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Warning! Spoilers ahead for Avengers #40 from Jason Aaron and Javier Garrón
In the latest issue of Marvel Comics’ Avengers, the Phoenix Force has once more come to Earth, and this time it’s looking for an all-new host to wield its immense power. Unlike the Phoenix stories of Marvel’s past, Enter The Phoenix will see the Phoenix Force searching amongst multiple Marvel champions (and not just those that are mutants like Jean Grey or Hope Summers). As such, nearly twenty different characters have been chosen as potential candidates, ranging from the expected to the truly odd. Likewise, the Phoenix Force will be forcing them to fight one another for the right to wield its fiery power.
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In the first chapter of Enter the Phoenix seen in Avengers #40, Captain America is chosen by the Phoenix to face off against Doctor Doom, and both of them have been granted mere fractions of its power. While Steve Rogers is concerned about what he might become if he were to win this round, Doom is all too willing to fight for the right to harness all of the Phoenix Force’s destructive energies. While Doom ends up killing Steve with the fire of the Phoenix, that same fire and power allows Captain America to rise from the ashes again, reborn. Seeing this, Doom realizes that he does not have whatever it is the Phoenix is looking for, and he forfeits the contest.
With Captain America emerging as the victor, his Phoenix powers are removed and he’s taken back to the White Hot Room, a plane of existence created by the Phoenix Force itself. However, he’s not alone. All of the other champions chosen by the Phoenix are there as well, seemingly waiting for their turns to take on the Phoenix’s power and prove themselves worthy as Rogers has. It’s here at the end of Avengers #40 that readers can see all of the champions at once, and they’re certainly quite the colorful and intriguing gathering.
While Captain America, Black Panther, Wolverine, She-Hulk, and Namor were the known champions seen from teasers and previews, the Phoenix Force went big, choosing several more potential hosts from all over the Marvel Universe. Other heroes present include the Black Knight, Shang-Chi, Jane Foster’s Valkyrie, Luke Cage, Man-Thing, Echo, and Jason Strongbow (also known as American Eagle).
However, some stranger rogues and wild cards have been chosen by the Phoenix as well. While Hyperion and Nighthawk would normally be considered heroes, it’s recently been revealed that any heroes in Phil Coulson’s Squadron Supreme of America have been brainwashed, ready to made weapons of the demon lord Mephisto at a moment’s notice, so that’s no doubt concerning. Red Widow is present as well, serving as the current leader of the Russian Winter Guard. Shanna the She-Devil and her saber-tooth tiger Zabu will be interesting because it remains to be seen if only one of them will be granted the power at a time, or if they’ll work as a package deal. The same question likewise needs to be asked for Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur as well.
This just leaves the last two contenders, and it’s hard to say which of them is the oddest: The Orb and Howard the Duck. While Howard the Duck has to be a gag of some sort (he has to), the villain known as the Orb is strange not just due to his disturbing appearance of having an eyeball for a head, but because he also has one of the Watcher’s eyeballs in his chest, which he got from the 2014 Original Sin event. Is the Orb just drawn to cosmic entities for some reason?
In any case, the collection of assembled champions will make for quite the engaging event, and it will be even more interesting to find out which contenders which face one another in the coming issues of Avengers from Jason Aaron, Javier Garrón, and Marvel Comics. Here’s hoping Phoenix Wolverine has to fight a flaming and unstoppable Howard the Duck.
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