You may have noticed Marvel Comics variant covers of musicians, rappers, and other celebrities over the past few years. Today Marvel Comics bestowed that honor unto Ariell Johnson, as she becomes the first black, female comic book store owner on the East Coast to be honored with her own variant cover.
Ariell will appear on the November cover issue of Invincible Iron Man #1. The cover features Johnson having a meal with new Marvel superhero Riri Williams (also known as Ironheart), while Iron Man creator Tony Stark is surrounded by fans in the background.
A long-time comic book fan, 33 year old Johnson opened Amalgam Comics and Coffeehouse in Philadelphia last year. She made her space more welcoming to women, people of color, and LGBTQ customers. In addition to stocking the mainstream publishers, but independent creators also.
Marvel Comics and DC Comics have made recent strides to diversify their characters and covers. The most recent All New, All Different Marvel change-up – which swapped Bruce Banner for Amadeus Cho as the Hulk, brought about Riri Williams as Iron Man.
To see the variant collection visit Marvel
