Whoa, who left all these variants just lying around? Someone could trip. Looks like the aftermath of another patch come and gone— and that’s hazardous, at least, until I comb through and obsessively put things in order. So watch your step! And just follow along as I pick all this stuff up; it’s just about time for a Variant Round-Up!
What If…? Season Variants!
First thing’s first: one of the big bombshells that the new patch confirmed was the theme of April’s season: What If..?
(Punctuating that properly is gonna be something else.)
And with that comes the Spotlight and Season Pass variants— this time, all done by none other than Envar Studio. It’s a big batch, with looks inspired from the show for the likes of Captain Carter, Hydra Stomper, Infinity Ultron, and more. There’s an interesting sensation here that, because all the characters (as they’re designed) are straight from the show, and because we’re pulling from this show’s specific aesthetic so closely in these variants, well… the base arts are actually the bigger interpretive departure! And so (similar to the RIVALS season) fans of the show’s look will gravitate to this interpretation, but they’re not a wild style reinvention like we’ve seen in the likes of Kim Jacinto or He Tianyou in seasons past. It’s not quite as 1:1 as the RIVALS variants— these Envar variants have a similar look to PANDARTs in the way they ‘upscale’ the look of these characters via heavy rendering over stylization. And so for fans of these characters, these will be something to look forward to in Spotlights and Passes. And we’ll be getting What If…? variants for other characters too, pulling multiversal variants from the show into the game: keep your eyes peeled for folks like Killmonger, Iron Man, and Uatu in show-inspired variants.
Michal Ivan’s Big Month
Apart from the season theme, the big artist showcase this season will be Michal Ivan, who’s no stranger to SNAP but is about to be a marquis artist, headlining his own album and getting a huge influx of art into the game. I’m a fan of Ivan, and like-minded folks will no doubt see some of his strongest work in the game collected in the album.
That Galactus is going to be the album reward, which is certainly an incentive to try and push for completion— it’s one of the best of this batch! But Red Guardian, Hela, and even Knull (rich in variants as he is) are getting competition for some of the best variants they’ve ever seen. I love the classic exaggerated, dramatic poses for these comic characters, and Ivan does a great gritty scowl across all his work here. And this bunch is a mix of Rare and Super Rare variants to boot: something to consider for collectors!
An Album About… Drinking Juice?
Next up is an interesting one: we’re getting an album vaguely themed on beverage drinking from Creative House Pocket: drawing on some of that energy that people liked about Casual variants putting some of your favorite heroes in cozy, comfy duds. This time, Creative House Pocket brings their direct anime-inspired style to the mundanity of life, with Gambit grabbing groceries, Negasonic Teenage Warhead sipping some boba, and Malekith brandishing a rainbow-syrup dessert.
The reward for an album called Duck, Duck, Juice (which is admittedly clever) is going to be Howard the Duck, sipping… well, juice. Which is about it! You might not think Howard as a card is the most enticing incentive, but Howard fans might just want to see everyone’s favorite universe-hopping Duck chillaxing in a pool. Mostly, fans of an anime style might be charmed by these variants overall. Personally, the appeal of an anime-style is directly connected to the execution, and many of these feel in line with Creative House Pocket’s work— fine enough, but generic feeling without much identity beyond that broad style, especially en masse.
And, spoilers, this isn’t the last we’re seeing of Creative House Pocket, en masse.
A Mountain of Other Creative House Pocket
Next season promises a bunch of Creative House Pocket down the line, and I wanted to cover it up her because of just how many will be coming, buoying the studio alongside Envar into one of SNAP’s most prolific art studio sources. It’s important to note that within these studios there are still a myriad of different artists working under the banner, which allows for multiple styles or looks to come from the same studio: we can see some pretty individual differences between, say, Valentina and Dazzler, or Beta Ray Bill and Bruce Banner. And there’s stuff to admire about a lot of these individual pieces! But overall, this falls under the latest large swath of studio work that doesn’t quite scratch the same artistic itch I get from seeing my favorite individual artists spotlit in the game. For folks looking for graphic, alternative looks for these characters, these will be perfectly serviceable, and you might even find favorites: I bet many people might be interested in Bruce Banner’s dramatic green glow in that ‘something’s wrong’ classic hand-to-face anime pose! (Whether they’re interested in Bruce as a card is separate, surely.) And we’ve got a pair of fun Mecha variants coming up in a big buyer bundle for Gilgamesh and Blue Marvel, reimagining two of Marvel’s heaviest hitters as appropriately grand giant mechs. These more specific style departures are the studio at its strongest, in my opinion, and as someone who’s got at least one Creative House Pocket variant close to his heart (Spider-Verse Peni, magnifique) I hope my studio skepticism doesn’t come off as blind criticism. Either way? Anime and manga-style fans will be eating good the coming months.
