The Top 10 Marvel Comic Books Every Fan Should Own

Season 1 of XMen 97 ended with the team getting blown apart on Asteroid M, and not in the way anyone expected. They didn’t die. They scattered across time. Some woke up centuries in the future. Others opened their eyes in ancient Egypt, thousands of years before Apocalypse became Apocalypse. For three episodes, nobody on the show, and nobody watching, knew who was pulling the strings. Xmen 97 Season 2 spends its opening act making you sit with that mystery before finally answering it.

So who actually did it? A woman named Mother Askani. And by the time episode 3 ends, you find out she’s not just some new mystic dropped into the story for convenience. She’s family.

Episode 1: “Days of Past Future” — The Family Nobody Talks About

The beginning of Episode 1 shows Forge and Storm trying to gather their missing teammates by building up a new time machine. Forge traveled into the future to bring Cyclops, Jean, Storm, Morph, and Wolverine back into the present where they’re reunited with someone they thought they’d lost: their son, Nathan. In Season 1, Scott and Jean sent baby Nathan into the future to cure him of a techno-organic virus. What they didn’t know is who raised him on the other side.

That’s Mother Askani. She’s the mysterious figure who has spent Nathan’s entire life preparing him to become Cable. Mother Askani made him a battle-hardened soldier who is ready to defeat Apocalypse. However, when news of this prophecy reaches Apocalypse, he sends four horsemen after the boy but Askani and Storm reach at the right time to save the Summers. 

They crash into the Citadel and Mother Askarni reveals herself to Storm as Mother Askani, and when the hood comes off, longtime comic readers will recognize the face: Rachel Summers, daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey from another timeline entirely. 

She’s the family the Summers don’t know they have yet, and she’s been rewriting the timestream on purpose, placing both halves of the team at the exact moments that could stop Apocalypse for good. On the other hand, Apocalypse gets more angry and tries to strike the X-Men at their vulnerable time.

It’s a rough, honest episode, where Scott and Jean are stuck choosing between the son they just found and the world they still have to save. And it sets the emotional stakes before the show even explains the mechanics of the time split.

XMen 97 Season 2: “A Force to Be Reckoned With” — Back in the ’90s

Apocalypse failure angers him more and decides to strike X-Men at their vulnerable, XMen 97 Season 2 steps away from the past and future entirely and checks in on the present, where the X-Men who didn’t get pulled through time are left picking up the pieces. Two factions form: X-Force, led by a fully grown Cable, and X-Factor, a group that’s chosen to work alongside the government instead of against it. Jubilee and Sunspot get pulled into Cable’s crew, and the episode uses their recruitment to show just how much the world has changed since the team went missing.

It’s important to understand who sent X-Men in the past and future because Apocalypse is the most dangerous villain and he wants to destroy all mutants. The one who has the remote can actually help the team to fight. 

Episode 3: “Rise of Apocalypse Part 1” — Meeting En Sabah Nur Before He Was a Villain

Traveling roughly 5,000 years into the past, the other half of the team—Professor Xavier, Magneto, Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Beast are in ancient Egypt with a young En Sabah Nur, the mutant who eventually becomes Apocalypse. Magneto hatches a bold scheme: to raise Nur under Xavier’s ideals and not hunger for domination. Meanwhile, they intend to use the high technology of Rama-Tut to return to their time. 

Nur leads his Sandstormers against Logos and his robotic army of Rama-Tut where his powers as a mutant fully emerge, enabling him to destroy the mighty machines and defeat Logos. However, he stops before blowing up entirely since he is following Magneto’s advice and spares his enemy that shocked Professor Xavier. Magneto is determined to keep believing that Nur’s future can still be changed. 

That doesn’t go well until Nur finds out about X-Men’s hidden lab that made Nur lose its control with rage. Rama-Tut strikes X-Men with his army right before they prepare to escape, leaving a cliffhanger for the fans which leads to raise many questions among them. The show is stepping forward into a more darker and twisted storyline which sets the character’s emotional stakes higher.

