Doctor Doom has taken over the world, and he also has a personal team of Avengers to do his bidding. One World Under Doom is the Marvel publishing event that finds Doctor Doom, Sorcerer Supreme of the Marvel Universe, in charge of the world. The main storybeats take place in the One World Under Doom limited series, with tie-ins and other ongoing series pushing the narrative forward. One of the new titles launching in One World Under Doom is Superior Avengers. If Earth’s Mightiest Heroes won’t serve Victor Von Doom, then he’ll assemble his own Avengers instead. Their first mission will see the Superior Avengers clash with a powerful cosmic villain.
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ComicBook has the exclusive preview of Superior Avengers #1 by Steve Foxe, Luca Maresca, Kyle Hotz, Mattia Iacono, and VC’s Cory Petit. It kicks off with Annihilus and his army of bugs invading Washington, D.C. As Annihilus towers over a frightened woman, she trips and is saved by Killmonger. This doesn’t appear to be Erik Killmonger, however, since they are wearing a Black Panther helmet to disguise their identity. After saving the woman, Killmonger tells her, “Stay out of the way,” and then leaps into battle.
Killmonger asks for a status update from their Superior Avengers teammates. This allows a roll call for each member, starting with a female Doctor Octopus. She casually decimates bugs, though she doesn’t care for this degree of field work. Most likely, Doctor Octopus is more comfortable in a lab where she can experiment, over physical activity. Next, we meet Malekith, who seems to be taking pleasure in killing bugs. Malekith has a striking visual appearance, with half his body dark black and the other half golden yellow.
Our last two members are Onslaught and Abomination. Onslaught is dressed like Magneto, and they save a group of civilians from harm’s way by lifting them off the ground in a purple-colored energy field. Onslaught only speaks via telepathy, giving a hint at how their powers work. Last but certainly not least is Abomination, who almost mirrors Captain America with his Latverian shield and Doctor Doom-inspired armor. Why they are called Abomination isn’t clear, aside from sharing the same color scheme as the Hulk adversary. Onslaught lets out a “Hail Doom!” as he charges into battle.
ComicBook asked Steve Foxe what led Doctor Doom to assemble the Superior Avengers, and to name them after Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. “Well, as readers will see in the first issue, this is actually a project Kristoff Vernard originated, not Doom himself. I think Doom probably feels that Doom can handle all things on his own—that’s pretty much the Doom way. I mean, the guy built a fleet of robots in his own image. He’s not great at delegating to others,” Foxe said.
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“But readers of One World Under Doom #1 already know that Doom has taken advantage of opportunities to make Earth’s Mightiest Heroes look a bit…less than competent in the eyes of the world. So the prospect of having his own team of Avengers—a superior team, one that addresses the world’s ills with Doom’s own methodology—is an attractive enough notion. It’s one more opportunity to demonstrate the shortcomings of his rivals. If Kristoff executes the program to his adoptive father’s high expectations, that is.”
Foxe also discussed how the roster of Superior Avengers came about. “As for deciding the roster, one of the first characters I landed on was a new female Killmonger, who I thought had a lot of potential to introduce a new dynamic to that legacy—and maybe even go toe to toe with a certain princess,” Foxe revealed.
“My hope was to subvert expectations with some of these names, and to surprise readers with what they actually get when they hear ‘Abomination’ or ‘Onslaught.’ I don’t want to spoil too much about any of them, but exploring their unique voices has been a huge chunk of the fun on the book, especially since Luca knocked all of their designs out of the park, pretty much on the first try. “
The solicitation for Superior Avengers #1 reads, “THESE AIN’T YOUR DADDY’S AVENGERS! And there came a day, unlike any other, when Doctor Doom ruled the world…and he needed an AVENGERS team all of his own! Kristoff Vernard, son of VICTOR VON DOOM, has been tasked with building the newest iteration of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! But who are these would-be heroes? And how did they come to be the SUPERIOR AVENGERS? Find out when STEVE FOXE & LUCA MARESCA bring you a tale unlike any other in the landscape that is ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM!”
Superior Avengers #1 goes on sale Wednesday, April 16th. Let us know your thoughts on the preview in the comments below!
