I’ve really been enjoying the means to broadcast the awesome variant covers that have been coming our way from the Marvel Comics side of the fence and hopefully you’ve managed to secure a few of this month’s “Mary Jane Watson” variants if you are collecting this sort of thing. I lined out the assorted covers on THIS POST so make sure you give it a look over once more if you are in the comic book shop so you get them. Now its time for Marvel to celebrate the launch of the brand new title “Astonishing X-Men” which is hitting the racks in July. The full press release and the images that were provided from the Marvel Press team are below. I’ll close up with some thoughts at the end.
The Press Release:
Prepare to Be ASTONISHED With X-MEN TRADING CARD VARIANT COVERS! Celebrating The Launch of ASTONISHING X-MEN #1 This July! You read that right! We said X-MEN TRADING CARDS. As a team comprised of some of the most fan-favorite mutants ever assembled join forces in the pages of July’s ASTONISHING X-MEN #1, Marvel is bringing the fanfare and returning to one of the most iconic pieces of X-Men history by one of its most famed artists! To celebrate the launch of this must-read new series, Marvel’s Merry Mutants take your comic shop by storm throughout the month of July for a series of nearly thirty X-MEN TRADING CARD VARIANTS by legendary artist Jim Lee!
Remastered and recolored from the original trading cards, relive this iconic era of the Children of the Atom with a series of eye-popping covers. Originally penciled by legendary X-Men artist Jim Lee with inker Scott Williams, colorists such as Jesus Aburtov, Israel Silva & Chris Sotomayor apply modern coloring techniques to these classic masterpieces! Look for these can’t-miss X-MEN TRADING CARD VARIANTS on your favorite Marvel titles, coming exclusively to comic shops throughout the month of July:
1. ALL-NEW WOLVERINE #22 (Archangel)

2. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #30 (Bishop)
3. AVENGERS #9 (Mystique)

4. BLACK PANTHER #16 (Storm)

5. CABLE #3 (Cable)

6. CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE ROGERS #19 (Gambit)

7. CHAMPIONS #10 (Cyclops)

8. DAREDEVIL #23 (Domino)

9. DEADPOOL #33 (Deadpool)

10. DEFENDERS #3 (Shadow King)

11. DOCTOR STRANGE #23 (Mr. Sinister)

12. GENERATION X #4 (Jubilee)

13. GWENPOOL, THE UNBELIEVABLE #18 (White Queen)

14. INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #9 (Colossus)

15. IRON FIST #5 (Sabretooth)

16. JEAN GREY #4 (Dark Phoenix)

17. MIGHTY THOR #21 (Sentinel)

18. MS. MARVEL #20 (Lady Deathstrike)

19. OLD MAN LOGAN #26 (Professor X)

20. PETER PARKER: THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #2 (Psylocke)

21. THE PUNISHER #14 (Forge)

22. ROYALS #5 (Magneto)

23. SPIDER-MAN #18 (Shadowcat)

24. THANOS #9 (Strong Guy)

25. UNCANNY AVENGERS #25 (Rogue)

26. VENOM #152 (Polaris)

27. WEAPON X #5 (Warpath)

28. X-MEN BLUE #7 (Jean Grey)

29. X-MEN GOLD #7 (Mojo)

PiercingMetal Thoughts: I loved seeing these variant covers because it brought back so many memories about these awesome trading cards and somewhere, safely encased in one of my many boxes, lie no less than five complete sets of these original X-Men trading cards. I’m pretty sure I placed a set into one of those card albums for perusal and this little factoid might interest you, our own contributor Joe Kaufman designed the layout on the original card set when he worked at the Mighty Marvel Comics company. True story. Now, what do you folks think about these covers? Will you be snagging any of them for your collection? Let me know down in the comments section below since I’m interested. With new comic book day being tomorrow I figured it was best to wait on sharing the information about these issues with you until now.
Official Website: http://www.marvel.com