A Heaping of Envar Studios
Envar also deserves some attention because they’re the spotlight art studio next season, so keep your eyes peeled for more Envar looks for cards happy to see some more variants in their roster. Some characters like Cassandra Nova and Hydra Bob have small catalogues of existing covers to pull from, making studios like Envar an ideal way to bolster their in-game representation, in particular. Obviously, for Second Dinner, there’s a clear financial and labor benefit to studio work, but in general, this is the strongest benefit of studio work for players: giving more opportunities to see art for your favorite cards whether or not they have a large well of existing art or not.
Bruce Banner’s Bonus Token!
This is almost more of a side note than anything, but it’s variant-adjacent, so what the heck! Bruce Banner has gotten his own special Hulk token this patch: it’s still functionally the same card (a vanilla 6/12) but now Bruce’s RIVALS-inspired base art will yield a unique RIVALS-inspired base Hulk (complete with the RIVALS-specific Gamma Belt visible). Similarly, Bruce’s launch variant (the RIVALS variant) will also Hulk out into the RIVALS Hulk variant! It’s a small thing, but something that is a cool flourish for Bruce Banner as a card from the RIVALS season, and makes use of a token that otherwise seemed like a vestigial remnant from previous designs. To be clear, this doesn’t feel like it hints at any added functionality to Bruce’s Hulk— while it looks like it might be a ‘different Hulk,’ I don’t think there’s any indication that Bruce will be Hulking out into anything but the base 6/12 we all know and love. At least, I hope not: it’s an elegant design as is, and if Banner receives buffs or changes as a card, it should be, well, on the Banner side.
Other Returning Favorites!
David Mack
Okay, let’s dig into all the returning artists this round: kicking it off is David Mack, who’s continuing his steady stream of SNAP commissions with an America Chavez done in his trademark watercolor profile. Notably, this is one of the most understated variants America has, and I’d argue one of the most understated variants in the game, period! There’s a certain subtlety that comes from Mack’s realism, and rather than applying it to the ordinary superhero costume, we’re applying it to America Chavez, a Puerto Rican girl with red and white stripes hinting at her heroic outfit on her shoulders. We’ve seen stuff like this before, but it really shines here.
Gustavo Pelissari
Pelissari technically hasn’t debuted yet, but after seeing his Zabu last patch (due out in March) it seems as if we’re going to see more of him soon after, watching him tackle another great piece with Ares, who’s certainly in need of more love. Ares plays similarly well with Pelissari’s powerful, mythical-feeling style, and I especially love the way the wisps of his horsehair plume make him feel even more like a ghost of war. It’s not exactly anything deeply inventive, but this probably jumps to my personal favorite Ares variant.
Flaviano Armentaro
Flaviano’s back with his classic purple lighting, this time giving us another X-character in Beast, who’s indulging his mad science side between the goggles, the coffee mug, and the maniacal grin. I do love whenever Beast gets to straddle both sides of his identity as genius AND beastly mutant, and this captures both brilliantly; that grin and the dramatic lighting works so well to make him appear unnerving and even alarming, reaching a clawed finger out, but you know he’s probably just cracked some some sort of mathematical proof. Another win for Flaviano!
Justin Fields
Justin Fields continues his affinity for high tech Marvel machines with the iconic Cerebro, and he does so with a fun new composition spin, giving us the shadowed silhouette of Professor X entering the Cerebro chamber and letting Cererbro in the foreground hover above it, letting us know just what Cerebro allows Charles to do. It’s simple, but really clever, and it elevates Fields’ already more-than-competent art when it comes to rendering anything technological. I really love this one, and I would very tempted to snag this in the vault. And for anyone interested in buying a bundle? Whoof. It’s going to be a flex.
