Spider-Verse Variant Covers: All 28 Marvel Covers for May 2023

Edge of Spider-Verse and the May 2023 variant covers, explained

Marvel put the multiverse on its May 2023 shelves. Edge of Spider-Verse returned as a four-issue series, with the first issue on sale May 3, 2023, and the publisher built a cover program around it: 28 Spider-Verse variant covers spread across the month's releases, each showing a different hero as the one bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker. Marvel announced the plan on February 15, 2023.

The timing was deliberate. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the sequel to Into the Spider-Verse, opened in US theaters on June 2, 2023, with Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson directing. The comics were a lead-in for fans who wanted more of the multiverse before the movie arrived.

The covers drew on some of Marvel's top artists, who were given a simple prompt: what if Captain Marvel, Storm, Thor, Deadpool or even the Beyonder had been bitten instead? The covers landed on ongoing series from Wolverine to Doctor Strange.

What the Edge of Spider-Verse series offered

Edge of Spider-Verse is an anthology title, a format with history. The original Edge of Spider-Verse in 2014 introduced Spider-Gwen, created by Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez, in its second issue, and helped set up the Spider-Verse event written by Dan Slott and others. The 2023 series revived that idea, with short stories about new and odd Spider-characters.

Karla Pacheco and Pere Pérez brought back Spider-Rex and pitted him against the all-new Venomsaurus. Zander Cannon introduced the Spider-Killer, billed as the scariest Spider-character ever created. David Hein, writer of the Broadway hit Come From Away, reunited with artist Luciano Vecchio for a story starring Spinstress, a magical Spider-hero who sings her way into the biggest fight of her life.

How the 28 covers break down

Counting the list shows where Marvel focused. The X-Men line takes six covers: Immortal X-Men, Rogue & Gambit, Wolverine, X-Men Red, X-Force and X-Men. Two Captain America series and two Hulk-family books (Hulk Annual and She-Hulk) get a cover each, three Spider-adjacent titles (Red Goblin, Venom and Amazing Spider-Man) are included, and the street-level side is represented by Daredevil, Punisher, Moon Knight and Hellcat.

Luciano Vecchio appears twice in the program, drawing the X-Men Red variant and the Spinstress story in Edge of Spider-Verse itself, so the series and the covers share at least one artist.

The connecting cover and the other variants

The series had its own variants as well. Josemaria Casanovas drew a connecting cover that runs across all four issues and spotlights Spider-Rex, Venomsaurus and the Spider-Killer. Ken Lashley drew a variant for issue 1 with the first detailed look at the Spider-Killer. Other covers listed for the series came from Skottie Young, ChrisCross and Chris Sotomayor, Peach Momoko and Patrick Brown.

All 28 Spider-Verse variant covers for May 2023

Exact on-sale weeks varied across Marvel's own listings, so this table groups the covers by title and artist only.

Spider-Verse variant covers worth tracking down

With 28 covers, collectors will want a short list. Peach Momoko's Deadpool #7 is the obvious draw, since her painterly style is recognizable across the industry, and John Cassaday's Punisher #12 pairs a classic veteran with one of the more unusual alternate heroes. Jen Bartel's She-Hulk #13 and Leinil Francis Yu's Wolverine #33 are the type of cover that sells itself on the artist's name.

The Spider-Verse variant idea works because it lets artists play with a simple rule. Each cover has to read instantly as that hero and also as a Spider-Man story, and the better ones keep both in the frame. The program also gives retailers a themed set to sell over the course of a month, with new covers arriving each week.

Anyone interested in the series itself should start with issue 1, which carries the Spider-Rex and Venomsaurus story and the debut of the Spider-Killer. For the cover program, the list above is the checklist.

Sources

• Spider-Verse, Wikipedia — comic event background and Edge of Spider-Verse publication