8 Marvel Comics Storylines That Could Inform 'Avengers 4' And Phase 4 Of The MCU

Avengers: Infinity War is driving a lot of speculation right now about what next year's follow-up Avengers movie and the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe could look like. Part of that speculation draws from what we know — or think we know — based on movie news, but fans are also looking to comics history for possible indicators of where the story might go. If you read our feature about the iconic Marvel Comics moments that Infinity War brings to life, then you know that the movie is full of visual callbacks to the comics. More often than not, these moments have been re-contextualized from the comics, as if the filmmakers were using the same basic ingredients to make a different recipe.

Even before it stopped answering to the Marvel Creative Committee, Marvel Studios was never bound by a need to slavishly adapt specific stories. What it did do that set it apart from the studios behind the early batch of inferior comic book movies in the 2000s was demonstrate a genuine affinity and respect for the source material. This could be felt in things like the faithful costume design it afforded most of its heroes and some (but not all) of its villains. No longer was their colorful comic book look — the bright visual aesthetic that X-Men once dismissed with a cheeky one-liner about "yellow spandex" — regarded as silly and in need of black-leather revision.

Knowing the studio's penchant for pulling from old back issues, let's dig into the Marvel Comics library and take a look at some elements that might make it into Avengers 4 and Phase 4 of the MCU.

Potential spoilers for future Marvel movies and definite spoilers for Infinity War lie ahead.

"Heroes Reborn" was also tied to the rise of the Thunderbolts, a new super-team that stepped in to fill the vacuum left by the absence of the Avengers and Fantastic Four in the mainstream Marvel universe. One of the greatest plot twists in Marvel history came at the end of Thunderbolts #1 when it was revealed that the Thunderbolts were actually the Masters of Evil: villains masquerading as heroes. Their leader was none other than Baron Zemo.

Captain America: Civil War introduced Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) as the plainclothes mastermind who pitted the heroes against each other. He was left alive at the end of the movie (a rare thing for an MCU villain), so it's possible he might come back and even don the Baron Zemo mask in Phase 4. Civil War and Infinity War also noticeably reintroduced William Hurt's "Thunderbolt" Ross into the MCU as the U.S. Secretary of State. In his guise as Red Hulk, Ross would go on to lead a later iteration of the Thunderbolts in the comics.

If the Avengers are no more — either retired or dead and gone — after the events of Avengers 4, it's possible that we could see a team of government-sponsored Thunderbolts become a major presence in the MCU. This could be Marvel's version of Suicide Squad or The Dirty Dozen.

Rather than time travel, what Russo implied we might see is a return of the B.A.R.F. (Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing) technology from Captain America: Civil War. This technology had therapeutic applications. It allowed users to interact with a virtual reconstruction of scenes from the past in the hopes of working through traumatic memories.

The Battle of New York and his trip through the wormhole and near-death in The Avengers is certainly a traumatic memory for Tony Stark. In Iron Man 3, it appeared to leave him with a kind of post-traumatic stress disorder. Maybe that is why we have seen the Battle of New York being revisited in leaked Avengers 4 set photos.

After being impaled, almost dying, and then witnessing everyone in his strike team — including Peter Parker, the kid he had taken under his wing — disintegrate at the end of Infinity War, Tony might be in an even worse place emotionally in Avengers 4, where he would need to overcome his trauma before he could ever hope to face Thanos again. In the absence of alcoholism, having Tony start out the movie as a man who was completely broken and suffering from P.T.S.D. (even more so than he was in Iron Man 3) might be a way to repackage the classic "Demon in a Bottle" comics storyline, where Tony was forced to confront his drinking problem and reconcile with friends he had alienated.

We've known for some time that Chris Evans is ready to move on from the role of Captain America. Last year, the actor explained that the reason he signed on for Infinity War and Avengers 4 was so that they could wrap up his character's story. Earlier this year, he confirmed once again that these two movies would be his last go-round. The only question is what the resolution of his story will be. Will it be a happy ending or one that is bittersweet?

Again, people seem to take for granted that Steve Rogers, like Tony Stark, might need to perish for him to be phased out of the MCU. Rogers was, in fact, famously assassinated on the comics page in the epilogue to Civil War (Captain America, Vol. 5 #25). Cap has always inhabited a special place in the Marvel universe in that he is a man out of time and in some ways it is not natural for him to be living in the here and now. As a soldier who has faced certain death once already when his plane went down over the Arctic at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger, it would make sense for him to somehow sacrifice himself again, this time without coming back. The first Avenger's death might be a fitting way to bring the narrative full circle in what could very well be the last Avengers movie. Maybe the theories are right and Steve will trade his life to retrieve the souls of friends like Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson from Soul World (or prevent their disintegrations from ever happening via the Time Stone).

