ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Why we're worried about Avengers: Secret Wars

Episode Date: March 1, 2025

Avengers: Secret Wars is supposed to be the culminating event of the Multiverse Saga... but are they rushing it? Can an adaptation of Marvel's greatest crossover story resolve the dangling plot threads from hundreds of hours of MCU programming...and who are the main characters? In this video we break down the movie that could resurrect the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or destroy it for good. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the Grandview's shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series.

Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Hey, welcome back Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Ary, and I'm worried about Avengers' Secret Wars. So I'm going to explain why Secret Wars should be the mother of all Marvel crossovers and why I think that maybe Marvel might fall short because they just rush to the end. Rather than repeat what made the Infinity Saga such a success,

Disney instead of to repeat the mistakes of the DC-EU. And a little bit later, I'm going to be joined by Heather. Arthur Antos and Tommy Beck told to talk about why the Russo brothers and Stephen McFeeley might be the actual dream team to pull this franchise out of its nose dive. So I'm going to tell you why I think this movie could work a little bit later in the video. But first, remember how we got here. Years ago, former Disney CEO Bob Paycheck reportedly put the screws to Marvel and Lucasfilm, demanding more and more content for Disney Plus and movie theaters. So this stretched the creatives at Marvel to the brink. Projects were being written as they were being filmed.

And the thin production schedules meant that it was difficult to interconnect the year. universe because you can't really set up the next thing if you're not even sure what the hell the next thing is even going to be. And the strangest thing about the multiverse saga to me was that we did not get a new team of Avengers. Like the Avengers is a reliable franchise that gives us what we want to see different heroes interact and challenge one another. But rather than form a new team that developed them over the course of a decade, Marvel originally intended to release Avengers Secret Wars in 2025, meaning the Multiverse saga would have been just five years long, with half the time and four times the hours of the Infinity Saga.

But why would they rush it like that? Well, for the same reason that Warner Brothers rushed their interconnected superhero universe to DCEU. Warner Brothers decided that they wanted to get to their team-up movie, the Justice League as fast as possible. They wanted that sweet, sweet Avengers money. So they crammed every character into Batman v. Superman and then gave it the ridiculous subtitle, Dawn of Justice. So instead of, you know, naturally introducing the heroes one at a time

and letting the audience get to know them organically throughout the course of the their own movies, we were introduced to these heroes in a PowerPoint presentation. And I think that Disney wanted the same thing. They wanted to rush to the $2 billion paycheck of a vendor's endgame without laying all that groundwork. So the idea was to introduce as many new heroes as possible, you know, sell all those toys and then throw them together into a team up. And what blows my mind about this is like this is the exact opposite of what worked so well for them in the past. I mean, Marvel back in the day was great because it took its time to introduce us to these characters. I mean, we love these characters. That's why we have a blast designing these shirts for our merch store.

And right now, we're launching a ton of new Daredevil parody shirts. I am so excited to show you guys this new shirt at our merch store, the No Fear tribute to the hallway fight. We also have the Fist Can Fix It Campaign shirt, the Rabbit and a Snowstorm, a replica of the Battle of New York newspaper cover, and we have our Nelson and Murdoch logo and the Law and Order parody T's. Links for all of those are below. And don't forget, you can now listen to Screencrush on Spotify, Apple, and anywhere you get your podcasts. Now, I've been doing an end. depth rewatch of the Infinity Saga. And I noticed that that entire arc works so well because they give the creatives time to do their jobs. Like it took Marcus and McFeeley two years to write Winter

Soldier. The Russo brothers were given plenty of Easter eggs from previous projects to work with. And then they were also able to plant lots of Easter eggs that Joss Whedon and other creatives would pick up down the line. Like the MCU works best when it allows artists to feed off of one another. For example, the ancient one using the Timestone to see multiple futures, inspired Marcus and McPhile, to have Stephen plot the golden path that we see in Avengers endgame. Or how when Steve Rogers tells Tony this, you're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you. That's finally paid off with Tony's death and end game. Compare that to a film like Quantum Mania, where visual effects artists were on a constant crunch

