Captain America doesn’t need caffeine to fight Hydra. He’s already full of super serum. However, it wouldn’t hurt Tony Stark to have a cup of Joe before battling Ultron. His body needs a boost just as much as his suit. But whether an Avenger needs an extra kick in the morning or not, they can all appreciate some massively impressive sculptures of Marvel characters. An artist has captured those larger-than-life characters of the big screen in an unlikely little medium—coffee beans.
Italian artist Valeriano Fatica has carefully sculpted the faces of some of the MCU’s most recognizable characters in an especially challenging format. He crafted the visages of Nick Fury, Thanos, Iron Man, Hulk, and young Groot on individual coffee beans. (Which we first came across at Laughing Squid.) Using a tiny tool and a lot of care, he scrapped away small bits of the bean to recreate each Marvel figure. But despite the diminutive work space, these sculptures boast a ton of detail. Fatica really captured the many lines in Thanos’s chin and all of the grooves in Groot’s head. And we can feel Hulk’s rage from the creases in his brow.
These sculptures are so impressive, and require so much skill, it’s easy to forget these are coffee beans. If you didn’t see him holding them in his hands, or didn’t have any other objects nearby for reference, it would be easy to think these are full-sized replicas. (Although, if he made one of Ant-Man’s head it would technically be too big.)
Valeriano Fatica
You can order his Marvel bean heads from Fatica’s Etsy store. They cost 150.00 Euros each (roughly $180 US). Except for the painted Groot bean, which goes for double. As of now some of the works are sold out. But with more people learning about them, we imagine he’ll have a lot of backorders to catch up on.
That might require him to brew some beans rather than sculpt them. Which is understandable. Even some of Earth’s mightiest heroes need a little caffeine sometimes.
