Marvel Legacy #1 reveals an untold past and builds a new future

Marvel Legacy #1 was released this week and it set the tone for the next phase of Marvel Comics.

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Comic books companies love to talk about new eras and reboots that change their worlds for the better while inviting all new readers into the fold. Marvel Legacy is the latest attempt at that. As far as the actual issue goes, there is a lot to look at but not much to sink your teeth into. There are certainly some spoilers ahead though, so be warned.

The whole thing is really just a preview of the stories to come in Marvel over the next few months. We get to see a glimpse of a long-forgotten team of pre-historic ‘Avengers’ made up of Odin, the Phoenix Force, a Black Panther, a female Iron Fist, another Sorcerer Supreme, a caveman-like Starbrand and a mastodon riding Spirit of Vengeance.

All of that really just serves to imply who will be important to the future version of Marvel comics which is why we jump to the fight between our current Ghost Rider and Starbrand. The fight dialogue really sums up the whole issue: a lot of powerful people hinting at mysterious things to come. If Secret Empire was Marvel‘s attempt to revitalize Captain America and remind all of these heroes what they are fighting for, then Marvel Legacy feels like an attempt to remind the audience of our favorite heroes.

The fact that they chose this as the time to bring back Wolverine says to me that Marvel is sort of rubber banding back from the negative response of Captain America as a Hydra sleeper agent into a whole bunch of fan service to calm everyone back down again. This issue promises us the return of the original Wolverine, the original Captain America and possibly even of the original Fantastic Four. Now I am not calling this a bad thing. Marvel has been without foundational characters like the Fantastic Four for too long.

I am saying that this seems like a step away from the brave new world they were building. The disappearance of Tony Stark seems to hail his eventual return and the passing of the shield back to Steve Rogers ends the era of Sam Wilson as Captain America. The idea of these pre-historic Avengers seems to hint at the fact there have always been heroes and the names may change, but the heroism always endures. I’m just saying it was nice to see Marvel trying new things.

Speaking of new things, Black Panther and Wakanda have seemingly gone interstellar. This is apparently because a group of Wakandan teens launched a rocket into space during the big Infinity event last year and began colonizing another planet in the name of Wakanda and the Black Panther. This is the type of thing that excites me about the previews within Marvel Legacy.

I hope that along with all the fan service of favorite characters returning that we also get big crazy ideas like this one. The best thing that could come out of this new era for Marvel would be a world with all our favorite heroes that leaves room for all the new ones that are still finding their ground.

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Marvel Legacy should not be read as a normal comic book. You should at it like one big preview rather one big story. If you look at it that way then I think it leaves things in a pretty exciting place. The comic book worlds are always changing and I think that this new legacy pushes things in an interesting new direction. It remains to be seen if Marvel can build off this brand new start into their next big epic.