Read More :- XMen 97 Reading Guide: Every Marvel Comic You Need to Read

Why Did Mother Askani Send X-Men Back in the First Place?

Because one shot wasn’t enough. Askani needed Nathan trained and ready to become Cable, and she needed someone in Nur’s life early enough to change his path before Apocalypse’s ideology ever took root. Splitting the X-Men across both timelines wasn’t an accident of the Bastion fight. It was the plan the entire time.

There’s another important comic detail to keep in mind. Rama-Tut, the pharaoh of ancient Egypt in Nur’s day, is in fact one of Kang the Conqueror’s aliases in Marvel Comics. If XMen 97 Season 2 follows that storyline, it’s possible the show could be setting up for a grander multiversal dispute — one that goes well beyond.

What This Means Going Forward

XMen 97 Season 2 has already answered its central mystery, but it’s opened up a dozen new ones. Can Scott and Jean actually walk away from Nathan a second time? 

What happens when Magneto’s plan to “fix” Nur inevitably collides with Nur’s own free will? And how much does Askani actually know about a future she’s trying to prevent?

Conclusion 

These three episodes of XMen 97 Season 2 are much more than explain who sent the X-Men through time. The answer is easy, Mother Askani sent X-Men in different timelines to achieve the goal: destroy Apocalypse. With one team set in the future and the other in ancient Egypt, the series converts time travel into a profoundly personal tale of family, sacrifice and the belief that even the worst evils in history can find an alternate way. 

XMen 97 Season 2 promises that the battle ahead won’t just decide the fate of the X-Men, it could determine the future of the entire Marvel universe. 

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Two days before Spider Man Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, 2026, fans are more curious, does MJ and Ned come back? After No Way Home ended with Peter Parker erasing himself from the memory of everyone he loves — MJ and Ned included. That question has hung over the sequel since its first teaser dropped. The short answer is yes. 

Zendaya and Jacob Batalon are both back for Spider Man Brand New Day — but the MJ and Ned reunion isn’t what you’d expect. 

Zendaya and Jacob Batalon Are Both Back in Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Deadline reported Zendaya would return as Michelle “MJ” Jones-Watson, and THR also confirmed later that Jacob Batalon’s return as Ned Leeds. So the MJ and Ned reunion is officially announced that sparks the excitement and builds suspense around a whole year. That increased the fans’ curiosity and spread the theories on social media about the relationship in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Later in September 2025, set photos revealed the trio — Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Batalon together on a scene where streets dressed like New York for shoot. They are standing in costumes for the first time since No Way Home. However, one tiny detail captured Batalon wearing an MIT shirt in that photo. That means he ends up in there with MJ.

MJ and Ned Are Back On Screen, But They Don’t Remember Peter Parker

The final scene of No Way Home where Doctor Strange cast a spell that erased Peter Parker from everyone’s memory including MJ and Ned. Spider Man Brand New Day picks up four years later and no one remembers Spider-Man’s identity. 

MJ and Ned are back and on her way to MIT. Since No Way Home he’s reportedly built something called the “Spidey Tracker” app — he remembers being saved by Spider-Man once, he just doesn’t know the guy behind the mask used to be his best friend. 

So when the trailer cuts to Ned and MJ, they’re not walking back into Peter’s life as “MJ and Ned.” As far as the story’s concerned, they’re strangers to him, standing in the same city he’s still protecting.

That’s a harder note than most Spider-Man sequels play, and it’s the right one. A clean “the gang’s back together” reunion would’ve undercut the entire point of what Peter chose to do at the end of No Way Home. Making MJ and Ned present but unreachable is what keeps that sacrifice from feeling weightless three movies later.

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Why MJ and Ned’s Return Matters for Spider Man Brand New Day

Peter Parker spends this movie alone by choice. The official synopsis describes him as an adult “living entirely alone, having voluntarily erased himself from the lives and memories of those he loves,” fighting crime in a New York that no longer knows his name. That’s the real engine of Brand New Day — more than any single villain. 

