Marvel Comics Releasing Hip Hop Variant Cover Sampler

A few weeks ago in October, Marvel released a series of variant covers paying homage to some of the greatest and recognizable Hip Hop albums such as Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), and A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders, to name a few. Due to overwhelming positive feedback, Marvel is offering fans a chance to pick up a free sampler of fourteen of their most popular Hip-Hop variant covers on January 6, 2016.

In speaking with the New York Times, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso says, “The hip-hop variants were a really special initiative that caught fire in the outside world. We thought this was a great opportunity to highlight that and make it available to fans for free.”

Marvel SVP, Sales & Marketing David Gabriel goes on to mention why the sampler is being offered in January rather than at the end of 2015.“The Hip-Hop Variant Sampler is our way of saying thank you to the fans, but also to the retailers who have made All-New, All-Different Marvel a massive success,” says Gabriel. “With the Hip-Hop variant covers being such a huge draw, our goal is to draw fans back to their local comic shop after the holidays end.”

The 32-page sampler will feature 14 covers created by some of the industry’s top artists. Here is the full list of reprinted covers coming in early 2016:

·         Invincible Iron Man #1 by Brian Stelfreeze

·         Doctor Strange #1 by Juan Doe

·         Ms. Marvel #1 by Jenny Frison

·         Extraordinary X-Men #1 by Sanford Greene

·         Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1 by Jeffrey Veregge

·         All-New, All-Different Avengers #1 by Jim Cheung

·         Amazing Spider-Man #1 by Mike Del Mundo

·         Contest of Champions #1 by Denys Cowan & Bill Sienkiewicz

·         Vision #1 by Vanesa Del Ray

·         All-New X-Men #1 by Ed Piskor

·         Web Warriors #1 by Damion Scott

·         All-New Inhumans #1 by Marco D’Alfonso

·         All-New Wolverine #1 by Keron Grant

·         Captain America: Sam Wilson #1 by Mahmud Asrar

Fans who are looking to acquire a free sampler should pick one up on the January 6 release date, as these are expected to fly off shelves fairly quickly. Here are a few of the covers from October’s Hip-Hop variant cover run (not all covers will be included in the free sampler):