Alex Ross's "Avengers" #25 variant cover is scheduled for release in January.

Twenty years after "Marvels," painter Alex Ross returns to Marvel Comics in 2014 with a series of variant covers celebrating the publisher's 75th anniversary.

The first one, for "Avengers" #25 by writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribic, is scheduled for release on Jan. 15, 2014. Ross will illustrate 12 anniversary variants for Marvel, with the publisher's press release stating the "stunning, gorgeously-rendered covers will grace select Marvel titles throughout 2014 and will feature a pantheon of characters from the Marvel Universe in the rich, highly detailed style only a talent like Alex Ross can produce."

Ross's prior most recent work for Marvel was as a co-writer and cover artist on the 2011 "Invaders Now!" miniseries, co-published by Dynamite Entertainment.