DC Pays Homage to Classic Comic Covers With New Variants

June 1, 2022, 10:11am

In August, DC will release a number of variant covers that pay homage to classic comic book covers — mostly from DC, but including a couple of beloved Marvel Comics covers, as well. And that’s independent of another variant cover, for DCeased: War of the Dead Gods, which features a tribute to Jim Lee’s X-Men #1 interconnected covers. So it’s a good month for retro variants, and we’ve got a look at all the ones released so far below. Throughout the month of August, DC is rolling out a number of variant covers paying homage to classic Marvel and DC comics, including special variants for the entire Harley Quinn weekly event.

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The DCeased: War of the Dead Gods cover is actually a set of interlocking covers by Dan Mora, which pays homage to the comic which both popularized the variant cover craze and also sold more copies than any other comic in modern history. No word on whether DC will also release a gatefold version that allows fans to see all the covers on one comic.

Guillem March provided a variant cover to Batman #126, out on August 2. The cover is a riff on The Amazing Spider-Man #316, one of Todd McFarlane’s most famous images of Venom, a character he co-created. McFarlane himself recently released a number of Scorched covers that can be assembled to form an homage to the Jim Lee X-Men cover. That same week, Dark Crisis #3 will feature a Mike Allred variant homaging the cover to Crisis on Infinite Earths #1 by the late, great George Pérez.

The Harley Quinn variant covers roll out: August 2 sees the release of Harley Quinn #18, with a variant that homages Batman #1 from 1940. The next week, August 9’s Harley Quinn #19 riffs on Detective Comics #38, which was the first appearance of Robin. August 16 sees the release of Harley Quinn #20, with a cover evocative of Detective Comics #359, featuring the first appearance of Batgirl. August 23 will feature a variant cover based on Batman: The Killing Joke, and August 30’s Harley Quinn Annual #1 adds Harley to Jim Lee’s Batman #608 cover. All of the Harley Quinn variant covers are provided by Ryan Sook.