Marvel Comics has consistently looked to raise some eyebrows with its promotion of the upcoming "Death of X" miniseries by co-writers Jeff Lemire & Charles Soule and artist Aaron Kuder. Even the title provokes a reaction from already-worried X-Men fans -- who are concerned about the fate of the franchise both given dire times for mutants in storyline and real-life rumors (always denied by Marvel itself) questioning the long-term status of the line given alleged behind-the-scenes politics.

CBR has the exclusive first look at artist Mike Choi's variant cover for "Death of X" #1 -- the first of four connecting variant covers by the artist -- which depicts what appears to be a fallen (potentially deceased?) Magik (named by Lemire as an X-character who plays a big part in the story) in Inhuman leader Black Bolt's arms, furthering the Inhumans vs. X-Men conflict set to explode in the upcoming "IvX" series, which follows "Death of X" (and is also written by Lemire and Soule). Of course, there's no reason to think that this cover depicts a literal event in "Death of X" -- many of the covers for "Death of X" seen so far depict deaths of major X-characters, which are likely (at least mostly) meant to be metaphorical. Though given the amount of uncertainty that still surrounds "Death of X," there's no real reason to count most possibilities out at this point, either.

RELATED: X-Men and Inhumans Go To War In Death of X

"Death of X" #1 is scheduled for release on Oct. 5. A full look at Choi's variant cover plus solicitation text for the issue follow.

DEATH-OF-X-#1-(OF-4)-CONNECTING-A-VAR

DEATH OF X #1 (of 4)

JEFF LEMIRE & CHARLES SOULE (W) • AARON KUDER (A/C)

Wraparound Variant COVER by AARON KUDER

SKETCH VARIANT COVER BY AARON KUDER

CONNECTING VARIANT COVER A BY TBA

CLASSIC VARIANT COVER BY TBA

BLANK VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE

• What happened eight months ago that set the Inhumans and X-Men on a collision course? Find out here!

• The Inhumans travel to Japan where one of the Terrigen Clouds creates a shocking new Inhuman.

• The X-Men travel to Muir Island where the second Terrigen Cloud causes something truly terrible.

• When these two events collide, a war of catastrophic proportions explodes!

40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99