SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Marvel Legacy #1, out now.


Since it was announced, Marvel Legacy #1 has been hyped by the publisher as a comic that will bring back a major fan-favorite character in a story designed to shape the future of the Marvel Universe. Sounds simple enough, right?

Speculation was rampant, with fans theorizing the return of everyone from from Mar-Vell to Miracleman, and more. Was it The Sentry? Was it Jean Grey? Was it Uncle Ben? The Marvel Universe is packed full of fan-favorite characters that would shock the world with their return, but in the end it turned out that the biggest shock was that Marvel brought back not only brought back one beloved character but also teased the return even more.

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The biggest reveal, which was announced ahead of time on Monday, was that Logan, the regular age Wolverine who died several years ago after losing his healing factor, was once again alive and by the end of the story, in posession of an Infinity Stone. That’s not where the issue ends however, as in an epilogue we discovered that the narrator of the entire issue was in fact Valeria Richards, homesick from being away from the Marvel Universe and more than ready to return home with her family.

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Wolverine’s return to the Marvel Universe has major implications, whether you factor in his posession of the Infinity Stone or not. There are currently at least two people living up to the mantle of Wolverine in the Marvel Universe currently — Laura Kinney and Old Man Logan — and surely both of them will be very interested in his return. As will his son Daken who has recently flirted with being more of a hero than he ever was before, and his lover Storm who has been rekindling her romance with the Black Panther since Wolverine’s death but his return will likely throw a spanner into those works. And that's all before we even get to the appearance of the son of Wolverine's Ultimate Universe counterpart, Jimmy Hudson, who has become a series regular in X-Men Blue.

That’s not to mention the adult Jean Grey who is also returning this year in her own miniseries. Logan and Jean Grey have a long history together that has always been complicated by the presence of Scott Summers, but with the adult Scott Summer deceased and Logan and Jean alive, there’s nothing stopping them finally giving into their long-held passions and finally making a go of it as a couple without the distractions or obstacles that have been in there way before.

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There’s also the question of how Logan is alive again. When he died, he had lost his healing factor and was smothered under molten liquid adamantium, but in Marvel Legacy #1 we see the young Jean Grey visit his memorial to find that adamantium shell has been cut open from within and now lies empty. When we see Logan, he’s working as a truck driver so it seems that he’s been back long enough to get a job but recently enough that the X-Men are only just finding out about it.

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Then there’s the Infinity Stone. The one which Logan acquires towards the end of Marvel Legacy #1 is colored blue, which implies that it would be the Mind Stone. However, things are different now and the most powerful artifacts in the Marvel Universe are now Stones like in the movies and not Gems like they always have been in the comics. It’s a small difference, but in the movies the Infinity Stones don’t always share colors with the Gems from the comics and the blue Infinity Stone is the Space Stone, represented by the Tesseract. Time will tell just which Infinity Stone is in Logan’s possession, but while he has tried to stay off the grid since his resurrection, everyone in the universe will be gunning for him when they discover he has the Stone.

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Fantastic Voyage

While the return of Logan might grab headlines, the tease of Valeria Richards, her brother Franklin and the Future Foundation is big news for fans that have missed the Fantastic Four since their last appearance at the end of Secret Wars. While the Marvel Universe existed before them, it truly became what we know it be today with the publication of Fantastic Four #1, and it just hasn’t felt the same without them.

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What’s really interesting is the hand-shaped nebula that Franklin and Valeria fly into, which Franklin addresses as a new universe for them to explore. There is a very famous comic book universe that began with a giant hand -- the DC Universe was created when a giant hand emerged out of nothing holding a spiral galaxy which fragmented into the DC Multiverse as we know it today. Of course, it’s more than a little unlikely that the Future Foundation are heading to the DC Universe anytime soon, but the visual language of the page appears to at least be a nod to that idea.

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The hand and the light within it is also reminiscent of the Starbrand, a concept first introduced in New Universe and adapted into the Marvel Universe by Jonathan Hickman. Marvel Legacy #1 features two Starbrands, one from the Avengers of 1,000,000 BC and the present day incarnation who seeks to prevent the uncovering of what those ancient Avengers left buried. It’s possible that Starbrand and his role as Earth’s protector may have a large role in whatever comes next, whether that involves the return of the Future Foundation or not.

Infinity War

It’s likely that the events of this one-shot, in one way or another, have set up Marvel's next big crossover event, whatever that may be. Next year sees the release of Avengers: Infinity War, the feature film equivalent of a comic book crossover which is set to feature The Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man and many more teaming up to take on Thanos and the threat of the Infinity Gauntlet, so it’s no surprise that the publishing arm is also setting up the mystery of where the Infinity Stones currently are and who possess them.

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Then there’s the Rabid Celestial which was defeated by the ancient Avengers and buried underneath the Earth. Starbrand tried to stop its discovery, but was unsuccessful, leading to Loki discovering it in the modern day. The trickster Asgardian no doubt has big plans for it, especially regarding its insistence that “The Final Host” is summoned. The Fourth Host of Celestials were recently killed off in The Ultimates, but resurrected towards the end of the series as The Fifth Host. It’s been a while since Marvel has really focused on a Celestials-heavy story, and the massive, cosmic beings' return to judge Earth would be the perfect twist to frame the next big event around.

Marvel Legacy promised to set the stage for the next era of the Marvel Universe, and it succeeded in doing just that. The return of Logan and the tease of the Future Foundation alone presents many, many unanswered questions that will be addressed over the next year, the sort of slow-burn mystery Marvel needs to get readers re-invested in its long-form serial storytelling. While many fans may have felt defeated or exhausted following the end of Secret Empire, Marvel Legacy presents a shared universe full of possibilities, and that’s the most exciting thing there is in all of superhero comics.