Ben Harvey
Ben Harvey is just always going to be a name that makes me smile when I see it in these datamines; I just love the way he works with colors and lighting in all his work, making them all feel both fresh and familiar in traditional comic styling. This Cyclops is a great showcase, using his optic blast to add some red lighting that plays well off of his blue suit. There’s a classic feeling to Harvey’s work every time, and I’m glad he’s been a continued presence in the game.
Viktor Farro
For the Farro fans, in case you aren’t broke yet— there’s a pending Farro for Daken it seems, though currently it looks a lot like a JPEG of a black box. We could speculate on what it will look like, or maybe comment on how tastefully understated his work is with a pitch black tarp tossed over it, but safe to say for now you just need to ready your wallets: it’s almost certainly going to be 1200 Gold.
Rian Gonzales
It looks Rian Gonzales isn’t pumping the brakes on the chibi train any time soon, giving us another imposing villain shrunken down to child size and given an adorable watercolor makeover. The almost iridescent light she always uses is a great colorful contrast with Gorr’s almost monochromatic black and white scheme, and it’s always a treat to see her bring some variety to characters who already have no shortage of Cool, Imposing, Badass art. Chibi fans will be happy to see this one!
Helen Jee
Helen Jee’s paper-esque texture and colors have made her work shoot straight to the among my top artists in SNAP, and taking that aesthetic and applying it to Jeff eating a l’il slice of pepperoni pizza is a guarantee for cuteness. I love when Jeff is cute in that slightly unconventional ‘it’s a baby shark’ sort of way, and this front-on perspective showing us how widely apart his eyes are as he chews is just wonderful. Jee’s mastered a a sort of ‘flat’ depth that still manages to be deeply tangible, and it’s miles cuter than many other variants showing beloved characters eating a meal.
Jon Lam
Knull variants will continue until morale improves, or something: Jon Lam’s but the latest to tackle the King in Black, who we haven’t seen since the beginning of this article! And it’s impressive because it’s some of Lam’s best work in game, a testament to both Lam’s growth in this SNAP template as well as Knull’s seeming inability to be anything less than sick under a given artist’s pen. I love his monstrous expression and the negative-space look All-Black the Necrosword has here: like always, if you’re somehow still strapped for Knull variants, there’s yet another banger in the works.
SUPJA (Jongsup Kim)
Okay, so unspooling the confusing naming going on here, it looks like SUPJA is in fact a returning artist to SNAP: Jongsup Kim (who did that Jubilee bundle recently) and SUPJA are one and the same.
As labeled in datamines, this also likely includes the Wong that we’re going to see in the Sanctum Showdown shop, who’s confusingly credited to SUPJA as an artist but placed in a separate category called SUPJA ART. Suffice to say, they’re all the same artist, with Mooncolony taking on coloring duties for all of them. It’s unclear to me personally why Second Dinner’s variant categories aren’t standardized by artist, but what IS clear is that Jongsup Kim is a talented artist by any name, and seeing this Destroyer likely cements them as an up-and-coming SNAP regular.
Lee Woo-Chul
Lee Woo-Chul’s Luna leaps pretty quickly into my top Luna Snow variant: something about seeing a character designed as a Korean pop star done in gorgeous rendered detail by a Korean artist already known for tackling Korean characters like Silk just feels right. And the cover-quality piece just holds up really well, with a great pose for the K-Pop star-turned-mutant showcasing both her musical background and her cryokinesis with that focal snowflake. Seeing a character like this (designed for a mobile game, largely featured in video games) given some extra attention in a realism-focused piece is especially nice; separately, this also just might be my favorite art from Woo-Chul yet!
Don Aguillo
Don Aguillo’s tackling Madame Web next, and he manages to vary her sitting position into a slightly different lounge look, as the clairvoyant Spider vogues in her chair with her shoulders up. I might dock a couple of points because of just how vaguely un-shaped that chair seems to be, but I do appreciate Aguillo’s ability to add a bit of dynamism to Madame Web’s traditionally rigid pose while still keeping her seated.
salmon4dinner
I knew it wouldn’t be too long before we saw salmon4dinner’s return to SNAP based on strong their starting Kate Bishop piece was, and, sure enough, we’re getting a Pixie in a very similar stylistic vein, doubling down on that slight anime sensibility and keeping that really nice almost pastel lighting as Pixie flies out in what seems to be a snow day. It’s a cute variant for a cute character, and it’s a nice sign that we’ll be seeing more of salmon4dinner in the game.
