The Avengers #1 // Review
Luke Cage wasn't exactly expecting to take a meeting on the roof of a building. He's a busy guy. He's got a lot of campaign stops to make. He’s a serious contender for mayor, so it would seem strange for him to be meeting someone on the roof of a building. Of course, he didn't actually make plans to meet this particular gentleman. The guy in question is wearing a red unitard. There is danger. He can sense it. That's kind of his thing. And this is only the beginning in. The Avengers #1. Writer Chip Zdarski opens a whole new chapter for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes with artist Marco Checchetto.
Luke doesn't exactly want to be seen with Spider-Man. There's a strong sentiment growing against people with superpowers. And so it's only natural that he would want to keep his distance. He is, after all, up against someone who has identified as being anti-superhero. He's gotta keep a balance. He's gotta keep a distance. It's not going to work. There are some rather serious threats on the horizon. And they're the kind of for us that the one hero can face on his or her own. They're going to have to get together. They're going to have to assemble.
It's a really weird group of heroes to throw together for this sort of title. Of course, the same could've been set of the original team. Oh God. I'm monster. Is someone wearing one of the most advanced pieces of technology available in the early 1960s. Zdarski not only find a way of bringing the heroes together believably, he also seems to be making a pretty strong case for the fact that they would work well together. It's a very intricately and delicately constructed script that seems to be largely echoing a whole hell of a lot of was already happened in the Marvel universe. That doesn't mean that it's not fun or compelling, though.
Checchetto his given that the opportunity to work with a variety of different characters who all have some pretty drastically different things going on visually. Juxtaposing them against each other is quite an opportunity for any artist. Checchetto does a good job with the opportunity. Everything comes to the page with a remarkably tight style that integrates everything quite well. The script also requires a great deal of modulation between different distinct settings within Marvel Manhattan. Checchetto does a brilliant job of making it all seem like it exists in the same space while being quite diverse.
It is a bit weird to see Marvelman as an Avenger. The British comic book character from the 1950s had passed through a whole bunch of different errors. He'd also been put to work through some very acclaimed writers like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. There were some particularly dark moments in there. So it's interesting to see him breaking through into the marble universe and suddenly becoming an avenger like this. Clearly, there's a kind of darkness in the character as it seemed here as well. Zdarski get to work with a character who predates every other character in the team at this stage. Should be fun.
