Marvel Unveils ‘A-Force’, The All-Female Avengers, But Not On ‘The View’

Marvel promised a "forceful" announcement on ABC's daytime talk show The View today, and the entire world was ready for a Secret Wars/Star Wars crossover comic that would pit Jar-Jar Binks against Adam The X-Treme (or something), and then... nothing. There was no Star Wars announcement. There was no announcement of any kind; it got bumped off the show. Still, someone at Marvel has hopefully learned an important lesson about not using the word 'force' to promote things that don't involve Star Wars.

What Marvel did announce today was a new Secret Wars tie-in that is legitimately exciting in its own right, just sadly overshadowed by the Star Wars announcement that never was and the epic DC announcement that kicked off the day. The real announcement, unveiled through various outlets, is a new all-female Avengers book from writers G. Willow Wilson and Marguerite Bennett, and artist Jorge Molina, called A-Force.

Launching out of Secret Wars, and the end of all the current Avengers titles, A-Force forms in one of the Battleworld zones, the feminist paradise of Arcadia (so that's another one crossed off the list), where an emerging threat forces an all-female group of heroes to form a new Avengers team. Included among them, according to a report by USA Today, is a new character called Singularity, who represents a pocket universe that gained sentience during the multiversal collapse.

The cover features a huge number of heroes; She-Hulk, Medusa, and new character Singularity up front, flanked by Dazzler, Storm, Rogue, Wasp, Captain Marvel, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Phoenix, Scarlet Witch, Nico Minoru, Elektra, Aurora, Spectrum, Rescue, Hellcat, Spider-Woman (Gwen Stacy), Firestar, Vindicator, Black Widow, Jubilee, Lucy In The Sky, Snowbird, Pixie, and Marvel's greatest hero, Moondragon. Many of them are wearing classic costumes -- Dazzler and Spider-Woman seem to have abandoned theirr Kris Anka redesigns -- and because of the Secret Wars setting these may not be current continuity Marvel Universe versions of the characters.

Among the many absences; Ms. Marvel, Shadowcat, Kate Bishop, Miss America, the Daughters of the Dragon, Psylocke, Molly Hayes, Valkyrie, X-23, Black Cat, Emma Frost, Magik, Tigra, Songbird, Mystique, Shanna the She-Devil, Elsa Bloodstone, yet another Spider-Woman, and the mother of all Marvel female heroes, Sue Storm. Fie on you, Fantastic Four!

Judging from G. Willow Wilson's comments to Marvel.com, the book may focus on the central figures, including She-Hulk, Dazzler, Medusa, Nico, and Singularity.

Marvel has not indicated how long this series is expected to run or whether it will survive the end of Secret Wars, but Marvel hasn't revealed anything about what follows Secret Wars, so this is standard operating procedure. If the series does continue, we would implore Marvel to change the title, because A-Force is a terrible name that sounds like something a mean Nova Corps officer would say. "What a bunch of A-Force." It's bad. Change it. Change it now.