So, I have a love of speculation, and pluming the depth of the comics for possible characters to include in this game, and this is a bit of an extension of that. This is the first in a series of articles looking at possible secondary leaders for the affiliations that only have a single leader at this point, with the exclusion of Dark Dimension and Convocation, as they are both special cases. Also, all of these picks are under the assumption that they aren’t going to just do a second version of an existing character as the new leader. These will all be new characters.
As I am doing this in alphabetical order, first up will be.
Asgard
Asgard is one of many location based affiliations, being about a place rather than a group. This means that it deals with both the good guys and the bad guys of that place, and puts them all together, which leads to some interesting options when it comes to who could lead them, but that being said, let’s get the obvious two out of the way, starting with:
Jane Foster
Jane, as with many of the characters that Marvel initially created to be love interests to their headlining superheroes, has become her own character over the last decade. For Jane, this involved being a short term replacement for Thor himself, before turning into a Valkyrie that is slowly rebuilding that organization including bring the MCU version of Valkyrie into the 616 universe.
Odin
The less likely leader choice, in my opinion, is Odin. While he is the obvious thematic option, there are mechanical issues that he brings, as each secondary leader that they have created is intended to create an entirely different playstyle, but I cannot see Odin being anything less than a 6, and that wouldn’t change the inherent playstyle or limitations of the faction as whole. That being said, he is the thematic choice by a mile and a half.
Karnilla
I will admit this is a pull, but I have a reason to my madness here. A thing that I could see happening with the location based affiliations is that their secondary leader being a representative of their villainous side. Speaking strictly in the context of the Asgard as it is now, Karnilla would be my choice for that representative, especially as the other two big dogs villains have already been done in Hela and Enchantress. Karnilla is the leader of the Norns, a faction within Asgard, as well as wife of Hela. Karnilla also feels like she’s been getting a push in the comics recently, being the big villain in both a Jane Foster and a Peter Parker storyline in the last year. I will concede, if they at some point seek to expand the context of the Asgard affiliation to include some of the other nine reals that seem to specifically interact with Asgard, I could also see Malakith taking this spot.
Next up is the oddest affiliation to talk about, mostly because how concise their roster is, let alone their selection for leaders
Black Order
This is one of the affiliations that I think a re-rendition of a character is much more likely than a wholly new character, but we are here to talk about new characters, and there are only 3 notable members of the Black Order that haven’t been put into this game, so let’s start with:
Supergiant
Supergiant is an interesting case, cause she is one of the few Black Order members that could convincingly make appearances in other affiliations, but that being said, she acts as the Black Order’s Jean Grey, a super powerful telepath, though one without the morality to keep from using it for ill. For this specific way, she might also be by association a member of the Inhumans, for when she pushed Blackbolt into some terrorism and possible genocide.
Black Swan
A large player and the inciting incident into the major series of Avengers storylines in the mid 2010s, she is probably the member of the Black Order least involved with the Infinity Gems, having other goals in mind, so she would on a mechanical level possibly change the identity of Black Order, an identity that has become a lot more complicated with the larger changes to gems as a whole in the core rule book changes.
The Challenger
The only other leader of the Black Order the hasn’t already have a model in this game, The Challenger reformed the Black Order in a plotline in 2018 and is the most recent leader of the Black Order. If they were to do a new character as the secondary leader, he would be the most obvious choice on thematic, but would also be of the same sort of threat level that Thanos is, so that may push him out of the conversation for the leadership role.
And finally, for this article, let’s talk about maybe the most complicated affiliation to figure out a secondary leader for, not because of the lack of options, but because of the glut of them.
Criminal Syndicate
This is one of the affiliations in which AMG has compressed a variety of different in universe groups into one affiliation, and in that, it requires a lot more digging and subjectivity on who could lead beyond the obvious choice that we have right now.
Madame Masque
Leader of the Nefaria Family, one of the many crime families in Marvel comics, as well as the leader of one of the many incarnations of the Masters of Evil, Madame Masque is one of the biggest black market seller of clones. She is also, notably, a major player in the Kate Bishop Hawkeye storyline that is getting adapted into the upcoming Hawkeye TV show. She has also recently gotten pushed in other Marvel board game products, so I would not be surprised if she gets a larger push soon.
Klaw
Klaw is a character that is not necessarily known for their ruling over an organization, but is a consistent enough figure in the criminal underworld of Marvel comics to see getting the nod as a leader of the affiliation. As well, he is one of the characters that is known because of the MCU,which we stupid to ignore how that affects the choices that are involved in this game.
Joe Fix-It
The only character so far that was also in my last series of articles, this is an off the wall pick that I want to point towards because I think he would be a fun high threat option for a Criminal Syndicate Leader. Also, who doesn’t want to field a Hulk with Tommy Guns.
With that, we have gone through 3 affiliations, and thus, I will leave you till next week where we will go through 3 more affiliations.
