50 Times Covers Spoiled Comics (Spoiler Alert)

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***SPOILER ALERT***
Sometimes publishers will SPOIL a cover in order to increase sales. Sometimes it catches us by surprise, sometimes it’s subtle, and sometimes we didn’t even know it was a spoiler until years later!

#spoiled #cover #comicbooks

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32 thoughts on “50 Times Covers Spoiled Comics (Spoiler Alert)”

  1. Aquaman death of a prince collected edition straight up has aquababys tomb stone and mera yelling about it to Arthur… now death of prince might give it away but that could be about a few characters like orm

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  8. Spoiler covers are sometimes hard to tell. There have been some that show something, but it is vague enough where it doesn't "click" until after you read it. But, I definitely prefer a spoiler cover to a cover that has absolutely nothing to do with the book at all.

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  15. This seems to be a very deep misunderstanding of both what a true "spoiler" is and what covers are for in comics (and even more so what they are for in collected editions, which are typically sold to people who have a broad idea what they're buying before they buy it). A good story cannot be "spoiled" because any surprise is simply replaced with suspense. Even so, simply pointing to an event is not a spoiler. A spoiler is the reveal of a plot twist that the reader is not supposed to know is coming. A moment int he story where what was presented to you one way is shown to be otherwise. "Bruce Willis is dead" is a spoiler. "Bruce Willis saves Nakitomi Tower" isn't. We don't know for sure Bruce Willis will save Nakitomi Tower, but we know he either will or won't. In SIxth Sense the whole narrative is constructed to obscure that Bruce isn't alive. Shots are chosen and dialog arranged to hide the fact in plain sight.

    It's not a spoiler that Lois will find out Superman is Clark Kent in this issue (or whatever), because the story is about how that happens and what happens because of that event. The event itself isn't the point of the story, it's the inciting incident of a story that follows. Especially in that example, they'd been dancing with Lois's ignorance for decades. The fact that she could find out isn't a secret, it's the whole reason to pick up that issue if you haven't read the comic in a while. Finally she WILL find out! Let's see what happens next!

    The other one you showed in the intro, another Superman example, is also odd. Is it a shock that during an event that was heavily publicized as "The Death of Superman" they'd imply that, perhaps, maybe, Superman was dying in the interior pages? Or the Jason Todd one for that matter. The story was called A DEATH IN THE FAMILY. There was a phone call-in line for fans to vote on the least popular Robin at the time dying. It's not even remotely a spoiler that he dies. It's how and what happens after that's important to that story. The new status quo is the point.

    This is why it's on the cover. The cover is telling you the setup, the state-change occurring that will whet your appetite for future stories. That is what a cover is for. It's an advertisement for what's inside, and especially what might come next, and it will typically be the most dramatic, most enticing, or most visually interesting moment in the story. That's the whole point of it existing. The cover hooks you, the story keeps you, and now you're on board for next month's issue.

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  16. I remember that huge stack of Alpha Flight #12 on the table of my LCS. I bought it with a stack of other good stuff. And then as soon as I was out of the shop, flipped to the last page. OH NO!!!! I don't think that was best way to get to the reveal.

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  21. That X-Men 25 is a great cover, though. At the time, everyone knew what was going to happen. It was advertised as “The Death of Wolverine” to compete with DC. We all know about deaths in comics.

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  22. I think Spoiler covers were effective in getting people to pick up a book to see how we get to that big moment. I actually miss more specific & spoilery covers as opposed to the endless parade of pin-up/portrait covers. They all kinda blend together. I missed about a year of Wonder Woman comics during the era where Adam Hughes was doing covers and I bought one issue 3 different times from the back issue bin thinking it was a different issue because the covers all sorta blended together and I didn't have my list of missing issues with me. Ah. The days before smart phones made that sort of thing way easier to do.

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  24. Great list. Not sure you’ve done this yet but what about comics where the cover depicts something that never happens in book or a character who does not appear…you’ve probably done this one before

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  29. Definitely don’t mind the spoiler covers because they often become an iconic image. Like so many of the other commenters, the false covers are the worst. Those are obviously a cash grab.

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  31. just read it last night, Ultimate Team up #2, cover has spidey and hulk on it, yet they go on forever about a green monster on the loose with a phone call to ben urich and then an entire page of spidey wondering if its green goblin, and then they show a tiny piece of a green body sticking out, until you flip the page to reveal a double full page of who? yeah, the hulk. who'd a thunk it!!!

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