To help forge the core of the super-criminal crew, Parker sets them on a series of jobs that should both tease out how the dominoes will tumble in "Fall of the Hulks" as well as shine a light on Marvel history. "At this point, what they're doing is essentially pulling off super heists and accumulating lost knowledge from the lost library of Alexandria. They bust into Olympia – the citadel in Antarctica where the Eternals are – because a lot of it's there. And they've got other places in the world that are really hard to break into, like Atlantis and Wakanda. They've got to go in and find all this stuff and pull it off without anybody knowing they're doing it. For once, they're trying to keep their egos in check and not make such a big deal that they're getting it. They're replacing what they steal with copies, so it's not as obvious what they're after. You can kind of get behind the scheme, because they're really starting to try and make it happen and not worry about how cool they look."
The Intelligentsia has earned comparisons from its creators to other Marvel secret sects, like the semi-benevolent Illuminati and the currently set to crumble Cabal, and Parker promised that, much like those other groups, this mad scientist team-up will find its roots in past stories. "We, also, along the way, make references to things that were going on in Marvel history. They poke their invisible hands into things, and we play a little bit with the kinds of things 'The Illuminati' did, but I don't think we actually contradict the way anyone thinks things went down. We don't re-write history, but we do add to it in interesting ways," he said, noting that events such as sudden resurrections and and the history of the villain community will be explored.
Just like Marvel's other marquee gatherings, however, keeping together a group of super-ego maniacs has its downsides too. First and foremost, its members each see themselves as the primary plan-maker.
"Everybody's got their own agenda, and they're all thinking, 'Okay, once this is over, we'll get back to the real goal...which is mine!'" Parker explained. "The Leader organized this, and they're all very careful to not say, 'Listen to me.' As soon as anyone says that, the whole place erupts. Lasers start flying everywhere, and it all falls apart. Even though they're all complete ego maniacs, they also understand that it works better to speak about the task at hand and not
talk about themselves. They're giving it the real college try here. They're tired of the heroes being able to constantly team up against them, and they're seeing what they can achieve together, which is a lot."
