Since her introduction, America Chavez's origin story has remained clear and consistent until America Chavez: Made in The USA created continuity issues last summer. This comic miniseries attempted to retcon America's history and ground her more personally in Marvel's 616 universe. However, key plot threads remain unaddressed that seem to validate America Chavez's original backstory. What is the truth? Also, where does this journey leave America as she is set to star in the upcoming Thunderbolts relaunch?
Before the retcon, America Chavez was established as an interdimensional immigrant. Chavez's original backstory is best clarified in the pages of Gabby Rivera and Joe Quinones' 2017 series America. She comes from the Utopian Parallel, a paradise on another plane of existence created by the Demiurge, the future deity-level version of Wiccan. After Chavez's moms, Elena and Amalia sacrifice themselves to protect the Utopian Parallel, she fleas from home. While studying at the multiversal Sotomayor University, America reconnects with an old flame from her adolescence on Earth-616, meets Amalia's mother Madrimar, and learns about Planeta Fuertona, the ancestral home of Amalia and Madrimar. America even travels to Fuertona and defends it alongside other portal-punching Starlings.
A successful retcon recontextualizes characters and events; enriching them by shedding new light on previous stories. Kalinda Vazquez and Carlos Gomez's America Chavez: Made in The USA retcons nearly all of America's origin story out of existence. It is a bold move, but how it was done has ultimately created a continuity problem for Marvel. Throughout the miniseries, America Chavez discovers a long-lost sister who tells America that Elena and Amalia Chavez were researchers from Earth 616. Through a dubious drug-induced flashback, America learns that she and her sister Catalina were test subjects at an experimental lab called the Utopian Parallel, and America's standard origin was a fabrication of the young girl's mind to protect herself from the trauma of it all.
Regardless of personal opinion in favor of one backstory or another, a few key facts from America Chavez's recent adventures make the retconned origin into a continuity sore. In Made in The USA #2, a young America is seen drawing a family tree that features her moms, Madrimar, and the Demiurge at the Utopian Parallel. This creates confusion since America did not know Madrimar even existed until America #4. Rather than being fictional, Madrimar is quite real, displaying the same Starling powers America has as well as interacting with America's exes Lisa and Magdalena, and her fellow Young Avenger Kate Bishop. Wiccan, one of America Chavez's other teammates in Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie's 2013 Young Avengers run, also happens to be the Demiurge. The same Demiurge created the Utopian Parallel in America's primary origin story.
The existence of Billy Kaplan-Altman and Madrimar does not necessarily disprove the revelations of America Chavez: Made in The USA. But left unaddressed they leave a problem in Marvel's continuity. The end of Made in The USA also seriously lowers America's powers, limiting her strength, flight, and star-punching powers. These large shifts in her status quo leave lots of questions as to the state of America's abilities and her backstory heading into Jim Zub and Sean Izaaske's upcoming Thunderbolts series. Only time will tell when America Chavez's story continues when Thunderbolts #1 goes on sale May 25, 2022.