Marvel Comics kicked off their return to superhero comics with a team – the Fantastic Four – and soon created the Avengers and the X-Men. These three teams formed the nucleus of the Marvel Universe (and the X-Men dropped out of that for a while until Giant-Size X-Men #1 saved them), but they are far from the only teams that have ever showed up. Over decades of publishing, the House of Ideas has created numerous great teams, many of whom have seen their popularity ebb and flow over the years. These teams formed the solid core of Marvel team comics and many of them have legendary adventures under their belt.
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However, these teams aren’t the big show and that means that they’re vulnerable to the vagaries of the comic-buying public. They’ve lost their spot in the publishing slate, but that needs to change post-haste. These seven great Marvel groups deserve a comeback, strengthening the core of their team books.
7) Masters of Evil
Marvel has some awesome villain teams, but one that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves in the modern day is the Masters of Evil. They were first introduced as the Avengers of evil and since then have fielded some of the largest, most powerful villain teams ever. For some reason, the group has mostly fallen out of vogue, but that needs to change. Sure, the name is cheesy, but these are superhero comics; if you can’t tolerate some cheese, then you don’t get to enjoy the wine. They can be any kind of villain team you want, giving them near-infinite utility.
6) The Guardians of the Galaxy
Imperial was meant to revitalize cosmic Marvel, but it failed. The Guardians of the Galaxy are gone, their overly MCU presentation grating on comic fans. However, there’s more than one Guardians of the Galaxy team. The first came from the 30th century and it’s about time they had a comeback. Maybe set a book in their future, maybe bring them to the present and have them become the new protectors of a universe that is very different from the one they’re from, it’s all gravy, baby (yes, I’m old). There’s a lot of potential with the original team and it’s about time Marvel gave them another turn at bat.
5) Secret Avengers
The Avengers are the greatest team on the planet and they’re known for their transparency with the public. However, after Norman Osborn’s dark reign, new Director of SHIELD Steve Rogers decided that he needed a black ops team and the Secret Avengers were born. He would go back to being Captain America after a little more than a year of real time, and the team stuck around until the end of Avengers vs. X-Men, with runs from Ed Brubaker, Warren Ellis, and Rick Remender. The Secret Avengers were a very different kind of Avengers team and it would be awesome to see them decide to rejoin the fight against evil, especially with the current state of the Marvel Universe.
4) The New Warriors
The New Warriors were supposed to be the next big thing, but Marvel in the mid ’90s imploded and their sales weren’t enough to keep them afloat. Since then, they’ve come back numerous times, were destroyed for a while because of Civil War, were supposed to be rebooted as a satire of modern political correctness that both sides of the divide hated, and basically have never really been allowed to shine at the level they once did. It’s simple really – bring the old team back together as young adults and let them try to take the crown again. Push them as important. There’s a lot of potential with the New Warriors and it’s about time the world saw it.
3) Excalibur
Exaclibur was part of the mid ’80s expansion of the X-Men books, with Phoenix II, Kitty Pryde, and Nightcrawler shipped to England to hang out with Captain Britain and Meggan, having quirky adventures in the UK. The team was at its height when either Chris Claremont or Alan Davis were around (well, later Claremont would be one of the problems, but we get there when we get there), but the ’90s saw it fall further and further into the decade’s cliches as new creative teams took over. Reboots of the team in the 21st century have been uniformly terrible – yes, even the Krakoa Era one (especially the Krakoa Era one, Doctor) – and it’s about time that Marvel took them back to basics and let them have weird adventures again. It would be better than X-Men United.
2) The Defenders
The Defenders are Marvel’s non-team and one of their most underrated legends. The original version of the team was Hulk, Namor, and Doctor Strange getting together and arguing a lot while fighting evil, with Silver Surfer joining them later. Eventually, more characters would come to the team – Beast, Valkyrie, Knighthawk, Gargoyle, and numerous other B to D-list heroes – but they would go away eventually. Since then, there have been numerous versions of the team, some of which were cool, some of which weren’t. The original concept for the group has legs, though, so getting the old original band back together (maybe with Valkyrie and some of the others rejoining down the road) could be a smash hit.
1) X-Factor
X-Factor has boasted legendary members, but for some reason the 2020s haven’t been great for the team. The group was originally an assemblage of the original five X-Men before morphing into a government-sponsored mutant team, then an underground black ops team, then a group led by a hologram from the future fighting evil Havok before it was canceled. They returned as a detective agency in the ’00s, having massive success, but once Peter David left, the team has failed time after time. You probably couldn’t reassemble the old team, but you could do a greatest hits version that is closer to one of the older iterations, preferably the detective one.
What Marvel team do you want back? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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