or a classic brewery. With its wide range of colors, I think fans of that sort of explosion will enjoy Loki’s trademark green rendered in full effect here.
Album Reward Alert: Tyler Kirkham Knull!
Artist: Tyler Kirkham
Source: Album Reward
Knullified variant collectors finally get a payoff for their faith; the latest of many variants for the King In Black, admittedly one of many existing wonderful options. Part of it is that Knull has a plethora of existing variant covers from his massive event a couple of years ago— this one is from Venom (2018) #29. Kirkham does a great job with it, though, lighting the the God of Symbiotes in some really dramatic red light, and highlighting the teeth slobber of Knull and his gang. For fans, this variant might have stiff competition from Knull’s catalogue; but for the dedicated, it might be nice to see this exclusive reward crown their collection of Knullified heroes.
12/25
Login Reward: Merry Christmas!
Artist: Marco Failla/Ryan Kinnaird
Source: Login Reward!
And it’s gonna be a nice little stocking stuffer for Christmas! We’re getting a (relatively) base style Elsa dressed for snowball war as the capstone for the first week of login rewards. It’s cute and fun, and folks that enjoy a holiday gag and don’t necessarily mind the house style might be especially glad to have it! I suspect many folks that don’t have Elsa yet will be most happy to get a free card from Series 5, but it’s a festive treat that everyone’s going to be able to get for just playing the game.
Winter Vacay at the Ski Chalet!
Artists (in order): Afif Khaled/Luca Pinelli, Greg Land/Paul Mounts, David Nakayama, Russell Dauterman
Source: Bundle (Spider-Woman), General Pool (Super Rare for Storm, Rare for Captain America and Red Guardian)
And here’s the rest of the festive, with a smattering of pieces across all the different purchasing sources! Save for Red Guardian, these all come from Marvel’s Ski Chalet variant series last year, and, at least for me, that makes them especially cool. The eye-catcher might be David Nakayama’s Spider-Woman— and funny enough, while casual perusers might Jessica sauntering in the snow with her jacket undone, I’ve got it on decent authority that it’s actually quite common for skiers and snowboarders on the mountain to get quite hot on the slopes, making the piece truer to reality than you might think. But Land and Mounts have given us a charming and sunny Captain America at 700 gold as well, flushed and winking like a proper all-American on the slopes. And Russell Dauterman’s 1200 gold variant for Storm is stunning (as Storm tends to be), with graphic snowcloud chic befitting Ororo. Afif and Luca’s work on the Red Guardian might end up the piece seen the most, on account of good ol’ Alexei being the most meta-relevant out of the rest of these A-list chumps. And while it maybe doesn’t have as much flash as the full Ski Chalet variant covers, it’s nice to see a card with less existing art get some love too. It’s going to be a merry Christmas!
12/26
Vincenzo Riccardi Invisible Woman
Artist: Vincenzo Riccardi
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
Riccardi’s back (and so soon!) with a general pool Invisible Woman the day after Christmas, and there’s not much to say other than it looks quite great. I think any opportunity for an artist to lean into how powerful Sue is is a great one, and Riccardi chooses to give her the full treatment, giving her an imposing pose and foregrounding her forcefields with both strong composition and his trademark color work. Refracted light adds a cool dimension to Riccardi’s dazzling style, and so fans will likely find this variant quite to their tastes.
12/27
Kendrick Lim’s Venomized Magik
Artist: Kendrick Lim
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
We’ve got a classic glossy, shiny, stylized pin-up style variant from Kendrick Lim (originating from Death of the Venomverse #5), which I’m sure will turn enough heads that folks interested will have already made up their minds before I get to the next sentence. Personally, I think pieces like this can feel a bit gratuitous, and for obvious reasons Magik already has several. There’s the Venomized angle to double down on the fanservice, too! I do appreciate some of the classic horror elements of teeth and tongue a proper Venomized variant brings, and it does fit a darker character like Magik. Ultimately, this is probably not for me (less extreme variants in the same style wouldn’t be either!) but I’m sure this piece will have plenty of fans.