Jon Bernthal’s Punisher and Michael Mando’s Scorpion give Peter something to physically fight; Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk gives him someone to talk to about the “physical evolution” his spider-DNA is apparently going through, which the trailer frames as an actual threat to his life, not just a power-up. Marvin Jones III’s Tombstone rounds out a genuinely stacked rogues’ gallery for a movie that’s ultimately about isolation, not team-ups.

MJ and Ned are the emotional stakes in that structure, not the action ones. The real tension isn’t whether Peter survives Scorpion or the Punisher — it’s whether cutting himself out of their lives actually protected them, or just cost him something for nothing. 

Whether the film lets that reunion happen in any real way, and how far it goes, hasn’t been spelled out in any official synopsis or trailer. Anyone giving you specifics on an actual Peter-MJ-Ned reunion scene right now is guessing — same as the rest of us two days out.

Where Brand New Day Fits Before Avengers: Doomsday

There’s a second reason MJ and Ned’s memory loss matters, and it has nothing to do with Peter’s love life. Brand New Day is the last Phase Six movie before Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18, 2026 — a five-month gap, not the usual year-plus wait between MCU event films. 

Kevin Feige, alongside producer Amy Pascal, confirmed in a Collider interview that Spider Man Brand New Day takes place chronologically before Doomsday, though Feige stopped short of confirming any direct story link between the two. That silence has only fueled more speculation. Spider-Man is notably absent from Doomsday’s officially announced cast, despite Holland appearing in both Infinity War and Endgame, and that gap is exactly why fans keep floating theories about a secret Peter Parker role in December’s ensemble film. 

None of that is confirmed by Marvel so treat any specific claims about a Doomsday tie-in or post-credits reveal as fan speculation until Sony or Marvel says otherwise.

Why This Choice Works for the Story 

If you wanted MJ and Ned to sprint back into Peter’s arms in act one, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is built to disappoint you on purpose and that’s the correct choice. 

Tom Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy was only focused on the relationship of Peter and his suit while growing up learning the cost of being a hero. Facing the consequences of his choices — memory-wipe sacrifice and a straightforward reunion that defines mistakes don’t hold in the MCU.

The relationship of MJ and Ned is somehow the source for Peter’s change. That’s why if MJ and Ned are back, it really means that Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be expanding its story for the bigger MCU rather than just quietly retracting it.

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Conclusion

If you’re deciding whether to see Spider Man Brand New Day specifically for the MJ-and-Ned angle: both actors are in it, confirmed, no asterisk. What you shouldn’t walk in expecting is a tidy “gang’s back together” moment in the first twenty minutes. 

This is a movie about the cost of Peter’s choice at the end of No Way Home, and MJ and Ned are proof of exactly what that cost looks like — two people living full, separate lives a few subway stops away from him, with no idea he exists. 

Whether Brand New Day gives them their memories back, or leaves that door open for whatever comes next, is the one thing genuinely worth watching for once you’re in the seat on July 31.

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Daredevil Born Again left a biggest twist in the Season 2 finale episode and it’s not like a new storyline, it’s going to change the entire show. Matt Murdock puts his identity at risk for justice and to win Karen’s case. While exiling Fisk and being sent away from New York City can be relaxing but revealing himself as Daredevil puts him at a risk. 

The leap jump from season 1 to season 2 is like taking control and building a resistance to fight against Fisk’s corrupted system. Now the gap between season 2 to season 3 is huge to speculate, season 2 ending hinted for the Cell Block D prison where Matt is trapped. And streets need other allies to fight with gangs.

Let’s dig into the detailed blog to understand the Daredevil Born Again season 2 ending which leaves excitement for the next season. 

How Resistance is Formed in New York City

If we look into the Daredevil Born Again Season 1 ending then we can understand how Season 2 has become such an action-packed. 

