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Warning: contains spoilers for Thunderbolts* (2025)!Marvel’s Thunderbolts* just introduced the New Avengers to MCU canon, bringing this underrated team to mainstream attention. To accompany this increased interest, Marvel just revealed it’s releasing a new New Avengers series with a roster of powerful heroes led by Bucky Barnes’ Winter Soldier (currently going by ‘The Revolution.’) However, Marvel has already given the team a nickname that helps clarify how fans can understand this franchise going forward, in both movies and comics.
It’s clear that Marvel has found a clear way to delineate the traditional heroism of the Avengers from the lethal, antihero-tinged adventures of the New Avengers.
The New Avengers Are Now ‘Earth’s Deadliest Heroes’
It Sets Them Apart from the Avengers as ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’
In a recent press release, Marvel revealed a new volume of New Avengers, coming from Sam Humphries and Ton Lina. The team is led by Bucky Barnes and includes a roster of killer heroes. The team will be opposed by the ‘Killuminati’ – evil clones of the Illuminati, with twisted versions of Reed Richards, Inhuman king Black Bolt and more. At launch, the New Avengers roster is:
Bucky Barnes’ Winter Soldier
Black Widow
The Hulk
Namor the Sub-Mariner
Laura Kinney’s Wolverine
Eddie Brock’s Carnage
Clea Strange
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In its press release, Marvel refers to the New Avengers as “Earth’s Deadliest Heroes.” A clear play on the Avengers’ nickname as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, this nickname highlights exactly how Marvel wants fans to see the New Avengers franchise in contrast to the original team, which is known more for high-powered, iconic characters like Captain America, Iron Man and Thor. This nickname for the New Avengers makes perfect sense with the MCU version, as Thunderbolts*‘s antiheroes and former villains take on the New Avengers name.
It’s clear that Marvel has found a clear way to delineate the traditional heroism of the Avengers from the lethal, antihero-tinged adventures of the New Avengers. It’s a smart way to tell fans exactly why two versions of the team exist – some threats need Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch and Ant-Man, while others need Carnage, Wolverine and the Winter Soldier.
The Illuminati were originally made up of Namor, Tony Stark, Mister Fantastic, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange and Professor X, with Black Panther and Captain America becoming major members. Other heroes like Medusa, Captain Britain and Emma Frost later joined. So far, fans don’t know which Illuminati will be cloned as the Killuminati, but the original roster seems most likely.
Have the New Avengers Always Been Earth’s Deadliest Heroes?
New Connection to the Thunderbolts Redefines the Team
Humphries and Lina’s New Avengers will be volume 5 of the franchise, and offers a new concept of what defines the New Avengers. For the first two volumes (the team were created by Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch), the New Avengers were a combination of traditional heroes like Captain America and Iron Man and street-level heroes like Luke Cage, Spider-Man and Daredevil.
The team’s roster drew from every corner of Marvel lore, mostly facing off against human villains like mystic gangster the Hood and Norman Osborn’s anti-SHIELD organization HAMMER. New Avengers Volume 1 and 2 are generally remembered by fans as a street-level take on the Avengers, though the team had its share of powerhouses in Sentry, Captain Marvel and the Thing.
The New Avengers are arguably stealing their nickname from another Avengers spin-off team.
New Avengers volume 3 was New Avengers in name only, actually following the superteam known as the Illuminati as they attempted to solve the new threat of Incursions from other realities. Finally, New Avengers Volume 4 focused on the next generation of superheroes, as younger characters like Wiccan, Squirrel Girl and White Tiger united under billionaire New Mutants hero Sunspot. So no, the New Avengers haven’t been defined as ‘Earth’s Deadliest Heroes’ until now, and they’re arguably stealing the title from another Avengers spin-off team…
Marvel promises the New Avengers will have “team dynamics that are as explosive as the threats.” Hulk, Namor and Clea are some of Marvel’s biggest loners, and aren’t used to taking orders from others. If Bucky Barnes can forge this roster into a team, it will be his greatest achievement in a long comics career.
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Is Marvel Actually Just Rebranding the Savage Avengers?
There’s Never Been a Deadlier Team
In 2010, Gerry Duggan, Mike Deodato and Adam Gorham debuted the Savage Avengers – a team made up of Marvel’s deadliest heroes, including Conan the Barbarian, who was stranded in Marvel’s present at the time. Heroes like Venom, Elektra, Deathlok, Weapon H, Wolverine, Juggernaut and Punisher served on this team, taking down the worst of the worst with lethal force. Arguably, Marvel’s New Avengers is taking the core premise of Savage Avengers (minus Conan) and assembling a new roster around it.
Becoming ‘Earth’s Deadliest Heroes’ is the clearest possible sign that Marvel sees big things in the future for the New Avengers.
It’s a decision that makes sense given how the MCU is reimagining the New Avengers brand, and it fits into the famously elastic world of superhero franchises, which can take many different forms over different volumes. The only drawback is that it may stop a return of Savage Avengers in the future, although there is a difference between the two.
Savage Avengers focused mostly on outcasts who wouldn’t be invited to join the Avengers, while New Avengers Volume 5 seems to be more about bringing together the black sheep of various Avengers iterations. At different times, Wolverine, Hulk and Namor have all been the deadly badasses of classic Avengers rosters – now they’re uniting into their own team.
This is the first time that Carnage will join any version of the Avengers – not surprising given the symbiote’s history as a literal serial killer. However, that was back when the murderous Cletus Kasady wore the symbiote. In current comics, former Venom host Eddie Brock is Carnage’s host, allowing it to kill the worst of the worst in exchange for using its powers.
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New Avengers Has Its Own Identity Across Comics and Movies
It’s the Perfect Recipe for a Significant New Era
The identity of ‘Earth’s Deadliest Heroes’ is a good sign for New Avengers, since it gives them a clear identity that can allow them to exist alongside the main Avengers roster. Superhero properties can go into hibernation for decades at a time if their books fail to sell, and one of the things they need to prosper is a clear defining ideology or purpose. The New Avengers as darker, more dangerous heroes than the original Avengers offers exactly that, and with Marvel clearly having plans for the team in the movies, the publisher needs to quickly and clearly distinguish what makes them unique, especially because the movie roster is made up of significantly less famous characters.
As Earth’s Deadliest Heroes, the New Avengers have both a new remit and some world-class villains in the evil Illuminati. Marvel seems to be giving New Avengers Volume 5 every chance at success, assembling a roster of heroes like Carnage and Laura Kinney’s Wolverine who it would be unusual to see on the traditional Avengers.
While some fans may miss the street-level theme of the original New Avengers, New Avengers Volume 5 clearly has a specific story to tell, and it’s a commendable shot at making the team a household name in the same mold as the original Avengers.
New Avengers #1 is coming June 11 from Marvel Comics.
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