A new Tony Stark variant attempts to assemble his own Avengers in Avengers Forever #1 preview

Avengers Forever #1 excerpt
Avengers Forever #1 excerpt (Image credit: Aaron Kuder (Marvel Comics))

He's Tony Stark. He's also the Invincible Ant-Man in his reality and an Indiana Jones-like archeologist (which his Ant-Man powers lend themselves more to). And oh, yeah, he's got a Ben Affleck in Argo thing going on. 

Meet the star of Jason Aaron's new Marvel Multiverse-spanning ongoing series Avengers Forever. 

That's right, Avengers writer Jason Aaron is launching a second team of Earth's Mightiest Heroes concurrent with his run on the main title, and these heroes aren't West Coast Avengers - they're multiversal Avengers - or All-Avengers as Marvel has dubbed them.

Check out this preview of Avengers Forever #1 by Aaron and artist Aaron Kuder:

Taking its name from the popular '90s event series Avengers Forever (and a bit of its spirit from the '90s X-Men title Exiles), Aaron's Avengers Forever is launching this December as part of a wave of eight new titles Marvel describes as its "tentpoles" for the next year.

"Avengers #50 lights the fire. Avengers Forever is the explosion that follows," Aaron says. "A slam-bang supernova of a megabomb that sends shockwaves across all of reality, to Earth after Earth that's been defaced by the new Multiversal Masters of Evil, to the ruins of Asgard at the end of time, to an Avengers Tower that sits atop a bedrock of fallen gods at Infinity's End." 

The team, officially called 'Avengers of the Multiverse' by Marvel (like Guardians of the Galaxy), will be organized by the main Marvel universe's Robbie Reyes (AKA Ghost Rider), and his first recruit will be Tony Stark variant from another reality - where instead of becoming the Invincible Iron Man, he has become the Invincible Ant-Man, while also acting as an archeologist.

Check out this trailer for Avengers Forever #1:

As the Avengers Forever #1 covers suggest, they'll find a few friends along the way.

"Along the way, we meet some new versions of Avengers we know, as well as witness the return of some dear old friends, in a series that will swing for the fences with each and every issue, as the Mightiest Heroes of all the Earths in the heavens look to assemble as never before," Aaron says.

While this isn't a definitive list, we spot on this Avengers Forever #1 cover Sandman's daughter Susie; the Giant-Man android from Earth X; Quicksilver from Morgan le Fay's alternate medieval reality; Mister America; Doctor Druid; an alt-reality Noh-Varr; Killraven; Thunderstrike; Starhawk; D-Man; Namor; Wonder Man; 3-D Man; Box; Deathlok; Speedball: a classic version of Hawkeye; an alt-version of Amadeus Cho as the Hulk; and an alt-reality Wasp.

But it'd be impossible to identify them all. Marvel has confirmed some of the characters will be making their first appearance in the series.

Kuder will be drawing Avengers Forever #1's primary cover, with variant covers by Matteo Scalera, Carlos Pacheco (a 'Hidden Gem' cover), Betsy Cola, and Russell Dauterman. Check out the Avengers Forever #1 covers released so far here:

Avengers Forever will be Marvel Comics' third ongoing Avengers title, joining the flagship Avengers title and also Savage Avengers.

Avengers Forever #1 goes on sale on December 22.

Make sure you've read all the best Avengers stories of all time before diving into Avengers Forever.

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)