Marvel Announces Cosplay Variants

This is really cool on Marvel's part. We've seen the Cosplayers at conventions. They go above and beyond in creating and wearing their costumes. Now they will be getting the front cover treatment. You might recognize some of these Cosplayers and costumes. I know I've seen them at conventions before.

You’ve seen them at conventions, now see them on the covers of some of Marvel’s newest comic titles later this year! Today, Marvel is pleased to present your new look at the upcoming COSPLAY VARIANT program. See your favorite Marvel characters like you’ve never seen before, as mighty Marvel fans bring them to life for 20 exciting covers!

“Cosplayers are taking over,” says Marvel SVP Sales & Marketing David Gabriel. “Each convention I go to, it seems like there are more and more fans dressing up like their favorite Marvel characters. These homemade, hand-crafted costumes are so elaborate, it looks like they leapt off the comic page. The Cosplay Variant initiative is our way of supporting a community that supports us.”

Look for these exciting COSPLAY VARIANTS coming to comic shops later this year:

1. A-Force #1 Cosplay Variant by Jay Justice

2. All-New Inhumans #1 Cosplay Variant by Yaya Han

3. Amazing Spider-Man #1 Cosplay Variant by Aaron Rivin

4. Astonishing Ant-Man #1 Cosplay Variant by SoloRoboto Industries

5. Avengers #0 Cosplay Variant by Michael Cox

6. Captain Marvel #1 Cosplay Variant by Judy Stephens

7. Daredevil #1 Cosplay Variant by Patrick ‘Rick’ Lane

8. Doctor Strange #1 Cosplay Variant by Allen Lee Hansard

9. Extraordinary X-Men #1 Cosplay Variant by Amanda Lynne Shafer

10. Guardians of the Galaxy #1 Cosplay Variant by Contagious Costuming

11. Invincible Iron Man #1 Cosplay Variant by Dale Oliver

12. Ms. Marvel #1 Cosplay Variant by Soni Balestier

13. Nova #1 Cosplay Variant by Cap Santiago

14. Sam Wilson Captain America #1 Cosplay Variant by Eddie Newsome

*coming soon*

15. Spider-Gwen #1 Cosplay Variant by Kathrine Zan

16. Spider-Woman #1 Cosplay Variant by Yashuntafun Cosplay

17. The Mighty Thor #1 Cosplay Variant by Sarah Jean Maefs

18. The Mighty Thor #2 Cosplay Variant by Kevin Spooner

19. Uncanny Avengers #1 Cosplay Variant by Miss Kit Quinn

20. Uncanny Inhumans #1 Cosplay Variant by Kalel Sean

21. CLASSIFIED

No fan can afford to miss out on these exciting variant covers featuring your favorite Marvel characters brought to life by these stunning cosplayers! Head to your local comic shop beginning this October to get your hands on these can’t miss COSPLAY VARIANTS!

Once seen can not be unseen...

Cool

These are terrible for the most part...

Uhh.... trash

..okay.

This is a great idea for variants. Imagine how stoked these guys are to get their cosplay on a cover. Don't know why some of you gotta hate. I guess some people just chime in to complain.

Bar six of them, these are lazy and plain crap.

I'd love to see the efforts from everyone complaining. I dare ya.

Doctor Strange and Spider-Gwen are the best ones.

Took the words right outta my mouth

Yeah, I think DC does better variants. Looney Toons ftw but I commend thy cosplayers' efforts.

At first I thought they would have taken better cosplayer, more professionnal, but in the end, they just took good or OK cosplayers, but I think the effect is even better. It directly connect to us, readers. All in all, whether I like the cosplay or not, I think the idea is highly original and great. Thumbs up for this initiative.

Some of them aren't great, but as a cosplayer, I appreciate what Marvel's doing.

Errrr. Okay then.

Gamora, Nova, and Black Bolt are my favourites. If I had that Black Bolt costume I would probably never take it off! Thankfully I work from home...

This is an awesome idea

Most of these are bad. If you are going to do this at least get some decent photographers that actually have a clue how to light them better so they look a little less... uh, amateur.

Great idea but I would have taken a picture of a younger cosplayer for Ms. Marvel. The book is about the younger generation after all.

@galactushungers:

I agree with you. The proposal you make a cosplay of a favorite character and serve as the cover of a comic is pretty cool.

@g_man: i agree with you, the people that complain are the ones that will bring nothing to the table

Fun for the fans doing the covers but I can't say I'd ever want a variant of some person pretending to a fictional character that doesn't have the budget behind it to make it look good and even then that's a maybe.

