Alex Ross Creates TIMELESS Mural for Marvel Comics

Alex Ross, artist and Modern Marvel Master known for his works such as MARVELS and EARTH-X, recently completed his latest project for Marvel’s offices in New York City. The mural, entitled 'Timeless,' depicts the company's iconic heroes in their classic look. The mural, which he worked on for over a year, is located in the Marvel offices, but fans will have a chance to purchase variant covers with of the painting during September and October of this year.

The project was a labor of love for Ross, as it allowed him to pay tribute to the characters that he grew up with and influenced his style. Over the last two months Marvel has released several "Timeless” variant comic covers available in a few months. Along with the covers, Marvel also released a short video spotlighting Alex Ross as he talks about his inspiration for the mural, his process, and more as he is shown working on Spider-Man.

In the short five minute featurette, Ross talks about Marvel approaching him about the project and his thought process about the mural as a whole and some of the specific characters. the figures in the mural are life-sized, and that each character depicted in their most classic and beloved costumes. While each painting is a separate piece, Ross also comments about the individual characters as part of the overall composition. “I felt the composition of all these individual characters standing together, and I thought that kind of thing would be most impressive if they were life-size figures you could stand next to and feel like you were amongst these real characters.” He also offers insight as to where he came up with the title of “Timeless” for the mural stating, that the entirety of his career was trying to embrace was the timeless versions of characters, and to him these are the eternal versions of these characters.

Ross also talks about his process, and how when he first began he had only planned for the mural to be a certain length with a handful of characters. It wasn’t until he realized the full measurement of the wall that Marvel wanted him to fill, that the project doubled in size. Because of this, characters added to the project were the original X-Men, Falcon, Blackbolt, and Medusa of the Inhumans, and The Punisher, to name a few. The video finishes up with a fun time-lapse video of the mural being installed as Ross says that the mural was his way to make his statement on the eternal nature of the Marvel Universe characters.

Each depiction of these Timeless portraits of Marvel’s greatest heroes will be part of the 28 stunning variant covers at comic shops in September! Below is the complete list and gallery of the Timeless variant covers: