After reading ‘Uncanny Avengers’, the very first book in Marvel NOW!, the only thing I could think to say was, “WHOA!” I think we might have found the darkest timeline here, folks, but it was a great thing to read.
Following the death of Professor Charles Xavier at the hands of Cyclops while he was possessed by the Phoenix, the book opens with Wolverine gives his eulogy for Professor X at a family only ceremony. While that’s going on, Captain America, driven by something Scott Summers said about the Avengers not doing enough for the X-Men following M-Day, is moved to form a new team of Avengers that includes the best of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes as well as the best of the X-Men. While all this goes on, an old foe presents a new threat for both teams.
First of all, I had a hard time settling on which cover to pick up. All the variant covers done by the likes of Daniel Acuna, Oliver Coipel, Adi Granov, Sara Pichelli, Skottie Young and more are excellently done, with Midtown Comics’ exclusive cover being one of the best, I ended up going with the Deadpool “Call Me Maybe” cover by Mark Brooks because I love me some Wade Wilson.
Next, I absolutely love the things that Rick Remender is doing so far with this series, despite how twisted the ending of the book was. As predicted, some members of the team aren’t ready to play nice just yet since there’s still a good amount of bad blood leftover from a various events, and watching all of these things play out was super interesting to me.
All the really dark stuff that starts out on the first page and unfolds throughout the issue is phenomenal, but my favorite panel in the book is a bit lighter. It’s almost like a calm before the storm. It involves Captain America and Thor inviting Havok out to coffee and we discover Thor’s preference for caffeine is lattes. This is especially funny because John Cassaday draws Thor so serious and manly, like a true Norse Viking or something, so to have that come from him was super funny to me.
My only discrepancy is very minor. I’m wondering where Cap and Thor’s new costumes came from all of a sudden. I know that it’s not really worth dwelling on and it doesn’t affect that I enjoyed the book immensely, but it’s just something that I was thinking about.
And the final page. Holy crap, the final page. Since the cover of issue two is already out, I don’t feel bad saying that it involves the Red Skull, but his plan and the things he does to initiate this plan are straight up sick. I can’t wait to read further in this story.
What an insane way to start Marvel NOW. It’s most definitely worth picking up ‘Uncanny Avengers’ this week. Go get it right now. While you’re sitting in a state of shock after reading it, you’ll find picking it up from your local comic book store was the right thing to do.
Final Score:
UNCANNY AVENGERS #1
Written by RICK REMENDER
Art by JOHN CASSADAY & LAURA MARTIN