Marvel Comics has always tried to be the world outside readers’ windows, a realistic setting for superheroes than the more fantastical DC Multiverse. Over the years, this helped the House of Ideas’ characters to better connect with readers, all because they deal with a world that is quite similar to the one that readers do and that includes the dark complexities of the world we live in. This has affected the way they work not only with the governments of the world, but also their fellow heroes. While groups like the Fantastic Four and the Avengers have rather high levels of transparency, not every Marvel team has been as forthcoming with the world. Some of them have been built around secrets.
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These teams do their best to save the world, but have secrets that they have to keep. These groups are built differently than the more transparent ones, often making their missions even more difficult. These seven Marvel teams are the most secretive, having to keep much of their existence from their fellow heroes.
7) X-Men
The X-Men are Marvel’s most storied team, having become one of the most important groups in the Marvel Universe. However, their entire mission is all about fighting against the powers that be. They have often had to kept things from the world to keep them from hating mutants even more. There’s a laundry list of secrets that they’ve kept from both the governments of the world and the other heroes. These secrets have often started conflicts between not only them and other teams, but also among members of the group. They’ve been a big problem for the men and women of X over the years.
6) Dark Avengers
“Dark Reign” was an amazing time for Marvel, with the Dark Avengers at the center of things. This team was brought together by Norman Osborn and consisted of villains like Daken, Venom, Moonstone, and Bullseye masquerading as Wolverine, Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, and Hawkeye, with Noh-Varr as Captain Marvel and Ares and the Sentry rounding out the team. They had to hide their identities from the world, not letting on that there were several prolific murderers on the team, and also had to keep their evil agenda from the public and the government that supported them. It was a delicate balancing act that they pulled off for a while, but it eventually fell completely apart.
5) Secret Avengers
The Secret Avengers were born in the aftermath of the victory over the Dark Avengers. The newly resurrected Steve Rogers led the heroes to victory and was put in charge of SHIELD, with Bucky staying as Captain America. Rogers expanded the Avengers to their greatest extent, but he knew that the world had changed and he would need more than the traditional teams, so he formed the Secret Avengers. The group became the black ops arm of the Avengers, going on missions that no one knew about. Hawkeye and Nick Fury Jr. would both lead their own rosters of the group, taking on the threats that no one else knew about or could deal with.
4) The Original Thunderbolts
The Thunderbolts burst onto the scene after “Onslaught”, positioning themselves to take over for the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. While they seemed like somewhat generic heroes, they had a secret – they were actually Baron Zemo and the Masters of Evil in disguise. Their plan was to lull the public and the remaining superhero community into trusting them and then attack, conquering their foes and taking over the world. They had to hide their identities and true motives from the public, something made even harder by some members preferring heroism and when Jolt joined the team. Their entire existence was predicated on one of the biggest Marvel secrets of the ’90s.
3) The Secret Warriors
Nick Fury was the Director of SHIELD for decades. Forced into hiding after it was learned that he had waged a secret war against Latverian dictator Lucia Von Bardas and mindwiped Wolverine, Captain America, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Daredevil, and Black Widow of their involvement, he created a new group: the Secret Warriors. Along with rogue SHIELD agent Daisy Johnson, Fury recruited Slingshot, Stonewall, Manifold, Druid, Phobos, and Hellfire. This group helped battle the Skrulls in Secret Invasion and allowed Fury to battle threats that he never would have been able to with SHIELD. They were his personal black ops squad for several years.
2) The Illuminati
The Illuminati was a group built in secret, meant to make the world a better place. However, their actions led to some of the biggest disasters ever. The group consisted of the greatest heroes of the Marvel Universe, with members like Iron Man, Black Bolt, Mister Fantastic, Doctor Strange, Namor, Professor X, Captain America, Beast, Hulk, and Black Panther (I’m probably forgetting one or two). They were meant to make the hard decisions and do the dirty work themselves, keeping their missions and very existence a secret. Their actions allowed the Skrull invasion to happen and made the Incursions even harder to overcome, their secretive nature making them more ineffectual than they ever realized.
1) X-Force
X-Force is the deadliest mutant team, and they’ve long operated from the shadows. The team was first created by Cable, taking the New Mutants and forging them into his own combat unit, one meant to make sure that Stryfe wasn’t able to ensure Apocalypse’s rise to power. The team would operate from the shadows, often running afoul of the X-Men. There was a public version of the group for a short time that morphed into the X-Statix. After M-Day decimated the mutant population, Wolverine and Cyclops created a secret kill squad whose mission was to destroy threats to mutantkind before they stuck. Since then, the group has been a black ops kill squad most of the time, even becoming the CIA of Krakoa. Secrets and death have long been their stock in trade, and they are easily the most secretive mutant team of them all, which is saying something.
What’s your favorite secretive Marvel team? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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