When the Marvel Universe rebooted after the events of Secret Wars, I was worried about the quality of a majority of Marvel’s comics. Not only were the creative teams switched and moved to new titles, but fundamentally the characters we grew to love and cherish went through a number of considerable changes. I’m happy to report that the All-New, All-Different Avengers doesn’t suffer from these dramatic changes and actually creates a team I’m eager to follow as their stories continue.
The Magnificent Seven begins right after Tony Stark lost possession of Stark Industries, a majority of his fortune and even Avengers Tower. For once, the world is without a team of Avengers to help protect it, but that doesn’t last long. Kang the Conqueror returns as Mr. Gryphon, the new, proud owner of Avengers Tower and still evil mastermind. After a powerful Chitauri named Warbringer teleports inside the tower, Kang becomes his ally and sets the warrior on a quest to find three ancient relics belonging to the Chitauran race. Thankfully, a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man named Miles Morales, eavesdropped this master plot.
While the set up isn’t incredibly strong for an Avengers tale, this story is more than enough of a threat to warrant the creation of a new team. Comprised of legacy heroes, Iron Man, Sam Wilson’s Captain America, the thunder Goddess Thor and the emotionally absent Vision, the team acquires new recruits in Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel and Nova. The joy of any Avengers comic is the interactions between its members and the cast collected here has a great amount of charisma and character to play with. The stand out members are definitely the teams latest recruits, which start as bickering teens, but grow into a powerful force that relies on each other.
A lot of The Magnificent Seven is about developing the Avengers’ chemistry. The team may be comprised of familiarly named characters, but many of them are interacting for the first time and many of their secrets, particularly Thor’s, remain deeply personal. Unfortunately, by the end of the volume, the team feels very separated between rookies and veterans. I would’ve loved to see Ms. Marvel get taken under Thor’s wing or for Miles and Cap to have a heart-to-heart conversation, but these moments never occur. It’s clear that these relationships are developing, they just aren’t highlighted in the panels or within the story.
Kang has never been close to being one of my favourite villains and after reading this, that feeling still remains. Kang is just too weird for my liking and he never resonated with me like other villains. I find that the creative teams always push him as something massive and threatening, but his plots never feel like they have any weight to them and his motivations are still one-note. This being said, I’m happy Kang was used as an early villain so the Avenger’s can keep the majority of the spotlight and hopefully in later volumes, we can see stronger, more compelling villains.
All-New, All-Different Avengers Volume 1 was never intended to be the greatest Avenger’s story ever-told, but it’s definitely an entertaining read with interesting places to explore in the future. Even though all of our favourite chracters have been rebooted, the people who have replaced them feel fresh and exciting. Everyone gets their own moment to shine as a hero as they try to win your heart for attention. Miles continues to prove his worth as Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel is still as addictive as ever, and I’m compelled to follow Thor as she continues her ever-ending battle. Avengers has done its job and made me feel invested in a team that I never thought I’d care about.