because they were literally rewriting the screenplay as they were in post-production. Movies and TV shows are like gardens. They need time to. grow and flourish. Now, the Multiverse saga has not been able to give us those kind of setups. But if anyone can fix this, it's the Russo Brothers and Stephen McFeeley. This is the team that managed to reference every single Infinity saga film in endgame in a way that actually felt organic. They were able to introduce multiple new characters in the Captain America Civil War, and it felt organic. And they gave us the greatest MCU film, The Winter Soldier. And it seems like they are excited about Secret Wars. Joe Russo recently told Deadline, we found a way into the story that we think

is going to be challenging for audiences, and it's challenging for us to execute. Now, I should note that Secret Wars is the Holy Grail of Marvel Stories. The 1980s comic was the first major Marvel team-up. Now, the original story was about all of these Marvel heroes and villains being transported to a planet called Battleworld and then being pitted against each other. It was thrilling to see how they all played off each other in this unfamiliar environment. And the stories there led to some lasting changes for the characters, like Spider-Man's black costume, or Magneto becoming headmaster of the X-Men.

But the movie is probably going to be based more of the 2015 Secret Wars by Jonathan Hickman, which is more centered around saving the multiverse. Now, Captain America Brave New World ended with Sam deciding to reform the Avengers. And then the leader warned him about the others, which director Julius ONA confirmed was referring to the Illuminati in another universe. Shut up and take my money. So Avengers Doomsday is likely going to be about this team of evil heroes. We've heard casting rumors that Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson are returning,

and the channel heavy spoilers recently posted a video, that speculated that they were going to form a kind of evil Avengers team. Now, I think this is great news and exactly what this movie and the franchise needs, but I'll tell you why I think this movie can work a little bit later in the video. So now I want to talk to Heather Antos and Tommy Beck told Tommy, of course, you see him here on Screen Crush all the time, he's on the Paloxy podcast, and Heather Antos, group editor of licensing at IDW. So guys, we've barely gotten to know these characters, right?

And all of the sudden, we're going to get them thrown into a movie that is the big crossover culmination movie. It seems like they're really rushing. ahead when maybe we should have had some time to meet these guys in their own Avengers movie and how they work together and things like that. You know, Tommy, are we rushing to the end here? Like, how do you think this is going to shake out for them? Yeah, I think it feels even more rushed because of how disjointed the process has been. You know, like you said, we have characters that are going to be coming back all of the sudden that have been absent from our screens for

four or five years. And it's, it's hard to do that. I think it's going to be a pretty ambitious. promotional task for Marvel to remind us of these characters if they expect the average consumer to shell out 20 bucks for a movie ticket to see a bunch of characters assembling that they don't really have a deep affinity for it. By the time we got to Avengers Endgame, you know, we really cared about the destiny of these characters that we had spent a decade with. And I just don't, we don't have that familiarity right now. So it feels more rushed, I think, because of the absence almost. Yeah, Heather, you know, we haven't, had any fan edits from the multiverse saga you know like you remember like leading up to the first

Avengers and everything there was like people were putting together these edits and nobody's really doing that like it's a harder narrative pool but what do you think like how could they take all these like Tommy said we haven't seen Shang Chi and yeah you know I was a you know a presidential administration ago yeah you know it's it's it's funny it's you know from a like an administrative production like behind the scenes perspective it almost feels like the the folks at marvel studios were like okay whose contracts are still available you know who who do we still have on the table that you know we want we want to use or we can use before they become way more expensive or you know you think that's part of the reason we have the thunderbolts lineup that we have oh I a hundred

percent believe that's why we have the thunderbolts that we have you know we have have Lawrence Pugh still under contract, right? And she's huge. She's so much bigger now than she was when they first signed her. So let's have her head up a movie while we still have all these other actors on contract. And that's definitely how Thunderbolts feels for sure. That's how this lead up into, you know, figuring out who the next Avengers are going to be feels. You know, all the A-lister's contracts are up.

So to bring them back would be way more expensive. Well, it's too bad, Tommy, because, you know, you look at the phase one, and they sign these guys, like Chris Evans was reluctant to sign because he didn't want to do a six-picture deal. Sam Jackson and Sebastian Stan did nine picture deals because they had this schedule laid out ahead of time that said every three years, we'll do this and we'll have this. Now, obviously, you know, you guys, you guys work in show business. You know this. You know, the best laid plans of mice and men are often go ugly. you can say we're going to do this movie in this time, but sometimes things get shuffled around and pushed back.

