DC pays homage to classic comic covers with Harley Quinn, the Justice League, Batman, and more

DC homage variant cover — (Image credit: DC)

The trend of variant covers for modern comics which pay homage to classic covers from history is only growing. Following DC's reveal of a set of interlocking covers for DCeased: War of the Dead Gods by Dan Mora which form a tribute to Jim Lee's X-Men #1 interlocking covers from 1991, the publisher has unveiled a whole wave of homage variant covers as part of its August 2022 solicitations, including a set of tributes to classic Batman covers featuring Harley Quinn as her title goes weekly in August.

To start, Guillem March's cover for August 2's Batman #126 pays homage to Todd McFarlane's cover for Amazing Spider-Man #316, the original version of which shows Spider-Man being overpowered by Venom. Then the cover for August 2's Dark Crisis #3 from Mike Allred, seen here in pencil, pays tribute to George Perez's cover for Crisis on Infinite Earths #1.

Then there are the Harley variants, all drawn by Ryan Sook, each of which channels a classic Batman cover, subbing in Harley Quinn for some of Batman's allies over the decades.

Article continues below

First, August 2's Harley Quinn #18 homage variant evokes the original cover of 1940's Batman #1. Then August 9's Harley Quinn #19 pays homage to Detective Comics #38, the first appearance of Robin.

The homage variant for August 16's Harley Quinn #20 channels Detective Comics #359, the original debut of Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, while Harley Quinn #21's variant pays homage to Brian Bolland's cover for Batman: The Killing Joke. Finally, the weekly story caps off in Harley Quinn Annual #1 with a cover that comes full circle by paying homage to Jim Lee's cover for Batman #608.

And though that's all of DC's official homage variants for August, there's a bonus tribute cover hiding in the solicitations, with Megan Hetrick's cover for August 23's Young Justice: Targets #2 channels the cover of Uncanny X-Men #141, the first part of the classic two-part 'Days of Future Past.'

Here's a gallery of all the covers:

Image 1 of 8

Check out all of DC's August 2022 solicitations right here.

Harley Quinn, one of the most popular citizens of Gotham, is going weekly in August, and you can keep up with all DC's new Batman comics planned for release in 2022 with our handy listing.

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011, and now I'm the Entertainment Writer at GamesRadar+. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)