New Avengers #1: It’s a Start

New Avengers #1 opens with a quick callback to the end of the recent Thunderbolts Doomstrike mini-series. The early pages remind readers both that Bucky wants to resist Doom’s reign, and that a romantic connection has formed between Bucky and Natasha. It’s an effective beginning, creating just enough of a connection to Thunderbolts Doomstrike to make that series feel worthwhile to its readers while not leaning so far into it that new readers will miss anything. Indeed, Humphries quickly moves off major One World Under Doom events, charting a distinct course for New Avengers’ first story arc.

This choice is a mixed bag for the presentation of New Avengers #1’s main characters, though. Humphries leans into the fun, quirky aspect of the Bucky/Natasha romance. Readers coming here from Thunderbolts Doomstrike might miss the more in depth advancement of these characters’ relationship. This won’t impact new readers, though. Indeed, for the purposes of New Avengers #1’s  story, it’s a successful choice.

Humphries’ method for constructing the team plays well into Bucky and Natasha’s resistance to being part of a team again. Humphries tailors Bucky’s pitch as an appeal to Namor and Wolverine’s ego, and it works well for the overall tone Humphries seems to be setting for New Avengers. Additionally, slow rolling the members’ introduction and depicting them in flashbacks only after quick appearances in the present actually works well for the issue’s overall pacing.

Lima brings an overall high level of detail to New Avengers #1. There are a few panels during action sequences where he leans mostly on speed lines and Beredo supplies a monochrome background, but these are the exceptions. Backgrounds contain considerable depth. Some of it comes by way of short, sharp lines adding levels of shading. Lima also includes considerable ancillary items–buildings surrounding the main facility; excessive components coming off a key part of the facility; trees, mountains, and animals–which creates very effective parallax throughout the issues.

Character depictions benefit from strong collaboration between Lima and Beredo. Lima’s work on characters’ faces is liberal relative to the rest of their body. This is especially true in the case of male characters. Female characters’ faces are softer. Lima expresses their emotions largely through eye shape and lines around them. Similar work applies to the area around their mouths in close-ups. This is especially evident in early panels featuring Natasha. Through these specific facial features, Lima gives the character a certain intimate playfulness when she’s first with Bucky only to give her a more serious affect shortly after.

Bucky provides the contrasting example for male characters. Lima emphasizes not just mouths and eyes, but also cheekbones, jawlines, forehead lines, and so forth. On the whole, Bucky has more of a spectrum of emotions as opposed to Natasha or Wolverine who are flatter in between emotional bursts.

The strong color work comes into play with characters’ bodies. Beredo is very effective using implied light sources to give a more three dimensional appearance. This is best seen on a splash page with Natasha and Bucky in bed. Beredo transitions subtly from the brightest color tone on what should be the side of the characters’ bodies closest to that light source into eventually the darkest on the part of the body angles further from that light source. This quality of work is visible on characters throughout the issue and not just on closeups or wider views like a splash page.

Beredo’s ability in this area marries well with Lima’s overall attention to detail. Just as Lima is able to add depth via parallax in his art, Beredo does the same with manipulating implied light sources on characters. In combination, they add considerable dimension to the visuals.

Sabino keeps dialogue bubbles and the limited caption boxes well organized in New Avengers #1, largely staying out of the way of the art. In the case of the few sound effects, Sabino goes big. The sound effect text does grab attention. But the choice of font, color, and location keeps them of a piece with the art they accompany.