Another new Avengers team in the MCU would solve a major superhero powers problem and also finally fix one huge Marvel character injustice. New Secret Avengers team would solve 2 major problems: the power imbalance between some Marvel heroes and the ongoing injustice suffered by Cobie Smulders' deputy SHIELD director Maria Hill.
She may be reappearing once more alongside Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in the upcoming Secret Invasion TV show on Disney+ - reviving a 5-movies-long partnership, but she has been chronically underused since her debut in The Avengers.
The MCU already looks poised to introduce multiple superhero teams, in the wake of the Avengers, Captain America's proto-Secret Avengers, the Revengers, and the Guardians of the Galaxy (and the Multiverse). Teams work in the MCU and are the best way to frame a crossover event, which is why Kevin Feige's comments that Endgame was "the last Avengers movie" make so little sense.
On top of a likely reformed Avengers line-up for whatever Avengers 5 is, the MCU could see the Dark Avengers, Thunderbolts, Young Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men all boosting the teams roster in the franchise.
MCU problems but which would address the problem with having so many possible Avengers from across the powers spectrum: the Secret Avengers. In the comics, Maria Hill led the Secret Avengers, a stealthy task force including Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Taskmaster. The MCU would have a fantastic time with a Secret Avengers setup, as Hawkeye demonstrated that Marvel Studios can brilliantly handle smaller-scale skirmishes and knockabout humor and Winter Soldier showed just how well the franchise can tackle the espionage genre.
Plus, the roster of heroes is now so large, and the number of properties expanding monthly that the addition of another team for a crossover event build makes a lot of sense. Hill can become a savvy, likeable, but occasionally brutal lynchpin for the different moving parts of the universe.
The Secret Avengers In The MCU Can Fix Maria Hill's Problems
At the moment, it's not clear where Maria Hill even is in the MCU, given that the post-Blip Hill onscreen has been a Skrull. Despite appearing in 5 MCU movies, serving as director of SHIELD in the comics, and being one of the only characters Nick Fury trusts, Hill has been semi-dismissed as an extra gun in fight scenes and a useful plot device for the machinations of SHIELD while The Avengers go hand-to-hand with planetary threats.
But in the comics, Maria Hill is a driven, powerful, and complex character, and MCU's ongoing Phase 4 should make better use of Hill as a character and Smulders as a performer. SHIELD is no more after being compromised by HYDRA, and her move to Stark Industries has presumably fallen apart after Iron Man sacrificed himself at the close of Endgame. Maria Hill's story is fully open, and Secret Avengers could be the answer.
It would, at the very least give her the chance to lead her own team with Nick Fury unlikely to ever step down.
Sometimes, the safety of the world doesn't need a big green monster or an Asgardian to smash things – it takes a steely, shadowy, influential person making morally dubious and tough decisions. Nick Fury has already proven that, and Captain America's underground Avengers off-shoot after Captain America: Civil War offered a precedent for a superhero team that avoids the limelight like the mainline Avengers. Plus, the Secret Avengers would offer a solution to the problem of superheroes not being on an even footing in terms of their powers. Not all MCU superheroes are created equal.
It's easy to question the place of a superpower-free secret agent in the fight against cosmic beings like Galactus and time-travelling despots like Kang. After all, Hill has guns, but Galactus eats planets. But that doesn't mean they can't play a role in an Avengers team still, even with the MCU escalating threats after Thanos.
After all, Clint Barton has fared pretty well in the Avengers so far, and Natasha Romanoff only died through self-sacrifice. And in What If?, the Guardians of the Multiverse came close to ending Infinity Ultron's crusade against all life in the multiverse.
Plus, as the threats escalate higher and higher, powerful but mortal characters like Hill could help remind that it's still the human cogs that keep the MCU going – even if she can make pretty cold decisions sometimes. What If? also showed Maria Hill serving as acting director of SHIELD, so the MCU has set a precedent for her to step up into the leadership role Nick Fury groomed her for.
Hill's presence is a firm reminder that heroism isn't only about crushing villains. It's about rescuing civilians, generating strategies that work, juggling moving parts, sacrificing relationships for the greater good, and making the calls that no one else wants to make.
Nick Fury has survived death once, but he's also served this purpose immaculately in the MCU to date, ever since the first Iron Man, but Maria Hill is every part his equal (and occasional rival), both in terms of personality and skill, and if Phase 4 is about moving forward, Maria Hill could provide the perfect balance of power, cunning, and wit to take on a leadership role, starting with the Secret Avengers. And if that means another MCU team-up, then even better.
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