It’s Hollywood’s worst-kept secret that Marvel and all the subsidiary branches that fall under it have a checkered history when it comes to sharing the wealth. When Victoria Alonso was fired from Marvel Studios in 2023, part of the report detailed the awful treatment of VFX workers in the form of poor working conditions and inadequate pay. Another aspect of the report claimed that Alonso was part of the problem, and although the claim was never substantiated and faded into the background, it became yet another blemish on a very rough record for Marvel.
2022 was a checkered year for Marvel Studios, with the Black Panther sequel Wakanda Forever being largely viewed as a success, while Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness garnered divisive reactions and Thor: Love and Thunder currently sitting as the fourth-lowest-rated Marvel movie ever according to Rotten Tomatoes (63% approval rating from critics and 76% from general audiences, not bad for fourth-worst on a 34-entry list).
However, one of the bright spots of the year came on October 18 when Marvel SNAP was released. Although the game went on to win Mobile Game of the Year at the 2022 Game Awards, it too has had its share of issues, one of which led to artists involved with the game speaking out on their personal social media accounts.
Jen Bartel Was Not Paid for Her Emperor Hulkling Card in Marvel Snap
On her personal X account, artist Jen Bartel revealed that she was not paid for the Emperor Hulkling card which made it into Marvel SNAP as a one-for-one creation. In a thread below her original post, Bartel goes into detail, saying that because Marvel Comics artists have to license over all of their work, they are essentially signing over the rights for Marvel to use this work in any way they see fit, without payment or residuals of any kind. While Bartel was certainly paid for her work developing the cover for Lords of Empyre: Emperor Hulkling 1, she has not received anything for the card being in the game, despite it only being available in Marvel SNAP through purchase.
However, this isn’t the case for all Marvel SNAP variant cards. Some cards are original creations from other comic book artists such as Flaviano Armentaro or Dan Hipp. On an episode of Cozy Fireside Chat on the Cozy Snap YouTube page, Hipp detailed the process of creating art for Marvel Snap, highlighting that he was paid for his original creations for the game. So, while Marvel SNAP has some plausible deniability that it can technically say no artists go unpaid, the app is earning money from all of its purchasable cards, yet only paying artists for some of them.
Source of Creation Should Not Dictate Payment for Marvel SNAP
In short, those who create an original piece of art for Marvel SNAP are compensated, but Marvel SNAP can charge money for cards using comic book artists’ art without paying royalties or residuals. SNAP was developed by Second Dinner, which is a nine-figure company that has earned north of $200 million just from Marvel SNAP alone. It’s time to pony up and pay artists for their work being used in the game, regardless of whether it’s an original Marvel SNAP creation or being pulled from a Marvel comic book.
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