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| Image Courtesy en.wikipedia.org |
So DC seems to be
moving forward with a live-action Teen Titans TV series which will focus
on a group of young heroes led by Dick Grayson, aka Nightwing. And that is in addition to the live-action Static
Shock TV series that DC is also producing for online distribution. This—along with binge-watching both Ultimate
Spider-Man: Web Warriors and the first season of Young Justice in
the last couple weeks—all got me thinking:
should Marvel jump on the young hero bandwagon by introducing a team of
young superheroes into the MCU through either a TV series or a movie?
Unfortunately, Marvel
doesn’t have too many options as far as popular young superheroes—mostly
because they have never fully embraced the young sidekick idea. In fact, the only easily-recognizable young
sidekick from Marvel Comics (for me, anyways) is Bucky, who is a teenager in
the original comics. However, that’s not
to say that Marvel does not have any teenaged superheroes or teams of
teenagers.
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| Image Courtesy en.wikipedia.org |
Marvel has 2 teenaged
superhero teams that I could find. The
first is the New Warriors. You may
remember them from the Civil War saga as the group that caused the
Superhuman Civil War! This New Warriors
team was the subject of a reality TV show, but they took on a team of genuine
supervillains, one of whom exploded, killing most of the team, several of the
villains, and 612 innocent civilians, most of whom were children at a nearby
elementary school. Subsequently, the
rest of the team was vilified, the team itself disbanded, and the United States
government passed the Superhuman Registration Act, requiring all superhumans to
register their secret identities and abilities with the government and submit
to government regulation of their hero activities. In other words, this team was vitally
important to the Civil War in the comics (but not in a good way), and in the
process its name was irreparably tarnished—at least in the comics.
Personally, I do not
think that Marvel is going to go this direction with the MCU’s version of the
Civil War. From everything they have
announced about Captain America: Civil War, it seems likely that the
incident which causes the world’s governments to want to regulate superheroes
will involve the New Avengers—possibly even the Wakanda fight they were just
filming. So Marvel doesn’t necessarily
need the New Warriors to blow up a school in Stamford, Connecticut, for the
Civil War to begin. And if that is the
case, could the New Warriors appear in the MCU as a team of teenaged superheroes
the way that they were originally introduced?
I think so, and I think they would be an interesting addition to the
MCU.
So if Marvel does
introduce a team of teenaged superheroes, who would be involved? As mentioned there are very few
easily-recognized teenaged heroes because Marvel uses very few teen sidekicks—the
typical recruiting ground for DC’s Teen Titans team. The most recognizable teen sidekick is
already involved in Civil War as a former brainwashed assassin who has
broken free from his programming and is off doing his own thing (that would be
Bucky, aka the Winter Soldier). The
other recognizable sidekick I can think of is Rick Jones, a former sidekick of
both the Hulk and Captain America, who might be a possible member of such a
team (though he has not made any appearances in the MCU to date). However, Marvel does have a few teen heroes
in their stable who could become members of a teen hero team.
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| Image Courtesy en.wikipedia.org |
The first—and most
recognizable—teen superhero in all of Marvel Comics is of course Peter Parker,
aka Spider-Man, who began his hero career in high school after being bitten by
a radioactive spider. He is already
rumored to be appearing in Captain America: Civil War, however, so
working him into a TV series might be a challenge (though not an insurmountable
one). If he is being played by a major
movie actor (which I think Asa Butterfield, the rumored frontrunner, would be
considered), they may not be able to put him into a TV series as a regular cast
member, but he could still show up once or twice based on the story needs. If this were a movie, however, I think you
could expect Spider-Man to be one of the first recruits, if for no other reason
than name recognition.
The second teen
superhero is new to the comics but has gained enormous popularity since her
introduction two years ago. Who is
she? Kamala Khan, the new Ms.
Marvel. Kamala is a Muslim-American
teenager from New Jersey who discovers that she is also an Inhuman after Black
Bolt detonates the Terrigen Bomb. After
undergoing Terrigenesis, Kamala gains the ability to elongate her limbs and
change her shape. Being an Inhuman,
Kamala Khan would fit into the MCU very well, especially after Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2 introduced the Inhumans and “detonated” a “Terrigen Bomb”
in the season finale. She would be an
interesting character to introduce on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. before
either spinning her off into her own series or letting her headline a series
focusing on a team of young superheroes.
