The new Avengers movie shares only its title and villain with the comic book series Age of Ultron, and that appears to be a pattern with Marvel Studios, as the already announced third and fourth Avengers movies and the next Captain America film will similarly borrow titles from the comics (Infinity War parts one and two and Civil War, respectively). Where might future installments in the Avengers franchise find their subtitles? Some suggestions:
Masters of Evil The name of the Avengers’ evil opposites lacks subtlety, but that’s superheroes for you. The team first appeared in 1964, but one of their most fondly remembered stories was 1968’s “And Deliver Us From—The Masters of Evil.” It would be fun, if expensive, for the studio to gather Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, Hugo Weaving’s Red Skull and maybe even Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin with the James Spader-voiced Ultron and others to form a super-villain team to fight their superhero team.
The Defenders War The 1973 storyline officially titled “The Avengers/Defenders War” ran through four issues of each of the two titles, and pit Marvel’s A-Team against its B-Team, which consisted of Doctor Strange, Namor, the Silver Surfer, Hulk and other hangers-on. In the so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe, the “Defenders” name is going to be applied to the street-level heroes getting Netflix shows: Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist. That would make the Defenders the clear underdogs if they were to come to blows with the Avengers, but the story would end as it would have to: All the heroes teaming up against the villains manipulating them.
The Kang Dynasty One of the Avengers’ greatest collective foes is Kang the Conqueror, a time-traveling villain from the 30th century who first fought the team in 1964 and has been coming back for rematches ever since. He appeared in two great millennial story arcs by writer Kurt Busiek, Avengers Forever (bad title, recalling Batman Forever as it does) and the above, in which the bad guy succeeds in conquering the world, but loses the fight to keep it.
