Spider-Dan’s All-New All-Different Avengers #1 Review
By Daniel Wood
It may be easy to write off Marvel’s All-New All-Different Avengers as just another team-up comic lost in the constant sea that is a multitude of different team comics after Secret Wars, with at least three dfferent versions of the Avengers. But given it’s appearance in the Free Comic Book Day line-up as well as the inclusion of Marvel’s new #1 hero in Iron Man it’s safe to say that All-New All-Different Avengers is the defacto #1 Avengers comic going forward.
Those people lucky enough to pick up All-New All-Different Avengers #0 for Free Comic Book Day will have already met the fully formed new-line up featuring a whos-who of Marvel’s newly diversified superheros with Sam Wilson’s Captain America, Miles Morales’s Spider-Man, Jane Foster’s Thor and Kamala Khan’s Ms Marvel all making the team.
But whilst it might be easy for some to write the new formation of the Avengers off as a publicity stunt from Marvel to prove how ethnically diverse they are, I for one welcome the diversity and I’m excited to see how the newer younger heros like Nova, Ultimate Spider-Man and Ms Marvel interact with Iron Man, Vision and Thor.
However the first issue of All-New All-Different Avengers also comes with a problem for those that did read the #0 comic because it appears out of continuity. In #0 we see the team already together complete with witty quips and in-jokes taking on Radioactive Man, in the #1 issue the All-New All-Different Avengers aren’t together at all and two of the team’s members don’t appear at all.
Whilst I appreciate the chance to see the formation of the team as it happens, offering the explanation as to how we get there which is lacking in some of the other Spidey related post-Secret Wars titles (the biggest mystery being how Peter Parker became the next Iron Man) I unfortunately found the mismatched timeline and backwards step in narrative disconcerting, especially in a first issue. Although admittedly the first issue should be the start of the story so I do understand the decision.
Speaking of narrative continuity All-New All-Different Avengers also suffers from Marvel’s bizarre scheduling decision to roll out their new combined continuity before the story-arc explaning how we get there has finished. It’s still unclear what the status quo of the All-New All-Different universe is, and which version of each character we’re being given, and why they’re in this particular universe at all. But this will naturally only be an issue for existing readers following Secret Wars, new readers will not be as confused by everything.
However once you put all of that aside All-New All-Different Avengers is a fun little introduction to what promises to be an exciting team-up of superheroes. Waid’s light-hearted two-piece story slowly starts bringing the individual players together. The first part bringing Captain America, Iron Man and Spider-Man together in their attempts to stop the pairing of Warbringer and someone I don’t recognise (answers on a postcard, or in the comments below)
Kubert and Waid open the issue with a cinematic sequence depicting Captain America doing what he does best … fly, I mean, saving people’s lives. However when he meets his grateful crowd of onlookers he’s quickly faced with a lot of the racially charged problems that have plagued his time as Captain America pre-Secret Wars. Thankfully he is saved by Tony Stark during the amusing ‘which girl scout will he choose’ sequence complete with an excellent girl-scout selfie pay-off.
We then swiftly learn that Stark is cash-strapped despite having a car that can fly, and then also transform into a hulk-buster style Iron Man suit, but he is seriously poor, that’s why he’s selling Avengers tower. After a witty quip about Parker Industries we jump to see what the new owners are doing with the place. What happens next is fairly confusing, partly because I don’t know who the guy with the green tie is, and partly because it’s odd that he’d be organising the removal activities to then suddenly blow everything up, meet a giant Chitauri Warbringer and then miraculously have a plan to take over the world with three random objects.
Luckily Miles is eaves-dropping with his invisibility powers to immediately inform readers that this is a different Spider-Man to the one they’re used to which inevitably leads to another fairly cinematic scene of a hero saving an innocent bystander before Cap-Falcon and transforming car Iron Man join the party. It’s interesting that Waid made the decision to pair Cap, Iron Man and Spidey together given that the Civil War film is looming around the corner, but even more interesting is Waid’s decision to lay out three of Marvel’s most iconic heroes with a single move from Warbringer. This dramatic decision would have more weight if it wasn’t obvious that Vision, Thor, Nova, Ms Marvel or all of the above will save the day at some point.
Speaking of Nova and Ms Marvel we’re then treated to the second part of the issue which involves the start of Kamala’s relationship with Sam. The decision to focus on the relationship between two of the team-members so early via the method of rampaging microverse monsters is a brilliant one this early in the title and in many ways the awkward start to the relationship between Ms Marvel and Nova felt significantly more important than any of the Warbringer and random guys attempts to take over the world. This was made especially important because of Sam’s decision to reveal his face and name to Kamala in an attempt to convince her that he is a nice guy. Naturally it backfires and the pair part ways disliking eachother but this legitimately and authentically feels like the beginning of another classic superhero relationship.
As this is an origin story its clear that Nova and Kamala will end up meeting up with Iron Man, Spidey and Cap, and that Thor and Vision will find a way to get involved, the resulting team-up of all of the heroes will save the day and they’ll decide to stay together as the All-New All-Different Avengers, I mean it practically writes itself. However the added element of a potential love interest between Nova and Kamala as well as the other possible character interactions has helped to elevate the impact of the first issue. To be honest I’m pretty pumped for the next issue!
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