And there came a day, quite like many, many others, when one of Earth’s mightiest heroes chose a team to be Earth’s newest line of protection. It’s an all new (but not that All-New) Avengers #1, written by Jed MacKay, drawn by C.F. Villa, colored by Federico Blee, and lettered by Cory Petit.
Armaan Babu: I said this at the start of the current Spider-Man run, and I’ll say it again here, slightly paraphrased: I enjoyed Avengers #1. I’d almost forgotten how.
Now, Jed MacKay has become quite a reliably great writer for many of my favorite series, and the art here is fun. I wasn’t surprised that I had fun with this comic, but I was surprised at how much I’ve missed being able to enjoy reading these characters again after so long. What are your first impressions, Anna?
Anna Peppard: I’ve been excited about this reboot since MacKay first announced it by tweeting a panel from Avengers #137 (1975), featuring newlywed Wanda Maximoff lustfully grinning at her husband, the Vision, wearing nothing but a teensy tiny green speedo. You see, I’m a big fan of the Bronze Age Avengers comics, the same era MacKay invokes in his introductory letter at the end of this issue as being formative to his understanding of the franchise.
I’ve read hundreds of Avengers issues spanning six decades, but when I think about falling in love with the franchise, that’s the era I think of. And I think of it because it was an era that combined world-ending crises with more grounded ones and made interpersonal relationships the core of the story. We often talk about X-Men comics as a soap opera, and rightly so. But I first fell in love with superhero comics soap opera through Bronze Age Avengers.
That said — this isn’t a Bronze Age comic. And that’s a good thing. The Bronze Age was pretty unkind to Carol Danvers and the concept of women in general, whereas this story centers Carol Danvers and writes her as the big damn hero she should absolutely always be. Yet this comic does have “back to basics” vibes that evoke the franchise’s greatest hits without wholly replaying them. It also reunites the Vision and the Scarlet Witch, which is very exciting to me personally, but I’m getting ahead of myself — before you can avenge, you gotta assemble.
Avengers Archetypes
Anna: First of all — I love that we open with Carol. And I do mean with Carol. We’re specifically sharing her perspective in the first panel of this comic, looking at her while sharing her view of the Earth and the surrounding cosmos from the moon. Carol is elected Avengers Chairman in this comic, and this issue does a great job selling us on that choice. Carol sees the big picture with a human touch. And she gets to say the metatextual speech about what the Avengers do and mean.
In Carol’s view (and, we can infer, MacKay’s view), the Avengers aren’t cops; they’re firefighters. This is an important bit of reparative character work for Carol, who’s militarism can conflict with her feminist credentials (among other issues). It’s also important reparative work for the Avengers in general, who can come off like the X-Men’s more copaganda-y cousins. Signposting symbolism doesn’t fix it, but I’m still grateful for the signposting.
Armaan: The Avengers aren’t police. Superheroes aren’t the police. There are, perhaps, interesting ways to explore how that may or may not be true, the weird space they occupy as people who professionally beat up criminals with no oversight, but expecting a satisfying exploration of that in Marvel Comics is an exercise in frustration. Cosmic-level firefighters underlines the tone this book wants to achieve — no one’s thinking about how to make the world a better place, they just don’t want it to burn. I’m not looking for more from an Avengers comic.
Now, The Avengers, as a comic, has had a lot happening. And a lot of that has been noise. Cacophony, even. An exhausting amount of chaos crammed into its pages with no sense of rhythm. So I appreciate that it starts with a quiet moment — and a single note that sets the tone for this opening issue. Carol is sitting up on the moon, thinking about why the Avengers do what they do — and there’s a smile on her face as she thinks about it.
Superhero comics can often take themselves a little too seriously. The pain and burden of responsibility, the gritted teeth in the face of overwhelming odds, the constant push to give 110% in every panel or the world is doomed. It’s refreshing to have a moment with someone who looks at the whole thing with a sense of wonder, optimism… and a sense of fun.
We get the sense, very early on, that this is going to be a fun comic. Big, world-threatening stuff is going to be happening — but it’s going to be fun.
Anna: I think it’s telling that following her smile, Carol goes straight from brooding alone in the blackness of space to zooming through a candy-colored sky flanked by classic Avengers to battle a giant pink and purple robot. This is definitely a comic that’s inviting us to rekindle our love for joyful bombast.
