Marvel’s answer to the mobile card game arrived with 2022’s release of Marvel Snap. The game lets players collect digital trading cards featuring characters from throughout the Marvel universe, then put them to the test in card battles. Now in its third year, the game still puts out regular updates with new cards to shake up the meta. Like Marvel Rivals, the game doesn’t limit itself to characters popularized by the MCU, though certain fan favorites do make appearances. One such MCU character, Black Panther’s M’baku, is now broiled in controversy as one artist belives Marvel Snap stole their fan art.
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Though each individual deck in Marvel Snap only consists of 12 cards, there are hundreds of card options in the game. In fact, the total number of available cards is approaching 500, giving new players plenty of collecting to catch up on. With that much card art, it’s easy to spend hours in the game without seeing everything. That may be part of how an artist only recently realized that a card released back in 2022 is a dead ringer for fan art they created back in 2018. The fan art in question features M’Baku, who would’ve just reached a wider fan base thanks to the release of the MCU’s Black Panther, in which he plays a pivotal role.
The post comes from X account @thatjaykart, who places their 2018 fan art of M’Baku side by side with a pixel art card featuring the same Marvel character. According to the dates in the image, the fan art was originally created 7 years ago, whereas the Marvel Snap version arrived just 3 years ago in 2022. The side-by-side comparison indeed doesn’t look great for Marvel Snap, as the pixel art on the card bears an uncanny resemblance to @thatjaykart’s original work on the left. In fact, Jay follows up the original post with a note that “I don’t even think I need to point out the similarities due to how obvioius they are.”
Marvel Snap Allegations Raise Concerns About Artwork
The character as rendered on the Marvel Snap card is in the same pose with a very similar outfit, holding the same staff, and even displaying a pixelated version of the same facial expression. The coloration is slightly different, as is the background on the card compared with the original art. And of course, the Marvel Snap card is pixel art, whereas Jay’s artwork is not. Even so, it’s hard to argue that the image on the right wasn’t at least, um, heavily inspired by the art on the left. If the dates in the post are correct, Marvel Snap may well owe us some answers about how the art came to appear in the game.
In fact, this isn’t the first time that artists have noticed the pixel art cards in particular are concerningly similar to art found online. In response to one post asking if there are other examples of stolen art in Marvel Snap, other people showed up with receipts. Even more recent additions to the game, including Wiccan and Sentry, have been faced with allegations of being copied or traced from fan art of the same characters.
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In fact, a Reddit post from three months ago showcases a series of pixel art cards from Marvel Snap that bear uncanny resemblances to fan-made Marvel art. Because fan art can’t be copyrighted by the original artist due to it being based on existing IP, it may well be perfectly legal for Marvel to use these works to inspire their own. However, legality isn’t really the concern here so much as the morality, and most artists agree it’s in bad form for Marvel Snap to use these pieces as inspiration without crediting their creators.
Thus far, Marvel Snap has not made any public, official statements regarding the allegations. However, in response to a question in the Marvel Snap discord, a team member of game developer Second Dinner did simply state “We’re aware of these reports and we’re looking into it.” This response was shared on March 17th and no further updates have been provided as of now.
What do you think abut this potential art theft in Marvel Snap? Let us know in the comments below!
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