Marvel: The Hip-Hop Covers Vol 1 – top talent collected

A bit of a divergence this week as we take a dip into the world of comic art books! Variant covers are very much the norm these days when it comes to new comics. It’s hard to resist sometimes double dipping on the same comic with some of the great cover choices available. But then it gets even harder when Marvel release an entire line of variants featuring recreations of great hip hop album covers and due to their popularity release another round. Thankfully, Marvel has presented a way you can see all these great covers in one convenient place in Marvel: The Hip-Hop Covers Vol. 1.

Whilst this may come off as an unconventional combination, reading Ta-Nahisi Coates’ introduction will put you at ease as he explains how hip hop and Marvel Comics helped guide him through his youth, and how there are more themes crossing over than you would expect. After that, you have over fifty covers by some of the top talent working across the comic industry. As you would expect, there are plenty by long-time established Marvel regulars including Jim Cheung putting the Avengers in the place of The Roots on the cover for Illadelph Halflife, Mike Deodato Jr’s tribute to Madvillain’s Madvillainy featuring Thor, Adi Granov’s great take on Nas’s Illmatic featuring Miles Morales, and Alex Maleev making a return to Daredevil in a great interpretation of 2Pac’s Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.. But another perk of this collection are seeing rising star artists such Vanesa Del Rey (whose Vision version of Wiz Khalifa’s Rolling Papers is pretty dope), comic legends such as Brian Stelfreeze (who provides a great alternate cover to his first issue of Black Panther featuring a take on Jay Z’s Black Album and an even cooler version of 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Trying cover featuring Iron Man) and artists who you wouldn’t typically see on superhero books such as Hip Hop Family Tree creator Ed Piskor (whose two covers for All-New X-Men and New Avengers are my personal favourites of the collection) all together in one diverse collection.

If you’re not a fan of collecting individual variant covers, this is a great opportunity to get some of Marvel’s best and most imaginative covers in recent years all in one place. And even if you’re not a fan of hip hop, the sheer level of diverse talent on display here is simply too strong to overlook. This is well worth a place in any comic art fan’s collection.

Marvel: The Hip-Hop Covers Vol 1 is published 4 October

9781302902339 h/b £25.99