A licensed variant is a second photograph of the same character under a contract. A parody cover is an argument with that photograph. If you cannot point to the argument — costume, caption, or trade dress — you do not have a parody. You have a problem.
In Bourton we keep a licensed Deadpool issue on the table during briefs, not because we copy it, but because the collector needs to say out loud what is being mocked. ‘Make it look like issue 45’ is not a brief. ‘Make the price box lie about the month’ is a brief.
Once the cover is an NFT, the metadata will travel farther than the paper. We write the homage source in plain language on the token sheet: the year, the layout, the joke. We do not write Marvel, and we do not use their corner box. Collectors who want the official mark should buy the official book.
The useful overlap is craft. Both objects need trim, bleed, and a red that survives a cheap phone screen. Both need an edition story you can repeat without blushing. The overlap ends at ownership of the face.
If you are allocating a number from our collector series, ask for the homage note before you mint. If the note only says ‘superhero with swords’, walk away. That cover has not decided what it is yet.