Marvel have been running a series of variant cover initiatives over the last few years, tying in to various trends of interests for the benefit of the speculator market. I mean, I don’t really know why there is such a thing as a ‘speculator market’ at all nowadays, but that’s besides the point. The newest initiative, though, was announced today at SDCC, and is so monumental that I’m going to have to issue a warning I haven’t done in years.

Everybody: this is a DARKSTAR ALERT.

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It has been years since I wrote for The Beat, but my unwavering commitment to Darkstar remains, uh, unwavering. The next variant cover initiative will be based around The Champions, the amazing comic put out decades back by writer Tony Isabella with artists like George Tuska. With a new series coming soon with a different set of characters in the lead, Marvel’s covers through October will see cast members old and new popping up alongside one another.

That includes Darkstar, who’ll be on the Black Widow variant by Phil Noto. Yes! Yes! Yes!

To see a full line-up, head to CBR.