Meh, defiantly not for me but I'm sure some people will enjoy them.

I appreciate the time and effort they put into their costumes, but I can't say I'd be tempted by any of these.

Why all the hate? This is pretty cool

Aw, I was hoping one of my favorite cosplay people would have gotten a cover. Oh well. This is a pretty cool idea.

Great idea, terrible execution.

A very cool idea for a variant but considering how bad they look i am not gonna spend my money on a variant of some average looking joe in vinyl spandex. Like a cover for a fetish porn magazine.

P.S. No i wouldn't do any better, i would do far worse trying to cosplay, no that does not take away from the fact that i think that most of them look horrible.

Great concept, execution meh.

1. Some of them are pretty bad.
2. No Vera Baby variant? Booooooooo

That's a really awesome thing for Marvel to do. I appreciate the (at least slight) body type diversity. Some of the costumes are better than others, but most are very nice versions.

It's particularly cool because cosplay is a sort of copyright grey zone, and I actually saw a few of these specific cosplayers at a conference a couple months ago talking about how there's always a little worry about the companies coming down on cosplayers (especially those who sell copies of their costumes). This kind of support from the biggest company should help cement the confidence of cosplayers.

@g_man: That's what I love to tell most of these people, lol. I really like all of these cosplayers they chose. They're pretty good and very professional looking.

I wish I knew how Marvel got these cosplayers to pose for the covers. They can use my Wiccan cosplay for New Avengers, lol.

Black Bolt looks like The Tick

I appreciate that they didn't turn this into a sexy cosplay promotion.

Once again, Marvel copies DC--this time with variant covers.

Marvel never cease to amazes me with their lack of creativity.

I don't think the staff needs to take any of these negative comments as a reflection upon their reporting. Mostly, these thoughts are probably being voiced as a way of saying 'I don't care for _x_ as a cover'. Even so, if the comments were truly being negative about the efforts of those whom are displaying their costumes - that's their prerogative.

Whereas this may in fact be a 'good idea' or even a neat marketing plan - the market is going to tell the seller what they will or will not bear. This particular venue is a solid, low-cost test bed for those ideas. Any publisher could benefit from looking at these control-group like settings which tell them how well their product is being received.

Nice effort by these people, very cool.

It wasn't bad enough that their artists are tracing from photos, we need ACTUAL photos for the covers now?

@claudeparish: It's not a new thing. http://www.comicvine.com/photo-cover/4015-55883/ And they're just variants, not the regular cover.

Not sure what you mean here. Marvel's been doing variants for a long time just like many other publishers besides DC. Has DC done cosplay variants because I don't remember that. Am I forgetting when they did?

Personally I love these. Everyone keeps saying they're awful or lazy. You have any idea what goes into making some of these outfits? I'm glad they didn't use "professional" cosplayers, because I don't think these covers are about that. It looks like they used people who don't do this for a living, those who are likely to be fans of the characters, as opposed someone who does this as a career (not that I object to it). You can see the love these people put into their costumes, and that really conveys what comics is about, the love for your character. If you don't like it, that's fine, but it's really short sighted to call it lazy or horrible. Looking at that cover, it gives me a real "that can be me someday" feeling. It feels relateable.

Cool, Wasp has a cover Jane Foster looks neat and so does Spider-Gwen. but, don't wanna nitpick or technical, shouldn't Spider-Woman be pregnant or something

I like the Spiderman one

@idontlikebirds: good post argument. It really is hard to costumes, it cost time, money and skill to make them. I don't think people really understand the efforts into making them especially for people that don't do it as an everyday thing. I know because I'm a cosplayer too.

Yup

A nice idea and some nice cosplaying, some don't look that good but I think it's more to do with the way some of the lens are done

I swear, comicbook fans are their own worst enemies.

They even have to moan over something like this.

Beata

@idontlikebirds:Just so you know Yaya Han and some of the others are definitely "professional".

I think this is pretty cool for cosplayers. People who don't like or understand cosplay won't get it. I was honestly shocked to see how many comments were for this article because the CV community doesn't usually give much attention or love to cosplay. So I wasn't surprised to see the hater comments either.

They could have used better cosplayers/costumes for certain characters though. The ones that stood out as weakest to me are Cap. America and Daredevil. I've seen much much better cosplays for those two.

My cosplay buddy Spider Inferno would have ben a WWWWWAAAAAYYYYY better job at the Daredevil cover. I mean common Just LOOK AT THIS!!!!