Marvel Brings Back Its Answer to the Justice League of America

Marvel Comics just brought back its own version of the Justice League of America.

SPOILERS for Avengers #10 by Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, David Marquez, Frazer Irving, Adam Kubert, and Andrea Sorrentino follow.

The current team of Avengers only formed at the beginning of Marvel’s most recent volume of the Avengers comic book series. Prior to that, there was three separate Avengers squad and at least one of them operated at the discretion and with the mandate of the United States government.

That’s not the case for this new team. Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man, each having seen their own vision for the Avengers become reality and then fall apart, unanimously decide to make Black Panther the new Avengers chairman.

Given that Black Panther is the King of Wakanda, this move rankles the US government. Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross lets Captain America know that is the case. Captain America lets Ross know that the Avengers don’t work for the US government and have no intention of seeking its permission to do anything.

This leaves Ross in a spot. The Avengers are at odds with the United States government. Captain America is walking his own path. Even SHIELD is gone. He calls “the agent” and gives the order to put together the solution to this Avengers problem.

That agent is Agent Phil Coulson. The solution is the Squadron Supreme of America.

There are a couple of things to unpack here. First, Coulson was dead. Deadpool killed him on the orders of the evil Hydra Captain America leading up to Secret Empire. How he has come back remains unknown

It has also been a while since we’ve seen the Squadron Supreme. This appears to be the most recent version of the Squadron Supreme, a team of powerful heroes made up of the last surviving members of realities destroyed by the incursions that led into the events of Secret Wars.

The original Squadron Supreme was created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. The members of that team all came from the same reality, Earth-712, and were analogs to members of DC Comics’ Justice League – Hyperion (Superman), Nighthawk (Batman), Power Princess (Wonder Woman), Doctor Spectrum (Green Lantern), and the Whizzer (the Flash).

This issue of Avengers seems to be reestablishing that connection by referring to the Squadron Supreme as the Squadron Supreme of America, deliberately mimicking the naming convention of the Justice League of America. The Squadron Supreme was once used to tell faux Avengers vs. JLA stories and it seems Jason Aaron may be headed in that direction again, only with the added third rival squad in the Russian superhero team known as the Winter Guard.

What do you think of the Squadron Supreme of America? Let us know in the comments!

Avengers #10 is now on sale.