Jed MacKay’s current run on Marvel’s Avengers has been an action-packed romp, uniting the team not only as heroes but also as friends. This summer, MacKay’s tight-knit unit welcomes a new member, who also happens to be one of the most powerful members of the X-Men.
August’s Avengers #17 will mark the addition of the X-Men’s Storm to Marvel’s flagship team of heroes. Storm is an incredibly powerful addition to any team, bringing with her the ability to manipulate weather on a colossal scale. Additionally, she is an excellent hand-to-hand fighter (with exceptional proficiency in the use of knives) and has developed tactical expertise due to her years operating as the leader of the X-Men. She is also revered as a goddess in addition to being a mutant leader, thanks largely to her ability to control the elements of nature.
Storm is a significant addition to MacKay’s Avengers for reasons other than her abilities, however. While other iterations of the team have been comprised of an almost infinite number of interchangeable heroes, the current roster was handpicked by Captain Marvel herself and includes only seven members. While these heroes are all popular in their own right (all of them have appeared in the MCU), the limited number of team members make any change to the roster significant — especially with the confirmation that one of the heroes will be leaving following Storm’s addition in the very next issue.
This also marks one of the few times that the core Avengers team has included such an important member of the X-Men (outside of Uncanny Avengers, which was a deliberate crossover between the two teams). Storm is only the third member of the X-Men to join the main Avengers team, with Beast being the first to make the transition almost 50 years ago in 1975’s Avengers #151, and Wolverine joining up almost 20 years ago in 2005’s New Avengers #6. Storm actually did join the team once before, in 2011’s Avengers #19, but that was a brief stay only lasting for a few issues.
Avengers #17 is written by Jed MacKay and illustrated by Valerio Schiti. The issue is on sale from Marvel Comics on August 7th.