By the end of the first season, Wilson became a Mayor of New York City but kept doing underground work as a mob boss and successfully manipulated the public against the masked Vigilante. He built up his ruthless Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF) to lock up every costumed hero in the entire city in a Red Hook Port Prison. 

The evil won but Daredevil aka Matt Murdock isn’t finished fighting. He takes a bullet to protect Fisk from Bullseye, he finally realizes that playing by the book isn’t enough to control these gangs and stop crimes. He came up with a plan along with his partners Karen Page and Frank Castle to change their fate from survival to rebellion. 

Daredevil Born Again Season 2 Breakdown

When Season 2 kicks off, the show doesn’t waste time by chatting in a josie’s bar. It started with gritty stakes, Matt Murdock found out the truth about the political power of Fisk after attacking Fisk weapon cargo called “The Northern Star”. It bridges the gap between Fisk’s Mayor position from Season 1 and his ongoing criminal empire in Season 2.

Matt isn’t just sitting alone as a lone wolf anymore, he is preparing a street-level resistance against a corrupt government. While Matt fights in the shadows, Karen is thrown on trial for her vigilante connections. 

This indicates a dual-threat narrative — Karen’s case in the courtroom becomes a legal war and on the other hand, physical war on the docks.

The Explosive Season 2 Finale: The Ultimate Sacrifice

Daredevil Born Again season 2 gives an absolute cliffhanger when it ends with emotional and legal brawl, it just rewrote the rulebook. 

Saving Karen from Fisk’s hand is an impossible task but both Matt and Kirsten McDuffie are fighting a losing battle. But the most powerful act by Matt in the courtroom is unthinkable, he plays his ultimate trump card to win the battle. 

Matt calls Fisk as a Witness in front of the judge, the jury, the prosecution, and dozens of live television cameras. For what? To reveal his identity (Kingpin) publicly. He outs himself as Daredevil to witness the illegal weapons smuggling on the Northern Star which he attacks. 

This statement of Daredevil puts him at risk and causes chaos around the city. But the revelation actually works to put Fisk’s empire crumbles down and all the charges against Karen are dropped. Fisk is removed from his office by the governor. 

The Last Powerful Action in Daredevil Born Again Nobody Thought It Needed

The streets are full of people who put on their own Daredevil masks and storm the streets to protest. Fisk even shoots protesters, Matt stops the protestors to kill Fisk in revenge. As if it’s not enough, Bullseye appears at the court to kill the Mayor which sets off a panic situation. 

What happened to Fisk? He takes a plea deal and drops his US citizenship, sent away to some remote tropical island. 

At the very end, Matt finally enjoys a peaceful date with Karen at a cafe but the outcome after his secret identity is revealed is tough to walk away clean. The next shocking thing happens when police sirens wail and Matt is arrested for multiple crimes like assault, perjury, and obstruction of justice. 

Matt Murdock Being Locked Away in Ryker’s Island Cell Block D

Why Cell Block D? The final shot showed Matt being locked up in a Cell Block D and left us with an explosive finale that jumps us into Season 3. There’s no official confirmation yet but writers have laid down the breadcrumbs perfectly. 

The story narrative is going to change completely with this ending, it completely flipped the universe. This cell is exactly built for the exact same criminals which are dangerous and powerful, he put there over the years. Now Matt has to fight every single day not for the city to save but for survival.

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What Is Expected in Daredevil Born Again Season 3 

If you are a hardcore comic book fan, you can guess that the next season is setting up for the famous “The Devil in Cell Block D” storyline. Daredevil is like a sitting duck in a prison with his enemies. While the streets of Hell’s Kitchen are wide open for gang wars and underworld criminals. 

Bullseye is still on the run after creating chaos in the courtroom. But there is a chance of Fisk’s revenge returning because he is not the man who is going to sit on a beach drinking margaritas forever. 

