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I have read what I think are all of #1 issues of the newly relaunched Avengers books.
Avengers: I think this will be the one most people will gravitate towards because it has all of the big names like Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Wolverine. Too bad they are making Wonder Man look like such a dick and the first villain they come across is Kang The Lameass Conqueror (he still makes my top five least favorite characters list).
The Secret Avengers: This is the title that has a lot of critical acclaim but people are talking more about Ed Brubaker than the actual content of the book. I haven’t been much of a Moon Knight fan since his days with the Defenders (actually just the Scorpio storyline that culminated with issue 50), I have never been much of a Valkyrie fan, Beast is my least favorite of the original X-Men and I was a fan of what Abnett and Lanning were doing with Nova in his own title. However, Brubaker writing Black Widow is a HUGE draw.
Avengers Academy: A bunch of new characters along with Hank Pym, Rhodey (who should still be hanging out with The Crew, but oh well) and Tigra. This book should be a trainwreck waiting to happen, but the revelation at the end of the first issue really piqued my interest and I want to see what will happen next.
Avengers Prime: According to David A Price, this is a bi-monthly five issue miniseries. Also known in some circles as tradebait. There is no reason to do anything but wait for the entire story to be finished and collected. There was a great segment where Tony Stark called Steve Rogers on his hypocrisy, but like I said, you can wait to read it in trade.
The New Avengers: I thought I would dislike this one the most. No particular reason, but it just didn’t seem like something I would like. However, I like “getting the team together” type stories. And I really like the make up of the actual team: Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel, Jessica Jones, Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Wolverine, Spider-Man and The Thing (I think it would be a great scene to have the last three sitting around swapping stories about all of the team ups they have had in the past, but I think that would only appeal to a certain type of reader).
While I liked them all to varying degrees, I would say my favorite two are Avengers Academy and The New Avengers. I think that because I am not the world’s biggest Steve Rogers fan it comes as no surprise that I prefer the two books he is not a part of.
One thing I thought was really interesting was the first stories for each team. The intro/training of Avengers Academy is a pretty obvious thing to start out with, but the established teams are all in different types of story: Avengers/time travel, Secret Avengers/sci fi action, Avengers Prime/fantasy adventure, and The New Avengers/mystical threats.
Now that I have read all five of them, I can safely say that I will probably be picking up the titles in trade going forward.
If you have read one or more of the titles, what do you think of them?
