Avengers vs. X-Men is Marvel's big event of 2012, and it all starts next week in the first issue of Avengers: X-Sanction. Here's a look at some of the variant covers we'll be seeing over the course of the miniseries.

Next week, the road to Avengers VS X-Men begins in Avengers X-Sanction #1 from the blockbuster creative team of Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness! And just in time to witness Cable go head to head against Earth’s Mightiest, three prolific artists who put their stamp on Cable join us for more as Marvel unveils their variant covers to Avengers X: Sanction. Stephen Platt, Ian Churchill & Steve Skroce join Marvel’s CCO, Joe Quesada, superstar artists Ed McGuinness and Leinil Yu on amazing covers for the biggest chapter in Cable’s life!

Avengers: X-Sanction #2 variant cover by Stephen Platt.

Avengers: X-Sanction #4 variant cover by Steve Skroce.

Marvel has released the two variant covers, which participating retailers will be able to choose between inclusion on, for the upcoming Avengers: X-Sanction#1. Cover #1 is by Bryan Hitch, Cover #2 is by Carlos Pagulayan.

AVENGERS! STOP CABLE! SAVE COMIC SHOPS!

Marvel is proud to unveil the highly anticipated comic shop variant covers to Avengers: X-Sanction #1! As all-out war breaks out between Cable and the Avengers, your comic shop will get caught in the crossfire and be immortalized in one of two all new covers! In the Avengers: X-Sanction #1 Wanted Variant by Bryan Hitch, see the bounty on your comic shop with an actual photograph of your store right on the cover! Then, in the Avengers: X-Sanction #1 Battle Variant by Carlo Pagulayan, Captain America goes toe to toe with Cable defending your favorite comic shop, complete with store name and logo prominently featured! Leading into the biggest event in Marvel history, Cable has just 24 hours to destroy the Avengers to save the future and the battle is being brought to YOUR front yards!

Be sure to head on over to your local shop immediately and tell your retailers which one you want because both of these commemorative Avengers: X-Sanction #1 Comic Shop Variants can’t be ordered together. Here’s your chance to show your comic shop some support as these personalized variants are a one of a kind, must-have item! Can Cable take on the heaviest hitters of the Marvel Universe to save his future – or will the combined might of Earth’s Mightiest prove to be too much? Find out this December as superstar creators Jeph Loeb & Ed McGuinness begin their epic and you show store spirit with the Avengers: X-Sanction #1 Comic Shop Variants!!

Hitch variant

 Pagulayan variant

Comic deaths are a funny thing. I mean look, they're fictional characters, but good fiction asks the reader to invest a certain amount of emotion in characters and their story arcs, so it's weird when a guy sacrifices his life in a very noble way, only to return and - I'm guessing, kill all the Avengers, from the looks of it?

This interesting looking event, part of Jeph Loeb's "Cable Reborn," is called "Avengers: X-Sanction." Here's what Loeb and Tom Brevoort had to say about it in on Marvel.com.

[Jeph] Loeb says he sees Cable as the Captain America of the X-Universe.

"What would you do if you found out that something was going to happen to your daughter?" Loeb says of the Avengers: X-Sanction hook.

"The last thing that Hope saw was Cable sacrifice himself in a very beautifully drawn but horrific moment," Loeb says. "What's the next step after that? Where does the story pick up after that?" Loeb continues, saying the series will examine Cable's place not only in the X-Men, but also the Marvel Universe in general.

"How Cable survived Second Coming and what his responsibility is to his daughter" would be among the issues dealt with in the series, according to Loeb. The writer continued, saying that the Avengers' stance towards Hope's future causes Cable to take an "aggressive" position towards them.

"What Cable is up to, because it's Cable, will not be done quietly," Loeb says. "It'll raise the interest of some pretty important people — let's just say, leaders in the X-Men community will have to step up at some point in this storyline."

"If you are interested in the character, and the story does excite you," Loeb says that the book will give you an opportunity to pick up past comics featuring the Cable, if you choose to do so.

Loeb says the story has to do with what's coming in 2012 in a very, very big way.

Loeb won't be addressing Bishop in the series. "I think that issue was rather neatly sewn up," the writer says. "Certainly Cable's mission, and his willingness to do what's necessary, will have repercussions in the very people he cares about."

"There are real comparisons with Tony Stark and Iron Man," Loeb says. "Iron Man sees himself as a futurist, and what is that like when he goes against someone who is actually from the future?"