While it may not be the Avengers book with “New” in the title, Marvel’s Avengers written by Jonathan Hickman is showing more new faces in the ranks of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes than any of the various Avengers titles out there. With a first arc illustrated by Jerome Opeña, the Avengers line-up has a consisting of founding and decades-old members, but also among its ranks is several newcomers to Avengers – and to creation entirely.

Featuring past new recruits, like New Mutants alums Sunspot and Cannonball, and long-time Avengers-associated characters like Shang-Chi and Falcon, Avengers also features heroes with no real connections to the Avengers franchise like Smasher, Hyperion, Manifold and Captain Universe. With recent issues, Hickman has shed light on his roster of deep cut heroes, but let’s take an even closer look at these curious new hires on The Avengers.

Hyperion

He’s not new to comics, but he’s new to the Avengers line-up. First introduced in 1969 by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, Hyperion was loosely based on DC’s Superman and came to Marvel to battle the Avengers as part of a team called Squadron Sinister. Over the years Marvel’s introduced various versions of Hyperion from different realities (as is the one Hickman and Opena introduced in Avengers), but one thing’s the same: he’s strong, tough, and a bit of a throwback to the Golden Age of iconic heroes, cape and all. So far in Avengers we’ve seen that he was pulled from another universe by A.I.M., and Hickman’s said in interviews that this Hyperion’s origin is at the center of his entire three year plan for the Avengers and New Avengers books.

Manifold

All of these new recruits into Avengers have ties to older characters, but unlike the others who are taking over the name and mantle of a previous character, Eden Fesi’s ties come from his mentor, long-time X-Men ally Gateway. First appearing in Hickman’s Secret Warriors back in 2009, he shares similar powers with his mentor and was first recruited to be a hero by the original Nick Fury, but was left in a coma at that series’ end. Fesi returned, with the moniker Manifold, at the beginning of Hickman’s Avengers using his sorely-needed teleportation powers to give the team a broader scope than what a now seemingly quaint Quinjet could provide.

Smasher

The Avengers have welcomed members all sorts of organizations, from The Defenders to The Champions and even the X-Men –with Bendis’ inclusion of Wolverine and Storm in his Avengers run and the full-scale melding in Uncanny Avengers–but I believe this is the first time we’ve had a member of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard on the team. In this week’s Avengers #5 we got to know more about the woman behind the mask — her name is Isabel Dare and she’s an aspiring astronomer who quit school to take care of her ailing grandfather and work her family farm. After finding a scrap of armor from a previous Smasher who crash-landed on Earth, she receives the powers of the Shi’ar Smasher and is inducted into the ranks of the Shi’ar military forces. She later joins The Avengers at the behest of her grandfather who reveals a friendship with Captain America, and also reveals his first name is Dan. Putting two and two together, if his name is “Dan” and his granddaughter’ last name is “Dare,” then this is an interesting tip of the hat by Jonathan Hickman to the British sci-fi hero Dan Dare (who’s not a Marvel owned character, by the way).

Captain Universe

As a long-time Marvel fan, I’ve always considered Captain Universe that ultra-unique force of nearly-immeasurable power that sits on the shelf, for some reason or another, gathering dust. Created back in the classic Micronauts series by Bill Mantlo and Michael Golden, Captain Universe is a floating cosmic force that goes from person to person as needs arise on behalf of the universe-spanning space entity known as Eternity. Over the years the Captain Universe force has settled into the bodies of everyone from Spider-Man to X-23–even the Juggernaut just recently–but its never quite been a factor for big spanning events like super-hero comics are known for. But that seems to be changing, as Hickman’s brought Captain Universe front-and-center with an all new unnamed female host who non-nonchalantly put an end to the epic battle being waged again the inaugural big bad Ex Nihilo in the first Avengers arc. That’s a big deal — especially when you think about how neither Captain America, Thor, nor Iron Man were able to do it and how Marvel’s editors and publisher signed off on this. I would compare Captain Universe to be the next Sentry with her introduction, but with the bad taste he left in people’s mouth I’d hold back and instead say this could be Captain Universe living up to it’s potential for the first time. No pressure.