Yet there's a distinct possibility that the big deaths being teased for the end of Phase 3 in the MCU have already happened now in Infinity War. If this dark chapter can be seen as The Empire Strikes Back of the MCU saga, then perhaps the next logical progression of the story would be to restore hope: reviving the new generation of heroes and letting the core group of Phase 1 Avengers exit the franchise in a sanguine manner. Steve Rogers could ride off into the sunset on his motorcycle, looking to rediscover America, and if they wanted to keep the Captain America identity going, they could replace him with a new shield-bearer like they did in the comics.

Fans have long speculated that either Bucky Barnes or Sam Wilson could take over as Captain America. Following Steve's comic book death (he would later be resurrected, of course), it was Bucky who first assumed the hero's costume in Captain America, Vol. 5 #34. With his cybernetic arm, he was more than capable of handling Cap's vibranium shield, yet he also brought his own unique features to the table like a pistol and combat knife that he armed himself with and was not afraid to use. This was a departure from the classic Cap image, but it would align with what we've seen of Bucky and his on-screen weapon usage. Remember: this is the guy whose gun Rocket Raccoon wanted to buy.

In some ways, it would make more sense for Bucky to take over as Cap given his history with Steve and the way they've built him up in the movies (not to mention Sebastian Stan's reported nine-film deal with Marvel). Yet the Sam Wilson possibility is intriguing because it would again add more diversity to the MCU and because the comic where he took over (Captain America, Vol. 7 #25) actually saw Steve Rogers remaining alive and giving Sam his blessing as a chosen successor.

Rogers had the super-soldier serum drained from his body and old age had finally caught up with him. With the power of the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos could conceivably hasten the effects of time to where Steve's body would experience the rapid onset of his natural age. That would be a cruel, mind-bending trick to pull in the middle of a fight, yet it would also maybe soften the blow if we knew that Steve was going to join his lost love Sharon Carter simply by dying of old age.

Kevin Feige has said that Marvel Studios isn't "going to announce any post-Avengers 4 movies until hopefully after Avengers 4." That's part of the reason it's skipping Hall H at Comic-Con this year. However, it has already set aside release dates for three untitled movies a year from 2020 to 2022, and here on the site, we've speculated a couple times that the first of those 2020 movies could be Guardians of the Galaxy 3.

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is supposed to end the current team line-up. It's also supposed to set up the next ten years of Marvel movies. With the saga of the Infinity Stones being drawn out over so many Marvel movies already (the Stones served as five separate MacGuffins in the films leading up to Infinity War), the simplest thing for Marvel to do with them in Avengers 4 would probably just be to have a resurrected Scarlet Witch destroy them like she did with the Soul Stone before Thanos reversed time and undid her actions.

Conversely, there does exist a precedent in the comics for a team of heroes functioning as keepers of the Stones. Warlock and the Infinity Watch was a comic book title launched in the immediate aftermath of The Infinity Gauntlet mini-series (part of the source material for Avengers: Infinity War). Before they ever came to be identified as Guardians of the Galaxy recruits, Gamora and Drax the Destroyer belonged to the Infinity Watch, whose members were each tasked with bearing one Infinity Stone. Drax was so dense that he actually swallowed the Power Stone, and since it was indestructible and wouldn't digest, it remained in his stomach until Gamora later kicked him in the gut and he coughed it up.

In addition to teasing future adventures for Sylvester Stallone's Ravagers (based on the original Guardians of the Galaxy team in the comics), the post-credits scenes in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 introduced the cocoon-like birthing pod of a certain "Adam." Fans will know this to be Adam Warlock. Last year, director James Gunn told our own Peter Sciretta that Warlock was originally a major character in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. He also strongly indicated that Warlock would have a big role in Guardians of the Galaxy 3.

With all due respect to Stallone and company, the current big-screen roster of Guardians members is a tough act to follow and I'm not entirely sure the Ravagers would be up to the task. Yet there are other heavyweight Marvel cosmic heroes who, if brought together, could provide a worthy team of substitutes for Star-Lord's Guardians. We now know that Nova, for instance, has immediate movie potential at Marvel. Avengers: Infinity War casually let slip that Thanos had already decimated Xandar, the homeworld of the Nova Corps, but since it happened off-screen, it's possible that's something that could be revisited and shown in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 or Nova's own solo film.

Next year will also give us Brie Larson's Captain Marvel solo film, with the character having been teased in the post-credits scene of Infinity War. If you're keeping count, this means Marvel has already laid the seeds for Adam Warlock, Nova, and Captain Marvel in its cinematic universe. These three characters have appeared together as team members in the Guardians of Knowhere comic book mini-series, and a threat on the level of the ones in the Annihilation or Annihilation: Conquest storylines might justify bringing them together on celluloid.

Whether or not they're acting as an Infinity Watch (again, they probably won't be), the characters might rise to prominence in the aftermath of a big crossover event just as the Infinity Watch did in the comics. What we might see Marvel doing in Phase 4 is taking an Avengers-in-space-like approach with them and other cosmic heroes. Cue Avengers 4 post-credits scene with Nick Fury telling the Phase 3 survivors: "You think you're the only heroes in the universe? You're about to become part of a bigger cosmos."