MARVEL vs. CAPCOM artist Bengus will have variant covers about his work this December

cnnradionews staff September 11, 2024

4 2 minutes read

In honor of the upcoming MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, it seems that Marvel is promoting the artwork of one of CAPCOM’s legends – the artist Bengus – with a bunch of upcoming variant covers across their comics line. Featuring Bengus’ signature character illustrations throughout his MARVEL vs. CAPCOM tenure, the covers are meant as character homages to the artist’s original concept art style and design – which had been a major influence across the art and gaming world.

Many fans may be too young to remember this, but the MARVEL vs. CAPCOM series of games was quite revolutionary to the superhero video game genre’s history. The fighting games borrowed heavily from both X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Superheroes becoming one of the first-ever generational upgrades in terms of gameplay and the popularizer of the tag-team battle mechanic in gaming in itself.

Atop of this, these series of games became very popular in both international internet cafes but also – the modern arcades of the 90s into the early 2000s. It’s place in history, which again was in many due thanks to much of Bengus’ early character designs, effectively helped evolve gaming as we know it. All by popularizing tag team and button smashing that essentially ended the arcade 2D scroller beat-em-ups as we entered a new type of video game fighting genre era. A time when cross-IP platforming felt fresh to gamers – a strategy that was so popular, it was then used in a legendary game shortly after…

Called Super Smash Brothers.

You can read more in the official press release.

New York, NY— September 9, 2024 — To coincide with the release of MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics this month, Marvel Comics will proudly feature artist Bengus’ original Marvel vs. Capcom character illustrations in a new line of variant covers this December.

The genre-defining game series has entertained fans for over 25 years. Known for its innovative gaming mechanics and memorable music, the epic crossover between Marvel and Capcom is also fondly remembered for designer Bengus’ iconic art style. Now, Bengus’ timeless depictions of Marvel characters grace the current comic book titles they’re either headlining or being featured in.

The MARVEL vs. CAPCOM VARIANT COVERS spotlight the following characters: