Nearly every member of the original Young Avengers lineup have already made their MCU debut.
We’ve seen the literal birth of Wiccan and Speed, and — in a more abstract sense — of their teammates Hawkeye, Patriot, and Stature. The only remaining members of the seven-part starting lineup yet to be revealed are Hulkling and Iron Lad, but even that isn’t entirely true. The latter has been introduced, in a fashion, thanks to the MCU’s slow introduction of a certain big bad’s variants.
Which leaves one character out in the cold: Teddy Altman. The seven-member team will be complete — with a few later-issue additions already added to the mix — as soon as the young shapeshifter joins them, but every opportunity to add Teddy into the mix has been avoided. Endless rumors claimed he would make his debut in WandaVision, then in Ms. Marvel, and now those same rumors are leaning heavily on the last few episodes of Secret Invasion or the impending The Marvels. These last-ditch hopefuls provide the perfect opening for Teddy’s big debut, and a recent tweet is reigniting that stagnant Hulkling hope across the web.
The tweet couldn’t be more simple. It simply features a photo of Teddy, looking regal in a far-future storyline, with the caption “He’s coming…the long way ‘round.” The tweet comes from My Cosmic Circus writer Alex P., who has no established sources within the MCU and doesn’t credit anyone with the teaser. Which makes it, in general, little more than a hype tweet, but that didn’t stop Hulking fans from flocking to the hint and treating it as fact.
Soon, the tweet was spreading to Reddit, where it ignited even more Hulkling hype, as Young Avengers hopefuls piled on with their own demands to see Teddy officially enter the MCU.
The comment section is sheer cynicism, as longtime Young Avengers fans recall all the times we’ve been let down before. One response sums the frustration up perfectly, by listing each of the false promises we’ve hung our hopes on in the past.
“‘He’s gonna be in WandaVision!’
‘Probably Secret Invasion!’
‘I’m hoping he’s in The Marvels!’
Leaker#1: Hulkling’s in Coven in Chaos
Leaker#2: Wrong. He’s actually the focus in Armor Wars
Goddang it, watch my alien homie prince make his debut in ‘I am Groot’ season 2,” commenter yuuri_ni_victor wrote.
There’s real concern that the Young Avengers will never make a definitive MCU debut, despite the wealth of existing members littered across films and Disney Plus series, due to the amount of time it’s taking. Some of these actors are starting to age out of their roles, and soon the “young” part of the name won’t be relevant. That could mean that the higher ups over at Disney and Marvel Studios decide to simply skip over the team, something that would rob the masses of any kind of Teddy appearance.
We’re not cool with that, and people made that clear in the comment sections of both the original tweet and the post to Reddit. We want to see Teddy, and soon. He’s been one of the franchise’s most anticipated characters for years now, and it’s about damn time he finally shows up in universe.