Issue #2

It seems today that pretty much any new comic can warrant a variant cover.  From launching a new series, a new story, or a new character, comic book companies just can't seem to pass up the opportunity to pump out more than one cover per comic.  Variants, Director's Cuts, Reprints, don't be fooled, they are all the same.  Whether you love them or you hate them, they are here to stay, at least for the time being.  This is not the first time comics have resorted to a Variant Cover craze, oh no!  One mustn't look much further back than the infamous 90s...

The 90s was a comic book industry boon.  You had classic Superhero based TV shows on the air such as Batman: The Animated Series and X-Men (not that Evolution crap they got on now).  You had that card game Overpower (hey, I liked it).  As for comics in general, people were into them more than ever.  Popular comics had print runs rumored to be in the millions.  Then something happened.  For some reason, people turned away from comics.  Perhaps the market was over saturated.  Whatever the case, in the late 90s, the comic book industry crashed.  Sales plummeted so badly that at one point Marvel even filed for bankruptcy.  Desperate to sell more comics, companies turned to variant covers.

It started out innocently enough, a simple variant cover here and there, but things quickly grew out of hand.  Companies started putting out foil covers, hologram covers, and in the craziest move I've seen, Amazing Spider-man #400 had some ribbed, die-cut enhanced cover for your own personal pleasure, or something (also of note, this issue of Spider-Man was also in the middle of what has become known by some as the worst thing to ever happen in Spider-Man and possibly comics, The Clone Saga... hmmm... article idea...).  It was absurd.  And it looked crappy.

Hey alright!  Its uh... what?

Why would they do such things?  Why would they slap on a new cover whenever the possibility arose?  It's the simple fact folks that they sell.  People actually buy these things.  It's those people who feel like they need to have every version of every comic they own.  The completionists are the ones causing this problem.  Comic companies wouldn't keep pumping out these variant covers if people weren't buying them.  Plus it looks even better for the industry when they can be like, "Hey, this comic sold X number of times, then we slapped this new cover on and Y more people bought it, therefore, X+Y=Z and Z>X so more people bought the comics because of the variant cover!"  You don't have to be a math major to realize this is false, because I can guarantee that the majority of people who bought that variant cover already had the original one.  It's artificial inflation, or something.

Since the 90s, the scale has seemed to tip from the craziness in covers to the sheer number of covers per comic.  Comics these days don't just stop at one variant cover, oh no!  If you read my previous article, you know I like The New Avengers.  What I didn't mention about The New Avengers, is that the first issue had five... yes, FIVE different covers!

(From left to right) Regular Edition, two 50/50 variants (or are they 33/33/33?), retailer incentive 1/20 variant, Director's Cut

Is that really called for?  Five covers?  And you know how I feel about Director's Cuts...  The thing is, people actually buy these.  The retailer incentive cover can sell anywhere from $35 to $100 depending on condition and whether or not its CGC graded.  Sure, comics go for thousands of dollars, but this comic isn't even a year old and here it is selling for top dollar.  I can almost guarantee this comic won't be worth nearly as much in a few years.  If you look back at any variant comic or fancy cover from the 90s, the comic is valued at the same price OR LOWER then its original.

Even though it seems that I've been trashing on them for a few paragraphs, I think variant covers can have some positive aspects as well.  Sometimes, it's nice when you are about to go grab a new comic and it has a couple covers.  Why?  Incase one of the covers is crappy looking, or you just really like one more than the other.  Sometimes having a choice is nice.  Also, what happens if you missed out on a popular comic because it sold out?  Often they will reprint it with a variant cover.  That way, as long as you don't care about having the original, you can still read that story you missed.  That's why I have the Director's Cut of The New Avengers.  I missed out on the first issues, but was still able to pick it up, and look where that got me!

So here's the thing.  Even though I just wrote a whole article about variant covers, I'm going to state that people are freaking out too much about them.  Sure, they are a cause for concern, but only due to the absurdity of the matter.  Any comic topping 3 covers is just ludicrous, but I don't think it will lead to another comic book crash like the 90s.  Comics had lots of other, bigger problems in those days than variant covers, whereas today, many people believe that the quality of comics are better than ever.  So why don't you go out and buy yourself a comic book, but just one version of it.  That way, you'll help the comic industry, while saying no to variant absurdity!

Next Issue! - I'll talk about Marvel's big summer event that's wrapping up this week, The House of M.

Jaybird currently resides in Seattle where he reads comics, works in a library, and writes for this site.  He has also been known to blow your mind, rock your world, and eat pizza.