Marvel Comics has formally unveiled a new variant cover series centered around the fan-favorite Micronauts.
Marvel previously revealed artist Pete Woods’ Micronauts Variant Cover for Deadpool #1 — on sale Wednesday, April 3. The publisher has now shared four more covers as part of this series celebrating subatomic superheroes Commander Rann, Princess Mari, Biotron, Acroyear, and Bug.
In addition to Deadpool #1, April 3 sees the release of Venom #32, featuring a Micronauts cover by Nick Bradshaw, and X-Men #33, featuring a variant by Taurin Clarke. Things continue on Wednesday, April 17 with Avengers #13, which features a Micronauts variant by Mike McKone. Finally, artist David Marquez wraps things up with a variant cover for Amazing Spider-Man #48 on Wednesday, April 24.
Check out Marvel’s five Micronauts Variant Covers below:
The Micronauts are getting a new Marvel omnibus edition
The Micronauts Variant Covers coincide with the release of Micronauts: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 1 — which hits comic shops on Wednesday, April 16. The 744-page hardcover collects Micronauts #1-29, Micronauts Annual #1-2, and material from Micronauts Special Edition #1-5.
Marvel Comics originally licensed Micronauts — a toy line created by the now-defunct Mego Corporation — in the late 1970s. (Mego itself based Micronauts on Takara’s Microman toy line, which it had licensed.) The House of Ideas’ first ongoing Micronauts series ran for 59 issues from 1979 to 1984. A pair of annuals released in 1979 and 1980, respectively.
Micronauts Special Edition — a five-issue limited series reprinting material from Micronauts #1-12 and #25 — ran from 1983 to 1984. Additionally, a four-issue crossover series titled X-Men and the Micronauts ran throughout early 1984.
Marvel’s second ongoing Micronauts series ran for 20 issues from 1984 to 1986, at which point the publisher’s license lapsed. That said, Micronauts characters owned by Marvel — such as Princess Mari (aka Marionette), Arcturus Rann, and Bug — have continued to appear in the publisher’s comics over the years. Subsequent Micronauts comic series were published by Image Comics, Devil’s Due Publishing, and IDW Publishing.
These days, Micronauts is a Hasbro property. However, Marvel renewed its licensing deal with Hasbro last year, thus paving the way for the new Micronauts omnibus and variant covers. As part of the deal, Marvel and Hasbro are also putting out new Rom collections.
