Hot dogs, gloriously outrageous cars and electing the worst possible person to the highest office in the land. Now that’s American. Want to know what else is American? Patriotic fervour apparently, because Marvel is feeling red, white and blue with their upcoming U.S.Avengers series that’ll be out next year. It’s a book that’ll focus on a new team of America protecting their borders from any and all threats like rogue science running amok or probably people with outie belly buttons.
The fiends.
So who’s in the team line-up, and what do they bring to the table? Speaking to Marvel, writer Al Ewing broke down the patriotic attributes of the team who’ll be dispensing some star-spangled justice when their first book hits the shelves:
Roberto Da Costa
From Sunspot to the new Citizen V. I’ve been having a lot of fun with him as a leader and spymaster, always 10 steps ahead—though things are a little more serious for him now, because he’s part of a larger institution and has people watching his moves closely who maybe don’t think he should be where he is, and will be doing whatever they can to oust him. It’s going to be a rough year.
Iron Patriot
Dr. Toni Ho, graduated from her status as behind-the-scenes boffin of NEW AVENGERS to full-on super hero. I’m really excited to be building this character up further; it’s a rare example of someone I didn’t have an end goal for, I just allowed the character to do whatever felt right for her in the moment. That led to her being a central emotional core of the new team, and the new Iron Patriot, so I’m looking forward to where she goes next.
Squirrel Girl
Who doesn’t like Squirrel Girl? Doreen’s great, because she’s the furthest thing from a “random,” “zany” character there is; at the core of her, there’s this incredible, intense well of compassion and empathy that you don’t really see in a lot of other super-people. It took me a little while to completely get that, but I’m very glad I did—someone with that sensibility is vital on any team.
Red Hulk
Since Thunderbolt Ross has things to do elsewhere and it was getting very complicated to have him in our book, we have an all-new Red Hulk— which lets us have Red Hulk action in issue #1 and lets us play with the concept a little. I’m having fun deciding how this new Hulk works, how he thinks, and what he’s going to get up to. We’re going to get to give him a big spotlight in issue #4.
Enigma
Aikku Jokinen is wearing the Pod undersuit—the under-armour that the original suit grew as an interface—and it’s developing some strange and interesting powers. This was an opportunity to make Pod less of a big blaster character and more of a stealth fighter. She’s got a fun new powerset—lots of useful spy stuff like phasing, hologram generation, and so on—and we put it to use in interesting ways. Does this mean Pod is dead for good? Well, we’ll see…
Cannonball
Sam Guthrie is, in some ways, the heart of the team—although he shares that position with Doreen. Along with Roberto, he’s the guardian of Professor X’s dream; a dream not just of human-mutant peace, but of tolerance, inclusion, and the recognition of shared humanity among all people. He’ll never stop fighting for that, to his last breath—and maybe beyond. Not that I’m hinting at anything there.
Captain America 20XX
Danielle Cage, the fan-favorite future Cap from ULTRON FOREVER and NEW AVENGERS, and our guest star for the first three-issue arc—although she’ll probably be back after that. She’s come here from the future—but, is it our future, or has the timeline already diverged? And is it too late to stop the Golden Skull from razing and looting our world?
AMERICA! U.S.Avengers kicks off next January, with Paco Medina handling the art.
Last Updated: December 7, 2016
40 Insane Frogs
December 7, 2016 at 20:07
Red Hulk has a snor… that’s all I need to know. 😀
Admiral Chief Argonian
December 8, 2016 at 07:39
http://home.bt.com/images/tom-selleck-136384562565710401-131030173210.jpg
40 Insane Frogs
December 8, 2016 at 14:11
Lack of snor = sad! 🙁
Original Heretic
December 8, 2016 at 09:28
Heh, makes him look like the OSI leader from Venture Bros.