While most would celebrate sixty by going to bed early, this year sees Marvel celebrating the 60th anniversary of both the Avengers and the X-Men with two connecting variant covers courtesy of acclaimed artist Alex Ross. These two widescreen masterpieces will appear on consecutive issues from various Avengers and X-Men titles throughout 2023 to connect in something truly frame-worthy.
"In the case of the Avengers, I wanted to capture something of the era I grew up with, but also something extensive,” Ross said. “So I captured the first 30 years of that team, from the '60s through the '80s. I end where 1989 closes. I'm trying to make sure my work is aligning with how the character looked and also the attitudes the characters had." That image will make its debut with Uncanny Avengers #1, out in August.
"With the X-Men piece, I didn't originally make the design. I copied an existing classic cover design that everybody would know and connect to,” Ross added. “The X-Men piece is showing an accentuation of the action, where it's a split second difference later. Wolverine is completing a full attack swipe and everybody is attacking harder. I added in the bit with lightning coming from Storm, which would be a split second of movement." Of course, he's referring to Jim Lee’s legendary 1991 X-Men #1 cover.
Now aside from waiting for these summer releases, we can only hope they'll see these two portraits as prints one day. See them in all their glory, below.
