“Memento Mori,” published by Marvel.
Written by Jonathan Hickman. Penciled by Steve Epting. Inked by Rick Magyar with Epting.
It’s the start of the third volume, but my first ever issue of NA. I may have figured out what “New Avengers” means. It’s definitely isn’t the successor of the original Avengers team; they’re alive and well. The “New” must signify an alternative group which aims to “improve” any notion of the Avengers concept. Even better for current Marvelites, tagging “New” to “Avengers” is easy shorthand for a relevant brand. All the issue does is showcase the Black Panther and his upcoming battle with the Illuminati.
T’Challa goes to an alternate dimension and sees a sinister-looking group. The catch is that Wakandan Cat’s buddies had to tag along. Not suprisingly, they die off for the sole purpose to highlight Black Panther. The art of Epting, et al. does the job. Hickman covers the basic gist of this iteration of New Avengers, but somehow I couldn’t get excited over it.
Preview New Avengers (volume 3) #1 at GeeksUnleashed.
More information: Marvel & Marvel Wiki.
Man, that was a quick review! Even though I’m hopping around all the Marvel NOW relaunches, I feel like this is the one Avengers book that requires prior knowledge of the franchise. Back in 2006, I believe, Bendis wrote Avengers: Disassembled which ended the regular Avengers book. It was relaunched as New Avengers, where the members were more marquee Marvel characters, like Spidey and Wolverine. Throughout 2 different volumes, New Avengers pretty much served as the flagship Avengers book. This volume revisits The Illuminati, which was a big concept during the Bendis run, as they were involved in everything from World War Hulk, Civil War, and more. So, without knowing the weight of the concept, I can see how it holds little “oomph” for someone checking out the title for the first time.
This is actually a problem for several of the Marvel NOW books: they’re meant to be fresh, jumping-on points, yet they’re the spiritual successors to older concepts. For example, the story in the Gillen Iron Man series is a follow-up to a story that occurred before Matt Fraction’s multi-year run on the character.
Thanks, Will! I’d forgotten about NA already.