10 Comic Book Cover Gimmicks That Cheapened Great Characters

9. Guest Characters

Did you ever gone to a high school party where you didn't know anyone? Probably not, but you WOULD go if you heard that hot guy on the basketball team with the tribal tattoo, devil-may-care attitude and the dirt-bike was there. Comic books creators know that that's the best way to sell some of their wares as well, invoking the same feeling using cover cameos. If a character is new or unpopular, it makes sense to have a popular character appear on the cover to boost sales, but often the cameos are nothing more than a quick "hi-goodbye" from the hero. I read a Spider-Man comic once where Thor flew by Spider-Man and he got caught in his air funnel. For one panel. Of course, the paragon saint of this trope is none other than... Example: Wolverine Wolverine used to only be associated with the X-Men, but then he started becoming Marvel's brooding equivalent to Batman, making his popularity skyrocket. And once the character started gaining a fan-base, everybody tried to get the Canadian Carpet into any comic they could, whether it made sense or not. See above: Anita Blake is a vampire hunter, Wolverine is a mutant superhero. Why would they meet? He is not a vampire, and she wouldn't register on his "to fight" list. And the funny thing is that they don 't even meet. If you look closely (and it has to be REALLY closely,) you can see that the cover clearly states that Wolverine NEVER appears. So the hook for this issue is an outright lie.