NiFe WARS Comic Book #3 Blind Bag Launch | 10,000 Limited Edition Copies · 26 Variant Covers Including 12 One-of-Ones
COMICS
Issue #3 is the biggest, most ambitious book we have ever produced. New lead artist, new colorist, a new chase tier, our first ever ink covers, and eight distinct base covers across a 10,000-copy print run. The story jumps five years forward and takes the conflict off Earth entirely.
Here is everything you need to know.
TL;DR — Read This If You're In a Hurry
What it is: NiFe WARS Comic Book #3, sealed in a limited blind bag with 26 cover variants including 12 one-of-one sketch and ink covers, seeded across a 10,000-copy print run worldwide. The Blind Bag Edition will never be reprinted.
Why it matters: The Kamen Arc begins. A direct continuation of Issues #1 and #2, with new locations, new faces, and the first real look at what the Gray Alliance is hiding.
Brand new chase tier: The Gray /51 joins the holo ladder between NiFe and Gold.
First ever ink covers: Alongside sketch covers, Issue #3 introduces 1-of-1 ink covers for the first time in NiFe WARS history.
Eight base covers. No commons, no filler. Eight distinct pieces of artwork from eight artists, with the most plentiful at just 1,900 copies globally.
NFC-Verified: Every blind bag is NFC-chipped and registers to COLLECT, with verified ownership, provenance history, and leaderboard points based on rarity.
Holder Allocation Submissions: Sept 24 – Sept 30
Holder Pre-Order Window: Oct 1 – Oct 7 at $17.99 per bag
Public Launch: October 8, live at our NYCC Booth 1043 and online
👉 Shop NiFe WARS 👉 Set up your COLLECT account 👉 Get notified about future drops
What's Inside Issue #3
It's been five years since Emperor Temeluchus invaded Earth and hunted down Melcrose for the Pink Adallium in her blood.
The year is 3022. Enter Kamen, an asteroid locked in orbit around our planet, rich in NiFe, and mined by Grays and humans alike. Fragile ground. Shared ground. The kind the Galactic Treaty was written to keep peaceful.
A human spy goes deep into the alien mines, chasing a suspicion: that the Grays are hiding something down there that could ignite the very war the Treaty is holding back.
What she finds are Abborition workers and warriors pulling impossible amounts of NiFe from the rock, all of it guarding a single device.
The Blueprint.
Who is this spy? And what is her connection to Melcrose?
Read NiFe WARS #3. This is where the story takes off.
The Kamen Arc
Issue #3 is the first of a three-issue arc running through Issues #3, #4, and #5.
Issues #1 and #2 were the origin story: a family destroyed, a girl running, a god revealed. The Kamen Arc is the direct continuation of that story, picking up five years later and expanding it outward. New locations, new characters, and a conflict that is still deeply personal but now carries the weight of two civilizations behind it.
This is where NiFe WARS stops being a survival story and becomes a war story.
First Appearance: Yael
Readers have met Melcrose twice already, and both times at the edges of her own life.
In Issues #1 and #2 she is thirteen years old. A kid in a burning city, losing her mother, losing her father, losing Lumina, running into a forest with nothing. And the franchise has always shown you where that road ends: the half-machine general with the cybernetic eye, the version of her that appears on posters, on Youtooz shelves, and on some of the covers of Issue #1.
Issue #3 is the missing piece between those two people.
This is the first appearance of Yael, and it is the first time anyone sees Melcrose grown up and still entirely human. Eighteen years old. No augmentation. No cybernetics. Just a body that has been trained into a weapon and a mind that has spent five years sharpening itself into something the Gray Alliance has no answer for.
The design reflects that. The heavy dark cloak and deep hood. The holographic hex-pattern mask across the lower half of her face. The compact blade at her hip. The anti-gravity boots. Every element is tactical, earned, and entirely external. She is not powerful because of what has been done to her body. Not yet. She is powerful because of what she has made herself into.
Yael is the operative name. Melcrose is who she was. And the Kamen Arc is the story of everything that happens between the girl in the forest and the cyborg we have come to know as the protagonist of this universe, including the events that take her from one to the other.
The Creative Team
Issue #3 marks a significant evolution in how we make these books, and it comes down to three names.
Caanan White — Interior Layouts
Caanan White handles the interior page layouts, shaping the storytelling architecture across all 22 pages. A 20-year veteran of Marvel, Avatar Press, and Top Cow, best known for Über with Kieron Gillen and The Harlem Hellfighters with Max Brooks. He also contributes two base covers to the run.
Ademir Leal — Lead Artist
Ademir Leal takes over as the lead comic book artist for NiFe WARS going forward, handling pencils and inks across the full interior of Issue #3. He comes to us off Inanna: The Name She Lost at Vault Comics with Tim Seeley.
We'll say it plainly: Ademir is a genius. His line work has a precision and a sense of motion that very few artists working today can match. Every panel in this book has weight to it. The stalking sequences in the mines feel genuinely tense. The speeder chase across open asteroid surface reads at full speed. The fight choreography is legible in a way most comic action simply isn't.
