SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Avengers #11 by Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Cory Smith, Mark Morales, Scott Hanna, Karl Kesel, Erick Arciniega and Cory Peti, on sale now.
The Illuminati is a bad idea; we should know that by now. Every time the most powerful people in the Marvel Universe have come together and formed a new version of the overseeing group, it has always gone badly for them. But what if it didn’t have to? It seems like wishful thinking at this point, but there’s something to be said for cooperation between the different superheroic communities in the Marvel Universe, and if anyone can make that work it’s the Avengers’ new chairperson, Black Panther.
However, not everyone is as open to T’Challa’s offer for cooperation. In fact, some of the biggest superpowers in the Marvel Universe may just end up being enemies of the Avengers, as several of the heaviest hitters on the world’s stage slowly become more insular and isolationist. Black Panther has a chance at making this work, but it’s going to need everyone to commit to the fundamental idea behind his pitch, and in doing so, reject the mistakes and mission statements of previous Illuminati incarnations.
United Nations
With the Black Panther as head of the Avengers, America is unhappy that it suddenly finds itself without a superteam. It does make some sort of sense that the country doesn’t want to hitch its wagon to one ran by a foreign head of state. That said, T’Challa is approaching chairpersonship with a level of diplomacy unlike any we’ve seen before, reaching out to superhero representatives from around the world for a super-summit to discuss what he hopes to be a new age of cooperation between the superpowers behind the world superpowers.
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The group consists of Black Panther (T’Challa) representing the Avengers and Wakanda, Captain Britain (Brian Braddock) representing MI:13 and the UK, Shaman (Michael Twoyoungmen) representing Alpha Flight and Canada, Sunfire (Shiro Yoshida) representing Japan, the Collective Man (Han, Chang, Lin, Sun and Ho Tao-Yu) representing S.P.E.A.R. and China, Sabra (Ruth Bat-Seraph) representing Israel, Arabian Knight (Navid Hashim) representing Palestine and Ursa Major (Mikhail Ursus) representing The Winter Guard and Russia. And, as you might expect, there's some tension involved.
NEXT PAGE: Marvel's New Illuminati Is Incredibly Relevant to Our Current Real World Political Stage
Around The World
T’Challa’s vision for the future of cooperation between superheroes across nations is less Illuminati in its ideals and more along the lines of S.H.I.E.L.D., while avoid the mistakes that led to that organization's downfall at the hands of Hydra. T’Challa doesn’t want to recreate S.H.I.E.L.D. by any means, but he sees the potential in mutual cooperation at a time when it feels like the world is falling apart. Aaron and McGuinness’ Avengers has taken a sharp turn towards the political since its blockbuster first arc featuring the Celestials, and the state of the world’s superheroes and how each country is utilizing them seems to be vital topic not just for Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but in the superhero genre as a whole.
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While the heroes of the Marvel Universe are having super-summits and trying to find a way to work together in Avengers, the heroes of the DC Universe are being pulled further and further apart in the pages of Doomsday Clock. Both books have taken care to establish that America isn’t the only country with a superhero team. As countries around the real world grow more isolationist and fearful of outsiders, was only a matter of time for that fear to creep into the pages of our superhero stories. Doomsday Clock has established this with the Supermen Theory, which posits that America's abundance of superheroes was actually a deliberate attempt to win an arms race. Meanwhile, Marvel's Avengers story is more geo-political in nature, as countries jockey for position on an uneasy world stage.
Most of the heroes T’Challa gathered to discuss the future of superheroics on a world stage agree with the Black Panther’s assessment that they should help each other wherever they can, there are plenty of causes for concern around the world. Ursa Major sends a message by attempting to attack Black Panther, America lacks a representative at the table, Atlantis is close to declaring war on the entire world now that Namor has his Defenders of the Deep and the vampires are causing trouble in Romania, possibly looking to establish a new Vampire Nation as they once attempted to in Great Britain.
Cold War
The Winter Guard and The Defenders of the Deep both represent very real threats to the future of the Marvel Universe, but Aaron is making a point of making sure we know that America represents just as much a threat to the world’s safety, with the introduction of the Squadron Supreme of America. There have been many Squadron Supreme incarnations in the past, and we don’t yet know who this team is, what world they come from, or if they’re even a version we’ve seen before, but they represent just as big a threat to world security as anything else the Avengers are facing.
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It’s an incredibly bold political statement for Aaron to make and for Marvel to allow him to make (especially considering Marvel chairman Isaac Perlmutter is an advisor to President Trump), but it brings to mind recent comments from the New York Times’ Paul Krugman, who said just earlier this week that the United States is part of a New Axis of Evil alongside Russia and Saudi Arabia. It’s an incendiary statement to be sure and just as likely not what Aaron is going for, but the parallels between real world events and what we see on the page are too close to deny.
Whether the Black Panther wants to call it an Illuminati or not — probably not, due to the connotations surrounding the name by now — that’s exactly what he’s formed with his super-summit of international heroes, and they don’t hold any allegiance to America nor will they tolerate any trouble America should make with its new superhero team. The Squadron Supreme of America is still a covert team hidden from the world, but with how fragile the current status quo is in the Marvel Universe, their reveal will no doubt upend the apple cart when they make their presence known.