Summary
A Marvel fan artist is accusingMarvel Snapof plagiarizing a piece of artwork they created about seven years ago and using the altered image in the mobile and PC-based card battler. The similarities between the piece of M’Baku fan art and one of the character’s correspondingMarvel Snapcards have some fans asking for answers and, possibly, financial compensation.
There are currently more than 270 differentcards inMarvel Snap, a game that has players trying to build the highest point totals across two out of three game areas by combining the powers of hero cards and the special effects of the zones they’re placed in. The cards players can collect are all based on Marvel superheroes and villains, and there are multiple art variants for each hero.
One of the characters featured in the game isBlack Panther’s M’Baku, a hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe despite his decades-long and storied history as one of Black Panther’s most frequently appearing villains. Artist Jason Kiantoro has shared an image of a piece of fan art he created of M’Baku in 2018, the year that the first film in the series was released, alongside a pixel art version of an in-game M’Baku card that, despite the medium change, bears a striking resemblance to his own artwork. While this card was added toMarvel Snapin 2022, Kiantoro said he made no money from his image, and he is now speaking up against the game as an example of artists profiting from others' work.
Fan Artist Takes Aim at Marvel Snap with Plagiarism Claim
Despite shifting to a pixel art style, there are several similarities between the two images. Both depict M’Baku with similar outfits and facial expressions, but the most obvious example is the character’s stance: charging forward, torso bent towards the viewer, right leg in front, left hand reaching out with fingers in a grasping motion, and his staff held behind him in the other hand. The comparison of images has also called the originality of some other cards' artwork into question, as others have brought up cards based onYoung Avengers member Wiccanand Sentry that they say closely resemble other artists' works.
The accusations of stolen art may not even be the biggest piece of drama to hit the game so far in 2025. In mid-January,Marvel Snapwas seemingly banned in the United Stateson a very temporary basis under the same congressional order that took TikTok offline nationwide, as the game’s then-publisher, Nuverse, is a subsidiary of TikTok owner Bytedance. Though the game was unavailable in the United States for less than two full days, publishing duties have been moved to in-house publisher Skystone Games, andMarvel Snaphas compensated affected players with a number of compensatory rewards.