The third recognizable
teen superhero is also relatively new:
Miles Morales, the Ultimate Universe Spider-Man. Miles Morales gains powers similar to Peter
Parker’s from a bite by a slightly-different radioactive spider. After the death of Ultimate Peter Parker,
Mile Morales chooses to take up the mantle as the new Spider-Man. Unfortunately, I doubt that Miles Morales
will be appearing in the MCU any time soon; all the rumors point to Peter
Parker being the MCU Spider-Man—and in any event Miles Morales might be better
saved for a future introduction once they’ve told Peter Parker’s story. If they did choose to introduce Miles Morales
so close to Peter Parker’s introduction, they would have to be very careful to
distinguish between the two characters. And
I just don’t see them doing it.
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| Image Courtesy en.wikipedia.org |
There are a number of
other possible teen superheroes. Both
Richard Rider and Sam Alexander were teenagers when they first joined the Nova
Corps, so either of them would be possibilities. However, James Gunn has stated that he is
hesitant to introduce any human Nova Corps members at this juncture. That’s not to say that one or the other of
the Novas won’t make an appearance at some point down the line, possibly even
as teenaged superheroes.
The hero who
originally formed the New Warriors was a kid named Dwayne Taylor, aka Night
Thrasher. His story is very similar to
Batman: orphaned as a child, trained in
martial arts to punish his parents’ killer, became a superhero to punish all
wrongdoers. Eventually, he decided to
create his own team patterned after the Fantastic Four—the original New
Warriors. He could be an interesting
character to serve as the leader of a New Warriors team, as long as they can
establish the differences between Night Thrasher and Batman.
Other characters who
have been members of the New Warriors include Namorita (the clone of Namor’s
the Sub-Mariner’s cousin Namora), Speedball (a character with super speed who
changes his name to Penance after the Stamford disaster), Amadeus Cho (whose
mother Helen already made her MCU debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron), and
others. One I mentioned in a previous
blog post about possible future Marvel Netflix series is Chris Powell, aka
Darkhawk, a teenager who discovers an amulet that gives him the ability to
control an alien android. Any of these
characters would help to round out a team roster.
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| Image Courtesy en.wikipedia.org |
However, if Marvel
does not want to use the New Warriors, the other option is the Young Avengers,
a much newer team formed in the aftermath of Civil War. At least one member of the team is actually
going to be introduced in Ant-Man:
Scott Lang’s daughter Cassie, who gains his size-changing ability due to
repeated exposure to Pym Particles, and takes the name Stature (though she
probably won’t become a superhero for a few years at least—maybe after Infinity
War). Other members include Eli
Bradley, aka Patriot, the grandson of Isaiah Bradley (another subject of
Project Rebirth, the same project that created Steve Rogers); Kate Bishop, aka
the second Hawkeye; Marvel Boy, a Kree hero; and Miss America, a girl with
super strength, flight, and portal generation abilities. These characters would also bring something
interesting to a team of teen superheroes.
Could Marvel take some
or all of these characters and form them into a superhero team either for a TV
series or for a movie? I think it would
be entirely possible, and that it would be an interesting addition to the
cinematic universe because it offers a completely different perspective on the
Marvel universe and what it means to be a superhero. Additionally, some of the teenaged
superheroes that Marvel introduces during Phase 3 may grow up to become the
adult superheroes that Marvel relies on to move the movies forward during
Phases 4-6.
Do you think that
Marvel needs to start capitalizing on the teen hero market in the live-action
MCU in the same way they have been with animated TV series like Ultimate
Spider-Man: Web Warriors? Or would
you prefer to see Marvel continue introducing adult superheroes and leave the
live-action teen heroes to DC? And if
Marvel did introduce a teenaged superhero team, should they call it the New
Warriors, or use the “Young Avengers” instead to avoid the negative
connotations associated with the New Warriors in the Civil War event? What other teenaged Marvel heroes would you
like to see join the MCU? I’d love to
hear your thoughts in the comments!
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