Avengers! Disassemble… and scatter across the 50 states.
For its new series U.S.Avengers, Marvel has unveiled variant covers for issue #1, assigning an Avenger to each of the 50 U.S. states.
Sam Wilson defends Maryland. Iron Man hovers over California. Black Widow kicks ass for Connecticut.
So you can call up your local comic book store and make sure they”ll have your home state cover in stock. But Marvel”s also given you a reason to splurge on all 50: All of the variant covers will connect to form the American flag.
It”s not clear how each Avenger is “assigned” to a state and whether that superhero-state connection will have a presence beyond the variant covers, within the panels of the comic. Sometimes-Malibu-residing Tony Stark got California, but with so many superheroes hailing from the Big Apple, neither Queens boy Spidey nor kid from Brooklyn Steve Rogers were assigned to New York. Fellow New Yorker Luke Cage scored an assignment to his home state.
With U.S.Avengers, it looks like Marvel”s attempting to appeal to any sense of American patriotism among its readers while also invoking state pride.
As David Gabriel, SVP Sales & Marketing for Marvel, blurbed for the press release about the variant covers, “”We knew that a series with the name U.S.Avengers would evoke a sense of honor with all of our fans and we really wanted to go that extra step and offer a variant campaign that would allow our readers to show their hometown pride across this great nation.”
In both its films and comics, Marvel has deftly explored what it means to be a patriot and an American at a time when U.S. citizens are ever-more distrustful of their government at a turbulent time in the country”s history, particularly interestingly with Steve Rogers” Captain America. It”s quite possible we can expect a nuanced exploration of similar subject matter in U.S.Avengers.
The new series follows the events of Civil War II and interestingly (and, we hope, poignantly) will feature a team of Avengers led not by an American-born hero but by Brazilian Roberto da Costa a.k.a. the mutant Sunspot.
U.S.Avengers is penned by British comics writer Al Ewing, whose credits include Mighty Avengers, Judge Dredd, and Doctor Who“s Eleventh Doctor series.
In addition to the 50 U.S. state covers, there will be variants for Puerto Rico and Canada. (This follows the recent attention Canada got from Marvel when the comics publisher put Canadian PM Justin Trudeau on the cover of a recent issue of Civil War II.)
Below, check out the U.S.Avengers variant covers Marvel has unveiled thus far. The others will be revealed later as we get closer to the series” launch this winter.
