Writers: Mark Waid, Al Ewing, & Jim Zub
Pencils: Paco Medina
Inks: Juan Vlasco
Colors: Jesus Aburtov
Letters: VC’s Cory Petit
Last year Marvel made the ambitious decision to end all of their Avengers titles(Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, & the US Avengers) and combine them into the weekly Avengers: No Surrender. The series saw the combined efforts of the Avengers teams deal with the theft of the Earth at the hands of the Grandmaster, an Elder of the Universe, then thrown into combat with the Black Order and the Lethal Legion as the Grandmaster waged a competitive competition with the Challenger over who had the right to bear the name the Grandmaster. The book was a fun ride and dovetailed into Jason Aaron’s Avengers relaunch. Now the majority of the creative team from Avengers: No Surrender have returned for another weekly adventure, Avengers: No Road Home.
Avengers: No Road Home#1 begins as many first issues of a team book do, with the collecting of heroes as a world threatening event puts the lives of everyone on Earth, and this case the entire universe in jeopardy. The threat is an interesting one as the universe goes dark, every sun in the cosmos suddenly goes out and no one knows why, except Voyager the daughter of the Grandmaster and ally of the Avengers from No Surrender. The Avengers she chooses to deal with this crisis is an eclectic group of veterans that includes founding Avenger the Hulk, long serving members Hercules, Hawkeye, Vision, and Spectrum (formerly Captain Marvel). For some reason Rocket Racoon is along for a ride, no doubt for comic relief and a nice tie into the MCU. Avengers: No Road Home #1 is a series of character pieces as the heroes of the tale are scattered across the earth. Hercules is still on his quest for redemption and this quest brings him into a funny little misunderstanding with Rocket. Hawkeye and Wanda, both having relocated to the West Coast, are catching up over lunch with a banter that only old friends can have and longtime readers will appreciate. Bruce Banner is of course, just like in his Silver Age stories, is wandering New Mexico after another transformation into the Hulk that he has no memory of. The Vison and Spectrum are in Washington DC, dealing with an ailing Vision whose systems are degrading to the point that he is contemplating that his death is near. As the world goes dark Voyager uses her abilities to collect these heroes and take them to all places Mount Olympus, as the threat to the universe has ties to Hercules and his family’s past.
Avengers: No Road Home #1 is a fun first issue to what I hope is a great follow up to No Surrender. Not that there was a doubt with the great writing trio of Mark Waid, Al Ewing, and Jim Zub. All three men have written these iconic characters before and the three of them melding their wonderful skills together here is an absolute treat. Longtime readers will appreciate the witty banter and classic throwbacks to Silver and Bronze Age stories yet new readers will have no trouble following along without any effort. Paco Medina, a veteran Marvel artist rounds out the creative talent on this issue with his signature cartoony detailed artwork that is clean and engaging with great panel layouts.
Verdict: Avengers: No Road Home #1 is a wonderful start to another weekly Avengers series from the creative team that brought us Avengers: No Surrender in 2018. With an incredible creative team and an engaging first issue that draws the reader in and makes you anticipate next week’s issues #2 Avengers: No Road Home #1 is a Buy.
