Avengers: Doomsday is going to be quite the experiment, assembling a brand new crew of Avengers that have to band together to take on Doctor Doom, possibly the most powerful foe they’ve faced, depending on what level of “God Emperor” he’s at.
This set of Avengers is just a bit…underpowered. But now Marvel (and uh, Hasbro) have picked a character that they say “may be the only hero powerful enough to stop the threat the Avengers face,” according to a new press release promoting Doomsday action figures. I mean, yes, it’s a toy-based press release, but it is also an official one from Marvel.
The hero is Shang-Chi and his Ten Rings, ones he learned how to master in his own movie before the MCU made him disappear for far too long. I think he’s lucky he made it into this movie with the way they’ve treated him.
Are the Ten Rings really that powerful? Well, that’s probably a debate for both CBM movie and comic experts, but out of everyone it does seem like Shang-Chi will be one of the most powerful.
- Ant-Man: I mean, I guess he defeated Kang, but come on.
- Super-Soldiers: Bucky, Red Guardian, John Walker, Steve Rogers. Not good enough.
- Normal Humans: Yelena Belova, Ghost, Falcon, Captain America. No shot.
- Fantastic Four: Invisible Woman pushed Galactus through a portal, and I guess Reed is brilliant, but in terms of sheer power, probably not (though in the comics they defeat Doom as a team a lot, of course).
- Namor/Thor – Gods, in effect, but we see Thor’s Stormbreaker stopped by Doom with ease.
- X-Men – Maybe as a team, but it’s hard to see anyone short of Professor X or Magneto really making a dent in Doom. No Jean Grey/Phoenix to help out.
- M’Baku, Shuri – Strong and fast, but I don’t think Doom cares about that.
- Shang-Chi – Defeated the Dweller-in-Darkness, an ancient soul-stealing cosmic dragon.
Well, if we’re going with individual heroes, I know who I would pick. Maybe Sentry, provided he can control himself, though that seems unlikely. Given that this movie is missing heroes with enormous power, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch, Shang-Chi may actually be the best bet after all, which is certainly an interesting position for him to be in. After all this neglect, he probably deserves it.
This, of course, will be a huge team effort, but if we’re doing what we did with Infinity War and Endgame, it seems like the team will probably lose before finding redemption in Secret Wars. We’ll find out in December.
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