A Major X-Men Hero Is Officially Joining the Avengers, With Huge MCU Implications

Summary Marvel has announced "Earth's Mightiest Mutant" will join the Avengers in August's Avengers #17.

The most likely candidates are Jean Grey, Iceman, Storm and Magneto. Grey leads the pack, but Captain America loves using the Avengers to redeem former villains.

Marvel's choice will likely cast significant light on its plans for mutants in the MCU, given the Avengers comic's favoring of movie heroes.

As Marvel's X-Men enter a new era, their most powerful hero is officially joining the Avengers. This July, Marvel is relaunching its entire X-Men line for a new era titled 'From the Ashes.' Heroes including Storm, Wolverine, Phoenix and even Dazzler will be getting their own solo series, while groups including X-Factor and X-Force will get new rosters. At the head of the pack, new volumes of X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and Exceptional X-Men will follow the franchise's main heroes in teams led by Cyclops, Rogue and Emma Frost.

However, 'From the Ashes' will also seemingly intersect with Jed MacKay's Avengers run, as "Earth's Mightiest Mutant" joins the hero team. The announcement comes from Marvel Entertainment, alongside confirmation of solo Dazzler and Storm series beginning in September and October respectively.

Marvel's post doesn't reveal which of the X-Men will be joining the Avengers, however the qualifier of "Earth's Mightiest Mutant" means there's only a handful of heroes who fit the bill. It's relatively rare that Marvel's main Avengers title includes a mutant recruit, making this particularly exciting news. While details for Avengers #17 haven't been announced yet, it will follow the title's three-issue tie-in to the ongoing Blood Hunt event.

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The most likely candidates are Jean Grey, Iceman, Storm and Magneto, but there are some more leftfield candidates to consider...

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The title of "Earth's Mightiest Mutant" suggests an incredible power level, with X-Men having long codified its strongest heroes and villains with the 'Omega-Level' designation. Taking Marvel's promise literally, the most likely candidates are Nate Grey's X-Man and Gabriel Summers' Vulcan. Each have been described as beyond Omega level in the past (a status conferred on only half a dozen mutants in Marvel history), and are both related to iconic team leader Cyclops. X-Man is Marvel's supreme reality warper, while Vulcan boasts total control over all forms of energy - from Hulk's gamma radiation to the electrical signals within Tony Stark's mind. However, with both characters being incredibly obscure and Vulcan being an unstable antihero, it's unlikely these two will join the Avengers (Marvel's claim may however still be true, since X-Man is from another reality and Vulcan was born off-world.)

Cyclops' relation to so many powerful mutants is no coincidence. As well as his optic blasts, Cyclops has uniquely stable mutant DNA, as revealed by the evil scientist Mister Sinister. Cyclops' unique DNA often produces incredibly powerful children but is also ideal for cloning and genetic tampering, leading Sinister to stalk Scott Summers for the majority of his life, repeatedly using him as a base for horrific experimentation and cloning.

More likely candidates are Jean Grey, Iceman, Storm and Magneto. In X-Men: Hellfire Gala #1 (Gerry Duggan, Jonathan Hickman, Russell Dauterman, et al) the ultimate Sentinel Nimrod revealed he had codenamed Jean Grey and Iceman 'Omega-One' and 'Omega-Two,' suggesting that the ultimate mutant killer sees them as the biggest mutant threats on the planet. The last five years have also seen Storm and Magneto vastly increase their powers (with Storm being permanently off-world and Magneto dead at the time of Nimrod's attack.) Magneto was recently de-aged and reborn in the Resurrection of Magneto miniseries, gaining a new lease on life, while Storm has spent the last few years becoming the leader of an entire planet and being declared the Voice of Sol - the person who speaks for Earth's solar system to the wider galactic community.

Tony Stark recently married Emma Frost as part of a plan to strike against a mutual enemy. While Emma doesn't quite rise to the level of 'Earth's Mightiest Mutant,' there's an outside chance Tony will want his new ally on the team, and her own Iron Man armor could put her in the running.

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It's hard to see the Avengers recruiting Magneto, however Captain America has made it clear many times that he sees the Avengers as an ideal tool to help rehabilitate former enemies...

Fans know that 'From the Ashes' will include both a Phoenix and Storm solo series, however this doesn't take them out of the running, since many of the Avengers - Thor, Captain America, Captain Marvel - have their own ongoing series. Iceman also recently had his own solo series in Astonishing Iceman, showing that Marvel sees him as an A-list hero. He certainly has the power level to match, with recent years revealing Iceman's powers essentially make him immortal while also allowing him to create and control multiple bodies. Meanwhile, it's hard to see the Avengers recruiting Magneto of all mutants, given his history as a villain, however Captain America has made it clear many times that he sees the Avengers as an ideal tool to help rehabilitate former enemies - indeed, he invited X-Men's Rogue into their ranks for that exact reason.

