What Marvel’s Avengers lacked in extended gameplay it sold in narrative storytelling. We now know that the Avengers will be grieving the loss of Captain America and dealing with the fallout of being tricked which resulted in the death of seemingly hundreds to thousands of innocent civilians at the hands of a team including Taskmaster. Plenty of the story beats featured in the reveal trailer are breadcrumbs that could lead to events inspired by various comic book counterparts.
Let’s look at 10 comic events that may inspire the story of Marvel’s Avengers.
10 Fallen Son
During the reveal of Marvel’s Avengers, fans were immediately caught off-guard by the lack of Hawkeye, and then completely thrown for a loop as they witnessed the death of Steve Rogers aka Captain America. Fallen Son deals with the fallout from Captain America’s death as heroes try to confirm his actual passing while dealing with the burden of filling his shoes.
The story features Hawkeye agreeing to then backing out of becoming the next Captain America and ends with a funeral viewing party at the Sanctum Santorum. Seems like a fortunate way to introduce both Clint Barton and Stephen Strange.
9 The Illuminati
The Illuminati was a group of Earth’s most intelligent individuals and they were responsible for setting in motion one of Marvel’s most catastrophic events, World War Hulk. It seems like this introductory game won’t be focusing on the duality of Bruce Banner and his danger to the planet.
This doesn’t mean that players could be introduced to the likes of Namor, Professor X, or Doctor Strange via a meeting they attend as Tony Stark. Although they share a name with a group many people despise, the group was founded to make the hard decisions. What could those decisions be in Marvel’s Avengers?
8 Ronin
Thanks to Avengers: Endgame the general movie-going audience was introduced to Ronin, the violent vigilante previously known as Hawkeye. At Marvel’s Avengers reveal fans were disappointed to find out Hawkeye wouldn’t be a part of the initial roster. Afterward and later into E3 2019 the press team for the game teased fans that Clint Barton would show up sooner rather than later.
Could this mean that after the devastation San Francisco and subsequent time-jump we could be introduced to a Hawkeye living in Japan for the last 5 years?
7 The Trust
The Trust is a story that revolves around a supervillain community being formed and taking advantage of the fact that half of the secret identities of heroes are known. This allows the bad guys to crush the spirit of superheroes without having to actually fight them. As the group of Avengers tries to reorganize at Stark Tower they’re attacked by The Hood as well as symbiotes.
Although Marvel’s Avengers is taking place on the west coast the idea that heroes must come together despite their personal lives being in danger could fit in well to what we know so far.
6 Dark Reign
In the Dark Reign storyline, Norman Osborne rises to power and becomes the primary defense officer for the United States of America. After being credited for defeating the Skrull Queen during the Secret Invasion comic event, Norman Osborne becomes Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and replaces it with H.A.M.M.E.R. while at the same time forming a super-team called Cabal with Dr. Doom, Emma Frost, and more.
Could the devastation of A-Day lead to a landscape where Norman Osborne is in power when our Avengers reassemble?
5 Secret Invasion
With Marvel’s Avengers featuring a time-jump, it’s hard to guess what the incoming threat is to humanity. A possible answer to this could be the invasion of the Skrulls. Considering the Avengers are split and it’s up to you to bring them back together, having a hero be ousted as a Skrull in disguise could lead to some interesting narrative moments.
The game looks to be focusing on bringing a broken team back together in the face of adversity. Could the threat of a hostile alien takeover be the type of thing that melds them back together?
4 Siege
Siege is the result of the events known as Dark Reign where Norman Osborne obtains an absurd amount of power and control. It centers on Loki taking advantage of a fractured Cabal super-villain team, wherein he manipulates Norman Osborne into wanting to overtake New Asgard, which now hovers over Oklahoma.
As Norman is leading an all-out assault to take over New Asgard, Captain American and company move to take down Norman Osborne. It’s unlikely Norman Osborne is at any point the main antagonist in Marvel’s Avengers but stopping an assault on New Asgard as Thor could be pretty awesome.
3 Ultron Initiative
The Ultron Initiative is the beginning of Brian Michael Bendis’ Avengers run and focuses on a new squad of Avengers dealing with the Mole Man and his natural disasters. During the fight, Tony Stark’s system’s are overloaded and birth a new Ultron.
Tony Stark dealing with the aftermath of being partially responsible for new threats is a tale as old as time in Marvel comics. The narrative teaser for Marvel’s Avengers showed that this Tony Stark feels responsible for what happened to Steve Rogers. Could his guilt lead to the creation of a new Ultron?
2 Disassembled
Avengers: Disassembled was the Marvel comic event that was responsible for ending the traditional roster of Avengers and making way for the next era of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The story’s main catalyst is the assumed death of Ant-Man at the hands of Jack of Hearts in Avengers Mansion.
Readers would later find out that Ant-Man didn’t die, but was instead saved by a future version of his daughter Cassie and the Young Avengers. Marvel’s Avengers wants people to believe Captain America died and it set in motion the dismantling of the Avengers, but what if he lived somehow?
1 Civil War
Civil War is a comic event that was loosely adapted into the 3rd Captain America film and showed fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe what could happen if the government wanted to control superheroes. Both the movie and comic events kickoff as a result of superheroes’ lack of personal responsibility leading to a mass amount of civilian casualties.
In the reveal trailer for Marvel’s Avengers, we see the Avengers personal helicarrier explode which likely results in the death of hundreds of people living near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. The connection here is pretty obvious.
NEXT: Everything We Know About Marvel’s Avengers From Square Enix
