'The Marvels' Sets Up a Long-Awaited MCU Team-Up
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Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Marvels.
FINALLY, WE CAN get excited about Marvel's future again. The Marvels has just premiered, and it's a return to form for a franchise bogged down by middling entries and multiple phases ending in tepid hints at a new big bad villain (who may ultimately be altered after Jonathan Majors' ongoing legal troubles and the underperformance of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania at the box office). Thankfully, The Marvels sidesteps much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's present frustrations and delivers a fun time without concerning itself too much with the bigger picture future of the franchise.
At the same time, it's a Marvel movie. If there's one thing we want when the film reaches its conclusion, it's a peek at what's coming down the pipeline. The intertwined plots, bonkers storylines, and thrilling twists are what we all love comics for, and it's what we expect from the MCU as a result. The Marvels stays true to the characters and to the comics it draws inspiration from. So, how does it wrap up its exciting team-up with Monica Rambeau, Carol Danvers, and Kamala Khan? And what does it tease for the future?
If you're someone who hasn't paid attention to recent Marvel releases, you may be a little confused. While the movie does a decent job of explaining anything you may have forgotten in the interim (and whatever you may have missed from not watching the MCU shows), there's nothing wrong with needing a refresher.
We've got a full explanation for what that ending was all about, and why it should have you enthused for what Marvel has coming up.
What happened at the end of The Marvels?
After Monica, Carol, and Kamala defeat Dar-Benn, the Kree leader intent on stealing resources from other planets to save her own, Hala, we see Monica must trap herself on the other side of a rip in reality to save Earth and the universe overall. We don't get to discover what happened to her until the post-credits scene.
Carol and Kamala, however, go back to Louisiana, where Monica, Carol, and Monica's mother Maria (Lashana Lynch) all used to live. Kamala and her family help Carol move back into her friend's home, as she's finally comfortable returning to Earth now that she's supposedly solved the Kree-Skrull conflict for good. We'll of course see Carol again–most likely in whatever the next major superhero team up is–but for now she seems like she'll be getting used to being back on Earth for a while.
While that may appear to tie up the story, there's still one scene left before the credits roll. Kamala and her family return to their home of Jersey City, New Jersey, but Kamala still has one more errand to run. Jersey City is only a train ride away from New York City after all, and as Marvel fans know, there's many, many superpowered people who live in New York.
So who does Kamala go to visit? We first see an adorable dog, whose ears perk up at the sound of his owner coming home. We see a young woman in a purple suit enter, equipped with a quiver, bow, and arrows. And sitting in the dark, doing her best impression of an ominous figure—specifically, you know, Nick Fury at the end of 2008's Iron Man—is Kamala.
S.A.B.E.R. tablet in hand, Kamala introduces herself and gives us a key to who owns the apartment she just broke into: Kate Bishop (played by Dickinson's Hailee Steinfeld). Kamala tells her she's forming a team of young superheroes... although for the moment, that team only consists of the two of them. But then she remembers: doesn't Ant-Man also have a daughter?
Confused? We've got the breakdown for you.
Who is Kate Bishop?
As Kamala briefly explains, Kate Bishop is a 23-year-old skilled archer from New York City. If you watched Marvel's delightful and action-packed holiday miniseries Hawkeye, you'll remember Kate is Hawkeye's (Clint Barton, played by Jeremy Renner) de facto mentee–in the comics, she eventually takes the Hawkeye mantle herself. Daughter to the CEO of a security firm, Kate discovers her mother (said CEO) is engaged to a man potentially involved in selling off dangerous superhero assets from Avengers Towers, including Hawkeye's infamous Ronin suit.
Working with Hawkeye, Kate not only discovers the truth behind her mother and her fiancé's involvement, but also takes on the Tracksuit Mafia, who work under Kingpin. We also get a notable meeting between her and Yelena (Florence Pugh), Black Widow's vengeful sister. At the end of the series, we have a feeling we'll see Kate again, although we aren't exactly sure when.
And now here she is! So, what did Kamala mean about "forming a team"? Well, that means Marvel is finally, finally teasing Young Avengers.
What is Young Avengers?
While everyone knows the Avengers by now, those of us who aren't as up to date on the comics may not know there's also a young version of the Avengers, made up of some of New York's high school and college-aged superheroes.
The team known as Young Avengers first appeared in 2005's Young Avengers #1. In the first comic run, Jessica Jones, Captain America, Iron Man, and others discover there's a group of young superheroes working together. While the young team manages to defeat Kang the Conqueror (yeah,, that Kang), Captain America and Iron Man take away the group's weapons and armor and say they won't train the team until they get parental consent. Of course, the kids go off and continue to fight crime with different costumes, as any rebellious kids would. Eventually, though, they're accepted as legitimate superheroes despite their ages.
While the MCU has introduced Kamala as the potential founder and leader of the Young Avengers, she historically is not part of the team. Kamala in the comics is actually lumped into the overall Avengers team rather than relegated to a younger group. Despite the major change-up from the source material, though, Kamala is the perfect person in the MCU to found the team.
Due to the events of The Marvels, Kamala is the only young superhero we've seen so far who has a direct line to Nick Fury–of course that's omitting Sony's Spider-Man series, which is adjacent but not always fully integrated into the MCU due to the ongoing deal between Disney/Marvel and Sony over the web-slinger's screen rights (sorry Peter Parker). Other kids of powerful heroes, such as Cassie Lang, Ant-Man's daughter (played by Kathryn Newton in the disappointing Quantumania) and Kate Bishop, have yet to be formally brought into the fold when it comes to world-ending threats. With Kamala's new knowledge of everything S.H.I.E.L.D, S.A.B.E.R. and Captain Marvel are up to, she can corral the Young Avengers for when major villains come to threaten New York or the planet at large. There can't be just one team handling all the supernatural, magical, alien dangers lurking out in the cosmos.
So who else could appear in the Young Avengers in the MCU? Members of the Young Avengers in the comics include America Chavez, Cassie Lang (Scott Lang's daughter), Wanda Maximoff's twin boys, Isaiah Bradley's grandson, Eli, a young (good) version of Kang named Iron Lad, Vision, and even Kid Loki.
In the MCU, if we're looking at all the powerful kids we know of, we already have Cassie Lang, America Chavez, and Kate Bishop. There's also Isaiah Bradley's grandson, Eli Bradley, who we haven't seen since The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but could easily make a return for his rightful comic book group. Plus, of course, there's also Iron Man's daughter and Thor's newly-adopted daughter in Love and Thunder, although they're both a bit too young to start crime-fighting.
While there's nothing officially in the works under the title of Young Avengers yet, hopefully Marvel won't let this exciting teaser go to waste. The Marvels has restored some goodwill in the future of the franchise, so it's best if they get started on this awesome team-up before their Young Avengers get too old.
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