New Avengers Vol. 1: Breakout

Wolverine. Captain America. Spider-Man. Iron Man. The Sentry. Luke Cage. Daredevil. The original Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew. Ronin. With the launch of the new Avengers ongoing, Marvel answered the decades-long speculation of what it would be like to bring together an Avengers team packed with a group of the highest-profile and/or most powerful characters from across the different sections of the Marvel Universe. (How long have people been wondering what it would be like to have Wolvie or Spidey on the team? Probably since the late-70s for Logan and from about 1964 for Spider-Man.) At the same time they've brought in much lower-profile characters (Luke Cage and Spider-Woman) for the less obvious merits they can - and do - add to the series, and the "Who's that?" character of Ronin (introduced a bit later on in the series than the others but foreshadowed in covers from early on) to add to the nearly-omnipresent air of mystery that surrounds this run of Avengers. This volume, reprinting Nos. 1-6 of the current ongoing, opens with the Avengers still disbanded after the catastrophes in "Avengers: Disassembled" a few months prior. An unknown person or group hires the super-villain Electro to siphon the electrical power out of Manhattan and use it to overload the power system on The Raft, an ultra state-of-the-art superhuman prison floating off the coast of New York, currently housing 87 of the world's most dangerous criminals and super-menaces. During the chaos, Electro rescues his assigned target - who at first remains unidentified - and flees the scene, leaving the Breakout riot to rage unabated. A series of events has brought a number of the Marvel Universe's greatest champions together, coincidentally, at this time to try and contain the Breakout, and Captain America ends up taking this as a sign that the time has come to reform the Avengers, basically allowing fate to pick the new roster. It turns out this is a good thing, because as the story unfolds, it quickly becomes apparant that there's a lot more darkening going on behind the scenes in the Marvel Universe than its heroes are aware of. "Breakout" continues to take the characters across the globe in follow-up to the events in the first couple of issues, and the first couple of a seemingly unending series of shock revelations play out. When I say that this is the beginning of probably the greatest extended run in Avengers history, I don't make that claim lightly. The Avengers books have, despite an occasional rough, produced a a wealth of smashing material over the years - presided over by some of the greatest talents in comics history - but in this current series it just keeps running at such an incredibly high bar that it's hard to see it as anything but the best in Avengers history. Random thoughts - during the prison riot, thankfully, each villain doesn't refer to himself by name, or end up being identified by someone pointing and shouting "Look! It's So-

I have never been a big avengers fan, but I really like Bendis' work on Ultimate Spider-man with Mark Bagley (an awesome spider-man artist), so I bought this book. The story of how these New Avengers come together is well done and the art by David Finch is incredible. The only bad thing I can say is we don't need another book with Wolverine. I also bought volume 2, and even though the story is up to par, maybe even better because the core characters interact more, I liked Volume 1 better because Finch is by far a better artist and it just compliments Bendis' great story-telling. If you want to see mainstay Marvel characters like Spider-man and Captain America as well as relative unknowns like Luke Cage done right, check out this book.You can pretty much guarantee that anything written by Brian Michael Bendis will blow you away.

I read about the "New Avengers" title in Wizard Magazine and I was intrigued. Spider-Woman? Wolverine? Luke Cage? What kind of Avengers is this? So I bought issue#1 and loved it but I missed the rest of the series. So thank you Marvel for the TBP so I could catch up. Yeah, it's more of the new trend of darker, grittier, and cynical superhero stuff in comics today. But the writing is some of the best I have seen in awhile. From the first team battle at the SHIELD prison to the team effort in the Savage Land--this current Avengers team rocks. The art is great, action scenes are cool, and the story has got me hooked. Major super points for the character interaction. This book is just as clever as Joss Whedon's "Astonishing X-Men". The rapport between Jessica Drew and Peter Parker regarding the "Spider-Woman" codename. The bickering between Wolverine and Spider-Woman after she stabs him with his own claws. And a hysterical scene invloving the Savage Land Mutates catching the heroes with their pants down, literally. I don't know how fans of the classic Avengers are taking this change but I am enjoying the New Avengers storyline so far and this book is an excellent read. I highly recommend it.

The New Avengers has restarted my interest in comics. Bendis, who has already proved to be a capable writer with graphic novles such as "Powers," brings a new team of Avengers to the table that are much more interesting than the teams of old. The Avengers team of the late 90's was tedious in a lot of ways. Not only was the team way too large, (making it a chore to focus on all of the characters,) but half the characters were uninteresting at best. Bendis has done what the JLA did for DC comics, he has taken many of Marvel's star characters and put them into one comic. While some people may gripe that Spiderman is too much of a jokester, or that Wolverine doesn't belong, these really are just small gripes. Bendis has written Spidey in such a way where while he does throw out a constant stream of jokes, his actions in "House of M," (another series by Bendis,) as well as his determination to work despite injuries, show us that Spidey's humor really is just a sheild that he throws up to try and get through his day to day fighting. His inclusion of Wolverine is a great way to play off of Captian America's morals. Both are soliders in their own ways, yet they are at odds constantly. Throw in the ever-cocky Iron Man, who while egocentric has never stopped caring about the Avengers; Luke Cage, a character that adds some stability to the team; Spider Woman, who is the most interesting woman on the Avengers in years; and the Sentry, a character that is similar to Superman and yet much more interesting. So in conclusion the team is an amazing mix, the writing is some of the best I've ever seen in comics, and the storyline is compelling. A must buy.

I had heard about the plan to redue the Avengers in Wizard magazine so I had high expectations before reading it. Great writing, great art, and Marvel brought back some great throwback characters like Spider-woman. Captain America, Iron Man, SPider Man, SPider Woman, and Luke Cage all agree to reform the Avengers after all fighting together to stop a super villian prison break courtesy of Electro and a secret backer. There's even some X-Files style conspiracy with the SHIELD organization and a secret person Spider-woman has a relationship with. Pick this up today. I know I can't wait for the next compilation.