Marvel Reveals Who Will Battle to Become Phoenix's New Host

In this week's Avengers #40 from Marvel Comics, the "Enter the Phoenix" storyline has officially begun. As the previous encounter with a Phoenix hosting Moon Knight has left the galactic entity shaped like a flaming bird stuck on Earth, many characters from around the planet in the Marvel Universe travel to the island it's hiding out on. Avengers #40 is framed primarily around a battle between Captain Americaand Doctor Doom, both of whom have just enough of the Phoenix embedded into them that there's way more fire in the fight than you might expect. As the issue ends though we see who are the 18 (technically 20) combatants are that will fight to host the Phoenix.

Having just wrapped up the X of Swords event, Marvel is headed right into another fighting tournament in the pages of one of its biggest books. The fight will unfold over the course of the next few issues of the series and we've got recap of all of the contestants below. Who will surive? And what will be left of them? Jason Aaron will tell us. In the meantime, check out each of the fighters below, some of whom can be seen in their Phoenix best thanks to the many variant covers of the series that have been released.

"The most iconic, primordial powers of the Marvel Universe have been central to my Avengers run," Aaron previously said in a statement announcing the arc. "And few forces in the cosmos are more world-shaking and potentially world-destroying than the Phoenix Force. Its legacy on Earth goes back to the Stone Age, as we've seen, but we haven't seen much of the firebird in the present day. That's about to change in a very big way."

The full solicit for the next issue of the series reads:

Avengers #41
(W) Jason Aaron (A) Javi Garron (CA) Leinil Francis Yu
THE BATTLE TO DECIDE THE ALL-NEW PHOENIX CONTINUES!
Who will wield the power of the PHOENIX FORCE? A globe-spanning tournament is underway, under the direction of the firebird itself, pitting some of Marvel's greatest heroes against their fiercest enemies and also against each other, giving each of them a taste of the awesome cosmic might that's at stake. All will be transformed. Not all will survive.