The Squadron Supreme Should Appear in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty

The future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is starting to look brighter than ever, especially after Marvel Studios' recent San Diego Comic-Con panel shed light on what the next few years will entail. The franchise's fifth and sixth phases of movies and Disney+ shows are set to culminate in two new Avengers films — Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars. While Secret Wars will realistically pull elements of the two Marvel Comics storylines of the same name (something that has already been speculated about at length among fans) The Kang Dynasty has been a bit more nebulous. Yes, there's already Avengers #268 and the "Kang Dynasty" comic storyline of the early 00s, but another intriguing possibility has been the "Kang War" storyline from the 1970s, which stretched across twenty-plus issues in the pages of Avengers. If The Kang Dynasty did decide to pull things from the latter storyline, it could fold another major Marvel element in along the way — the Squadron Supreme.

Created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, a version of the team was initially introduced as the Squadron Sinister, a group of antagonist costumed characters who went toe-to-toe with the Avengers multiple times over. In early comics, the Squadron were created as pawns of the Grandmaster, who needed his own champions to fight the Avengers, who had been controlled by Kang. It was later established that Grandmaster had modeled the members of the Sinister off of a group of already-existing heroes — the Squadron Supreme, who served as the protectors of Earth-712. In addition to being worthy foes or foils to Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Squadron stood out as a (sometimes thinly-veiled) pastiche of DC's "Satellite Era" of the Justice League — Superman became the ultra-powerful Hyperion, Wonder Woman became the female gladiator Power Princess, Green Arrow and Black Canary became the unlucky-in-love couple Golden Archer and Lady Lark. A twelve-issue Squadron Supreme miniseries explored the Squadron's Earth-712 and efforts to improve it, as they tried (and ultimately failed) to enact a "Utopia Program" on their home world.

So, how does this all fit into The Kang Dynasty? In addition to the aforementioned tie that the Squadron Sinister had to "Kang War", there's also the storyline that proceeded the Squadron Supreme miniseries, which occurred in Defenders #112-115. These issues saw the Squadron being mind-controlled into pawns of Over-Mind, a powerful cosmic being who served as a stand-in for DC's Darkseid. Over-Mind used the Squadron to construct an interstellar army to invade other worlds, but was ultimately stopped when the Defenders broke the team's mind-control and joined forces in their battle. These events led the Squadron to feel remorse for how they'd operated as heroes, ultimately snowballing into them starting the Utopia Program.

There's already a precedent for the MCU assigning the names or roles of other powerful cosmic beings onto Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror — so why couldn't Over-Mind be added to that list? Kang will undeniably pose a threat to the Avengers in The Kang Dynasty regardless, but those stakes would be heightened significantly if Earth's Mightiest Heroes not only had to fight him, but an entire separate team of superheroes. Plus, the Squadron appearing in The Kang Dynasty would help further explore the multiverse before Secret Wars blows it completely open. Granted, the MCU introducing the Squadron, essentially operating as another version of a live-action Justice League, would take on a whole new meaning following the recent behind-the-scenes challenges with DC's film output — but it would sufficiently escalate the stakes of Marvel's Avengers films in the lead-up to Secret Wars, and would be the closest we'd get to a true Avengers vs. Justice League movie.

Rumors have already swirled for years that the Squadron could be headed to the MCU sooner than later — particularly in Loki, which just so happened to be where a version of Majors' Kang first made his debut. So, maybe the stars will align and Kang and the Squadron will ultimately be tied together in the MCU. Either way, we hopefully won't have to wait too long to find out.

Do you want to see the Squadron Supreme appear in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is set to debut in theaters on May 2, 2025.