I felt like when they were doing two, three movies a year, it was easier to plan those out, but when you had a TV production schedule in, it's just created this thing where it's, I don't know how they could have actually done this. Like, especially with the Disney Plus shows getting shuffled around, we already saw it with what if. We had all these characters that have any, like Ironheart

and all these other people who we haven't seen the hood and their main characters in the show because of how things get shuffled around. So, Tommy, my question for you is, given that, right, what, you know, we talked last week about the Avengers lineup they should do, but do you think all of this bodes ill for secret wars? Do you think they're going to be able to pull off this narrative or for Doomsday, where we actually care about this rag tag group of individuals they've assembled based on their contractual obligations? I do. I think they'll pull it off. I think that the material and the character, I think one, having Dr. Doom being introduced is going to be a big event for Marvel fans, you know, and especially with Robert Dunny Jr. playing up, which obviously has had mixed reactions from, you know, many, many people both on the fan side and the analysis side. But I do think it's still a must watch. And I think that the events of Doomsday will make Secret Wars a can't make. film as well i i just think that um as you were saying it there's just so much content and you and things that you can't account for like doomsday was called kang dynasty forever because

there was a huge plan and then you know personal behaviors and consequences make it so that that movie can't happen that way anymore and now it's completely changed the villain has changed so it's like i think that they know enough of the ingredients to put into the sauce to make both of these movies massive, I do think, like, you know, not to keep signing like a broken record, they have a tall task to make us care about these characters. But one thing that I think that I've learned is like, just don't bet against the Russo brothers and Marcus and McPhile when it comes to storytelling. Well, it's not Marcus and McPhile, they just got the one. Oh, it's just Marcus? Yeah, or McPhile. Who remembers these days? Ah, yes. That's the thing, though. Okay,

so the thing is, is what frustrates me about this is we've got. got these really fun individual pieces, right? We have them all lined up. And I, what makes the MCU, like, you look at the first offenders, what made it work so well was like the first time Cap and Iron Man stand together, it was this thrill because they were from two totally different movies. It's the same thing that Alien versus Predator could have been. But there's other, like, hell, the Predator franchise, right? The reason Prey works so well is because we took that alien and we put it somewhere new. It's about combining the familiar and new. But at this point, Heather, I don't know that these guys are even that familiar to us.

It's been four years since Shang Chi came out. By the time Doomsday comes out, it'll have been five years. No one cares. Shehawk, I assume, would be on contract for this. That show came out in 2022, four years before. And even then, ended with this meta thing where it's kind of hard to know how it works. To me, do you feel like they have just completely wasted the feeling of an interconnected universe at this point? Like the narrative mind, the narrative juggling they're going to have to do to get this to work.

How the hell is that even going to happen? Yeah, no, they definitely have a tall task, as Tommy said, ahead of them, you know. And unfortunately, what we've seen with a lot of the Marvel films, the DC films, the Star Wars films, is the assumption that the viewer has just finished watching the previous film, right? It's the assumption that you are going into this with all the homework done. And so we don't have to hold your hand or remind you. you know, who she called is, what she's been up to, you know, we're assuming people have watched television series in order to understand a film.

And that's a big ask. That's a big ask for anyone on top of, you know, one of the things that the first, phase one and two, did really, really well, is they eventized to the appearance of these characters. You know, we saw Thor's Hammer at the end of a movie. We knew he was coming, right? And that paid off. That actually did happen. How many times in these films have we teased things that were still waiting to pay off if at all? I'm sorry on Hercules. I know. Well, I think part of the problem there is this compressed schedule where they know they're not going to make a Thor movie for a few years, but they want Hercules in the next Thor movie. So rather than use the Thor movie to tease the next

movie they know they're going to make they instead like i think they just they got way too far ahead of where they actually were and you know to your point about how well they introduced things in this last saga right when you you could watch the first avenger and probably go in naked to that and not having seen anything before they do a pretty good job of establishing so this is the rich guy with the suit this guy just came out of the ice especially if they would have included that sequence in the first avengers where steve like was looking at old photos and stuff the hawk basically gives you Hulk's position about who he is when you first meet him. And I feel like in this movie, that's going to take up an hour, you know, like for them to be like, oh, uh, Sam's going to go

