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Fan artist accuses Marvel Snap developer of plagiarism due to similarities between his work and M'Baku pixel variant card
The fanart in question was posted in 2018 while the Marvel Snap M'Baku pixel variant card was released in 2022

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The topic of ownership in art is a hot topic at the moment. We’ve become almost numb to news about generative AI stealing artwork, but an artist has now accused the developers of Marvel Snap of stealing his artwork to create their pixel variant of M'Baku. Artist Jason (Jay) Kiantoro posted on social media to bring attention to Marvel Snap’s developers to resolve the situation.
The social media post was made March 17, with a side-by-side comparison of the fanart that Jay Kiantoro first posted in 2018 with the pixel variant of M'Baku that was released in Marvel Snap in 2022. While Kiantaro’s work certainly doesn’t have the pixelated style of Marvel Snap’s version, there are definite similarities between the composition and pose of the two pieces of art. Kinatoro made the post, saying, “What’s funny, is for the past few months I’ve been repeatedly emailing Marvel Snap asking if I can work for them with no response ever lol.”

Kinatoro went on to comment that, because of the nature of fanart, he knows he has little recourse for compensation. Marvel owns the rights to the character, after all. After lamenting how common it is for artists to steal “poses, lighting, or design for (higher) commercial gain,” he said, “Plagiarism in art should not be a professional practice, period. Legally, there’s nothing any of us can do much about it but as always, this has happened many times to many other artists. The least we can do is discredit the ones who do them and their work.”
As of the time of writing, Marvel Snap hasn’t commented on the accusation. It isn’t clear if they will, considering that the card has been in the game for nearly three years at this point.
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