Armaan: This issue is a little chronologically messy (appropriately enough, as we’ll find out later), but we can go about things a little more orderly-like. A big part of this comic is getting the team together — this time done with a little more deliberation than that first Day Unlike Any Other. Carol Danvers has been elected Avengers chairperson, which means she gets to pick the current roster, and aside from perhaps Sam Wilson, it’s a team full of the classics and heavy hitters.
Anna: It’s a pretty conventional lineup, which may disappoint folks who prefer something kookier. But I enjoyed MacKay’s distillation of what defines these characters, which serves as set-up for the impersonal and symbolic conflicts that will presumably structure the book moving forward. The purest distillation is on the title page, which defines the characters thusly: Captain Marvel is The Star; Captain America is The Icon; The Scarlet Witch is The Witch (a loaded choice I’m sure we’ll revisit); The Vision is The Construct; Thor is The God; Iron Man is The Engineer; and Black Panther is The King. I love this type of thing. It’s both direct and playful, economically letting you know which version of these characters a writer is most interested in playing with.
I also appreciate MacKay’s deft negotiation of current continuity without getting bogged down by it. Cards on the table: I am not fully up-to-date on every single thing each of these characters has been up to in the past several years. (Could I read every comic that comes out every week? Probably. But when would I find time to re-read comics from forty years ago, plus books about comics plus essays my students write about comics?) MacKay honors what everybody has been up to but if it’s not immediately relevant to the story at hand, he name-checks and moves on. He’s not reinventing the wheel here; this is basic continuity superhero comics storytelling. But a technique that’s easier said than done, and MacKay does it well here.
Armaan: Every writer sifting through continuity looks for different things. MacKay focuses on the stuff relevant to interpersonal relationships. What he does really, really well is writing characters like they’re friends. People who know each other, their flaws and frustrations, and the things that make their relationships fun. There’s care given to their relationships to each other. The smiles, the banter, the offhand continuity references , the changes in tone from one person to another. Right now, in this first issue, we focus heavily on everyone’s relationship to Captain Marvel, but I’m really looking forward to seeing the play between everyone else’s interactions with each other.
I am especially invested in whatever may happen between the Vision and the Scarlet Witch. I know we both love the Vision, and I’ve always been fascinated by his and Wanda’s relationship in particular. He’s not had a lot of page time, recently, but having him doubt his humanity once again in the wake of Judgment Day brings us right back to what makes him such an interesting read.
Anna: Vizh and Wanda relationship watch begins now. Love this for us.
A Plan In Action
Armaan: I’ve always felt like if you’re ever stuck while writing a fantasy story, just throw a dragon in. Big imposing threat, no exposition needed, and they always look great. Terminus is very much the comic book equivalent — you can throw him in anywhere with almost no explanation needed to give your heroes a great big threat to battle, he’s perfect for a #1 that’s getting back to basics, and he looks fantastic. Especially with art that’s so very shiny looking.
Everything is so shiny here. People’s clothes and costumes are shiny. Their hair is shiny. Their skin is shiny. Daylight itself fades in comparison to how shiny these people and their light-catching costumes are, but to me, that’s part of the fun. Putting the lights in light-hearted feels appropriate for this book’s chosen tone, and it makes everything on the page so much more vibrant. Federico Blee brings a lot of joy to the colors, and you mix that with C.F. Villa’s lively art and we’ve got a real energetic, blockbuster of a comic on our hands. I especially enjoy the layouts, playing around with the panels borders to really give us a sense of the chaos.
Anna: In that introductory letter I mentioned before, MacKay describes Villa as “bringing a sleek modernity to this book that’s matched with a certain retro sensibility in his cartooning.” He also spotlights Frederico Blee’s “explosive” colors. All of which is to say–you’re right. It is shiny, self-consciously so. And that’s a good fit for the Avengers. They’re celebrities. These days, they’re also movie stars. And in this comic, they look the part.
Armaan: I really enjoyed the action we got in this comic, and hope it’s a sign of how things are going to continue to be. The issue has a great sense of how these people work as a team. Captain Marvel is more than just the powerhouse who picked the players. Everyone feels like they have a purpose. You know what everyone’s contribution to the fight was. It’s not just the banter, and it’s not a half-dozen people aiming glowy fists at the big bad in action poses; there’s a plan here — and everyone gets their moment to (ahem) shine. I think we have a good balance of serious, imposing characters and wisecracking, even if you have to pull Black Panther a little bit more towards the latter to get it.
