During the Marvel presentation at Cinemacon this past week, Marvel president Kevin Feige showed off the logo for the “Thunderbolts*” movie coming in 2025. The title now has an asterisk after the name, and many people are wondering if they are going to do “Dark Avengers.”
But who are the Dark Avengers?
The first “Dark Avengers” series ran from 2009 – 2013 and was written spun off from “Secret Invasion.” Basically, the characters are villains or antiheroes who are dressed up like Avengers so people will be more accepting of them. Norman Osborn (Green Goblin) is in charge and is dressed up as an Iron Man knockoff called Iron Patriot.
Osborn is a “reformed villain” who was put in charge of the “Thunderbolts” and later S.H.I.E.L.D., which he renamed H.A.M.M.E.R. From that, he created a new Avengers team made up of villains and antiheroes—something like “Suicide Squad.”
There was a second version of “Dark Avenger” that was spun off of the “Thunderbolts” comic. It became “Dark Avengers” with issue 175 and ran to issue 190. Some of the Thunderbolts were part of the Dark Avengers.
The speculation does make some sense, but again, we don’t know where it is going to go yet. All we know is that Feige mentioned the new title during the presentation, saying, “Yes, you’ll notice the asterisk on Thunderbolts. That is the official title of Thunderbolts, and we won’t talk more about that until after the movie comes out.” Given how the comic became “Dark Avengers,” there is even more reason to think this is possible.
Interestingly, both versions of “Dark Avengers” involve Luke Cage, a character we haven’t heard much about regarding a return from Netflix. If they went this way, we would probably see him return. It has been speculated that Cage and Iron Fist’s Danny Rand will return since Iron Fist actor Finn Jones posted an image of “Power Man and Iron Fist #125.”
Nothing has been confirmed at this point, and it’s all speculation. What we do know is that the title now has an asterisk, implying that it’s something more. So we will see.
What do you think? Comment and let us know!
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