His artwork is also the foundation for all six holo chase variants, and he delivered the main cover for the issue. We believe he is one of the best in the industry, and Issue #3 is the book that proves it.
Marcos Martins — Colors
Marcos Martins joins on colors, and the fit is perfect.
NiFe WARS is a sci-fi universe, and Marcos colors sci-fi better than anyone. The warm industrial orange of the alien mines against the cold blue of exposed NiFe veins. The stark black of open space against the neon density of the Nexus Zone. The way energy reads as genuinely dangerous rather than decorative. His palette is exactly the visual language this franchise has been reaching for since Issue #1.
Put Ademir's pencils and inks underneath Marcos's colors and you get the best-looking book we have ever published. It isn't close.
Eight Base Covers. Zero Commons.
Here is something we want to be clear about, because nobody else in the industry is doing this.
NiFe WARS blind bags do not have a "common" or a "base" cover.
Issue #3 has eight distinct base covers, each from a different artist, each with its own print run. The most plentiful sits at 1,900 copies out of 10,000. In the wider comic market, a 1,900-copy print run already qualifies as a rare book on day one.
What that means practically: the odds of ripping four or five NiFe WARS blind bags and pulling the same cover twice are close to zero. Every bag is a genuinely different reveal.
Ademir Leal — Main Cover /1,900
Brazilian artist with over a decade in the industry, known for Inanna: The Name She Lost at Vault Comics alongside Eisner-nominated writer Tim Seeley. His credits span comic interiors and covers, novel illustrations for Conan and Dracula titles, and video game key art for Strategic Command and Ardennes Offensive.
He delivers the main cover for Issue #3 alongside the full interior pencils and inks. His Yael is the definitive first look at the character: hooded, blade deployed, mid-motion.
→ Read more about Ademir on the NiFe WARS Creators page
Caanan White — Variant Cover /1,650
A 20-year veteran who broke in at Marvel and Dabel Brothers in 2006. Best known for Über at Avatar Press with Kieron Gillen and The Harlem Hellfighters with Max Brooks, plus Son of Shaolin at Top Cow and cover work on Marvel's Luke Cage: Gang War. He currently serves as Art Director at Rippaverse.
Caanan handles the interior page layouts for Issue #3 and delivers two covers to the run. This one is colored by Paris Alleyne.
→ Read more about Caanan on the NiFe WARS Creators page
José Renato Soares — Variant Cover /1,500
José Renato Soares is a Brazilian illustrator and concept artist whose painterly, cinematic work is instantly recognizable. He is also the lead FANTASY artist for the upcoming NiFe WARS Trading Card Collection. His Issue #2 cover was a fan favorite, and he returns here with a piece that leans hard into the imperial side of this universe.
→ Read more about José on the NiFe WARS Creators page
Serg Acuña — Variant Cover /1,200
Serg Acuña was the lead artist on Issues #1 and #2 and remains a cornerstone of the franchise. His credits include DC Comics (Nightwing, Birds of Prey, The Flash, Batman: Urban Legends), Marvel, BOOM! Studios (WWE, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly), and Netflix's Love, Death + Robots.
→ Read more about Serg on the NiFe WARS Creators page → Follow him on Instagram: @sergacuna
Mary Landro — Variant Cover /1,100
Canadian artist based in Edmonton with a signature dark, gritty aesthetic balanced by a bold command of color. She is a contracted artist at McFarlane Productions, with indie credits including all three volumes of Rubicon (Comic Works Studios), Girl's Night Out (Warn Everyone Comics), Moonrise, and Frankenstein: The Unconquered.
She is also the creator of her own original fantasy series, The Gray, currently running on Webtoon. With 227K Instagram followers, she is one of the most organically followed independent comic artists working today.
→ Read more about Mary on the NiFe WARS Creators page
Rudyao — Variant Cover /850
The professional name of Indonesian artist Rudy Nurdiawan, a Bandung-based cover artist and self-taught traditional painter whose rich, moody acrylic-on-board style has made him a sought-after contributor across DC Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, and TidalWave Productions.
He is known for atmospheric, character-driven painted covers, including striking interpretations of Batman, Darkseid, Galactus, and Silver Surfer. His hand-painted originals command serious attention in the collector market.
→ Read more about RudyAO on the NiFe WARS Creators page
Elton Thomasi — Variant Cover /550
Brazilian penciller based in Rio de Janeiro with over a decade of credits across Marvel, DC, and top independent publishers. Since 2012 he has contributed trading card art to both Marvel and DC, then moved into interiors on Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension (Titan Comics), Animosity (AfterShock, with writer Marguerite Bennett), and RoboForce (Oni Press).
He is also lead artist and original character designer behind the superhero universe INFRARED. One of the two scarcest base covers in Issue #3.