He Tianyou
Speaking of seeing more, there’s no sign of stopping from He Tianyou, who looks to be a continued presence even after his spotlight season this month is over. This time he’s tackling Sage, and (like many commissions for Second Dinner) he’s heavily adapting the existing base art for the character, to the point that this variant feels like nearly the same pose as the base from a different angle. But the similarities end there: Tianyou’s stylization and skill with lighting bring this pose to life, bringing us low to make Sage imposing and letting the floating holograms affect the light into a matrix-esque green glow befitting a living supercomputer like Sage. I always say that variant pricing is arbitrary, and seeing this for a mere 700 Gold should be more than enough evidence to prove my point. Banger!
Alex Maleev
Alex Maleev is an acclaimed comic artist, and a couple of his covers have already made their way from comics to SNAP— but this seems to be the latest in a line of variants commissioned by Second Dinner from an established artist whose prior work is already in the game. I really love this trend because (A) it brings some of the coolest artists to ever grace these characters into making new art for this game, and (B) it helps offset the existing complaint that artists whose existing Marvel covers get used for SNAP don’t get directly compensated for it. The nature of artist compensation in comics in conjunction with a license as large as Marvel’s is too big to tackle here, and likely something way above Second Dinner’s paygrade, but this is a great way to show some love for artists we know have done great work for these characters and directly paying them for more. Also, it’s an incredible piece by an incredible painter— in case I have to state, like, the painfully obvious.
New Commissioned Artists!
Carlos Dattoli
On to the new blood! Carlos Dattoli is a new name to SNAP, and he’s making an impressive first impression via Anti-Venom, rendered in enough chilling muscular realism to make him feel like a proper horror creature. The decision to light Anti-Venom in red is also a cool one, taking advantage of all that white symbiote texture to reflect off of and lining up with Anti-Venom’s distinct red eyes and mouth. The effect is genuinely intimidating as a piece, and if there were ever a variant to kick start someone’s artistic catalogue in a game, this would be it.
Tae Kwon Kim
Tae Kwon Kim is also new, tackling the classic task of giving the Black Order some art variety in this game. At this point it’s a little old hat to call Black Swan underserved, at least— a healthy flow of custom commissions has made sure the white-haired goth girlfriend of the crew has plenty of art to choose from, but it’s a nice bonus to have a variant showing off the laser vision we so often see on her card effects! It’s dynamic and exciting, and I’m very interested in seeing more Tae Kwon Kim down the line.
Francesco Manna
We’ve got another symbiote superstar joining Iban Coello from the comics ranks: Francesco Manna, who has done great work on recent Carnage books, brings his own take on Carnage to SNAP straight from his recent work with Marvel! He’s a lean, mean murder machine, and Manna clearly understands how to extract proper menace out of Carnage in a low crouch like that, with his tendrils flowing everywhere. It’s a great piece, and I’m happy to see more comics talent making the leap.
A.J. Nazarro
We’ve got a handful of variants from A.J. Nazarro, who has also shouldered the Black Order burden this round, with a bonus Spider-Ham to boot. These feel like they nail that fun, ‘Disney-fied’ look that balances animated stylization with character, helping sharpen Cull and Corvus into proper personalities. (Have you ever seen two guy look more like they belong in a distinct villainous ensemble?) Nazarro’s Spider-Ham is also fun, playing up the cuteness while also tapping into the character’s classic love for hot dogs— though, for my money, I love the little tactile flourish of Peter Porker’s little soled feet. There’s a little kick I get out of actually seeing someone work through Spider-Man’s costume applied to Spider-Ham; it’s fun to see thought put into a character easy to write off as ‘he’s a cartoon.’ I hope we see more Nazarro soon!