What I find interesting is that the tone of the comic, and the general history of knowing the Good Guys Always Win, diminishes the stakes somewhat. What it doesn’t do, however, is diminish the thrill, and sense of awe I get from the fight. A Terminus who barely fits on the page, dwarfing everything around him. The stress poured into Wanda and Carol as they deal with the bigger threat — the black hole that threatens to escape its containment unit and swallow the Earth whole. The obligatory big explosion, warping the lines of the page around it as Captain Marvel gives everything she has to keep the Earth safe. None of it feels dangerous — but all of it feels big.
Anna: I enjoyed the way Villa grounded the action in dynamic facial expressions, cutting from extravagant action spectacles to humanizing big face reaction shots. That’s another basic comics storytelling technique, but what I found especially affecting about it here was–the emotional and physical reactions we focus on belong to the women, Carol and Wanda, whose combined powers, creativity, fortitude, and trust are key to saving the day. As women in a genre that has, historically, been very unkind to women, Carol and Wanda have suffered. As a feminist female fan of this genre and these characters, I have suffered alongside them. But because I have suffered, I never take good versions of these characters for granted. And so far, I’m on board with MacKay and Villa’s versions of The Star and The Witch.
Looking To The Future
Armaan: We have our final page tease, as the explosion warps Carol out of all time and space with a meeting with the corporately synergized Kang the Conqueror — and he has a warning for danger that’s about to come. Does it have anything to do with the “Convergence” Terminus mentioned? Probably, but we’re not going to find out what Kang’s warning actually is about until at least the next issue.
And that was Avengers #1.
So, now that we’ve read this first issue, what are your thoughts on things overall? Are you excited for what’s to come, is there anything you’re apprehensive about?
Anna: While I appreciate the fun detail of the comic being circular (it effectively ends with the same image of Carol looking out at the stars), I admit that detail also made me a little nervous, because it reminded me of how often I’ve been disappointed by Avengers relaunches, which often begin in beautiful bombast before surrendering to the inevitable force of diminishing returns. But I’m not giving in to that negativity today. I’ve read enough MacKay comics to trust his character work, and I usually like Avengers when the character work is strong. However, I do have trepidation about the arrival of Kang at the end. (It looks like I’m being asked to read a Greg Land-drawn comic to get up to speed on Kang’s current context, and I don’t appreciate that at all.)
Armaan: (It’s Kang. You can boil his entire context, no matter WHAT his appearance (or should that be WHEN?) to “He has somehow messed up time.”)
So we have the Why and the Who of this comic laid out clearly. The Where is immaterial, the What is teased, and the When may be about to become rather confusing if Kang’s involved (#^@%ing Kang). There’s something big being teased, but I hope the comic takes their time building up to it. I’m a little event-fatigued. Please, let me just enjoy bantery, mission-of-the-month comics with little dollops of soap opera and weird sci-fi for a little while longer?
Overall, I’m excited for what’s to come. This issue might bore some readers; it played things as safe as possible. It gathered the team, fought a generic threat, and looked good while doing so — but after a very long run of Avengers comics that was more draining than it ever was entertaining, and some runs that were plain forgettable, I’m grateful for a comic that simply reassures me about its vibes. I trust MacKay to give us interesting story beats, and I greatly enjoy the artwork, so I can be patient waiting for an actual plot to unfold, but for now, I’m happy knowing that this is going to be a fun comic to read again.
Avengers Assortments!
- Players of Masks: The Next Generation might especially enjoy the credits page titles in this issue — they read a lot like the playbooks that detail a character’s story archetype. Masks does a great job of dealing with the shorthand of superhero narrative, and I’ve grown quite a fondness for things that quickly sum up the focus of a character.
- Carol mentioning that Tony is her AA sponsor is a very charming touch.
- We have five flyers and one magic-hoverer on a team of seven — and the remaining member of the team is the Black Panther. This team’s mobility is off the charts.
- Lightning panel borders for a Thor-centric action page? Perfection.
- Carol Danvers in a big explodey orange space cocoon makes me think Binary thoughts, but that’s not a prediction, just a note on a neat visual.
Armaan is obsessed with the way stories are told. From video games to theater, TTRPGs to comics, he has written for, and about, them all. He will not stop, actually; believe us, we've tried.
Anna Peppard
Anna is a PhD-haver who writes and talks a lot about representations of gender and sexuality in pop culture, for academic books and journals and places like Shelfdust, The Middle Spaces, and The Walrus. She’s the editor of the award-winning anthology Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero and co-hosts the podcasts Three Panel Contrast and Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow!