→ Read more about Elton on the NiFe WARS Creators page
Caanan White — Alt Cover /550
Caanan's second cover for Issue #3, and a genuinely different object from his first. Same line work, completely different visual identity, because this one is colored by Nestor Redulla Jr. instead of Paris Alleyne. Tied with Elton Thomasi for the scarcest base cover in the run.
The Chase Ladder, and a Brand New Tier
All six holo chase variants for Issue #3 use Ademir Leal's artwork.
Introducing: The Gray /51
This is the first new chase tier we have added since launching the blind bag format, and it slots between NiFe and Gold on the ladder.
The Gray is a double reference. The Grays are the alien empire at the center of the NiFe WARS universe, the Gray Alliance whose mines this issue takes us inside. And the print run, 51 copies, is a direct nod to Area 51, the most famous three digits in the mythology of alien contact.
The design follows the concept: the character is rendered greyed-out and desaturated, sitting against a green holographic field. It is the most visually distinct chase variant in the NiFe WARS run so far, and it will appear in every future Blind Bag Issue from here forward.
Twelve One-of-Ones, and Our First Ever Ink Covers
Issue #3 carries 12 one-of-one covers, our biggest one-of-one pool yet.
Seven are sketch covers, the raw pencil art with no color, each a unique original.
Five are ink covers, and this is the first time we have ever produced them. Where a sketch cover shows the pencils, an ink cover shows the finished line work before color, a completely different aesthetic and a format that serious comic collectors have chased for decades.
Every one of the twelve is numbered, NFC-chipped, and exists exactly once in the world.
Why 10,000 Copies
Issues #1 and #2 were both capped at 5,000. Issue #3 doubles that to 10,000, and we want to explain why.
Since Issue #2 launched, wholesale and retail demand for NiFe WARS has grown faster than anything we projected. Comic shops, online retailers, and live sellers across the country are requesting allocations we simply could not fill at 5,000 copies. Issue #2's wholesale allocation was fully depleted well ahead of schedule.
We had two options. Keep the run artificially small and turn away the retailers who are actively putting NiFe WARS on shelves and into the hands of new readers. Or print more and get the book to more people.
We chose more people.
The rarity structure holds. The holo tiers stay tight, and the sketch and ink covers are still one-of-ones.
We also used the larger run to add more collector value, not less. Issue #3 brings eight base covers, a brand new chase tier, and twelve one-of-ones. There is materially more to chase in every bag than there was in Issue #2, which makes ripping them more exciting regardless of how many exist.
One more thing: from Issue #3 onward, every blind bag comic ships bagged and boarded. All 10,000 of them. Maximum protection out of the box, whether you're grading it, displaying it, or storing it.
Every Copy Connects to COLLECT
Every one of the 10,000 copies is NFC-chipped. Hold your phone near the chip on the back cover, tap the notification that appears on your screen, and your comic connects to its permanent record at collect.nifewars.com.
From there:
Your copy joins your collection, logged by cover variant, print number, and rarity tier.
Authenticity is proven at the source. Each chip is paired 1:1 with a specific book at the factory.
You earn leaderboard points based on rarity. The Gray, Adallium, and the one-of-ones move you up the ranks fastest.
Provenance follows the book. Sell or trade it and the ownership chain updates automatically, with your name permanently in that book's history.
Want the full breakdown? Read NiFe WARS Collect: The Platform That Changes What It Means to Own a Collectible.
The Launch Timeline
📣 Sept 24 – Sept 30 — Holder Allocation Submissions Open
The Holder Allocation Portal is open. Submit your wallet, request the allocation you want, and we'll process submissions ahead of the pre-order window.
🔐 Oct 1 – Oct 7 — Holder Pre-Order Window
Eligible holders can pre-order Issue #3 blind bags at $17.99 per bag, ahead of the public.
🚀 Oct 8 — Public Launch at NYCC
Issue #3 launches publicly on October 8, the opening day of New York Comic Con, live from Booth 1043 and online at shop.nifewars.com.
This is the first time anyone outside the team sees what happens after Issue #2, and we're doing it in person at the biggest comic convention in the country. Come to the booth, buy a bag, rip it on the spot, get it signed by the founders physically and digitally verified on COLLECT.
→ Read the full NYCC announcement
Running a comic shop, online store, or Whatnot channel? Apply for wholesale access at wholesale.nifewars.com.
Three Issues In. The Anime Is Still the Destination.
The endgame for NiFe WARS has never changed: an anime series on a major streaming platform.
The infrastructure is real. A 1,000+ page story bible. A 100+ character cast. A full season of scripted anime episodes. And an animated trailer produced by Powerhouse Animation, the studio behind Castlevania, Blood of Zeus, and Devil May Cry.
Streamers greenlight on proof of audience. Every book claimed on COLLECT is a data point. Doubling the print run for Issue #3 doubles the number of people who can become part of that proof.
Stay Ahead of What's Coming
The Kamen Arc continues in Issues #4 and #5. Alongside it: upwards of 30 retailer exclusive covers at NYCC, the NiFe WARS Trading Card Collection, Metal Cards, and more.
