Marvel has 37 planned variant covers for Eternals #1, which include a re-used 'hidden gem' variant by the late Jack Kirby (the Eternals' creator), as well as a 'Kirby Crackle' variant - which appears to be some kind of blank variant with the familiar orbs of power that Kirby was so prone to drawing.
Now, the publisher has expanded the revealed covers with looks at five more planned variants from Khary Randolph, Jenny Frison, John Romita Jr., Arthur Adams, and most recently Frank Cho.
While 37 covers for a single issue isn't unprecedented, it's relatively rare. And that's still leaving it open for Marvel to negotiate retailer-exclusive variants which would add to the total.
"Celebrate the grand return of these iconic characters with stunning variant covers by some of Marvel’s most popular artists, featuring the most prominent Eternals characters side by side with your favorite Marvel heroes!" reads Marvel's reveal of the Eternals variant covers.
The artists with announced variants are Alex Ross, Peach Momoko, Alan Davis, Art Adams, Mahmud Asrar, Jen Bartel, Bosslogic, Russell Dauterman, Dave Johnson, Jeff Johnson, Mike Del Mundo, Jenny Frison, Rian Gonzales, Inhyuk Lee, J. Scott Campbell, Joe Quesada, Khary Randolph, Esad Ribic, Humberto Ramos, Walt Simonson, Ron Lim, Otto Schmidt, Superlog, Todd Nauck, Greg Land, Takashi Okazaki, Dan Panosian, Skottie Young, Leinil Francis Yu, and Frank Cho.
In addition to the 'hidden gem' variant by Kirby, there are additional such covers planned from John Romita Jr. and Brian Pelletier.
So far Marvel has revealed 18 of the variants:
"I said if I was ever to do a book again at Marvel, it would have to be something I've never done before. This is exactly that," GIllen said with the book's announcement Thursday.
Marvel has launched Eternals titles before, but never ahead of a major motion picture starring Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, and more. In a way, it appears similar to 2013's Guardians of the Galaxy comic book relaunch with Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven at the helm.
"Essentially 'Eternal' has to mean 'never going out of style' which means we're aiming for 'Instant classic,'" Gillen continued. "Also - fight scenes, horror, human drama, emotions, explosions. Comics!"
Eternals #1 goes on sale January 6.
