Iron Lad

A teenage Nathaniel Richards from the far future fled to the present day to escape his destined path as the time-conquering villain Kang, bringing with him stolen neurokinetic armor of his own era. To forge a different fate, he founded the Young Avengers.

Fresh from the relaunched Marvel Universe, Iron Lad burst onto the scene in 2023's X-Men #24, courtesy of creators Joshua Cassara and Juan Frigeri, and has wasted absolutely no time making an impression — already racking up 70 catalog appearances across Ultimates, Ultimate X-Men, and Ultimate Endgame, with one of those issues earning key-issue status among collectors. This is a Modern Age character hitting the ground running, sharing pages with some of Marvel's most iconic figures: Spider-Man, Reed Richards, Captain America, and more. For fans tuning into the current wave of Ultimate Universe storytelling, Iron Lad is exactly the kind of emerging presence worth tracking from the very beginning.