I was not going to write a review of this issue. I had told myself over and over that it wasn’t going to happen, that everyone on the net was going to be writing about this book, and to top it off I REALLY wanted to read the new Justice League first this week, (mostly because of the amazing David Mack cover,) but I just couldn’t help myself, I had to read it.

Cover image The Avengers #1

So what should I say. It is a first issue, and the team was pretty much already known by the world. There was a clear threat that moved the story forward and there is one hell of an awesome cliffhanger that will get me buying the next issue. Yeah, Mr. Bendis knows how to write.

It is more than that though. There is an intangible quality about this issue, as if, for the first time since Mr. Bendis began writing the franchise, I was reading an AVENGERS book. Sure the presence of Steve Rodgers, Thor, and Iron Man help convey this feeling, but it was more the way Hawkeye and Spider-man were used.

Hawkeye was portrayed in a manner that he was the old vetran. Like the pitcher who has been in the majors for fifteen years, and after a long strike, is finally back where he belongs. Spider-man is cast as the rookie. As the guy who should have been in the Show a while ago, so he isn’t totally green and no one thinks he has anything to prove, but who, because of the strike is finally getting his shot. It is really a wonder bit of casting, and of finding a way to put the right characters in the right situation to move the story, yet allow Relatability and access to the situation the character find themselves. In a sense Mr. Bendis is talking right to us through these characters. As if he is Spider-man, and he is where he has always wanted to be, writing the Avenger stories he has always wanted, and like Spidey, he is excited.

The art in this book can not be over looked. Mr. Romita Jr. does his usual best.  He is a brilliant sequential storyteller, and there is an interesting looseness to his like work, almost like there is a sketch quality, that I have never seen before in his work, and I like it! (And of course, the master inker that is Klaus Janson heightens this feeling and deserves his own props.)

Jack Kirby pinup found in the text section

But all of this is not what made this issue awesome. That award goes to the text section in the back of the book. Mr. Bendis has crafted a sudo-book about the history of the avengers. It is structured like the recent SNL history, where the story is told through a combination of interviews with anyone who might have been involved.

For example, in this issue, we are retold the story of how the Avengers first assembled, and while I don’t want to spoil anything, I’ll say that I love the voice that Bendis gives to the one and only Rick Jones.

This text issue is worth the price of admission, and I really hope that it lasts for a while, and is not rushed threw. (I hate to admit this, but I would buy a book that was just the text section.)

So to sum up, go get this book, it is full of fun, and great twists and turns.

Oh… and one quick last thing. Bellow I have posted a picture of the David Mack JLA cover, go take a look…..

Cover to JLA 45 By David Mack

Now tell me that doesn’t make you want to read the issue.