Leirix Li’s White Widow
Artist: Leirix Li
Source: Bundle
Speaking of less extreme (but no doubt in the same style), Leirix Li gives us a slightly more anime-inspired White Widow that’s nonetheless the same sort of hyper-rendered piece that entices lots of fans— if maybe not me. Like always, art is completely subjective, and the very fact that this piece is a bundle and the Lim piece is a Super Rare is proof! Plenty of people would call these perfectly valued because they love them; those plenty might balk at other variants at the same price point based on their own tastes. Variant rarity and value is completely arbitrary, and so my job here is simply to draw some eyes and offer my own personal opinions. And that opinion? This one isn’t for me. But it might be for you!
12/28
PANDART Sauron
Artist: PANDART Studio
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
I feel the same way about PANDARTs, broadly— they’re (I think) exclusively Super Rare or higher, but they’re rarely anything I would personally pursue in my collection. Broadly, they have a similar appeal to fans of other highly rendered, glossy variants, with maybe some more dynamism than other comparable artists. There are ones I do like; I loved the Symbiote variants from October, and there are some solid single variants here and there that really catch my eye. Sauron here isn’t quite there, but I do love the focus on his hypnotic powers, which are both core to the character and often overshadowed by the valid fact that he’s a talking Pterodactyl named after a Lord of the Rings villain. (Go ahead, finish the line.“I don’t want to cure cancer…”) It’s a great effect, on his eyes, and I suspect it looks really cool animated. Anyway, this is solidly one of the better PANDARTs, and I’d be more than happy to pull it from the track; if that’s the case, I bet there’s plenty of folks for whom this is a runaway hit!
12/29
Luca Claretti’s Gambit
Artist: Luca Claretti
Source: General Pool (Rare)
Claretti’s work is usually really solid stuff, especially for folks who enjoy a more stylized, almost animated look, and I think the only knock I’ve personally got is that sometimes his work feels a bit spare composition-wise, with maybe more negative space than I’d prefer and too little action by about as much. But Gambit here both plays to the aforementioned strengths and completely avoids the aforementioned weaknesses, making this a total banger for fans of Claretti, fans of Gambit, or plain old fans of solid art. Thrown playing cards in the foreground are classic, and Gambit is drawn with just the right amount of roguish charm to boot. 700 gold this time, and it’s definitely one of my favorites of the whole week!
12/30
David Mack’s Misty Knight Bundle
Artist: David Mack
Source: Bundle
Speaking of favorites, David Mack’s run as a comic artist doing custom art for SNAP continues with a terrific Misty Knight that feels straight out of a noir (especially with the typeface letters floating in the smoke!). The smoky watercolors and clear graphic smoke give the whole piece a stylish texture, and Mack’s skill for faces shows in Misty’s profile, coming together to be a bona fide piece of art. It’s a bundle this round, and I do think that this one will be worth it for anybody considering, based on the art alone— it just might be the best a vanilla 1/2 might ever look!
Winking Studio’s Black Knight
Artist: Winking Studio
Source: General Pool (Super Rare)
And we’re wrapping on a Super Rare variant, and it’s pretty solidly middle of the pack, if not exciting for Black Knight players. Black Knight’s maybe got a bit more classic notoriety than some other heroes from that era of Avengers, but he doesn’t have the most comic art. And so while Winking Studio’s rendered, realism-leaning Black Knight maybe follows an abundant style trend many studios take, it’s competently made and quite good looking for a studio commission, which just might be enough for folks studying the Ebony Blade. The highlight here might be that sunlight hitting Black Knight’s armor, really elevating that photoreal lighting that this piece has over other pieces in his existing catalogue.
Gift Wrapping Up!
Folks, it’s the holidays, and at time of writing it’s Christmas Eve’s Eve— I sincerely hope everyone is reading this from the comfort and joy of a holiday off. I love writing about comic art, and getting this series off the ground and turning it into a snap.fan staple has been a wonderful way to help see the year out. Like any week, there’s some favorites and some less-favorites, but like any week, that’s just been my opinion: let me know below what you think. Or let me know your holiday plans! And on behalf of everybody at snap.fan, Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and happy Snapping!