I'm reserving judgement on the Marvel NOW! line until we know more about it, but I'm very excited for Hickman writing the Avengers. He's done amazing things with the FF, and his Secret Warriors run was nice too, so I'm really looking forward to him taking on the Avengers. Used to be one of my favourite books until Bendis started messing with it.

Apparently he is going to have 18 members on the team! I imagine that will be hard to manage, but if anyone can do it Hickman can. It also makes sense practically to have as many active members as possible and to send smaller squads on individual missions.

I'm trying to think what my ideal 18 member line up would be. Something like:

1) Cap - the obvious leader
2) Iron Man - the brains and tech
3) Thor - the most powerful Avenger
4) Hulk - the GREEN one, not the stupid red one. Post the movie, it would be crazy not to include him, and he brings a fun dynamic.
5) Black Widow - good skillset, and also the obivous movie reference
6) Hawkeye - rounds out the movie lineup plus he's a fun personality
7) Hercules - deserves to be on the Avengers
8) Black Panther - awesome character who also deserves to be on the Avengers...but T'challa, not Shuri
9) Giant-Man - Pym should be here
10) Vision - deserves some decent treatment
11) Spider-man - he should be an Avenger
12) Ms. Marvel - female powerhouse. Although I'd prefer he normal costume to the new one.
13) Scarlet Witch
14) Quicksilver
15) Reptyl - should graduate from the Academy up to the big leagues
16) Tigra
17) She-Hulk

Not sure who I would throw in as my 18th. Amadeus Cho perhaps?

I would love to see some Academy members graduate onto the team or at least some Young Avengers. We already know Vision will likely be there. Also Scott Lang Ant-man was brought back with Children's Crusade.

I'd get the title if I had the budget, so I'll catch it in trade if it really picks up.

Shang-Chi has already been confirmed... in fact, he's the only one confirmed so far!

Fantastic! I love Shang, and the boost he's been getting lately through appearances in Secret Avengers and Amazing Spider-man has been really good.


PDL- how do we know that the Vision is likely to be there? I'd be up for Scott Lang too (still annoyed that he hasn't been clixed yet...how many versions of Pym do we have now?)

I'd be keen to see someone from Avengers Initiative in there too. Maybe Komodo?

I still say adding Shadowcat and a non Juggernaut Collossus onto the team would be nice. Have them as full Avengers, not Avengers and Xmen. Let them leave the xteams behind and get some fresh mutants onto the team.

If only so that mutants aren't a group that identifies as mutants first and only.

Since Vision is clearly back with the Avengers in AvX, I'm doubting they'll "kill" him off again in the event. To me, he feels like an Avengers staple, like Brainiac 5 is for the Legion. I feel he's a must-have member. The robot element on a team can be fun, as recently witnesses with Jocasta in Mighty Avengers and Avengers Academy. Whoever Hickman includes on this master list, it will surely set up to be something interesting.

You'd think with the sculpt re-use, Scott Lang would have been a no-brainer. I'd like to see Komodo back on a Gage-written book once again.

I'd just like to see Komodo back anywhere. And I was just thinking the other day that it's a massive oversight we've yet to see her have a face-off against the Lizard, especially considering her connection to Conners and the fact that the same person who created her - Slott - is currently writing for Spider-Man. Who the Lizard happens to be an enemy of, no less.

I'm pretty sure Hickman's said he has some plans for T'Challa, so I think we can expect Black Panther to be around...

"18 or more" according to Hickman, so after the initial arc, we might have something of a revolving door line up around a core group. Steve and Thor (and Wanda) are going to be on Remender's Uncanny Avengers (led by Havok!), so I'm betting that they won't see as much panel time in Hickman's book as they might have otherwise.

Hickman's also said that it will be a very cosmic-level, galaxy-spanning kind of book.

I think I'd like to see something like this:

1) Captain America - no matter how much or how little he'll be around, it's not really an Avengers book without him.
2) War Machine. Let's let Tony stay in his own book for a while and give Rhodey the spotlight.
3) Valkyrie. If Thor's not around, I'll take her.
4) Black Widow
5) Hawkeye
6) Shang-Chi
7) Black Panther
8) Beast ('cause I like him much better than Pym).
9) Vision
10) Thing (or Johnny Storm 'cause he's the only member of the FF who hasn't yet been an Avenger)
11) She-Hulk
12) Daredevil ('cause he finally joined in Fear Istelf and I don't want that to go away)
13) Spider-Woman
14) Noh-Varr in whatever identity he's using this week
15) Crystal or another Inhuman
16) Hercules, because Hickman may actually be the only writer who could make me like the character.
17) Druid from Secret Warriors, 'cause hey, they need a magic-user.
18) Rocket Raccoon.

Maybe swap Beta Ray Bill for Valkyrie after things really get cosmic.

I'm more interested in seeing who he picks as villains to torment our heroes.

I really think we're overdue for a new and ingenius Kang storyline (imagine the complexity of Red Wing in an Avengers story). And I've heard he's partial to Korvac and lots of the other cosmic epics... so I am just salivating for this as much as I never really wanted him to leave FF.