Other leftfield choices include Hope Summers and Synch - two power mimics who have had major roles in X-Men comics over the past five years. Synch in particular has seen huge upgrades to his powers, allowing him to duplicate those of any superhuman around him. Synch recently took up a leadership role in the X-Men with the franchise admitting Synch has become equivalent to a god in the powers he can access - among the Avengers, he'd be truly able to live up to that role. Of all these choices, the most probable so far is Jean Grey - a character whose profile Marvel has consistently shown interest in increasing and who has never been on the Avengers before. However, it's still very much anyone's game.

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Adding a mutant means that it will be impossible for Avengers to ignore the plight of mutantkind, who will once again be hunted and feared by humanity in the 'From the Ashes' era.

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The Avengers recruiting from the X-Men is rare, but it's happened before. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were the first mutants to join the team (though their mutant status has grown a lot more complicated since), while the first official X-Man was Hank McCoy's Beast. Namor, Firestar, Wolverine, Storm, Cannonball and Sunspot all joined the Avengers in different periods of the franchise, while the Uncanny Avengers team (a mix of mutants and humans designed to promote inter-species unity) saw Rogue and Havok lead their own Avengers squads, with mutants including Cable, Sunfire, Psylocke and Monet joining at different times.

While both the Avengers and X-Men exist in the same shared universe, Marvel generally tends to treat them as separate fiefdoms. Crossover books like AvX and Uncanny Avengers exist to bring their worlds together, but putting a mutant on the main Avengers roster goes a step further than that. While many of Marvel's heroes and villains have served on the Avengers at different points (with members as unexpected as Spider-Man villain Sandman and time-lost cowboy the Two-Gun Kid), what really matters is the roster a given member is joining. At its best, Avengers shows Marvel's most iconic heroes working to defend the planet even as their individual personalities and priorities clash and combine in interesting ways. Adding a mutant means that it will be impossible for Avengers to ignore the plight of mutants, who will once again be hunted and feared by humanity in the 'From the Ashes' era.

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It's likely that the mutant hero who joins the Avengers is being eyed for a central role in the MCU...

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Warning: this section will contain spoilers for 2023's The Marvels - readers can skip to the next section for further comics analysis.While Marvel tends to deny that comic decisions have anything to do with the movies, fans generally aren't convinced by this claim - especially following stories like Marvel writer Cody Ziglar claiming that Ms. Marvel's death was ordered by Kevin Feige to bring her comic depiction in-line with the MCU. At best, there's definitely a sense that modern comics are seen as something of a test bed for ideas which may later appear in the MCU - certainly, it's impossible for today's comic writers not to be aware of the potential pipeline from page to screen.

With that in mind, it makes sense that the mutant hero who joins the Avengers - whoever they may be - is being eyed to also join the team in the movies, or at least to act as a flagship mutant hero in the MCU. With The Marvels introducing the X-Men to MCU canon during its post- credits scene, and increasing stories about heroes visiting alternate dimensions, it makes sense that Marvel may have plans to goose interest in the next movie roster of Earth's Mightiest Heroes by including an unexpected mutant.

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The current volume of Avengers definitely seems to be courting MCU fans with a roster of heroes all heavily recognizable from the movies (and several likely to join the next big-screen Avengers roster), making the series' choice of mutant member a potential indicator of what's coming next in the MCU.

As unusual as the choice would be, throwing Magneto onto the X-Men would be exactly what the team needs...

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Adding a surprise X-Men hero won't just be good for the X-Men franchise, but for Marvel's Avengers comic. For the last five years, Marvel has taken a very specific approach to Avengers - assembling the most recognizable of its heroes into a team that echoes the status quo familiar to fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In theory, it's exactly what fans want, echoing DC's Justice League by assembling an unquestionably A-list roster of heroes that fans want to see in action together.

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Sadly - while not without bright spots - the resulting comics have been disappointing. With so many heroes who have their own solo titles, Avengers has often had to ride out developments happening elsewhere, losing members out of nowhere or having a hero's status quo radically change between issues. Several storylines have also been accessible to a fault, engaging with huge, world-ending challenges that don't actually feel consequential to the Marvel Universe or its characters and leave little room for the rocky team dynamics that have defined the best eras of the franchise.

Adding one mutant isn't a silver bullet, but it does suggest a level of texture that Avengers needs - a hero likely to have different priorities to other members and unexpected relationships with their villains and allies. As unusual as the choice would be, throwing Magneto onto the Avengers would be exactly what the team needs - someone who doesn't 'belong' there and who can kick up sparks with the other characters. Avengers and X-Men fans are waiting with bated breath to see which hero gets the call to join Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and Screen Rant will be here to cover the news when it's revealed by Marvel.

Avengers #17 is coming August 2024.

Source: Marvel Entertainment