Marvel has been on a great pro-female kick with individual titles and the current run of ‘X-Men’ and now it looks as if The Avengers are getting the same treatment! Dubbed ‘A-Force’ we are getting a new series penned by G. Willow Wilson (‘Ms. Marvel,’ ‘X-Men’) and Marguerite Bennett (‘Angela: Asgard’s Assassin’) which will be illustrated by Jorge Molina (‘X-Men’). This is being released just in time for many of our leading ladies to band together during the ‘Secret Wars.’

It seems that during the ‘Secret Wars’ that the Avengers will be disbanded and in one of the realms we will be introduced to Aracadia. According to Wilson, Arcadia is “this feminist paradise” which will see a very familiar enemy rise up to threaten. The ‘A-Force’ band together in order to beat it and they have a pretty powerful lineup to take down any one that dares cross them.

The team will have She-Hulk, Dazzler, Nico Minoru, Medusa, Singularity, and more! The first cover offers up quite a few potential guest appearances from others as well. The name on the team you may not recognize is Singularity which is because they needed to create one original character for the series. Instead of a human, mutant, or Inhuman we are given a “a cosmological event” that is “a pocket universe that gained self-consciousness during the radical upheaval of the Secret Wars.” To expand on the character, they wanted to use her to “strip it all the way down to the basics: What does it mean to be a woman and what would that look like to somebody who was learning about the human race as an outsider and is learning about what it means to have relationships with other people.”

Interesting concept and her look is quite similar to Marvel’s character Eternity. He is the physical incarnation of time and all the living 616 universe is contained within him. I kind of wonder if these two will ever meet or if Eternity is still around after the events leading into the ‘Secret Wars’ have shattered the Marvel Universes as we know them.

Wilson actually compared Singularity to Q from ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation‘:

“… her entire existence is so unlike that of ours that she really has to learn about what we think of as being an individual and having an identity from the ground up, with no point of access except those she meets.”

Not only will she be an Avenger, but she will be A-Force’s base of operations! Apparently she can double as world within herself and move between different worlds and dimensions. She also will have access to all corners of the Marvel U in a way that the other characters do not.

Wilson says that, “It feels almost like a great honor to be given the reins on something that has become so central to the narrative at Marvel and a big cinematic property as well”. This is because the studio has “become very committed in the last couple of years to telling new stories, to gender diversity, to getting more voices out there so they said, ‘Here’s the roster. Go nuts.”

The true fun part about this team according to Wilson is that “This is an opportunity to put people who would normally have no reason to interact with each other on one team.” Aside from being her favorites what really helped on choosing them is that “I want people whose power sets really build on each other so that there are specific limitations that can only become overcome by working together. Nobody’s so overpowered that it gets boring and nobody’s so underpowered that they have to be saved all the time. I wanted a balance visually and practically.”

Power dynamic aside though it will be the egos and butting of heads that are going to lead to some fun character interactions. “You have several people on it who are used to being either they’re own bosses or in a leadership position, and all of a sudden they’re together.” She-Hulk is in charge of her own law practice, Medusa is the leader of the Inhumans, Nico was in charge of The Runaways, Dazzler was in charge of The Extreme X-Men, and Singularity is a whole other beast entirely. I expect to see a bit of butting heads while the team is sorted out.

With this being the 14th female-led comic that Marvel will be publishing, it truly is the best time to be a fan of strong and well-written women in comics.

Are you looking forward to the premiere of ‘A-Force’? Who else would you like to see on the team? Share your thoughts below True Believers!

Source: USA Today