Rodgon
Rodgon’s an artist I’ve actually followed for a bit; he specializes in particularly simplified, stylized cartooning with an emphasis on the shapes of the face, and it makes perfect sense to see him helping shrink Goliath down into a chibi version as his debut. Now, A colorist isn’t noted, and I’m curious if Mooncolony played a part in colors just because they’ve done coloring collaborations with so many artists like this already— but until that’s confirmed, we can talk about Rodgon’s work on the piece as a whole. I love the detailing on Goliath’s MCU Ant-Man style suit, and it’s fun to see another artist tackle the Chibi style; the more, the merrier, and the extra diversity might help folks find something they love about chibi outside of just Rian Gonzales and G-Angle.
Leo Chiola
Leo Chiola just feels like I’m reading really, really good comics; the inking feels center stage on these pieces, and Esonn especially pops with the shadows really conveying the immensity of a Celestial as he floats through space (and perhaps belly flops straight through the planet). Rocket and Groot have similarly great inks on the shadows, lit by Rocket’s muzzle flair and the great purple backlighting. They both have terrific lighting and color palettes, and it feels dynamic and fresh without having to reinvent the wheel; if we see more, Chiola is going to rapidly shoot up my favorite artists lists in SNAP!
Ivan Fomin
Ivan Fomin is a newcomer, and he does a great job making everyone’s favorite love-to-hate SNAP card that much harder to hate. Seeing Leech cheesing with his little backpack at the locker is just a likable recipe for success, composition-wise, and Fomin clearly has the technical skill to back it up, doing solid work with the anatomy and colors to make sure the variant succeeds both as a fun idea AND an actual art piece. It’s a distinction I often make with variants done in the base style or by studios, and Fomin’s done a good job clearing that hurdle. Let’s see more of that!
Megan Lara
Finally, we’re getting another Femme-Loki from Megan Lara, whose body of work specializes in applying an art nouveau-inspired style to pop culture icons. This portrait of Loki is plainly gorgeous already from an artistic standpoint, but I’m just really excited that SNAP keeps finding new artists that can interpret these characters in new and fun ways beyond the base style. It’s more interesting to me than much of the studio work we see, and while those are fun, these are the pieces that stand out to me in the ocean of PANDARTs, Creative House Pockets, Envars, and so on every patch. This Loki looks terrific, and I’m eager to see more from Lara, if it’s in the cards.
Straight From The Stands!
David Nakayama’s Captain Carter (2022) #1 Variant
Onto the fun: we’re getting a great smattering of existing variant covers from old favorites here. Nakayama’s variant covers are no stranger to SNAP, and it was pretty much a guarantee that this cover would be here at some point to help usher in Captain Carter’s introduction to SNAP. But unlike some covers as variants (cough), we’re getting this one pretty much immediately! Nakayama’s always a solid artist, and the backlighting and vibrant colors do a great job selling an equally vibrant character: it’s a great introduction to Carter that bridges both the MCU show and the comics she’s from as well, which is always a win in my book. (Yes, I know she was created in Marvel Puzzle Quest. It’s a whole conversation.)
Guruhiru’s Iconic Unbelievable Gwenpool (2016) #1 Cover
Ahem, might I present, the some covers aforementioned. Gwenpool is not a character with a shortage of existing variant covers; heck, Gwenpool as a character started as a variant cover. So it feels especially strange that until now everyone’s favorite panel-jumper has literally only had 1 variant for almost a year now! And it’s a strange sort of homecoming— back when Gwenpool was in datamines, this cover to Unbelievable Gwenpool was the temp image used (not unlike the OG Makkari Spotlight variant, for Makkari). And so after all that, this variant better all that to justify the wait.
And, yeah, it is. Everything sweet and fun about Gwenpool gets captured beautifully in this cover, and there’s a reason fans of the run have been clamoring for an OG Guruhiru piece for Miss Poole for ages. This is the equivalent to a John Romita Sr. variant for Spidey— Gwenpool at her most iconic, in the classic run that defined her. And we’re getting a #1! So maybe all is forgiven. Or, at least, it’s progress— lets get some more of her out here sooner than later, Second Dinner!
Bronze Age Devil Dinosaur (1978) #1— By Jack Kirby!
