We took YOUR nominations for Cover of the Year and pitted them against each other in our brutal Cover vs. Cover Battle Brackets that generated tens of thousands of votes! YOU decided which covers moved on and which ones went home! From 64 nominated covers, YOUR votes whittled them down until there were only two—Steve Epting's CAPTAIN AMERICA #25 and Michael Turner's CIVIL WAR #7. Drum roll please...
And the winner is…
Steve Epting's CAPTAIN AMERICA #25!
"Given the huge amount of talent at Marvel right now, it's really an honor to have won cover of the year for Captain America #25," said Epting. "I had already done a cover for this issue and told [Executive Editor] Tom Brevoort that I really hated it (it's since been printed in the Cap OMNIBUS, #25 DIRECTOR'S CUT, etc...) so over a weekend I came up with this one. It's a simple idea, but those often seem to work the best, and I'm happy that it seems to have resonated with the fans."
Much like its namesake, CAPTAIN AMERICA #25 fought long and hard—topping the likes of Carlo Pagulayan's MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #23, Tom Grummet's MARVEL ADVENTURES THE AVENGERS #16, and Michael Turner's CIVIL WAR CHRONICLES #4 in the first round of voting.
In the second round, CAPTAIN AMERICA #25 proved its worth against Clayton Crain's SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN #38, Leinil Francis Yu's NEW AVENGERS #31, and Joe Madureira's ULTIMATES 3 #1.
The semi-finals featured a no-holds-barred match against Ron Garney's AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #539.
And, finally, in the championship round your voting helped CAPTAIN AMERICA #25 knock off Michael Turner's CIVIL WAR #7.
"If I had known that it was going to be this well-received, I'd have killed off Captain America years ago!" said Brevoort. "Heck, I'm going to kill him again next month, just for good measure! Anyway, all of the credit for this cover goes to Steve Epting, the Iron Man of our creative team, who's been applying his dramatic and realistic stylings to the series since we launched."
We here at Marvel.com would like to thank and commend all the artists nominated for this competition. And of course, thank YOU, True Believers, for your nominations, votes, and support of the Marvel Cover of the Year. We'll see you next year!
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