New Avengers series by Jason Aaron & Ed McGuiness

Avengers #1 Spearheads Marvel Comics' Next Relaunch


Marvel Comics will be kicking off a relaunch of almost their entire superhero comic book line this May, with a new Avengers series by writer Jason Aaron and artist Ed McGuinness acting as the flagship title.



Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort wants the Avengers -- and the rest of Marvel’s new comics -- to get off to a fresh start, and nothing does that better than a new #1. This means that the return to legacy numbering done as part of last year’s Marvel Legacy relaunch will be going away. Brevoort did express an interest in keeping the legacy numbering around in subordinate fashion for select titles, but ultimately he favors keeping things as clear and unconfusing as possible for readers.

The new Avengers series will ship 18 times a year and be the single Avengers title going forward. For years Marvel has had multiple Avengers books that made up a sizable chunk of their publishing line -- New Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, Secret Avengers, etc. -- so this comes as a big change. It won’t come as a surprise to current readers of the Avengers because January’s Avengers #675 saw all Avengers monthly books merge into one weekly Avengers series for a story called “No Surrender.”

That story tears the Avengers down to their foundation and results in a dearth of Avengers, which sets the stage for the new team you see on the cover to the upcoming Avengers #1. The lineup includes the “Big Three” of the Avengers -- Thor Odinson, Steve Rogers, and Tony Stark -- united once more for the first time in years. In addition to the Big Three, the rest of the roster features Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes), Hulk (Jennifer Walters) and Doctor Strange, who will only be on the team for a limited time in a “rotating slot.”

The series will borrow the storytelling format of Aaron’s run on Thor that bounces back and forth in time to tell stories about the character in different eras. For the Avengers, this means shifting between the present day Avengers and the prehistoric Avengers from 1,000,000 B.C. that were introduced by Aaron in last year’s Marvel Legacy #1. The threat that ties these two stories together is the Dark Celestials, which are 2000-foot tall space gods. (Loki was also a part of the story, so expect him to be up to no good, as usual.)

“We wanted to get back to a small, core lineup. With big, iconic characters at the heart of that,” Aaron told IGN in a phone interview. “So we get Steve, Tony, and Thor Odinson back together at the heart of this new team, and the rest of the team we build around them over the course of the first arc. My aim with this series is basically, if you only read one Marvel comic -- not that you should read just one Marvel comic, but if you did -- if you picked this book up, this would show you the landscape of the Marvel universe issue after issue. We want to feature the biggest characters and go to the coolest, most exotic locations around the Marvel U.”

Though Marvel is starting fresh with this new Avengers #1 comic, the characters themselves will be bringing some baggage with them. Given that the last time Carol Danvers saw Tony Stark was when she was knocking him into a coma at the end of 2016’s Civil War II, Aaron acknowledged that the two won’t be on great terms when they see each other again, jokingly adding, “They’re not exactly all warm and fuzzy with each other.”

Robbie Reyes, who debuted as the All-New Ghost Rider in 2014, is the odd man out from the group as the relative newcomer.

Even though Marvel just revealed that Bruce Banner will be returning to the land of the living in March after dying in Civil War II, Aaron wanted to keep Jennifer Walters as the Avengers’ Hulk for the sake of this story.

“You’ll see us playing with her powers a little bit, trying to differentiate her more from the Banner Hulk, and make her a more unique interesting version of the Hulk in her own right,” he said.

And then there’s Black Panther. Though Black Panther has long had a frosty relationship with the Avengers, this take on the character isn’t going to be the usual cold and elusive Panther. It’s not lost on Aaron that Black Panther’s profile has been raised to great heights now that the movie is out, and he spoke about how the Big Three might need to make room for one more.

“I think the Big Three of the Avengers are really, really close to being the Big Four. I think Black Panther definitely deserves to be at the heart of an Avengers team like this, when you’re talking about the biggest, most iconic characters from that lineage. He has a big, big role to play, not just in this arc, but in this book going forward, and it’s really fun to be writing him again,” Aaron said.

A little more text and four b&w images of interior art at the link:www.ign.com/articles/2018/02/20/avengers-1-spearheads-marvel-comics-next-relaunch