Doctor Doom has decided that if the Avengers won’t bend to his will, then he’ll need his own version of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. That’s how we wound up with the Superior Avengers, a group of mysterious characters from the future who all borrow the monikers of established villains. There is a greater mystery behind these “heroes” that continues to play out in Superior Avengers, but what fans have really wanted to see is what happens when the impostor Avengers meet the real deal. That highly anticipated matchup is finally happening; the only question is who will walk away alive. WARNING: Spoilers for Superior Avengers #3 below.
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Superior Avengers #3 is by Steve Foxe, Luca Maresca, Mattia Iacono, Kyle Hotz, Rachelle Rosenberg, and VC’s Cory Petit. It picks up in the bedroom of Doctor Doom’s son, Kristoff Vernard, who just had a sexual tryst with the leader of the Superior Avengers, Killmonger. She has a complicated history with Victor Von Doom, whom the Superior Avengers blame for ruining their future. While they pretend to serve Doom, the Superior Avengers are secretly working to assassinate him for ruining their world in the future.
Kristoff and Killmonger are interrupted by Doctor Octopus, who says that Graviton has escaped from the Raft. The Superior Avengers head off to Detroit to detain Graviton, but the real Avengers are already on the scene.
The Avengers vs. Superior Avengers: Who Will Win?
Graviton boasts that he’s finally getting the recognition he deserves since it’s taking two Avengers teams to defeat him. Captain Marvel says this isn’t going to be one of those times where the heroes fight each other while the bad guy gets away. Killmonger counters that they’re taking Graviton back to Latveria with them, but there’s enough room in Doom’s dungeons for anyone who opposes his rule.
With that setup, we see the two teams square off. Scarlet Witch matches up with Onslaught, and she takes offense to this person wearing Magneto’s helmet in front of her. Onslaught says that while Scarlet Witch doesn’t know them, it was her family that sealed mutantkind’s fate. She retaliates by literally ripping Onslaught in half.
Sam Wilson’s Captain America faces Abomination, and the villain’s green armor and shield bring back bad memories of Secret Empire‘s Hydra Cap. Captain Marvel attempts to help Iron Man stop Graviton, but she’s interrupted by an attacking Killmonger. Their scuffle is where we learn Killmonger carries an Adamantium blade that was meant for the Black Panther. Vision rushes to aid Iron Man, but his sensors are picking up an anomaly with Abomination. When Vision is confronted by Ghost, his eye rays blast a hole through her. Visions says he didn’t intend to mortally harm her, and his blast wasn’t calibrated to deal a lethal blow. However, that doesn’t take away from the gaping hole in Ghost.
“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,” Superior Avengers writer Steve Foxe told ComicBook ahead of the title’s launch.
He continued, “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.”
I’d say expectations were definitely subverted. Readers still don’t know the real reason why the Superior Avengers want Doctor Doom dead, or why they’re pretending to be on his side. Also, are Onslaught and Ghost dead, or are the Avengers being tricked? My money is on this being a ploy by the Superior Avengers, but you never know.
