Cover Artwork Dates

Seasick Pirate

Not a game-changing issue here. But is there a reason that not all toon’s cover artwork have the years of publication?

I seem to recall this came up years ago, with the original point being the publication years being incorrect. I feel like it was resolved, but I didn’t agree with the reasoning at the time, so I probably ignored it.

Now we have several toons who are without dated artwork, and I’m curious why not?

Didn’t do a deep-dive, but here are some examples that I thinks show inconsistencies. Even if it is original artwork for the character to appear in MPQ, why not put the date?

Does NOT have year:
Moonstone
5* Gwenom
3* & 5* Jeff the Shark
Spider-Man OSCORP
4* Doc Ock
Samurai Daken
Talos
4* Iron Fist
Mordo
Vulture
Agent Coulson
Peggy Carter

Does have year:
4* She-Hulk
Wong
3* Gwen
Gorr
4* Loki-gator
Hydra Stomper
Ghost

While I’m here.. is anyone bothered by Spider-Ham’s cover being the comic version, while the actual toon is based off the Spider-Verse character? Give him his own original cover so when the “Classic” toon arrives (3* + 5* Pork Grind #please) they are distinguishable.

Aweberman

I will observe that the reason why many of these do not have dates listed is because they are not actually covers for comic books. Increasingly, they have opted for original artwork for new characters, especially ones that come from movies -- and double especially original characters. Of the ones on your list, these are not comics:

5* Jeffrey (note that the bar at the top says "exclusive" and the cover artist is Broken Circle Studio)
Spider-Man (Oscorp) (cover artist: Broken Circle Studios)
Doc Ock (note the text says "inspired by Marvel Studios Spider-Man")
Wolverine (Samurai Daken) (original character)
4* Iron Fist (based on TV show)
Mordo (based on movie; character is different from comics)
Vulture (based on movie)
Peggy Carter (original charater)

Meanwhile, this one does have a date attached:

Moonstone: Dark Avengers (2009) #2

And these do seem to be missing that information:

3* Jeffrey (from Captain Marvel #42 (legacy #176), variant edition)
Agent Coulson (from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1, variant edition)

I would argue these have a date listed simply because the Marvel Studios artwork provided was designed to look like a comic cover (even though it technically isn't) and has a date on the cover:

4* She-Hulk
Wong
Gorr

Ultimately, though, I imagine the reason a date was provided originally was so that a person could locate that actual comic book, if they wanted. Even then, due to the multitude of identically-named books, the date is not often relevant. As a random example: the cover for Kitty Pryde is listed as coming from "Uncanny X-Men (1963) #537", which was actually released in 2011.

DAZ0273

@Aweberman said:
I will observe that the reason why many of these do not have dates listed is because they are not actually covers for comic books. Increasingly, they have opted for original artwork for new characters, especially ones that come from movies -- and double especially original characters. Of the ones on your list, these are not comics:

5* Jeffrey (note that the bar at the top says "exclusive" and the cover artist is Broken Circle Studio)
Spider-Man (Oscorp) (cover artist: Broken Circle Studios)
Doc Ock (note the text says "inspired by Marvel Studios Spider-Man")
Wolverine (Samurai Daken) (original character)
4* Iron Fist (based on TV show)
Mordo (based on movie; character is different from comics)
Vulture (based on movie)
Peggy Carter (original charater)

Meanwhile, this one does have a date attached:

Moonstone: Dark Avengers (2009) #2

And these do seem to be missing that information:

3* Jeffrey (from Captain Marvel #42 (legacy #176), variant edition)
Agent Coulson (from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1, variant edition)

I would argue these have a date listed simply because the Marvel Studios artwork provided was designed to look like a comic cover (even though it technically isn't) and has a date on the cover:

4* She-Hulk
Wong
Gorr

Ultimately, though, I imagine the reason a date was provided originally was so that a person could locate that actual comic book, if they wanted. Even then, due to the multitude of identically-named books, the date is not often relevant. As a random example: the cover for Kitty Pryde is listed as coming from "Uncanny X-Men (1963) #537", which was actually released in 2011.

Uncanny X-Men despite being cancelled in the 70's never relaunched with a new no.1 (it re-started at issue #94) so the 1963 reference is in relation to this issue being part of an unbroken run of the comic being published since it debuted (all be it with actual gaps in publication). So yeah, that has nothing to do with date the issue itself was published, just which run it belongs to.

dianetics

I stopped looking for continuity in video games based off comic books more than a decade ago.