around recruiting people at the start of Doomsday and they're introducing this threat. And then they're going to be reluctant to join. Maybe. I just for me, it seems like such a big narrative lift because they didn't do due diligence in the past, Tommy. I mean, but what kind of threat do you see that could actually bring that? Do you think the movie will begin with an attack or with Sam knocking on doors and people say, you son of a bitch? I'm in. Oh, man, I feel like it's going to be the latter. I wish it was the former. I think, having, you know, you can, you can kind of cut right to the chase if you show these power sets that these characters have in action right away, and you can build a lot of chemistry

between the characters showing them in action. However, I do believe that the safe storytelling is going to be Sam and Joaquin walking around saying we're putting a squad together and people being like, no way or I'm in, and then you know, the ones that say no way showing up, you know, as the

cavalry, if you will. So I want Deadpool with like a Tinder like app that has all the previous Avengers or you know, a B-list Avengers, whatever, and swipe left, swipe right based on

their um abilities um you know sorry Heather I think what you made is great is a great point they're going to have to lean heavily on like Spider-Man and Deadpool and these movies to be like listen you may not feel as strongly about Shang-ji or you may not feel as strongly about like the new falcon but you love Spider-Man right like you love he's here and you love Deadpool and he's here and they're going to have to do some really heavy I mean that's what they're doing with i think robert downy junior as do you know like on top of like he's a great actor and i know his history with a character and wanting to play him but like go back to your roots you know like everyone loved him well you're thinking about like the justice league of america right the reason people

collected the justice league back in the day is because it was a bargain all the big heroes in one book and that was the when they rebooted the avengers with the new offenders that's why they had Spider-Man and Wolverine. They wanted it to feel like, oh, my God, all the biggest guys are in one book, and it's a bargain to buy this one book. And that's what the Avengers movies always felt like. Like, I got to watch all of these movies, and I got to see how they culminated, but most importantly, how they played off of each other. And that's really what I think is kind of missing here, is those first event, that first Avengers line up, and even some of the people they added, they fit archetypal roles. The soldier, the knight, the god,

the spy, you know, the archer. Like, it's basically a D&D squad they put together. And then with this one, when we're coming up with different lineups and things, it's kind of hard to imagine how they play off each other. I actually think the best route for them forward is to figure out a way to bend over backwards and put Deadpool and Spider-Man. Like to just, like you said, get all your marquee people in one room. And I mean, in a perfect universe, Shehawk would have been a movie. Shang-Chi would have had a sequel by now. We would know these characters a lot better. You know, Moon Night, like the problem with Disney Plus is it's just hard to know how many people are actually.

familiar with it. With secret wars, it's easy. They're on one planet together. You don't have to worry about how people form. So I'm optimistic about that. Like you could literally have, it's like in Deadpool and Wolverine in the void, we just kind of accept that there's weird multiversal heroes. Doomsday's the bigger lips, because in all of these movies, Justice League and the Avengers, there was a reader, there was a collector. There was, you know, either Bruce Wayne or Nick Fury, who was going around and gathering people together for a specific purpose. But, at least in the Avengers, began with this attack that really set everything into motion, whereas I felt like with Justice League to bring this all back to the DCEU, there was so much heavy lifting you had to know before.

You had to have known like, okay, so there was, you know, the bell is wrong, and then Batman v. Superman, even though it was just three movies ahead of time, I felt like you had to know a lot more to understand what the hell was going on in that, because we hadn't seen Darkside or Steppenwolf for anybody like that. Right. So maybe in that point, having Robert Downey Jr. attack Earth in the start is a pretty good reason for them to get together. I don't know. Yeah. No, I agree. I really hope that that is the direction they go in. If you have this giant ominous presence, not literally giant, but you know, you have Dr. Doom emerge and force all of these heroes to band together. I just think, I think that's the way to go. And, I mean, I feel like Anthony Mackey does such a great job as Cap and will be a great leader.

