Miles Morales, Ms. Marvel and Thor join Marvel's All-New Avengers team

Marvel's Secret Wars event doesn't kick off until Free Comic Book Day (that's May 2, so mark your calendars), but all week it has been teasing the lineup of the brand new team of Avengers that will be forged from the ashes of Battleworld, and now we've got the lineup.

Writer Mark Waid, artist Mahmud Asrar and colorist Laura Martin's Avengers team will consist of Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, Sam Wilson as Captain America, Thor (not Thor Odinson, the other one), Nova, someone in an Iron Man suit and Miles Morales as Spider-Man.

The inclusion of Miles Morales' Spider-Man speaks to what many folks have suspected will be a major outcome of Secret Wars, specifically that the Marvel Ultimate universe will be incorporated and merged into Marvel's main setting, Earth-616. The Ultimate universe was originally supposed to be a line of books that restarted Marvel's decades of canonical stories with an eye towards simplifying continuity for new readers, but fifteen years from its debut, things have understandably become just as much of a snarl of stories and back reading.

What the Ultimate Universe does have, however, is a few versions of beloved characters who have found a new, powerful audience. Even aside from Miles Morales' significant following, it's doubtful that Samuel L. Jackson would be playing Nick Fury if the Ultimate Marvel version of the character hadn't been modeled after him years before the films were produced.

Wired broke the news of the final lineup and says that's Iron Man, but there have also been some hints that Pepper Potts will be stepping back into the armor in Superior Iron Man #8 or #9. Her armored adventures would begin right alongside Secret Wars, and it might not entirely be coincidence. If it is Pepper, this would be an Avengers team without a single white man on it (Nova is Latino, and Vision is, of course, an android with the "brain patterns" of Wonder Man — no relation to Wonder Woman — and a dead scientist). In any case, it's also a remarkably teenage Avengers crew with Nova, Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man all underage.

The first issue of All-New, All-Different Avengers (yes, that's the title) will be available for free, along with Secret Wars #0, on Free Comic Book Day, with an ongoing series to follow.