Marvel doesn’t just like making a big deal about their movies and TV shows; they also like taking to the airwaves to inform comic book readers and non-comic book readers alike about their most important developments on the printed page. Last year, the House of Ideas went on TV programs The Colbert Report and The View to announce Sam Wilson, a.k.a The Falcon, becoming the new Captain America and a new female Thor wielding Mjolnir, respectively. Luckily for The View, they’re getting to be the venue again for another big revelation in Marvel Comics this week.
According to Newsarama, the February 6th episode of the daytime talk show will present an announcement for a “game-changing title” that will spin out of Marvel’s Secret Wars event. Aside from the announcement being described as “forceful,” no other clues were given. While using The View yet again as a location for something like this seems odd (what percentage of their audience actually reads comic books?), this mysterious title does sound intriguing. Due to the female demographic that The View attracts and the show previously being used to announce the female Thor, we are suspecting that this announcement will be about a new-female led series. With that in mind, along with a few other trains of thought, here are some possibilities for upcoming books that Marvel may announce tomorrow.
The Phoenix Force
Most of you know her as Jean Grey, but if you’re a reader of comic books (or had the misfortune of watching X-Men: The Last Stand), you know that she’s gone by another name: Phoenix. Bonded with the Phoenix Force, one of the universe’s primal entities, Jean has dealt with near-infinite amounts of power that have corrupted her at times. Although Jean Grey died in the comics last decade, a teenage Jean, along with the other four original teenage X-Men, were recently transported in time to the present-day. Although this Jean is still learning how to use her abilities, her power is still growing and she’s recently discovered an ability to absorb psionic energy. Marvel’s announcement is described as “forceful,” so if the young Jean follows in her older self’s footsteps, she could end up becoming Phoenix again, and perhaps now she’ll get to lead her own series.
A Female-Led X-Force
When Marvel relaunched most of their books with Marvel NOW!, one of the new series published was X-Men, which featured an all-female cast consisting of Storm, Kitty Pryde, Jubilee, Psylocke, Rogue and Rachel Grey. Again, with specific emphasis on the “forceful” part of the announcement, Marvel may take the same approach with their X-Force team, the X-Men offshoot that first hit the printed pages in 1991. There have been several iterations of the X-Force over the years, from the militaristic black ops team, to the group trying to gain celebrity status. Marvel’s current X-Force book wraps up this month, but given Marvel’s habit of relaunches and renumbering their titles, it’s not unreasonable if only months later they come out with another X-Force book to fill the space - only this time it’s all female mutants who are going out on dangerous missions.
A Brand New Female Marvel Superhero Team
Rather than give readers something they’re familiar with, Marvel may be using Secret Wars to introduce a new team of female superheroes. The fallout from the miniseries will have the main 616 continuity and the Ultimate continuity joining together to create a brand-new Marvel universe. With characters from both universes now sharing the same space, it’s only natural that some of them eventually join forces, whether they’re good guys or bad guys. We speculated that this might be the case with their All-New, All-Different Avengers announcement, so why not add another team whose members are both 616 and Ultimate? This wouldn’t be another version of the Avengers or X-Men or any previous established Marvel team, this would be a brand new group of female superheroes that are banding together to fight evil. And they very well might be a real “force” to be reckoned with.
Fantastic Force
In case you were wondering, no, that isn’t meant to say “Fantastic Four.” Back in 1994, rumors circulated that the Fantastic Four book was being replaced by one called Fantastic Force, and while that rumor wound up not being true, Marvel decided to create the group anyway and put them in their own book. The main lineup of heroes consisted of Psi-Lord, Huntara, Vibraxas and Devlor, and Black Panther, Human Torch and She-Hulk also worked with them. Aside from a new Fantastic Force book was released in 2009 that follow the New Defenders, this team hasn’t left much of an impact on Marvel comics… but maybe the House of Ideas has something in mind to put them at the forefront of this new Marvel universe. Given how obscure most of these characters are, however, it’s hard to imagine them getting an announcement of this magnitude.
A New Star Wars Title
This one is the longest shot out of all the entries in this article, but one can’t help but wonder if this might be a reference to Marvel planning to add another book to their lineup of Star Wars titles. Why Star Wars? Well, once again, it’s all about the emphasis on “force,” and in this case that can be applied to the energy field that surrounds all living things in that galaxy far, far away. Aside from the Princess Leia miniseries, none of the current or upcoming Star Wars books are female-led, so the new book could have a new female protagonist. How does this connect to Secret Wars? Well, what if due to the universe-altering events of the limited series, somehow the Star Wars universe is joined with the Marvel universe? Yes, it’s a completely bonkers theory, but comic books are all about introducing crazy concepts.
