Comics / Spotlight

Variants: Gems or Junk?

By Andy Frisk
March 20, 2011 - 22:17

You won’t see a great deal of hoopla here at The Comic Book Bin concerning any given month’s list of the variant cover editions that the major publishers unleash upon the comic book buying public. Yes, we cover the press releases from the big publishers touting the proclaimed awesomeness or hotness of whatever variant book is coming out, but rarely do we focus on the validity of such releases. Variants are a part of the comic book collecting and publishing industry, so as one of the premier independent and intelligent voices on the industry, we will cover the press releases about these books and their covers. There is obviously a segment of the comic book buying public that loves variant cover issues and snatches them up each month. What benefit does the greater comic book industry, and more importantly the comic book buyer get from there being so many variants released each month though? The answer is debatable, like all good and interesting topics concerning the industry, but when one considers the potential negative effects on the industry that the monthly deluge of variants can have, the answer decidedly falls on one side of the argument. Variants are not as necessarily good for the industry as one might think, at least from this comic book buying fan’s experience. While the validity of variants to the health of the industry is debatable, something that isn’t debatable is what happened during the crash of the industry during the 1990s, and variants and gimmick covers definitely contributed to this crash…and can potentially spur another.

Where it all started?

The crash of the 1990s is not worth rehashing here. It has been covered very well around the web many times. The important thing to remember is that it did happen, and while variant and gimmick covers weren’t the only contributing cause to the crash, variant covers were part of the problem that lead to the industry going through some very hard times from which it has arguably yet to fully recover. The main way that variant and gimmick covers contributed to the crash was by garnering the attention of buyers on the outside of the dedicated core fan base of comic book collectors and readers: the speculators. Poly-bagged single issues, first issues with chromium wrap around covers, and plain old varying cover artist variant issues swamped the market and nearly drowned it. Speculators looking for the next “first appearance of Gambit” (a true collector’s gem that is the perfect example of a naturally occurring valuable rarity), or the newest "Death of Superman" snatched up dozens of the first issue of Valiant Comics’ Bloodshot #1 or the poly-bagged “Return of Superman” issue. Unfortunately, the publishers of these gimmick comics (and by gimmick I don’t refer to the stories or art of these titles—which more often than not was really good—but rather the chromium and poly-bagged aspects) printed a major over stock. The speculators were left with multiple copies of monetarily worthless comic books that they really couldn’t even give away…because everyone who wanted one already had one. The speculators packed up and moved on…and with them the perceived market envisioned by the major publishers disappeared as well. Honestly, it was never really there in the first place. Valiant Comics got bought up by Acclaim and went bankrupt…for many various reasons, not the least of which was the ouster of the creative genius of the Valiant Universe, Jim Shooter. Marvel Comics itself eventually went bankrupt partially as a result of trying to act as their own distributor (an action taken as a direct result of the crash—again like so much from this period, this is a debatable yet meritorious assertion), but began to garner some new strength due to the success of  X-Men (2000) at the box office. DC Comics limped along and slowly began to see a turnaround with their major characters with the high profile and critically acclaimed release of the Batman reboot film Batman Begins (2005) and the ill received if interest generating Superman Returns (2006). DC Comics also had their strong line of Vertigo titles to help them weather the worst of the storm as well. The industry and the major publishers are still struggling to regain the audience and revenues of the pre-crash era though, even with the new interest recently generated in comic books and graphic novels, due to their current status as potential film property goldmines. The industry seems to not have learned any lessons though…variant covers and poly-bagged special death of character issues still abound.

Cool cover but the first of the overdone "chromium" thing...

