Exclusive AXIS #1 Launch Party Cover From Eisner-Winning Artist Chip Zdarsky

Chip Zdarsky, Eisner-winning artist of Sex Criminals and That Guy From The Applebees, has provided Marvel with a variant cover for AXIS #1 to be provided exclusively to retailers having launch parties for the upcoming, Rick Remender-penned event series.

Marvel Comics have provided it to ComicBook.com to exclusively premiere for our readers. You can see it above -- and better looks at the two halves below.

Please forgive the fact that the trade dress hasn't been set into this cover yet, so Iron Man's joke is a bit confusing if you don't know what the AXIS logo looks like. You can see it here.

Up top, some of Marvel's premiere superheroes are talking about the series -- and Deadpool doesn't get it. It's a clever inversion of Deadpool's genre-savvy, and makes it one of the cooler Deadpool variants Marvel has done in a while.

On the bottom, it's the villains' turn -- and there's still some genre-savvy going on there, too, with Hobgoblin pointing out that he's "just a recolored Green Goblin," which is a common critique of the character but most telling here becauase the original cover for AXIS #1 featured Green Goblin, not Hobgoblin -- and only the colors were changed, nothing else about the art.

Here's the solicitation text for AXIS #1, on sale in October:

AVENGERS & X-MEN: AXIS #1 (OF 9)

RICK REMENDER (W) • ADAM KUBERT (A)

Cover by JIM CHEUNG

Variant Cover by SKOTTIE YOUNG

DEADPOOL PARTY VARIANT COVER BY Chip Zdarsky

DEADPOOL PARTY SKETCH VARIANT COVER BY Chip Zdarsky

VARIANT COVER BY MILO MANARA

INVERSION VARIANT COVER BY TBA

PREMIERE VARIANT COVER BY TBA

YOUNG GUNS COMPLETE VARIANT COVER

ACT I: THE RED SUPREMACY

• The Red Skull has exploited the gifts of the world's greatest telepath to broadcast pure hatred across the globe. Now, born of the murder of Charles Xavier, World War Hate has begun.

• Tony Stark discovers a secret truth that will upend not only his life, but also the lives of everyone he cares for.

• Can The Avengers and X-Men finally unite? Would their combined strength be enough to hold back the darkness of the Red Onslaught?

• Magneto murdered the wrong man, releasing the greatest evil the Marvel Universe has ever known. Now Rogue and Scarlet Witch are all that stand in its way.

40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99