In Variant Veritas: Decoding Alex Ross’s Secret Wars Cover

Secret Wars https://www.alexrossstore.com/ Secret Wars What If…?

Heroes Reborn Hawkeye

Avengers Marvel Super-Heroes

The Brute

Marvel Premiere

Captain Americat

Marvel Tails Starring Peter Porker the Spectacular Spider-Ham Wild Thing Fantastic Four

Spider-Man

What If?

Man, Alex Ross knows how to get esoteric. This is apparently a version of Storm that Kitty Pride made up as part of a story she was telling to a young Illyana Rasputin in 1982’s UncannyX-Men issue 153.

Bamf

Uncanny X-Men

Nighthawk

Supreme Power

Machine Man

Machine Man

Matt Murdock, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

What If?

Blue Ben Grimm

What If?

Earth X Colossus

Earth X

Lyra, She-Hulk of Earth-8009

Hulk: Raging Thunder

Irving Nebbish

Crazy Crazy’s Mad Magazine

Reed Richards as Starbrand

Fantastic Four

Whatever This Thing Is Supposed to Be

Another possibility — perhaps more likely, based on his costume — is that he’s an alternate Spider-Man from a world where he is the size of a spider.

Anyway, we certainly hope you’ve enjoyed this little romp through the Marvel Multiverse. It’s certainly a beautiful cover, isn’t it? And just chock full of neat stuff. It’s always a blast rummaging through Marvel’s cluttered past and finding some of its weirder bits and pieces.

Special thanks to everyone who helped me with researching these characters. Thanks to Richard Bensam, Jeremy Seifert, Jeremiah Burns, J.P. Harvey, Nick McBride, Richard Rohlin, Justin Butcher, Steven Schend, Brian Houdashelt, Tem Martz, Scott Arthur, Dan Ramirez, Leonardo Bazan, Franklin Morrison, E Rod212, Michaek McMullan, Eric Hope, Cam Banks, and Keith J. Davies.