WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Empyre Aftermath: Avengers, by Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia, and VC's Ariana Maher, on sale now
The events of Empyre saw many aspects of the Marvel Universe brought together and united against common causes. However, one notable person who left the event furious with her fellow heroes was Abigail Brand, who stormed off and resigned her position with Alpha Flight after laying into Captain Marvel. But she seems to have a far more important role going forward in the universe.
The ending of Empyre Aftermath: Avengers sets up a very dangerous and potentially deadly force of heroes, with Brand and a Jonathan Hickman-created Avenger at the center.
The ending of Empyre Aftermath: Avengers teases a potentially dark future for the Marvel Cosmos. Although the union between the Kree and the Skrull has been solidified and peace has been restored to Earth following the defeat of the Cotati, the former Skrull Empress R'Klll warned her grandson Hulking that someday his soft-hearted Empyre will fall and Earth will betray them -- either with their inaction or their brutality. Hulking initially brushes these fears aside, reasoning that while the future may be difficult, they can handle anything together.
This is seemingly disproven from a scene from the future, however. In the flashforward, the armies of the Empyre have been largely wiped out. Captain Glory and other soldiers have been killed -- their bodies now scattered across the battlefield before a wounded Hulking. He's soon visited by a surprising group, arriving on the battlefield through a portal of light. The group is led by Abigail Brand, the former leader of Alpha Flight, who angrily resigned her position following the events of Empyre out of anger over how her organization was shifted to the background while countless died due to a mistake made by the Avengers. She's wearing a jacket with a distinct logo on it, suggesting that Brand has followed through on her proclamation that Alpha Flight wasn't working and needed to be replaced.
She's joined by four allies, although three of them (what appears to be a man, a woman, and someone with twin swords) are shrouded in shadow and are difficult to identify with certainty. However, the portal is seemingly being controlled by the one-confirmed member of her team: Manifold. Formerly a student of X-Men ally Gateway, Eden Fesi is an Australian mutant capable of teleporting people by bending space and time. He served alongside the Secret Warriors but was seriously injured during a mission. After recovering, he was recruited to the Avengers and began going by the codename Manifold. He proved a crucial figure in the early moments of Secret Wars, with the teleporter sacrificing his life to make ensure that a handful of vital heroes made it to Black Panther and Mister Fantastic's lifeboat.
Manifold's presence with Brand suggests that she's recruiting heavy hitters to her new team. Her words to Hulking also seem to suggest that she's not the one who was leading the attack, but rather the one who's going to try and do something about it. She quickly offers a hand to Hulking and helps him to his feet, setting the former Young Avenger to take a proactive role in whatever conflict has consumed the Empyre in conflict. This could even be seen as Brand replicating the efforts of Nick Fury when he first recruited Manifold to his Secret Warriors, creating a new group of unexpectedly powerful figures that can contend with the more dangerous elements of the universe in harsher ways than the heroes are willing to embrace.