[REVIEW] NEW AVENGERS #1

In New Avengers #1, a new squad of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes might unite to protect a world under Doom — and a whole squad of deformed clones.

Originally announced as a new Thunderbolts series timed to promote the movie —and then subsequently retitled after its namesake pulled a similar marketing gag— New Avengers #1 presents a new team of heroes assembling amid the ongoing Doomification of the world. (If you haven’t been following One World Under Doom, though, it’s not super important to the plot here.) Their first adversaries? The Killuminati, a crew of corrupted clones based on the similarly-named Illuminati.

New Avengers #1 is a classic ‘getting the team together’ first issue of an ensemble title like this one, with all the narrative baggage that brings. By the end of this introductory chapter, most of these Avengers have actually been assembled, with one briefly glimpsed at and two not even alluded to. I know there’s only so much story that can be packed into twenty-eight or so pages, but I do feel like it’s a sort of narrative failing to launch a team series and have so many of its characters not accounted for by the end of the first issue. But anyway!

That quibble aside, New Avengers #1 is a fun romp with some intriguing hooks. Although many of them have not actually appeared yet, this team has a fun selection of characters composed of some expected stalwarts (Black Widow, Wolverine) with a few wild cards (Clea, Carnage-ified Eddie Brock) and the aforementioned Killuminati that could lead to interesting plot developments. It is sort of funny that, between both titles announced for it, this team more closely resembles the classic Defenders than anything else and they’re mainly selling this as an Avengers comic for brand synergy, but that’s a different topic for another day.

It hadn’t occurred to me until after I read it, but New Avengers is Humphries’ first Marvel work in a decade (his last being the All-New, All Different Marvel-era Weirdworld) and this one seems to carry the hallmarks of his work I’m familiar with (breezy, quick-paced). Tom Lima’s art here is particularly good, with Humphries’ script offering lots of weird and even grotesque visuals to convey. (Plus, Bucky and Namor look hot, and that’s relevant to me.)

New Avengers #1

4.99

6.6

Premise

6.0/10

Execution

7.0/10

Script

6.5/10

Art

7.0/10

Credits

• Writer: Sam Humphries
• Artist: Tom Lima
• Color Artist: Rain Beredo
• Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino
• Cover Artists: Stephen Segovia & Rain Beredo

Credits (cont)

• Editor: Alanna Smith
• Publisher: Marvel Entertainment