“Assemble!”
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Adam Kubert
New Marvel Universe, new Avengers. New creative team, new roster, new everything. That’s just the way this works. But now we’ve reached a critical capacity of Avengers. With FIVE concurrent Avengers & Avengers related teams (All-New All-Different, A-Force, Uncanny, New, Ultimates), I can’t help but wonder how many teams is too many.
Spearheading this attempt at doing a through shake-up of the team are industry legends Mark Waid and Andy Kubert, and they both shine here. The interactions between the characters are something really special here, the art is gorgeous and the traditional Avengers “well we’re all just thrown together now” story is being set up nicely. Couple this with a gorgeous cover by Alex Ross, and the book looks like it’s really something special.
But the problem is, it isn’t. It’s the beginning of something great, but there isn’t a lot that really happens here. We’re meant to know who these characters are before hand, but we’re not given a reason to care about them in this book. For an introduction to an Avengers team, this is really just set up for a bigger story in an issue or three.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a fan of this story. I really enjoy the book based on the character dynamics, and knowing the creative team there’s something bigger coming down the road. But for a first issue, this one definitely falls a little flatter than other issues of Marvel’s relaunch initiative have.