I think it does a disservice to that character to have them wander around for 45 minutes at the beginning of the movie recruiting. It's like, it's Captain America. You're going to follow him if you're a hero. Like, if you, you know, I feel like just send the ping. Put the bat signal up, they'll all come. Yeah, hit everybody on the group text. I kind of feel like that's the best way to do it. I feel like the best way is to have an attack happen.

and then just to send out a feelers in this network, hey, we're meeting here. Like, honest to God, why not? Like, meet at Thunderbolts Tower or whatever the hell it's going to be called. Like the Russo Brothers, for example, right? If they have a scene with all these characters where they have to sit around a table and get to know each other, the Russo Brothers directed the bulk of the episodes of the show community

and half of that show are people sitting around a table and talking to each other. So I do think they can pull it off. I just think that, like, you know, going through rewatching Winter Soldier and all these other, other movies recently. They had so much to work with, right? It was like an easy lift. And with this, I'm like, woof, the only thing they have to work with is the name, Secret Wars. You know, and even then, it just, to me, has always seemed like cameo bait, which was another reason I'm worried about. So, let me, let's be positive here, though. I mean, what are you guys, Heather,

you know, it's tough for you, I think, because you've worked at Marvel, you've worked in storytelling, you can see the mechanics, but you're also a fan. You're just a fan who has a critical eye. Best case scenario here, it all comes out the way we want it to. What are you looking forward to the most about Secret Wars? I mean, getting to see, getting to bring the Fantastic Four in with the Avengers, you know, like I'm so excited and hopeful for the Fantastic Four film. And Fantastic Four is such a big part of like Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars if they're following that route. And so like getting to see that interaction, which, you know, that is part of what Eventize the original Infinity side.

could write is getting to bring the Avengers together and getting to bring these new characters together. And so this is us getting to hopefully see the X-Men and Fantastic Four and bringing them in together with the Avengers. I'm so excited and hopeful for the Fantastic Four film. And Fantastic Four is such a big part of like Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars if they're following that route. And so like getting to see that interaction, which, you know, that is part of what eventized the original infinity saga, right, is getting to bring the Avengers together and getting to bring these new characters together. And so this is us getting to hopefully see the X-Men and Fantastic Four and bringing them in together with the Avengers.

Well, except now it's not just bringing the characters together. It's bringing the teams together. Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, the different eras of the X-Men, the different variants from other universes, the Illuminati, the Illuminati, the Evil, and Humans, the At The Eternals. A little less said about the inhumans, the better. I don't know why you had to go there. I mean, for, you know, and plus, Medusa's going to be looking for revenge against ants and Mount.

I would like to see the inhumans come in, but from a universe where everything is poorly rendered. You know what I mean? Like, if her hair and everything, if they have her hair and lockjaw and all these people in the universe who intentionally look bad, just because that's how they look in the universe, and Deadpool can do some kind of wink and nod thing, up for it. That would be amazing. Tommy, what about you? What are you pumped about? What are you looking forward to about secret wars? I am looking forward to what I assume will be a moment in Secret Wars where Anthony

Mackey, Sam Wilson, Captain America throws the shield. It bounces back and right before he catches it, another blue arm reaches out, catches the shield, and we see two Captain Americas. I want these guys, these variants to interact with each other. I want multiple Spider-Men, multiple Captain Americas. Give me a couple Thor's. throw in a few, throw in a few, uh, of everybody. I, I, I want to lean into the multiverse chaos now. I, before it was too confusing for me, I was an old man yelling at a cloud. I just wanted, you know, one dimensional storytelling. And now, now I'm saying, give it all to me. I, I'm looking forward to, you know, something old, something new, something borrowed, something

blue. I want a little bit of everything in this movie. I want the variants to, uh, face off against each other. And I want different takes on these characters. I want to see what it's like to see these characters have different personalities. But Heather, how do you think, what I always worry about with this, right? I feel like some of this feels like it's the surface level of the endgame portal scene. Oh my God, everybody, like there was that rush and that adrenaline, you know, but that rush and that adrenaline only existed because of the snap. And we only cared about the snap because we cared about the characters. And what I'm worried about, like with Tommy, what you're saying sounds like fun, but it also sounds like

all the Deadpool League at the end of Deadpool Wolverine, which is just a bunch of people in Deadpool costumes, you know what I mean? So, Heather, where in this saga are they going to find, in your opinion, from what we've seen, who are the richest characters that they can use to invest this saga with emotion?

Oh, with emotion, not with money. Damn, there goes Tony Stark and his inheritance to Spider-Man. Yeah, I mean, Spider-Man, obviously, is the MCU's heart. I think remaining that we that we have for sure. And then, you know, if they bring him back in any way, Chris Evans, Captain America.

Like, I think those are the two characters that have, have the... But of the new people, I mean, are you... I don't know. Like, that's... Wakanda Forever, I thought, was pretty underrated. So you get Shuri in there, for example. It's just been so long ago, nobody remembers it, you know? But that's the thing, right?

