Dec. 31 heralds more than the New Year next month -- it also brings the arrival of "S.H.I.E.L.D." by Mark Waid and Carlos Pacheco. With the debut of the series coming soon, Marvel Comics has provided CBR with an exclusive first look at the colored Young Guns variants for the first issue, with covers from Mahmud Asrar and Dono Sanchez Almara; David Marquez and Frank Martin; Sara Pichelli and Dono Sanchez Almara; Valerio Schiti and Frank Martin; Ryan Stegman and Romulo Fajardo; and -- subbing in for Nick Bradshaw -- original Young Gun Steve McNiven and Marte Gracia, in a cover seen here first.

The series is set to introduce the mainstay agents from "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." television series -- including Melinda May, Leo Fitz and Gemma Simmons -- to the Marvel Universe proper, but any character in the Marvel U is fair game to appear in the series.

"So far -- and we're in the early stages, so don't hold me to these -- but we've mapped out stories teaming Coulson and his agents with anyone from the Vision and Baron Mordo to Two-Gun Kid and Iron Man to Daredevil and She-Hulk to Hawkeye and Rocket Raccoon, taking place in the Savage Land, in Lemuria, in the Everglades, on other worlds and even in other times," Waid told CBR in July. "And all of it 'counts' -- there are threads being woven that will show great importance in the coming Marvel Universe."

Check out the variant covers below.