Marvel Meets Topps: When Superheroes and Baseball Players Collide

Did you know that Topps and Marvel teamed up to help bring to life what our favorite baseball players MIGHT look like if they were superheroes?  Today is Superhero day!  What happens when the minds at Marvel and Topps get together to create Baseball Superheroes? In a word:  Awesome!

Topps Collaborates With Marvel And The Result is Greatness!

Last August, Topps and Marvel announced a collaborative effort that combined the Topps baseball card process with the Marvel comic art for their Topps® BUNT® digital collectibles app.  Artists from Marvel imagined what a collision of superpowers and baseball talent would like to create superhero baseball cards.

Marvel artists Andrea Di Vito, Laura Villari, Scot Eaton, Wayne Faucher, Wil Quintana, Carlos Villa, and Brian Crosby provided work for the project. The original artwork includes digital enhancements.  Cards are interactive on mobile devices.  The cards come in sketch versions that allow you to colorize them.  Cards also can be tilted into motion.   Six players made up the introductory set.

“Our Marvel artists were inspired by each of the MLB players heroic traits and monikers, resulting in a collector set that we believe will appeal to not only baseball card collectors but MLB fans and Marvel fans,” says Marvel’s head of Marketing Mike Pasciullo on press release for the product rollout.

Great Art, Digital Innovation, And Baseball!

The players chosen for the project are Aaron Judge, Jacob Degrom, Kris Bryan, Mike Trout,  Bryce Harper, and Cleyton Kershaw.  The artwork shows passion and excitement about the project.  Aaron Judge looks great in a Thor-like pose with an Asgardian looking  judge’s gavel in his hand.  Mike Trout’s personality and dedication to the Anaheim Angels is captured perfectly as Angel. Jacob Degrom as a bionic batter terminator sums up his dominance over hitters.  These are some of the highlights in the set for me.

Topps and other card companies are no strangers to combining artwork into baseball cards.  Recent posts on 1933 Goudey Baseball cards and 1909-1911 T-206 illustrates how important artwork is to the history of sport card production, but the Topps/Marvel collaboration takes a whole new approach to the concept.  The baseball players literally morph into comic book superheroes!

Is There a Future For The Product?

In a word:  Yes!  Turning athletes into Superheroes drawn by your favorite artist?  Opening a baseball card on your phone and interacting with the design and graphics of the final look and feel of the card?  Sign me up!

However, these are not cards that will earn grades or sell on a secondary market.  You can’t buy a box of them and open up packs to see if you “pull” a rare card or parallel... yet.  They function as digital cards that interact with your phone.  The set is fun, interactive, and available as a digital platform.  

What About Other Sports Superstars?

Personally, I'd like to see what some artists will do with an MMA/Marvel crossover (I'm calling this!  This is my idea.  Message me when you are ready for me to be project manager!)

Many articles and fans take to the internet to create digital photos of their favorite sports players morphing into superheroes.  This article on NBA players turning into superheroes is a great example and Pinterest is loaded with NFL, Hockey, NBA, and Baseball players morphed into superheroes.  I’m sure fans will make their own posts on social media platforms today in honor of Superhero Day!

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