Marvel Comics #1000 Gets D23 Exclusive Variant to Celebrate 80th Birthday

Marvel and Disney are celebrating the comic publisher's 80th birthday at the D23 2019 convention in Anaheim later this month, presenting a panel for the ambitious Marvel Comics #1000, and giving the book an exclusive event cover. On Thursday, D23 unveiled the officiail variant cover for Marvel Comics #1000, which features Mickey Mouse handing a birthday cake to Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Iron Man, and Captain America.

On Saturday, August 24th at 5:30 pm PT, Marvel and Disney will break down plenty of details about the book with a D23 panel featuring Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski and Executive Editor Tom Brevoort. Guests attending the panel will be given a copy of the D23 edition of the book.

You can take a look at the D23 cover for Marvel Comics #1000 below, drawn by Humberto Ramos with colors by Edgar Delgado.

Immortal Hulk writer Al Ewing is putting together the main story for Marvel Comics #1000, but the book will also feature contributions from Chris Claremont, Walt Simonson, Jason Aaron, Rob Liefeld, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Erik Larsen, George Perez, Peter David, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Brad Meltzer, Adam Goldberg, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Neil Gaiman, and many more.

"Marvel Comics #1000 is a big, almost 100-page special-edition that commemorates Marvel's 80th year of publishing comic books," said Brevoort. "The very first comic book that we did in 1939 was Marvel Comics #1, and this new story is a mystery that concerns a new artifact in the Marvel Universe that has its origins in that original Marvel Comics #1."

"The Eternity Mask is the central McGuffin," he continued. "It is a thing that's passed from character to character throughout the Marvel Universe, and by the end of this story, a new character that we are going to meet for the first time will have it now and will become a new player in the Marvel Universe going forward."

"The hardest part was to balance it out," added Ewing. "The book ended up as a mystery that segues into a party, and then rotates back to the mystery. Which is fun—as a reader, you're slowly lulled into a false sense of security, almost, and then we end by turning over a final card and showing you something big."

Ewing went on to explain a little more about the Eternity Mask, and the part it plays in the overall story of the comic.

"It's been around since the time of Camelot. It came to America during the revolution. It's the missing piece of the Marvel Universe. More than that, you'll have to read in Marvel Comics #1000 itself."

Are you looking forward to Marvel Comics #1000? Let us know in the comments!