How Secret Wars Can Jumpstart The X-Men Takeover & Save The MCU (By Ending The Avengers)

In the comics, the 2015 «Secret Wars» event ended with universes colliding, and the birth of a new superhero team built to take on larger, more cosmic threats than the Avengers had tended to deal with in the past. That team was the Ultimates.

The Ultimates — whose name came from a prior alternate universe Avengers-style team in the then-defunct Ultimate Universe — headlined a comic by Al Ewing and Kenneth Rocafort, and featured heroes Captain Marvel, Black Panther, America Chavez, Monica Rambeau, and Blue Marvel. Add a few team members, and this would be a very natural next step for the surviving MCU heroes, who would respond to the prior multiversal carnage by assembling to proactively take on universe-wide events before such enemies come for them. After all, if «Secret Wars» really did wipe the slate clean, what better way to bring back some of Earth’s Mightiest than in a brand-new form? 

Meanwhile, the more supernatural Avengers like Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Moon Knight could easily become the Midnight Sons, Marvel’s preeminent horror team. Daredevil could form the Marvel Knights. You get the idea. Let the Avengers moniker lay dead, allow the X-Men to take over, and spin off other heroes into different teams. In doing so, this could revive the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a way that it is desperately in need of, sending it in a new direction accompanied by adamantium-laced Canadians, metal-obsessed tyrants, and furry blue scientists. 

X-Men and Ultimates are the future, Charles, not Avengers. They no longer matter.