Marvel Comics Offering Retailer Refunds After ‘Ultimate Endgame’ Blind Bags Cause Widespread Damage To Variant Covers
After giving readers even more reason to hate the concept of ‘blind bags’ by packaging said editions of Ultimate Endgame in a way that resulted in cover damage to nearly all of its print run, Marvel Comics is thankfully doing the bare minimum to make the situation right and offering retailer refunds for any such blemished covers – provided, of course, they take a rather definitive measure to prevent scalping.
Hitting shelves on the final day of 2025 and serving as the first salvo in Earth-6160’s climactic showdown with the Maker, understandably high sales expectations led Marvel Comics to choose Ultimate Endgame as their flagship attempt to ride the current ‘blind bag’ sales scheme, as pioneered by Image with Invincible Universe: Battle Beast Vol. 1 #1 and since adopted by other such publishers as IDW, DC, and even noted dependent creator and artist Mark Spears.
Unfortunately for those who felt compelled to fork over the extra cash for a chance to snag either an exclusive foil variant or a one-of-a-kind artist sketch – including two headshots each of Doctor Doom and Iron Man illustrated by the MCU’s own Robert Downey Jr. – many who rolled the dice discovered that the prize inside had been damaged by its enclosing polybag.
Though Marvel themselves have yet to offer any official communication on the matter despite ever-mounting complaints from customers, Bleeding Cool reports that their distributor, Penguin Random House, has reached out to retailers to both acknowledge the issue and offer them restitution for their damaged goods.
“Good afternoon, Thank you for providing the details for your recent claim, and we apologize for the damages you’ve experienced,” reads their email, as shared by Bleeding Cool. “We’ve shared the feedback with the publisher, and due to the size of this claim, stripped covers of this quantity have been requested to be sent to the Marvel office address below at customer expense. Dan Petraglia Marvel 1290 Avenue of the Americas, 2nd Floor New York, NY 10104”
And for those wondering, “stripped covers” means exactly what you may think, requiring retailers to physically rip the cover off of a given issue in order to send it back to its publisher, as done to avoid undue scalping or loss of value to a limited item.
At current, it’s unclear as to whether Ultimate Endgame‘s shipping woes were the fault of Penguin Random House, Marvel Comics, or one of their many contracted printing houses, as well as whether retailers will receive their refunds in the form of monetary credit or replacement stock.
Further, with many still out there to discover, it’s unknown just how retailers will be expected to handle the potential discovery of an artist sketch variant while unbagging issues for refunds (and for those curious, as of publication, none have been widely reported as having any relevant damage).
And in one final item, it should be explicitly noted that said refunds are only being offered to retailers, meaning any individual customer looking to take advantage of the offer would do best to inquire with their local comic book shop as to how to best proceed.