We can expect him pulling strings from the shadows in season 3, manipulating the prison criminals to make Matt’s life a living hell. Making bloody plans to take back the city not being the man in the tower but as the exiled king planning his return.

The reunion of street-level Marvel heroes could be uniting for saving the city from drowning. With Matt locked up, Karen and the rest of the crew are going to need help. Making allies with other characters like the Punisher or Jessica Jones is setting up a new course of action to keep the streets safe while Matt is stuck in Ryker’s. 

Conclusion

Daredevil: Born Again has done a masterful job by keeping the storyline of season 3 under wraps and left a shocking twist in the season 2 finale. Its seasonal jumps feel earned with strong narratives and high-stakes. The leap from Season 1 to Season 2 already gave us a formation of resistance against corrupted system. Now the jump from season 2 to season 3 will strip Matt Murdock down to his absolute core. Daredevil without a mask, just a blind man fighting with his old enemies in a cage to survive is going to flip the universe.

But is it enough with the storyline? I don’t think so because we can expect more twists from season 3. We just have to wait for the next season.

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The actor who became the most obvious casting choice in Marvel history almost wasn’t cast at all. The Chris Evans Captain America role isn’t a simple casting. He is an actor who turned down this role but the studio didn’t take no for an answer. Casting directors bend down their rules to make it happen.

Looking back now, it’s hard to remember that the actor destined to define Steve Rogers had no interest in picking up the shield. And Marvel Studio just proved, casting really matters as Hollywood comeback could anchor a superhero blockbuster, Robert Downey Jr. back into the MCU as Doctor Doom is an example. 

The Steve Rogers Search That Almost Ended Without Chris Evans 

Casting director Sarah Halley Finn ran a genuinely exhausting search for Captain America. She sat through round after round of screen tests that just didn’t land. The specific blend of old-classic style decency and body structure is hard to see in anyone. And Even isn’t in that line up because he already played a Marvel character, Johnny Storm.

Yeah, that Sue Storm’s brother in the Fantastic Four movies from 2005 and 2007. And there was a rule in Marvel Studio at the time that the same actor can’t play the two different comic-book roles. It muddies the brand. Finn knew Evans might fit Steve Rogers, but she sat on that instinct because of the rule.

It took a string of underwhelming screen tests before she finally said it out loud in a casting meeting: 

Why not consider Chris Evans? 

The room agreed almost instantly. People already liked him as an actor. They’d seen the work. And enough of what makes Chris Evans Captain America tick — earnestness, a kind of stubborn decency — was already visible in how Evans carried himself on-screen. Marvel broke its own rule for him.

The Finalists Who Nearly Became Captain America

Two names come up constantly when fans dig into the Captain America casting search, and neither of them ended up wearing the suit.

John Krasinski was in serious contention. Years later, he’d say he heard through his agent that Marvel had gone with Chris Evans Captain America instead and his reaction wasn’t bitterness, it was recognition. He basically said the same thing every fan says now: 

Of course it’s him, look at the guy.

Sebastian Stan came even closer, in a stranger way. He sent in three audition tapes for Steve Rogers, then canceled a trip home to Romania to fly back for an in-person Marvel meeting. He didn’t get the part. What he got instead was Bucky Barnes — a role that turned into a decade-plus career inside the MCU, arguably richer and stranger than Cap’s arc ever was. 

But Stan is happy because losing that role turned out to be the better outcome for him. He got a more satisfying job that he deserved. 

Why Becoming Captain America Scared Chris Evans

Evans said no. More than once because the commitment terrified him. Marvel’s initial offer was a nine-picture deal. It eventually got negotiated down to six, but even six films was an enormous chunk of a career to hand over to a single character, with no real way to predict how the movies — or his life — would turn out. 

Evans’ reason to say no for the role isn’t the heavy work and action but he knows after signing it would permanently change his life in ways he couldn’t take back.

