In January, Marvel announced plans for a new "Defenders" series from Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez, the creative team behind the publisher's recent "Civil War II" event. Now, Bendis has revealed that the series will be getting a variant cover illustrated by comics legend Neal Adams.

Bendis announced the variant on his Tumblr page, with an image of Adams' black-and-white pencil artwork, alongside a preview page from an upcoming issue of "Invincible Iron Man" from Stefano Caselli and Marte Gracia, featuring an armorless Riri Williams about to embark in some kind of lightsaber duel -- plus, a first glimpse at David Marquez's cover for "Defenders" #2.

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Slated for a June 2017 release, after the release of a Free Comic Book Day preview version in May 2017, Marvel Comics’ new “Defenders,” title appears to be timed to coincide with the release of the Netflix TV series of the same name, although no firm date for the show has yet been announced.

Both the Netflix series and the new comic share a common cast of heroes, but the book and the show will be two separate and distinct entities, with Bendis describing his story as “a sprawling, Godfather-like epic at the street level of the Marvel Universe,” in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

In the same interview, Bendis explained his plans for the title, saying that he and Marquez were “really putting out hooks down and creating a modern, elaborate organized crime story that is different than what has gone before, but builds on everything that has happened to these characters, as individuals or as a team, and putting them in the hardest battle for the street that anyone can imagine.”

Written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Dave Marquez, "The Defenders" is due to hit comic stores in June.

Defenders #1 variant
Black-and-white art from "Defenders" #1 variant cover by Neal Adams.
Defenders #2 cover
Inked "Defenders" #2 cover by David Marquez
Invincible Iron Man art by Stefano Caselli and Marte Gracia
"Invincible Iron Man" art by Stefano Caselli and Marte Gracia.