Marvel is paying homage to its own past with a series of No-Prize variant covers hitting shelves in February 2023.
No-Prizes were sent to Marvel Comics fans who noticed continuity errors and wrote to editor Stan Lee about them in the '60s. Essentially, writing to Lee meant fans might receive a reply in which they didn't receive any kind of reward other than the response itself. If there was no prize, there could be no "winner" in a conversation about continuity errors.
Later, as noted by Marvel, No-Prizes were given out to fans who could come up with creative reasons to explain away continuity errors. After Lee stepped away as editor, No-Prizes declined.'
Now, Marvel is bringing them back - sort of. The publisher will release special No-Prize variant covers for issues of Amazing Spider-Man, Black Panther, and the Hulk next year. Each one features a standard-sized envelope featuring the titular character and text explaining that the recipient - in this case, the person purchasing the variant cover - has gotten a No-Prize.
Marvel has announced several special and/or celebratory variant cover programs in recent weeks, including a year's worth of Disney 100 variants featuring Mickey and friends in classic comics homage covers, another set of covers paying homage to its own past with new and modern characters, and its 2023 Stormbreakers variants.
Check out the No-Prize covers in the gallery below.
The Amazing Spider-Man #19 and Black Panther #14 will be available February 8, 2023. Hulk #12 will follow one week later, on February 15, 2023.
Check out all the new Spider-Man comics and collections from Marvel arriving in 2022 and 2023.
