Marvel Reveals Secret Empire Villain Variants

To the shock of no one, each issue of Secret Empire will include a special variant cover featuring Marvel’s greatest villains.

Over the last few years, the variant cover has become one of the most hotly debated topics in comics, by both fans and retailers. Some see them as a way for readers to get more out of their hobby, making a comic even more collectable. Other see them as a way for publishers to artificially inflate orders and make it seem like their books are selling more copies than is accurate.

I happen to fall into the later category. Variant covers used to be a fun aspect of collecting comics, but have now gotten completely out of hand. When a store has to order hundreds of copies of a book to get one variant that they will then sell for a ridiculous amount of money, something is wrong.

That all said, Marvel has embraced the idea of variant covers almost to a comical degree. No book they sell has less than three or four variants, no matter who it features or how well it is selling.

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I mean, Venomized variants? Cosplay variants? And how many Deadpool variants is really healthy?

Regardless, you knew that their upcoming super-mega crossover event Secret Empire was going to be loaded with variants. Almost more variants per issue than there are issues of the event. And Thursday Marvel announced that you can add nine more if you are keeping count.

Marvel is calling them Secret Empire Villain Variants (original, I know) and they all feature artwork by Dan Mora. And I will readily admit that no matter how you feel about variant covers, these are pretty sweet.

The list of who will be on what cover is as follows:

#1 – Madame Hydra
#2 – TOP SECRET
#3 – Arnim Zola
#4 – Baron Zemo
#5 – Magneto
#6 – Crossbones & Sin
#7 – Baron Mordo
#8 – Taskmaster & Black Ant
#9 – Kingpin

Anyone what to take any bets that Captain America in his Hydra costume is the Top Secret character featured on issue #2?

From the Marvel press release:

"Things are heating up in the Marvel Universe as the threat of the Secret Empire looms. As heroes far and wide stand united against Hydra’s tyranny, the villains have assembled their own forces! Today, Marvel is pleased to reveal the first five villains to be featured – Hydra’s secret weapons in the war against the super heroes! Illustrated by artist Dan Mora (Klaus) each of these images will be released as variant covers, coming to different issues of the blockbuster Secret Empire event series!"

Related Story: Marvel Reveals Todd Nauck “Where’s Hydra” Secret Empire Variant

Secret Empire begins with a story on Free Comics Book Day as well as a zero issue before issue #1 goes on sale May 3, 2017.