Doctor Doom's personal Avengers have a big secret - they may not be on his side at all. Drawn from timelines where Doom rules supreme, the so-called Superior Avengers are not allies of Doom as they claim, but enemies sent to take him out.
In Superior Avengers #5 by writer Steve Foxe and artists Luca Maresca and Kyle Hotz, that conflict comes to a head as Doom's heir Kristoff Vernard may find himself at the wrong end of a knife, as shown on the issue's main cover by RB Silva, seen here alongside Kyle Hotz's variant cover:
"KILLMONGER STRIKES! Is this a sign of budding romance? Or MURDER?" reads Marvel's official description of Superior Avengers #5. "The pieces are falling into place, and the team is ready for their true mission to begin. But who is playing who?"
As stated in the solicitation text above, the assassin Kristoff is currently locking lips with on the cover is in fact an alt-reality version of Killmonger, who is one of Doom's secret enemies masquerading as one of his personal Avengers.
All of the Superior Avengers are alt-reality versions of well known characters, including Doctor Octopus, Abomination, Ghost, Onslaught, and finally Malekith, who can be seen on Hotz's variant cover in the gallery above. The "Superior" moniker in Marvel Comics is usually used to denote characters who straddle the line between hero and villain, which certainly applies to the anti-heroes of the Superior Avengers.
Superior Avengers #5 goes on sale August 6, with just one more issue in the limited series to go after that.
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