Rare comic covers that truly deserve to be called exclusive

The Mighty Magnor 1 by Sergio Aragones

As the saying goes, “Resistance is futile” – and that applies whenever a milestone issue of a comic comes out accompanied by a bunch of variant covers. Whether it’s a “Bombshell” pose of a favourite heroine or a LEGO variant, the Big Two publishers Marvel and DC are not holding back in their quest to outdo each other.

Unfortunately, we collectors are caught in the crossfire (though voluntarily). How did this variant invasion start? We would have to go back to the 1980s, a time when publishers were looking for marketing gimmicks to boost declining sales and readership.