Speaking of classic, Devil Dinosaur’s getting his turn with a Bronze Age variant, and it’s his actual debut: his very first appearance in Devil Dinosaur #1, accompanied by his original sidekick Moon Boy! It’s a genuinely gorgeous piece, done by none other than Jack “The King” Kirby, that guy that all your comics friends rave about because he’s amazing and it’s all true. Just look at those inks and colors! Second Dinner’s got some good taste, too, bringing this cover to life and somehow even further magnifying Devil Dino’s scale by imposing his enormous frame in front of the original title. It just might be one of the most successful Bronze Age variants yet, in terms of translating to SNAP’s 3D templating, and for a mere 1200 Gold it’s an absolute steal to see Dino’s origin up close— even if, currently, the big red T-Rex is a bit extinct in the meta.
Felipe Massafera’s Timeless (2023) #1 Variant
Felipe Massafera’s our next cover, bringing us our latest variant for the one and only Doom. This Timeless cover, appropriately enough, has an old school vibe about it— something about the almost airbrushed lighting and those dramatic colors makes everything feel classic, and I love Doom rocking the Sorcerer Supreme look as he’s casting some sort of incantation. The cool thing about Doom has always been his ability to straddle the line between both science and magic, and his relationship to occult power (and power in general) oozes out of this piece. It’s a great one, and, labeled as promo, one I’m quite interested in seeing exactly how we’ll be getting it.
Derrick Chew’s X-Men (2021) #22 Magik Variant
Someone at Second Dinner loves Derrick Chew — or, at least, plenty of people in the audience do, for them to keep going for more. He’s got lots of variant covers in the game, more than many other cover artists who aren’t named InHyuk Lee, Artgerm, or Momoko. While he doesn't quite breach the numbers of those latter (who are wildly prolific, both here and in comics), he’s making his way there steadily, and Magik is the latest in a bunch of his recent covers brought to SNAP. Chew’s talented, working in that similar hyper-rendered style that many similar artists like the aforementioned Artgerm or InHyuk Lee use, and while he might not quite be as prolific, he’s likely to interest folks who already love that style. (This piece reminds me of the Venomized Lim piece we got not too long ago.) This Magik is cool, seeing her decked out in her golden armor amidst the entire Fall of X shenanigans that happened last year (it was a lot), and she’s accompanied by demons as she often is, wielding a big-ass sword as she often does. It’s not quite my favorite Magik, but that may be my own personal taste— this style isn’t nearly as for me as many other Magik variants are. But for fans? I’m sure this is going to be a popular one.
Peach Momoko’s Blood Hunt (2024) # 4 Variant
Peach Momoko’s variant cover for the Blood Hunt event here features Doctor Strange casting some strange blood magic while haunted by a dark shadow, which is a great bit of visual storytelling for an event that, among other things, featured Doctor Strange and a $@#!-load of vampires. (No spoilers, but it gets pretty gruesome.) And it’s cool when some of that comics storytelling gets to bleed over into these variants, which all too often can feel pretty far from the source material they’re pulling from. Peach Momoko is excelling here selling that extra bit of storytelling, which is also a welcome step forward from the cool, but oftentimes more general floating eeriness that defines her work. Is it a second Momoko Strange? Sure. Are we gonna complain? If I had to guess…
Jee-Hyung Lee’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Galaxy’s Most Wanted (2014) #1 Cover
It looks like the search for existing covers of Rocket and Groot is on— digging through the backlog to find the best shots of our favorite Galaxy Guardin’ Twosome must be a challenging, if fun, task. But it’s nice to see it yield results, as the SNAP team finds covers like this Jee-Hyung Lee piece, which came out right around the release of the original Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014. You can tell how closely the ‘likeness’ of Rocket and Groot are captured here by Lee— it’s cool, though, seeing almost like a marker of an era, like many ‘comics-film’ synergy pieces go. It’s almost nostalgic seeing the two of them now, especially old MCU Groot— simpler times.
Other Studio Work
PANDART STUDIO
Finally, amidst this sea of studio work, you might be surprised to hear me saying PANDART is a breath of fresh air this time around! Seemingly returning to the style that they did for the Avengers Vs. X-Men season, we’re getting their more graphic, hyper-dynamic work applied to Angela. And it might be the best that style’s ever looked, from PANDART— something about the colors, the expression, and the blade in the foreground works together in a way that feels stronger than that previous run. The secret is those colors, working really well in that darker register to help temper Angela’s brilliant orange hair. It’s in a bundle, which is always a bummer, but I’m not afraid to say this is one of the best PANDARTs I’ve seen, which is always nice to be able to say!
