My guess is, he either has them in the comic and losses them later on. Or its just a tiny mistake- artistic freedom made by the cover artist, not uncommon.
Kind of like the Mega Man 2 American cover featuring Mega Man holding a gun. The artist who painted it said while he was observing beta footage of the game, he asked folks what weapon mega man was holding, and someone said “probably a pistol” and so he drew a pistol instead of the iconic mega buster.
Happened to me also, back in 2023, when I was painting a cover for a short PS1-style VHS indie horror game, I was shown some screenshots of the killer, and I couldn’t tell what weapon the killer had because of the angles. So I asked the publisher what weapon is that, and was told “it’s a sickle, looks like a sickle” and so I drew a sickle. Later it turned out the weapon was a meat hook with d-style handle.