A fresh volley of variant covers is headed to comic book shops from Marvel, this time in honor of the legendary Dark Phoenix saga.

The Phoenix rises

It’s incredibly hard to believe, but it’s been four decades since the Dark Phoenix took control of X-Man Jean Grey and wreaked havoc for the first time. Since then, the tale has become one of Marvel Comics’ most famed, spawning 2 motion picture adaptations.

The quality of those films aside, it just goes to show you how big of a story this was. The Dark Phoenix saga was the biggest X-Men story for a long time, and remains important today. After all, we couldn’t have the Phoenix reappearing over and over again if we never got this original tale.

And so, with that in mind, Marvel is prepping a fresh slate of variant covers for their new X line. This one’s a little different than past efforts though. Each cover will depict an important moment from the overall saga.

So we’ve got Jean’s mental battle with Emma Frost, Wolverine finally unleashing his fury against the Hellfire Club’s goons, and the rise of the Dark Phoenix, among others. Honestly it’s kind of a great idea, and shakes up what’s become a somewhat tired “variant” gimmick.

It also forces die-hards to buy the whole line, since they’ll want all the covers. So this should drive sales as well.

Here’s how the slate shapes up: