PREVIEW: Avengers #1

[Monty_Cristo]

Looks fantastic.
Opena at the top of his game.
Is that Protector knocked out in the second panel of the second page of the preview?

that be Smasher of the Imperial Guard.

http://www.comicvine.com/smasher/29-...__/105-835728/

[Dr. Sonic]

that be Smasher of the Imperial Guard.
http://www.comicvine.com/smasher/29-...__/105-835728/

Ah ha.
Thank you, sir. Good eye.

[Lady_Alternate]

It being Smasher, he's probably dead. I'm assuming Hickman is carrying on the tongue-in-cheek joke from recent Cosmic, and didn't he say a new, female Smasher would be joining?

[Champagne]

I actually really love Jerome Opena's art. Without him, I don't think I would have loved Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force as much as I did when it first began. The one thing I would say is that I like his art less when it has that sickly-green-coloring-- like in this Avengers #1 preview. I still love it, but just not as much. What I'm trying to say that his art is really stunning when it has more vibrant coloring.



Original Sizes: 1, 2, and 3

I also have to say that I love his sketching. Coloring or not, I could stare at these pages all day:

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansit.../news/?a=66907

[Deep_Sleeper]

Opena and Dean White should just get married already. I've never seen two people more perfect for each other.

Bryan Hitch and Laura Martin? John Cassaday and Laura Martin? Any artist and Laura Martin?

Yes, I like Laura Martin's colour pallet. But the art from the Avengers are sooooo great. Loved the Opena + White combo on X-Force. This is a continuation of that greatness.

[Deep_Sleeper]

Honestly...how is any artist going to be able to follow Jerome Opena? It's a pretty frikkin' stacked list of artist (Weaver, Kubert, and Deodato)...but man! If Marvel produces only one book, it should be this book...with Coipel and Immonen joining Opena on art duties!

[DragonPiece]

Just beautiful. This and New Avengers is gonna be a fantastic new era. Hopefully in 8 years, Bendis will retire X-Men and Hickman will work his magic on that universe. XD

[Superman Priime]

The pencils were nice, but the color really plays down how good Jerome is. In fact, the color makes his art look less than what he is capable of.

Exactly my thoughts. The penciled preview rocked, but the colored preview kinda mucks up the art. Still excited for this book (and Hickman's other Avengers book), but yeah.

[tigerkaya]

So far the preview is promising, not a fan of the art though. It looks more suited to another of Marvel Black Op team titled books. But I will adjust to its.... unique style. Now Manta is someone I would have wanted on the team over the cosmic version of Wonder Man.

[jpbl1976]

This is going to be the best team book in the market.

This team -- Hickman, Opena, White (and the rest) is going to deliver where DC's Justice League failed. I have a feeling Hickman's going to raise the bar even higher than he did with Fantastic Four/FF.

Seriously, in terms of concept and storytelling, I already find Hickman's current output better than Johns'; I think Johns is too tied up writing multiple titles and making nice with the heavy hand of Didiot to write the stories he's capable of. Put it this way: can you imagine Johns penning a series as clever and subtle as Hickman's The Manhattan Projects? That sort of stuff just isn't in Johns' ballpark as a writer. For the most part, a lot of Johns' recent stuff just descends into the cheesy writing reminiscent of bad WB TV series.

Meanwhile, Lee's art has gotten looser and sketchier; he was so much better during his Uncanny X-Men days. I think we can all agree that Opena's just going to get better and better -- and I hope that Olivier Coipel can also do a run on Avengers. His collaborations with Hickman on Avengers vs. X-Men were the best in the series.

Also, it's interesting -- DC only started bringing in good color artists (and I don't include the extremely overrated Alex Sinclair here; his colors are dull and uninspired) when the New 52 started kicking around -- they even have Sonia Oback now. In contrast, Marvel has had guys like White, Laura Martin, Frank Martin, Frank D'Armata, Rain Beredo, Paul Mounts and a whole stable of other great color artists.

[Superman Priime]

Bryan Hitch and Laura Martin? John Cassaday and Laura Martin? Any artist and Laura Martin?

Yes, I like Laura Martin's colour pallet. But the art from the Avengers are sooooo great. Loved the Opena + White combo on X-Force. This is a continuation of that greatness.

YESSSSS

Laura Martin (nee´ Depuy) is the best colorist I've ever see in comics.

[vampiric_cannibal]

Just beautiful. This and New Avengers is gonna be a fantastic new era. Hopefully in 8 years, Bendis will retire X-Men and Hickman will work his magic on that universe. XD

Regardless of how well or badly Bendis does the X-books, I couldn't stand him at his finest for more than half that time. 2-4 year runs should be the aim. Claremonts (the decade guys who inevitably fall short when they go back to rescue the franchise) and Woods (for adjectiveless, one arc of awesome) are great, but for the most part slightly more compression and length respectively are preferable.

[nosocialize100]

He's style adds to the mood and tone a lot more than most books.

[jackolover]

Knowing Hickman, I can see him making Iron Man have a secret conspiracy from the very beginning, being the mastermind and the hidden manipulator all these years. No matter where Tony Starks stocks left him, always the Avengers had his stamp all over it. If there was a danger to that secret manipulation, I could see Stark implementing some protocol that sets that plan back on track. Look what Hickman did in SHIELD the mini series, that panned out into Secret Warriors, and had Fury the secret manipulator of that whole deal. It's just as likely Tony Stark holds the threads to all Nick Fury does now, and Nick Fury wants to do something about it. It's like Stark made a plan to wage a struggle between Hydra and SHIELD as a kind of balance to the MU, with the Avengers Protocol being another arm of that plan.

All conjecture of cause, but that arm around Steves shoulder looked creepy, especially after that excerpt about Tony seeing Cap arrive in that ice block.

[scouse mouse]

The art itself is very good, I remember being impressed with the pencil previews in the Marvel Previews pages, but the colorist just isn't doing it for me. Won't stop me from trying it though, I ultimately care more about the story and characterization than the art.

Also, if I can suffer through Dillon on Thunderbolts, this will be nothing!

Same here Tsai, the pencils look amazing but the colours are a little muddy for me. And lol about Dillon on Thunderbolts, what we endure for our Elektra fix!