Avengers World #7

[superboyprime]

Comments

[lucean]

I will admit I am not that familiar with Chinese legends and myths, but I have always been kind of puzzled that neither Marvel nor DC has attempted to bring in the Monkey King, as he seemed always to me like a character that belongs in a comic book.

Having written that, I actually am surprised how much I am digging the Ascendants here, hopefully they won't bury them instantly. Although Weather Witch? Really, that was the best name they could come up with.

[katefan]

"Although Weather Witch? Really, that was the best name they could come up with."

It probably sounds a lot cooler in Mandarin.

[leoboiko]

天氣巫 Tiānqìwū?

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Bury?

I think we might be witnessing the birth of a future Marvel Studios project/potential franchise.

[akodo_rokku]

Sun Wukong was actually introduced back in Immortal Iron Fist during Fear Itself, and I think this is his first appearance since.

Pretty fun character, though if I remember correctly he's not the original, but a former chinese gangster who got his hands on Ruyi Jingu Bang somehow and intrigued Sun Wukong enough for him to give him a similar shot at redemption to the one he had.

[lilacsigil]

Yeah, that was a cool one-shot and I liked him a lot.

[goattoucher]

You know what would be nice? If this were not some flash in the pan creation of one author for this one story, and this actually became a thing: a superhero group that rivals the Avengers in power and scope from a country that rivals the U.S. in power and influence. If the Ascendants were to become a permanent fixture in the MU, the world would become a richer, more nuanced place.

Most of the world's population lives in China, India, and the Southeast Asian archipelago, after all.

[icon_uk]

We had the Soviet Super Soldiers off and on for years.

Alpha Flight introduced us to the rather forgettable and fairly short lived China Force; Gold, Silver and twelve agents each patterened after the Chinese years like Horse, Dragon, Ram and others

I agree that other heroes around the place would be interesting.

[beyondthefringe]

And in the previous iteration of the Mighty Avengers, we saw a team called The People's Defense Force, consisting of Collective Man, Radioactive Man,The Ninth Immortal, Princess of Clouds, Most Perfect Hero, Scientific Beast and Lady of Ten Suns.

Sadly, they haven't been seen since they were defeated by the Inhuman king known as the Unspoken.

I've always liked seeing international heroes, even if most of them are A) horribly stereotyped or generic representations of their country and/or B) instantly forgotten or cannon fodder.

[bizarrohulk]

There are already British, Canadian, French, Russian, Japanese and Filipino superteams in the MU, so a Chinese team was obviously long overdue, but while they might stick around after this story I can't see them becoming major players. For one thing, a team operating on behalf of the Chinese state is just too politically-charged as a concept - half of the writers would likely portray them as heroes and the other half as villains (DC could never seem to quite make up its mind which the Great Ten were supposed to be). More likely they'll just end up like the other teams I mentioned - showing up in the background of major events to emphasise the global scale of the threat, but not actually doing very much.

The following issue also introduces a new European team, who look a lot more interesting tbh.

[goattoucher]

With the Chinese entertainment market being so important, I can't see Disney allowing Marvel Editorial to allow writers to portray the Chinese government as bad guys.

[bizarrohulk]

I doubt they'd care. China may be a big market for American movies and music, but comics aren't even a blip on the radar.

[ablackraptor]

I'm not reading World, but these guys look like they could be an interesting concept to play with. While they probably wouldn't ever get as big and popular as the Avengers, they might make a cool property to develop if they gave them an ongoing, sorta like Alpha Flight spinning off from a throwaway X-Men story.

I'd probably read it, assuming this Sun Wukong guy is as cool as he looks; I know very little about the Monkey King, but what I do know about him always interested me.

[katefan]

It's an excellent point. It would be cool if the Avengers headed into India and discovered that country's heroes take down as many threats as they do.

[beyondthefringe]

I'd dearly love to know what sort of superhero team India fielded, especially given its sheer size and population.

For that matter, I'd love to see what sort of hero teams came out of other countries... and not necessarily in a government-sponsored sort of way, but what heroes and villains would naturally arise in a comic book world where you have mutants, lab accidents, alien genes, and all the other stuff going on.

What would Pakistan produce? Palestine? The United Arab Emirates? Egypt? Vietnam? The Vatican?

[sir_mikael]

Iraq has/had the government superteam the Desert Storm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Sword

Sentry's original miniseries had the European superteam S.H.E but uh they mainly served as barely named fodder to the Void. http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix2/shesentry.htm

Japan has the Big Hero Six, who are about to star in an animated movie.

[drtechnobabel]

You know what would be cool? If for their next event, instead of another huge 'world-changing' event, Marvel did an 'International Month' or something where instead of their usual titles, they did one-shots focusing on various superheroes from other countries in the way you just described. Maybe even do something like what Marvel and DC dd during the Amalgam event where the issues play out as if they've been running for years with established villains and supporting casts already included. I could see something like that being amazing, and even spawn some spin-off series focused on the heroes introduced. Of course, I can also see it crashing and burning horribly, but let's try and stay positive here, shall we?

[arbre_rieur]

Years ago, DC did "Planet DC," which is similar to what you're talking about. However -- perhaps unsurprisingly -- all of the new international heroes introduced in it have faded into obscurity.

[drtechnobabel]

Really? Well, that's a bummer. And the really sad part is that I actually went through the DC wiki articles of all of those heroes and half of them had 'background unknown' as the only description. Even the wiki couldn't bother to keep track of them. I still think it'd be a cool idea, but you're probably right in that most of the heroes that would be introduced during such an event would suffer the same fate.

[md84]

Well, it's better than DC's Great Ten. (Still irritated by Mother of Champions).

[icon_uk]

Mother of Champions was indeed problematic, but I liked most of the other members.

[mistersandman]

I'd totally read an ongoing solo about Ghost Fox Killer after she breaks off from the Great Ten to focus on being Hong Kong's defender. Political tension follows, Shaolin Robot guest stars.

[mistersandman]

Charles Soule studied Chinese and law, didn't he? Get him to write the Great Ten reboot. Replace Mother of Champions with the White-Haired Woman (feral berserker with a sickle) and one of the other forgettable Ten with Zhu Bajie (a voracious piggy-looking mutant who insists he's NOTHING like Zhu Bajie).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu_Bajie

[jlbarnett]

Thundermind as China's Superman was cool

[katefan]

With a name like that how could he not?

[damar148]

The Gorgon looks a lot like the Metal-Masked Assassin from Dethklok these days.

[bizarrohulk]

I can understand Marvel wanting to avoid any potentially problematic Chinese stereotypes in their character designs, but with the exception of Monkey King these guys are painfully generic in not only their appearances but in their names and powers as well. Weather Witch not only appears to have the same powers as Storm, but she also uses one of Storm's nicknames as her code name.

[philippos42]

I'm calling them Stormy and Monkey.

Hey, it could get better. Marvel has had characters start off awkwardly before.

[long_silence]

Seeing The Ascendants and Euro-Force show up in Avengers World has been pretty cool. I always like seeing more international superhero teams.

Especially after what happened to the Omega Flight team that appeared in issue 5 of Hickman's Avengers.

[starwolf_oakley]

For years, Marvel limited themselves to Russian superheroes, since so many of their characters' origins revolved around the Cold War. Even the Chameleon was a Soviet spy when he first fought Spider-Man.

This has some potential, provided they aren't all horribly murdered the next time we have to see how badass a new villain is.

[shadowpsykie]

hmmmm i think i like this... though, A World still seems like it's dragon... heh see what i did there?