Going back to the years just before the crash, the rise in interest and the collecting population of comic books came from there being an abundance of great stories being told in comics, not because there was a plethora of valuable variant issues being released or characters being killed off to just return again, many times, as was like with Superman, within a year. (Honestly, how many people really believed that Superman was really going to stay dead? The speculators did.). Frank Miller’s run on Daredevil, his industry revolutionizing The Dark Knight Returns, Chris Claremont’s defining run on Uncanny X-Men, Neil Gaiman’s brilliant Sandman series, and Alan Moore’s Watchmen were all defined by the quality of their stories and art, not their collectability due to low runs or variant covers. It was story telling that brought in the readers by the droves. Once the industry started to take off though, in the vein of all good corporations whose first duty is to their shareholders and owners (Do you detect my sarcasm? You should.), they had to figure out bigger and better ways to boost the numbers up from the already staggering levels they were hitting. How does a good corporation do this? You try to expand your audience. This is generally a good idea, but the way that it was done, with variants and gimmick covers that gave the illusion of collectability, thusly (like already stated) bringing in the speculators, was an incredibly big mistake. This look back might seem redundant, but as any good student of history and human nature is well aware, history and human nature are, unfortunately, repetitive entities. With the new interest in comic books and graphic novels being driven by some great film adaptations of comic book properties and a resurgence of great storytelling, the industry is continuing its slow recovery, but some of the same mistakes are being made again. It all seemed to really come to the forefront of attention with the “Death of Captain America” storyline. Steve Rogers/Captain America was gunned down at the end of one of Marvel Comics’ best storylines in decades, Civil War. There was a rush on the death issue and a new generation of speculators started to begin calling local comic shops requesting copies. Then came the horrible “Death of Batman” storyline. Now we have the recent “Death of Johnny Storm,” which was poly-bagged like Superman #75 was. While the recent run by Jonathan Hickman that has lead up to the death of Johnny Storm has been some of the best Fantastic Four stories ever written, the hoopla over this latest character’s death was amped up, and in many was cheapened, by making it a special poly-bagged issue that caused speculators to circle like vultures. The story, and the death issue, should have been left to stand on their own merits. Now with the release of the well written FF (Future Foundation), speculators are being drawn back for more with Marvel Comics’ decision to release a multitude of variant covers for the first issue. Why can’t they simply eschew the variants and let the book stand on its own? Because, speculation might lead to Marvel Comics making a few more bucks. Again though, haven’t we seen the consequences of this before?

Do we need this many variants? No.

Making money is the right of any company or corporation. They can legally do whatever they feel and deem necessary to do so. In the comic book industry though, it should be obvious by now that it is good storytelling and not collectability of cover variation or gimmick that really drives the industry revenues. Look at the recent films about the “Big Two’s” characters. DC Comics has had a lesser amount of their high profile characters grace the screens in the last decade as compared to Marvel Comics. When one compares the two company’s quality of film though, DC Comics’ films are of a much better quality. Iron Man (2008) was a great film, but it wasn’t The Dark Knight by any stretch. Quality over quantity pretty much always wins out. A deluge of variant covers is quantity…of the dangerous kind. I don’t have access to the production costs involved in the printing of multiple variant covers, but what if the money dedicated to printing these variants was instead allocated to developing well written new titles? I will buy a well written title, and probably more than just the first issue, many times over because that is what I want. I won’t buy variants nearly as much of the time. There are exceptions, but they are rare exceptions. As my readers here at The Bin probably have noticed, I’m a huge Superman fan. When Superman Secret Origin came out, I did buy a variant cover of the first issue simply because I liked it and was willing to spend a little more on a variant cover issue of my all time favorite superhero’s reboot. This is the ONLY variant I have purchased in addition to the larger run standard cover issue EVER. I am not exaggerating. I liked the storytelling and art in FF #1 and I’m reading the series (and therefore buying the series) because of this fact, and only because of this fact. Readers like me will continue to read (and write about) good comics for a long time. The publishers will pry more of our hard earned money from us with quality storytelling in multiple titles. They’ll make some quick cash off of the speculators, but these people won’t stick around. We will, and the publishers should listen to us, their core fans, and not the dollars pried from the pockets of speculators.

Seriously? How is this even a variant? Looks like a misprint...hmmm.

I’m sure that some of our readers will have arguments (some of which might be valid) for the continued publishing of a multitude of pointless variant covers. We’d love to hear your arguments. Make use of the comments section below. That is what it is there for. I really believe though that the motivation behind the printing of so many variants is wrong headed in the long run. Speculators are the ones who drool over variants, and they’re not good for the industry. True fans collect for fun not profit, and we garner the most fun out of an issue of a comic book if it is well written and drawn…not because it has cover variants that might or might not (as is the vast majority of the cases) be worth more money than we spent for it .

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12