Marvel Announces Holiday Variant Covers Featuring Hulk, Spider-Man, the X-Men & More Coming This December

Marvel Comics will once more celebrate the holidays this winter, with ten festive variant covers featuring beloved characters including Hulk, Spider-Man, and the X-Men. These variants, from some of the top artists in the comic book industry, are gifts to collectors and casual fans alike, and are guaranteed to make Marvel fans merry.

AIPT revealed a first-look at Marvel’s slate of “Winter Holiday Variant Covers” shipping with some of its top titles at the end of 2024, which will be released throughout December – including several on Christmas Day itself.

Perhaps the stand-out among the covers is Greg Land’s Incredible Hulk #20 variant, which features the eponymous giant green hero dressed as Santa Claus, with a sack of Avengers gear – Iron Man’s helmet, Captain America’s shield, and Thor’s hammer – at his side, as Black Cat, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, and Captain Marvel pose behind him.

Marvel’s 2024 Holiday Variant Covers End The Publisher’s Year On A Jolly Note

Ultimate Spider-Man #12 Winter Holiday Variant By Paco Medina

For comic book fans, it is always one of the most exciting parts of entering the holiday season to find out how publishers like DC and Marvel are going to get in on the festivities. This year, Marvel’s “Winter Holiday Variant Series” offers another crop of covers worth celebrating, from Chris Campana’s Daredevil #16 cover, which features the Man Without Fear leaping over New York City’s famous giant Christmas tree, to Nick Bradshaw’s cover for Immortal Thor #18, featuring Thor, Loki, and their supporting characters enjoying some mead in honor of the season.

Also of note is Paco Medina’s Ultimate Spider-Man #12, which tweaks Spidey’s traditional red-and-blue outfit to be Christmas colors, red-and-green, in an eye-catching holiday alteration of the character’s classic look. Moreover, Medina’s cover features giant Xmas ornaments with the series’ incarnation of the Sinister Six reflected in them. In this way, the cover is more than just a cheery holiday detour, but in fact still offers a crucial hint at what the issue has in store for its fledgling version of the Webslinger.

Holiday Variants Are A Lighthearted Way For Marvel To Celebrate Another Successful Year

Exceptional X-Men #4 Winter Holiday Variant By Marguerite Savage

Other entries in Marvel’s 2024 Winter Holiday Variant series include Marguerite Savage’s cover for Exceptional X-Men #4, which features Kitty Pryde in front of a Hanukkah spread, Audrey Mok’s Scarlet Witch #7 cover, which shows Wanda levitating in front of a snowy landscape, and Nao Fuji’s Ultimate X-Men #10 variant, which features the team gathered together for a holiday meal. Across many of the covers in the series, there is an overall theme of unity, as different Marvel heroes are brought together by the season.

Todd Nauck’s Miles Morales: Spider-Man #27 cover is interesting, because rather than featuring the trio of Miles, original Spider-Man Peter Parker, and Spider-Gwen rushing into action, seemingly going about superhero business as usual – except with ice skates on their feet, suggesting that they are perhaps racing each other, rather than toward the scene of a crime. In all, Marvel’s Winter Holiday Variant series is an ideal way for the publisher to emphasize the joy of comics, even amid all the drama and narrative tensions its characters endlessly face.

Winter Holiday Variants By Natacha Bustos, Betsy Cola, Todd Nauck, & More

Of course, Marvel’s top echelon of heroes is represented among the 2024 Winter Holiday Variants by Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, and more, but the publisher also shrewdly included several new heroes, and one brand-new title, in those that received holiday covers. Breakout character Spider-Boy, for example, gets his close up in a cover by Natacha Bustos, while the debuting Timeslide series also gets a festive cover, as an added incentive for fans to pick up the already-exciting new book when it first comes out.

Marvel’s Winter Holiday Variant series for this year are must-have covers for fans of the company’s characters, especially those looking to amplify their holiday spirit to superhero levels. Especially over the past several years, Marvel has been at the forefront of exciting variant cover initiatives, expanding what was once a niche collector’s interest into an essential part of comic book fandom. These 2024 Winter Holiday covers, featuring Hulk, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and more, are a fantastic way for the publisher to end the year on a high note, and ring in an even more exciting 2025.

Source: AIPT

Todd Nauck’s Miles Morales: Spider-Man #27 variant cover will be available on December 4, 2024 from Marvel Comics. The remaining nine 2024 Winter Holiday Variant covers will be released weekly through December 25.