Is so much of this is so long ago. that it's really, really hard to tell how a current modern audience is going to respond to these characters. I don't know. But who do you respond to, I'm asking? Who are the characters that you feel like? I like Spider-Man for sure. I think, you know, I think Kamala Khan is still, like, such an underrated character. And she's so great for sure.

Like, I think, honestly, and give me Young Avengers. Give me Secret Wars. Give me the Young Avengers. Get this team together. Get the kids together. You might be getting it between the two movies, too. You might. I mean, they're holding out on that last announcement. We don't know why yet. I know. But Tommy, who are you most invested? Oh, I was just to say, but that's where I think it's so cliche. But I think the future is with the youth. Tommy, what about you? Who are you most invested in here? In the new era, I'm, you know, I'm more invested in Shuri. And I'm invested. in um i'm invested in wakene the new falcon like you know i i thought that that was a very moving uh sequence when when he when he was nearly killed in that movie i'm really want to see some some proper closure with ant man i'm invested in what happens to scott lang i want to you know quantumania kind of landed with a bit of a thud uh and i i'm interested to see this character's

kind of closure you know what they do with i mean three movies and three standalone movies and, you know, several team-up movies later, I think that we deserve a proper, or he deserves a proper send-off. Yeah, I agree, and especially resolving his, you know, if he's going to pass the torch to Cassie, then pass that damn torch already. But, again, I do wonder how they're going to go back and try to, like, in the same way that Endgame was able to correct Door the Dark World a little bit, I wonder if they're going to be able to correct maybe some of the missteps from the past few years

on what is a pretty abbreviated production schedule. Like, they're already delaying the production start a little bit to fine-tune the screenplay, which is preferable to, you know, starting without the screenplay ready, but still, I think they want to get out of this saga as soon as possible and then just kind of start clean with all these characters under one umbrella and not having to have this complication of the multiverse. But I do think there are ways that this final movie could really pay off well

and set us up for the next saga. So I want to tell you guys about that now. Tommy, thank you guys so much for joining me. Now, as I said earlier, I think the elements are here for a great finale that can save this saga. After all, guys, remember, people only remember endings. Game of Thrones was great for most of its run, but people only remember that lackluster finale. Now, like I said earlier, the creative team and cast for this movie is top-notch, but what they really have going for them is the meta-commentary that the audience is going to relate to.

What do you mean? Well, you see, the audience love the Infinity saga. We love those characters. Not so much the Multiverse saga. It's just been miss. After miss, after miss. And the thing to remember is that these superheroes also feel overshadowed by the heroes of the Infinity Saga. Sam is trying to live up to Steve.

Kate Bishop wants to be the new Hawkeye. Peter Parker lost Tony Stark. You know, you get the point. So, if the heroes of the Infinity Saga are returning as evil doppelgangers, then these new characters have to literally prove themselves against the previous generation. Personally, I think the multiverse is a weak concept because it removes most character stakes. Nobody ever really dies because they could always come back from another universe. But I think they can use this inherent weakness of multiverse storytelling to actually add character stakes

by showing that these new heroes could actually become evil. Like Invincible plays this concept brilliantly, like when Mark finds out that in most universes, he actually becomes a genocidal conqueror. In most other dimensions, they teamed up and took over the planet. Avengers Doomsday can let these heroes literally face the possibility that they can break bad. And the thing is, the entire saga has been setting us up for this. Wakanda Forever was about Shuri flirting with her dark side. Stephen Strange literally fought an evil version of himself. Hell, even Peter Parker went to the brink of murder but then was pulled away.

And, hey, if the black suit is introduced in Secret Wars like it is in the comics, those evil voices in Peter's head would only get louder and louder. So for the new Avengers team, this could be an opportunity for all of these broken people to need each other. Shuri and the others can help heroes like Sam cope with the trauma of fighting evil Steve and evil Iron Man. And best of all, this could finally allow these new heroes to step out of the shadow of the Infinity saga and into the next saga of the MCU after an awkward sophomore slump from the House of Ideas. But are you guys excited about Avenger's Secret Wars? Let me hear your thoughts down in the comments or on our free-to-joint Discord server.

You can also find me on threads, blue sky, Twitter, or X, whatever we're calling it these days. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe and smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie. Thank you. Thank you.