Marvel Announces Second Wave Of Hip-Hop Variants

Marvel Comics hip-hop variant covers are returning for another round of homages to classic album covers of the genre. Three new hip-hop covers have been revealed: Black Panther #7 pays homage to King Mez’s Long Live the King, Doctor Strange #1 is based on Desiigner’s Panda, and Mosaic #1 references Earl Sweatshirt’s Earl. You can see all three in the gallery below.

“It’s about two creative art forms shouting out to each other,” Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso tells Fuse. “Hip-hop is the backbeat for any number of people who are writing, drawing and editing these comic books.”

“Growing up a huge comic book fan, it was a dream to come true to even be a part of this,” King Mez said. “Black Panther at that? Mannn, it was automatic when Marvel reached out. Really cool way to have LLTK immortalized like that. Hope we get to do a variant collab on my new project too.”

Doctor Strange #1 goes on sale Sept. 28. Black Panther #7 and Mosaic #1 will both be available Oct. 12. Marvel is planning several more hip-hop variants to accompany these.

Marvel’s first run of hip-hop covers included over 50 variants, including tributes to A Tribe Called Quest, The Notorious B.I.G., and Run the Jewels. The covers were collected into a 32-page free giveaway comic with an introduction by Run the Jewels’ Killer Mike. In October, Marvel will release a hardcover collection of the covers, titled The Hip-Hop Covers, with a foreword by the National Book Award-winning writer of Black Panther, Ta-Nehisi Coates.