Marvel to unlock 'The Union' new British superteam from folds of 'Empyre' 2020 but all without Captain Britain
Marvel is all set to unleash their latest Earth-shattering summer crossover event, 'Empyre' in April 2020, but it looks like the event will lead to the creation of a new crop of heroes for the publisher. Spinning out of the events of 'Empyre', Marvel is planning on introducing a new British superteam called 'The Union' with members handpicked from each of the UK's member countries fighting alongside legendary Marvel UK hero Union Jack / Joseph Chapman.
"Forty years ago, Roger Stern and John Byrne introduced a new Union Jack into the pages of Captain America," writer to 'The Union' and legendary British comic creator Paul Grist wrote in a release from Marvel. "This is the comic I've been waiting 40 years to write! New heroes! New adventures! And a team that's falling apart before it's even begun!"
Besides Union Jack, 'The Union' will feature four new heroes, namely, team leader Britannia, Scottish member Kelpie, Welsh member The Choir, and Snakes from Northern Ireland. While it is refreshing to see a team with so many new faces, what's really interesting is that Captain Britain, Marvel's premier British superhero, will not be a member of the new squad.
Brian Braddock, the most iconic Captain Britain, has recently stepped down from the mantle and allowed his sister Betsy Braddock to take over as protector of the British Isles, which has led to a lot of controversy within the Marvel Universe because of Betsy's status as a mutant and therefore a citizen of Krakoa. We don't know yet if anti-mutant bigotry is the reason for not including Captain Britain on the roster but it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility.
In the meantime, 'The Union' does look like it might be an interesting new series along the lines of Greg Pak's 'Agents of Atlas', which has introduced a number of exciting new Asian superheroes to the Marvel Comics universe. The designs for the new characters, created by R.B. Silva ('Star Wars', 'X-Men'), are all pretty cool and while we're yet to get a proper preview of the new series, we're already very excited to see where this story is going.
“I really like Medieval themes and when I was designing these, I thought of the series The Last Kingdom on Netflix," Silva wrote. "With Britannia and Kelpie, I wanted them to look like medieval warriors and I just simplified and modernized it from there. For Snakes, I thought of the visual for the Executioner. Someone the enemy will fear from just a look. And for the Choir, more of a light visual, something that can enable quick movements. On her knife, I put three dragon's heads. I know on Wales’ flag they have a dragon with only one head but I thought, why not three? :)”
'The Union' #1, written by Paul Grist with art by Andrea Di Vito, goes on sale in May.