Who will be the star

[Devonix]

With Disney bringing the X-men into the fold, hopefully Carol's first meeting with Rogue will go better than their first meeting in the comics.

Ehh it didn't really go that poorly. Carol got some of her powers stolen but she got her binary powers almost immediatly after when she joined the x-men.

[GloatingSwine]

Just goes to show, even when the space alien bugs are the scientists instead of the experiment, trying to use evil science to create the ultimate weapon never ends well for you.

[Traab]

With Disney bringing the X-men into the fold, hopefully Carol's first meeting with Rogue will go better than their first meeting in the comics.



They could set up Latveria as the dark mirror version of Wakanda - instead of being isolationist and opening up like Wakanda, they started open with events during the 20th Century pushing them more closed. Ultron's devastation of Sokovia was the straw that broke the camel's back and they fully shut their borders.

While the world is still in turmoil from post reverse Snap, Doom spots the ideal opportunity to advance Latveria's standing and power in the world, especially with several key Avengers now out of the way, and starts annexing regions of countries using the appropriate political justifications (this got a lot more political than I expected, so not adding in specific details).

As an interesting aside, im reading a fanfic where doom is doing something very similar. The basic gist is, red skull has popped back up, or at the least someone claiming to be red skull, and has been making attacks on latveria, among other nations. Doom has made a deal with the fantastic four, among others, that precludes them from interfering, and he has been expanding his empire by moving into the nations where red skull is based and taking over with the justification of "Well, these nations arent able to keep this terrorist from operating there, so its my right as ruler to take over and provide that security myself." or something along those lines. He actually controls most of the former ussr satellite nations and is fairly popular as he is a benevolent despot in ruling style. Yeah he owns you, and he rules with no limit to his authority, but he genuinely improves the lives of his subjects so they are healthier, happier, more prosperous under his regime.

Oh, and all this is basically background noise to the actual story going on. But its an interesting one that got coverage while it was going on. He eventually got the red skull (Turned his skull into a drinking goblet for style points, THAT was an amusing united nations meeting) and has more or less settled down with his new territory as he isnt interested in spreading further at this time, or at least doesnt have the justification to do so. Though that might have changed after the last couple chapters.

[Brother Oni]

Ehh it didn't really go that poorly. Carol got some of her powers stolen but she got her binary powers almost immediatly after when she joined the x-men.

I thought Rogue held on long enough at Mystique's command to put Carol into an indefinite coma (she gets better later) and Rogue had CPT Marvel's flight, strength and invulnerability on a permanent basis?

Or did it get retconned somewhere along the line?

Yeah he owns you, and he rules with no limit to his authority, but he genuinely improves the lives of his subjects so they are healthier, happier, more prosperous under his regime.

This is the critical part in comparing Latveria to Wakanda - both rulers want the best quality of life for their subjects, but have significantly different ways of doing it. Bonus marks if there are significant sections of Wakandan society that want to go back to being isolationist and King T'Challa has to start imposing restrictions to maintain the peace, while Doom, secure in his rule, starts allowing increasing personal freedom (but still permits nothing that directly affects his governance).

[Traab]

I thought Rogue held on long enough at Mystique's command to put Carol into an indefinite coma (she gets better later) and Rogue had CPT Marvel's flight, strength and invulnerability on a permanent basis?

Or did it get retconned somewhere along the line?

That was one of the xmen cartoons at least, not sure if it was also comics.

[Devonix]

That was one of the xmen cartoons at least, not sure if it was also comics.

Yeah in the comics she just lost some of her powers. She still kept her heightened physiology, and ended up joining the x-men.

She did lose her memories, but only for about a month before Xavier restored them.

[GloatingSwine]

Then the Brood got hold of her and turned her powers back on and turned all the knobs up to 11.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

There is a compelling fan theory going around about the next main villain of the MCU. It states that Thanos was looking to reduce the universe's population not out of a general concern for the broader galactic environment, but because there is a cosmic entiry that makes a habit of eating every planet that gets close to being mined dry: Galactus.

I don't really now how they would make that a compelling villain to fight, a giant the size of a large planet, but at the very least it moves up in scope rather than down.

I could see Doom as an important asset in filling in the gap, providing plenty of opposition while the team rebuilds and signs start building up that something bigger is going on. Doom would be somewhere between Loki and Thanos in terms of seriousness of the treath, and he could certainly be the main villain of Avengers 5 and/or 6. And then it would probably turn out he was working either with or against Galactus.

Doom would also provide a bit of an out if the movies stop growing in profitability. If you run up against your limit of growth you can go down in a blaze of glory, one big final panicked push that gets everything wrong, or you can scale down and be happy with what you've got. A villain like Doom could provide material for plenty of slightly lower powered adventures to come. Someone like the rumored new Black Widow (side note: It would be kind of a bummer to finally start exploring this character in solo outings only to switch her right out from under our noses) could star in dozens of James Bond esque films against someone like Doom. You know, theoretical dozens.

So yeah, he could definitely be in the plan, but my money is on Galactus for being the villain wise focus of the next huge arc.

[GloatingSwine]

Though the issue with Galactus as a "more not less" villain is that he only wants to eat one planet at a time. Interesting in that you never really beat him, only persuade him to go away,* but I'm not sure he's really a step up.

Annihilus would be a good big bad villain, because he's a bigger scale threat.


Having opened the door to time travel shenanigans means it's probably time for Kang the Conqueror to show up as the next Avengers villain though.


* After all, he only comes to Earth because he knows that the heroes will pull out all the stops to find him something better to eat. We're basically his version of Just Eat when he's feeling lazy.

[Brother Oni]

I don't really now how they would make that a compelling villain to fight, a giant the size of a large planet, but at the very least it moves up in scope rather than down.

Depends on how over the top they go.