There was also something more personal underneath it. Evans has since described dealing with anxiety around fame and public attention, and the jump from “working actor” to “face of a global franchise” was the exact kind of exposure that made him uneasy. Turning down Captain America wasn’t a business calculation. It was closer to self-preservation.

The Conversation That Changed Evans’ Mind 

Marvel didn’t let it go. Kevin Feige and director Joe Johnston brought Evans back in for a second meeting, and this time they didn’t just pitch a contract — they pitched the actual story. The character’s arc of Chris Evans Captain America across the franchise is a real concept art. This is not a job for Evans, director said: 

Here’s the character we think only you can play.

Evans has said he took the weekend to think it over, and that it was one of the hardest decision-making stretches of his life. He said yes anyway. And in interviews since, he’s called it the best professional decision he ever made — which is a fairly remarkable thing to hear from someone who almost walked away from it entirely.

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What Marvel Actually Saw in Him

Finn and Feige were searching for qualities in an actor who can bring the genuinely kind, quietly confident, and grounded enough on the screen to make audiences believe he was an ordinary kid from Brooklyn before he ever became Captain America. It is more important for them rather than the shield, costume and the super-soldier physique. Evans captured those qualities in a way that couldn’t be taught or faked. 

His hesitation actually worked in his favor. Finn has said the reluctance itself became a kind of evidence — an actor who didn’t chase fame for its own sake was exactly the temperament they wanted radiating off a character whose entire identity is putting the mission ahead of himself.

There was also a practical acting challenge nobody talks about enough. Steve Rogers is really two roles stitched into one performance: the fragile, undersized guy from the pre-serum scenes, and the peak-physical-condition soldier after. Johnston was blunt about it at the time — whatever the visual effects team did to sell the “before” version, the performance itself, the internal logic of the character, had to be Evans from start to finish. 

That’s not a small ask. It’s asking one actor to make an audience believe in the same soul wearing two very different bodies.

How Chris Evans Became the Heart of the MCU 

Captain America: The First Avenger landed in theaters in July 2011, with no guarantee Steve Rogers would resonate with audiences but Evans made Steve Rogers heart of the MCU forever. He wasn’t just delivered an outstanding performance but he actually turned into the franchise’s emotional backbone. Marvel took that risk and delivered The Avengers, both Captain America sequels, and eventually Avengers: Endgame in 2019.

What made the casting work wasn’t that Evans looked the part. Plenty of actors look the part. It’s that his real hesitation — the anxiety, the reluctance, the fear of losing himself to the role — is basically the same internal conflict Steve Rogers wrestles with across ten years of movies. A guy who never wanted the spotlight, carrying a responsibility he didn’t ask for, because it mattered more than his own comfort. Marvel didn’t just cast an actor who could play that. They cast an actor who, at least for one nerve-wracking weekend, actually lived a smaller version of it.

Even after stepping away from the shield, Evans hasn’t distanced himself from the character. When Anthony Mackie took over as Captain America following Sam Wilson’s arc in the comics and MCU timeline, Evans publicly backed the change, saying flatly that Sam Wilson is Captain America now. That’s not the reaction of someone who resents the role he almost turned down. It’s the reaction of someone who understood, eventually, exactly what he’d said yes to.

The next time someone says a casting choice of Chris Evans Captain America was “obvious,” it’s worth remembering this one wasn’t obvious at all. It was rejected, reconsidered, nearly given to two other actors, and only worked because Marvel refused to accept the first no.

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Conclusion 

The casting of Chris Evans Captain America was not the obvious choice people recall today—it was a risk that nearly didn’t get taken. Between Marvel contravening its own casting rule, Evans saying no to the part multiple times, and various other actors almost being cast, the path to Steve Rogers was far from easy. 

Ultimately, Marvel didn’t just find a guy who looked like Captain America — they found an actor who captured his humility, bravery, and selflessness. That move helped make Steve Rogers the emotional center of the MCU and stands as one of the best casting wins in superhero movie history. 

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