Avengers #1: Time To Reassemble

Writer Jed MacKay seems acutely aware of the criticism directed towards the preceding Avengers run, as his balancing of adventure with character-based drama feels calculated. Captain Marvel is the focal point, kicking things off with an endearingly vulnerable moment as she lounges on the surface of the Moon, admiring Earth’s beauty before soaring down to chat with Tony Stark. These mundane instances of joy and peace between death-defying missions had become increasingly scarce, but MacKay understands that they are a factor of the franchise’s appeal.

The Avengers are not a family in the way certain teams like the X-Men are; they are work colleagues united by a common objective, with varying levels of affection (and/or disdain) for one another. Carol Danvers’ narration captures the nuances of these relationships by not only providing new insights into her own mindset, but also her fellow team members as she relays her personal opinions of them. As the new chairperson of the Avengers, she flies around the globe to recruit her squad. With this sequence comes a promised return to the soap-opera antics of yesteryear as tensions between T’Challa and the other heroes ride high, while the android Vision struggles to determine if he’s truly “alive.” For the first time in years, he shares a roster with former wife Wanda Maximoff, and the potential drama packaged with their romantic history is something to anticipate.

The Scarlet Witch herself receives the short end of the stick, relatively speaking. She is given her time to shine action-wise, but also proves shockingly easy to recruit. Given that the issue explores how each members’ perception of the Avengers as a concept has changed over time, it feels like a missed opportunity to bring up the traumatic events of Disassembled.

The comic’s nonlinear structure is framed around a fight against the alien threat Terminus, whose gargantuan scale is expertly realized by penciler C.F. Villa and colorist Federico Blee. Villa’s compact, dynamic page layouts lend to the script’s snappy pacing, allowing the frequent flashbacks to various locations to flow smoothly. Villa illustrates heroes flying through the sky from all angles and directions, zipping back and forth between the battle in the air and on the ground. All of this, in conjunction with the atmosphere provided by Blee’s luscious pink and orange sky, solidifies the illusion of an open, three-dimensional environment.

Avengers #1 caps off with a surprise cameo by Kang, which does not hit as hard as it could have due to the recent oversaturation of the character. Still, he feels more at home in the pages of Avengers than anywhere else, and his injured appearance forebodes the arrival of a threat more powerful than the Conqueror. The chance that this back-to-basics approach may be upended by another cosmic time-travel story is concerning, but the introductory issue does more than enough to earn the good faith of fans.