Avengers #1
Captain Marvel brings together a new team of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in Avengers #1, by writer Jed MacKay, artist C.F. Villa, colorist Federico Blee, and letterer Cory Petit. This is a pretty standard first issue of Avengers, but it’s entertaining.
The issue moves through time periods. In the present, the Avengers find themselves battling Terminus at a Project Pegasus facility. It goes back and forth between that battle and Captain Marvel bringing together her team - Iron Man, Sam Wilson as Captain America, Thor, Black Panther, Vision, and Scarlet Witch. Each of them gets their hits in, and they defeat Terminus by working together. However, Captain Marvel is pulled to a wounded Kang, who has been waiting for her.
So, anyone that read 2022’s Timeless #1 has been looking forward to this issue. That story hyped this one up, so it has a lot to live up to. This is MacKay’s first chance to truly play around with Marvel’s A-list, as well. On top of that, this is the first Avengers series after the disappointment that was Jason Aaron’s five-year run. This book has to tick a lot of boxes, and it mostly does a nice job of it.
Here’s the thing - this is a perfectly fine comic. It’s entertaining, there’s good characterization, and just the right amount of action and spectacle that Avengers #1 needs. This book does everything correctly, but it does it in the most cliche way possible. MacKay does a great job, but it feels like he had a formula to follow with this script, and he followed it. There’s nothing wrong with that, and again this is a fun read, but it’s nothing special. It’s just yet another first issue of Avengers. Long-time fans have read this exact comic many times. It’s still worth checking out, but anyone expecting anything groundbreaking isn't getting that.
Villa worked on X-Men before this, and the art was always good, but not great. It feels like Villa realized that this book was on another level and stepped up. His character acting is excellent, his line work and detail are on point, and he does a terrific job of capturing the Avengers as they figure out how to defeat Terminus and put it into practice. On top of that, he does a fantastic job with the characters in the comic’s quieter moments, two things that are very important for an Avengers book. Blee’s color art does an amazing job of bringing out everything great in Villa’s pencils.
Avengers #1 is entertaining, but it’s not breaking the formula. MacKay, Villa, Blee, and Petit do a wonderful job together. This book needs to overcome a lot of bad will from the previous run, and this issue succeeds in getting readers hooked.
