Marvel's Avengers: Twilight Frank Miller Variant Cover Pays Homage to The Dark Knight Returns

It's one of the most striking images in all of comics: an aging Batman silhouetted by a lightning bolt in Frank Miller's DC epic The Dark Knight Returns. This January, the legendary Sin City and Daredevil: Born Again creator returns to Marvel Comics with a new variant cover for Avengers: Twilight, the six-issue limited series from writer Chip Zdarsky (Spider-Man, Daredevil) and artist Daniel Acuna (Captain America, Avengers Inc). Following a retired Steve Rogers and set in a future that needs to be avenged, Avengers: Twilight will present a new vision of Marvel's tomorrow with the dawn of the next Marvel age on January 14, 2024.

Marvel has unveiled the first of its Avengers: Twilight Lightning Bolt Variant Cover series paying homage to "a visionary of dark comic book storytelling." The matching covers, which will also be available as virgin variant covers, include Miller's take on the star-spangled Avenger and new pieces by Phil Noto (X-Men, Star Wars), Sara Pichelli (Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Scarlet Witch), Carmen Carnero (Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty, Captain Marvel), Ben Su (Shang-Chi, Punisher), and Declan Shalvey (Blade, Alien).

"Steve is the perfect character with which to see a changed future since he's been through that experience before coming out of WW2. His ethics and morals and outlook have a consistency to them, so seeing how he reacts to a changed America is always interesting, to me at least," Zdarsky told ComicBook in an interview. "And this future America is seemingly perfect, so Steve has to question whether or not to upset what his fellow Americans are comfortable with in pursuit of the truth." (See an exclusive sneak peek at Avengers: Twilight here, featuring a fallen Spider-Man.)

Per the official synopsis: "In a gleaming new world of prosperity, Captain America is no more. But Steve Rogers still exists, floating through an America where freedom is an illusion, where The Avengers are strangers and his friends are long dead. But is the Dream? How do you assemble Avengers in a world that doesn't want them?"