Mooncolony
Mooncolony’s back for Hulkling and Redwing, with the former being a chipper and friendly anime-look for Teddy and the latter being another one of the hyper-cutesy animal companion variants for Falcon’s loyal partner. While they’re both maybe a bit generic-feeling, they’re distinct from one another; it’s a good reminder that all of these studios have multiple artists and will adjust different commission runs to match different styles. Redwing fits into the existing series with a similarly big-eyed Lockjaw and Goose, while Hulkling feels more in line with their other work, if not a bit more overtly anime. His bigger eyes remind me of a shonen protagonist, before everything gets impossibly dark— luckily, nothing traumatic has ever happened to the Young Avengers.
SIXMOREVODKA
SIXMOREVODKA is building out their presence in SNAP with Cannonball now, and it’s a perfectly fine goggles-on Cannonball, who seems to have just landed after blasting. I like the pose and the colors and lighting are good, with Sam’s explosion behind him providing the opportunity for that dramatic lighting to be center stage. It’s nothing more than it says on the tin, but that’s fine! And Cannonball is one of those characters who could always use another variant from a studio, for lack of more work in his existing in-game catalogue.
Creative Plus
The Chibi space continues to diversify as newcomer studio Creative Plus brings a chibi Diamondback out for their debut, adding to the prominent collection of Chibi art and the even more prominent collection of overtly anime-styled pieces. This particular chibi feels closer to the G-Angle kind than the Rian Gonzales kind (or the Rodgon kind,), but the variety certainly helps either way, and that chibi interested folks will be interested in the wider range of art styles chibi seems able to inhabit. It’s not quite my thing— but I can always appreciate some well done action posing, with flung diamonds flying out into the foreground.
Fireball Studio
Fireball is back with another variant for Khonshu and a variant for Negasonic Teenage Warhead; the former is slated to be Super Rare, and the latter seems like it’ll be that month’s Conquest reward (marking the second time Fireball’s filled that role!). Fireball Studio does some fun expression work, which is front and center with Negasonic and understandably less so for the unflappable Khonshu, bird skull that he is. Of these two, I do especially like the slightly different hooded take on Khonshu, with blue eyes, changing the visual silhouette into something less familiar than Khonshu’s normal look.
ADIA
Magneto’s coming to ADIA’s Fantasy line in the token shop as an Ultimate variant, and it’s finally a variant that feels like an undeniable translation of the Master of Magnetism into some sort of transformative setting. Seeing his classic red and purple turned to a classic knight’s armor is sick, and watching medieval weaponry hovering around him is icing on the cake. While I’m still ultimately a bit skeptical of this Fantasy series of variants, this almost certainly feels like a platonic ideal of what these variants should be swinging for in interpretation and departure.
Lemon Art
Strange Supreme is getting an extra variant from Lemon Art, marking Lemon Art’s first variant departing from their Vogue-esque SNAP Magazine Fashion variants. Like all the What If…? cards, these characters are going to benefit extra from studios that pump out new alternative art in large amounts; Strange Supreme still has all the elements present in his base and Spotlight variant, but giving us a bit more variety from the base art. (Although I maintain— that base art has become the more interesting interpretive work for that month, in a strange twist of fate!)
ARTTREE STUDIO
Finally, ARTTREE STUDIO has a cool Wave. That’s it! It’s a cool Wave. It’s competently done, it’s fun and colorful, it’s Wave as we know her with some solid inks, shadows, everything all around. And that sums up how this patch feels, with its many studio variants this time around: some solid work (certainly, some more solid than others) that will give players an alternate piece for their cards, even if it isn’t the most distinct thing in the world. Art studios serve a volume role that I suspect Second Dinner requires based on its immense art demands (hello, new Spotlight Variants for every time a card is featured?), and while I’ll often be more critical of them as pieces, I understand why they’re arriving in such waves.
But That’s Okay!
Because there was a lot of cool art we saw in this patch as well; and I’m sure that many folks will be more high on the variants that I might have been tepid on. Similarly, maybe I was high on something you didn’t care for! Let me know both below; I know I always end up very excited pondering what I will or won’t want when they show up in a couple of months. And thanks for reading, as always— I know these are long, and it really is appreciated. Until next time!