New Marvel Future Avengers Anime To Release This Summer

Another new generation of Avengers will grace Japan’s television screens this summer. Recently, Marvel announced the debut of its new anime Marvel Future Avengers, targeted towards a young male audience. The series will air on the Japanese broadcast satellite channel Dlife. It follows a young boy Makoto and his friends as they train under the Avengers and grow into their powers.

A manga tie-in by Teruaki Mizuno (Metallica Metalluca) is also set to release under manga publisher Shogakukan. The publishing house owns Viz Media, known for publishing English translations of popular manga such as Naruto and Bleach in the United States. The first chapters of Marvel Future Avengers will appear in the April issue of Shogakukan’s Bessatsu Coro Coro Comics Special magazine.

Who Are The Future Avengers?

Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Wasp will appear in the anime and train the Future Avengers. But who will be their apprentices? So far, Marvel has only unveiled details on Makoto. But judging by the anime and manga art released with the announcement, he will be joined by (at least) two other kids. Judging by their color schemes (green for the boy; yellow for the girl), we’re going to guess that their powers or origins take after the Hulk and Wasp. But this is just speculation.

According to the report, Makoto earned his superpowers through a nefarious gene manipulation experiment. His origin story already bears a strong resemblance to Captain America’s. Steve Rogers was a sickly young man before he underwent a genetic experiment that gave him enhanced speed and strength (among other things). Will Makoto take after Steve and gain superhuman strength? Only time will tell.

The Avengers As Teachers

Marvel Future Avengers will feature the Avengers in the roles of teachers, but this won’t be the first time the superheroes have taken on students. In 2005, Marvel Comics debuted the Young Avengers, a team of teenage superheroes with connections to the primary Avengers team. Some of the Young Avengers have since graduated to their own solo series, most recently Miss America (whose series America will hit the shelves this month!).

While they feature the Avengers as mentors, the comics have a darker and more mature tone than Marvel will probably intend for the anime. Fans should expect Marvel Future Avengers to be much more lighthearted than Young Avengers. The mentorship styles of the Avengers will also probably be noticeably different towards the Future Avengers.

Previous Marvel Anime Series

Over the years, Marvel has made several forays into Japanese animation. In 2010, Marvel worked with the animation studio Madhouse to create four anime series: Iron Man, Wolverine, X-Men, and Blade. The Iron Man anime spawned a sequel film Iron Man: Rise of Technovore in 2013. In 2014, Marvel and Madhouse collaborated again to produce the animated film Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher.

Marvel has also worked together with the animation studio Toei Animation. The anime Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers debuted on April 2014 in Japan and concluded on March 2015 after fifty-one episodes.