Standard Deviations vol. 4:
Marvel’s Venom variant covers
Throughout January, Marvel Comics released a series of Venom variants on 19 issues of their ongoing titles. I’m not really sure about the motivation here. Normally these themed variant months are timed as promotional pieces for something in the publisher’s schedule. Last year, there were sets of variant covers released as cross promotion with Marvel’s X-Men: First Class, Thor, and Captain America movies, as well as a set to commemorate Marvel Comics’ 50th Anniversary. There’s nothing on that scale coming for Venom barring a “24 Years of Venom” logo on last week’s Venom #12 and a comic event called Circle of Four starting in issue #13 next week.
I think this has everything to do with another “Venom-like” character that Marvel publishes trying to steal the spotlight by celebrating his 50th anniversary this year and a new movie set to debut in July.