There is a whole new group of Avengers in town and that team looks more diverse than almost any other crime fighting (and alien fighting) team before it.
Today, Marvel introduced its all-new comic book version of the Avengers, featuring some of the most iconic and diverse characters from its modern run of comics.
In fact, Marvel's new team is so diverse that it only features one white male, the ever-present Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. However, other familiar superheroes remain on the team, although in their newest incarnations. For example, Thor is present, but Thor is now a woman (Jane Foster). There's also Captain America, but it's the Sam Wilson version (who we used to know as Falcon).
"We got lucky by happenstance in that Thor was the way Thor was and Cap was the way Cap was," said Avengers editor Tom Brevoort to The Wall Street Journal. "The fact that we were so balanced that there's only one white guy is more than we would have expected when we started out. It's pretty cool."
Marvel also plans on adding Spider-Man to the team, but instead of Peter Parker, the Avengers get the half-black and half-Puerto Rican Miles Morales. Finally, the Vision, an Android, rounds out the new Avengers team.
The Avengers team will also get some new members from Marvel's comic book universe. After the success of the Pakistani-Muslim Ms. Marvel, the company couldn't resist adding her to the group. Her comics led Marvel digital sales last year, after all. There's also another new character, Nova, a Latino superhero from the Disney Infinity 2.0 video game.
"We get to do something that hasn't been done since the beginning of the series back in 1963, which is we get to tell an origin story for the Avengers as the team rebuilds from the ground up," said Avengers writer Mark Waid.
Of course, we have to wonder if this makes up for Marvel's lack of diversity in their cinematic universe. The company continues to stay under fire for some bad decisions about leaving Black Widow out of their merchandising efforts. It seems the Marvel Comics division could teach the film and television divisions a few lessons.
However, Marvel plans on making a movie about Captain Marvel, the Carol Danvers, version. Here's hoping that the company gets that right. But still, there isn't a lot of diversity in their cinematic universe, so maybe those in charge with TV and film will pick up the comics and gain some new inspiration to add that in future entertainment options.
The first adventure of the all new Avengers began with Free Comic Book Day in May, but expect to see more in Avengers issues to come.
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