The Variants is a currently running series from Marvel Comics, being the first series starring Jessica Jones in years. The head of Alias Investigations has not been in the limelight for a while, likely because she's yet to really interact with the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sure, she had her own Netflix TV series, but so far, there's been no direct crossover with her and the big-time Avengers members. Ironically, her latest book is still a bit of strange synergy between the comics and the MCU.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is currently focusing on the concept of "variants" and the multiverse, with the premise informing the movies and shows for the long haul. Since there's a monthly comic book literally featuring the name of this concept, it presents a way for casual comic readers to pick up a title that already feels somewhat familiar. In applying this weird "synergy," it might be one of the best examples in the modern history of the medium.
The Variants Features Alternate Versions of a Netflix Hero
Variants (by Gail Simone, Phil Noto, and VC's Cory Petit) is a sort of mystery comic book in which Jessica Jones is visited by different variants of herself from throughout the multiverse. One of these includes a version of the heroine that became her Earth's version of Captain America. As if these different versions of herself weren't perplexing enough, Jessica is also faced with the return of her greatest villain: Purple Man.
The multiverse is also showing up more outside the comics, with the current arc in the Marvel Cinematic Universe being titled the "Multiverse Saga." The idea of variants has been a recurring element, with alternate versions of familiar MCU heroes and villains showing up in different movies and TV shows. The MCU didn't invent the idea of the multiverse, but the fact that The Variants is releasing when the movies are pushing the concept so hard is far more than a coincidence. It's also more successful than previous attempts in the various comic book titles to follow the popular MCU movies.
The Variants Is the Best Kind of Movie/Comic Book Synergy
Many comic books have come out over the years that attempt to cash in on a movie or TV show featuring a certain character. For instance, a Jane Foster Thor comic book was released to coincide with Thor: Love and Thunder, while a short-lived Morbius ongoing was launched around the time that the movie was originally meant to come out. For more mainstream characters who already had ongoing comic books, other forms of synergy were applied. For instance, Batman's costume would be given a dark coloration in the 1990s comic books to match his black suit in the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher movies, while Marvel briefly played around with the idea of Spider-Man having organic web-shooters in the wake of the success of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man flicks.
Many of the more obvious "tie-in" comics are more for newcomers than longtime fans, and their events are rarely if ever acknowledged down the road. Likewise, with changes made specifically to match movies, they tend to fail due to one big reason: the comic book stories are not the movies. These are two separate mediums and continuities, and trying to juxtapose them only confuses some and angers others. The Variants avoids this issue by tackling the same underlying concept as the current crop of MCU films (the multiverse and variants), albeit in a much different way. For one, it's doing it with a character that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is currently not using, all the while casting one character in the role of other heroes (the Captain America Jessica Jones variant).
This is far different from what Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man: No Way Home and even the TV series Loki did with the multiverse. Thus, The Variants is able to tell the story that the creative team wants, all without aping the movies too much or disrupting the flow of the mainstream Marvel Comics continuity. This way, fans new and old alike can read along and get a great story that's familiar yet unique.