Sunday, October 22, 2017

Modern Marvel

Star Wars: Vader Down #1 Gamestop and Zing Exclusives

GameStop was created in 2000 when Barnes and Nobles merged newly acquired Babbage's Etc. with their Funco brand and renamed the combination GameStop.  In 2004 GameStop was spun off from Barnes and Nobles and the following year they acquired Electronic Boutique (EB) Games to become the world's largest video game retailer.

ZING Pop Culture is a retail store that caters to pop culture enthusiasts.  ZING is owned by GameStop and it's first store opened in Australia in 2014 and there are now 90 retail locations in Australia.  It has also expanded into Europe.

Vader Down has 45 different covers.  The GameStop retail store exclusive cover is a crashed X-Wing Fighter with Darth Vader's visage in the background.  There are shades of blue used on the cover.

Star Wars: Vader Down #1l - Marvel Comics, U.S. (November 2015)
GameStop retail exclusive
The GameStop PowerUp Rewards exclusive uses the same cover, except the artwork is in black and white and the smoke coming from the X-Wing has been removed.

Star Wars: Vader Down #1m - Marvel Comics, U.S. (November 2015)
GameStop PowerUp Rewards exclusive
The ZING exclusive also uses the same cover artwork as the other exclusives and the artwork is in black and white with no smoke.  What distinguishes this cover from the GameStop PowerUp Rewards exclusive is the GameStop logo has been replaced by the ZING logo.

Star Wars: Vader Down #1al - Marvel Comics, U.S. (November 2015)
ZING Pop Culture exclusive
Interestingly, GameStop owns ThinkGeek which has also released a Star Wars exclusive cover.

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