The New Avengers

The New Avengers
The New Avengers #1 Cover art by David Finch & Danny Miki
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date	January 2005 – present
Main character(s)	Current Roster: Captain America (Barnes) Luke Cage Ms. Marvel Mockingbird Ronin Spider-Man Spider-Woman Wolverine Former Members: Captain America (Rogers) Doctor Strange Echo Iron Fist Iron Man Sentry Spider-Woman (Veranke)
Creative team
Writer(s)	Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller(s)	various

The New Avengers^[1] is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics. Written by Brian Michael Bendis, the series depicts a group of superheroes that form a new team of Avengers.

Publication history

The New Avengers is a spin-off of the long-running Marvel Comics superhero-team series The Avengers. The first issue, written by Brian Michael Bendis and penciled by David Finch, and dated January 2005, appeared in November 2004. Finch penciled the first six issues, and issues 11-13. Succeeding pencilers with multiple-issue runs include Steve McNiven, Leinil Francis Yu, Billy Tan, and Stuart Immonen.

The team itself is not named "the New Avengers" within the series; a splinter group of Avengers that choose not to comply with federal superhuman registration, the team considers itself the authentic Avengers, as opposed to the government-sanctioned team gathered in the sister series Mighty Avengers, launched in early 2007, which itself was supplanted by a different government-sanctioned team in the series Dark Avengers, launched in late 2008.

As of late 2009, the New Avengers team consists of Luke Cage, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Captain America (Bucky Barnes), Ms. Marvel, Mockingbird, Spider-Woman, and team leader Ronin (the once-deceased Hawkeye, restored to life). Writer Brian Michael Bendis said in an interview that these characters are the authentic Avengers because Captain America said they were;^[2] this statement is repeated when the team, believing the presumed-dead Captain America is alive, attempts to rescue him. Spider-Man claims that if they get Captain America back, they can call themselves Avengers again; Luke Cage contends that they are Avengers already.^[3]

Fictional team biography

With the Avengers disbanded, and fellow superhero teams the Fantastic Four and the X-Men unable to act, the supervillain Electro shuts down power at the Raft, a "maximum-maximum security" prison for super-powered criminals, allowing for a mass breakout. Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman),^[4] an agent for the international law-enforcement agency S.H.I.E.L.D., is at the Raft with attorney Matt Murdock (Daredevil) and "hero for hire" Luke Cage; they are joined by Captain America, Spider-Man, and Iron Man, as well as helped by a seemingly insane Sentry. The riot is quelled, although 42 inmates escape. Captain America declares fate has brought this group together, just as it had the original Avengers. All but Daredevil accept the offer to reform the Avengers as a result. Canadian mutant Wolverine joins the team shortly thereafter (while maintaining concurrent membership in the X-Men).

Unbeknownst to anyone, Tony Stark (Iron Man) seeks approval for the formation of the new team from the "Illuminati", a clandestine group of leaders in Earth's superhuman community formed shortly after the Kree-Skrull War. The group is composed of X-Men founder Professor Charles Xavier, sorcerer supreme Doctor Stephen Strange, Prince Namor of Atlantis, Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic) of the Fantastic Four, Inhumans monarch Black Bolt, and Stark himself.

The team's first mission is to capture the remaining super-powered criminals who escaped during the riot. The unexpected emergence of an unrelated team of youthful heroes, the Young Avengers, is also a matter of concern, as if the growing sense of unease with S.H.I.E.L.D. after the disappearance of its leader, Nick Fury.

In the aftermath of the superhero "Civil War" over federal registration of superhumans, the new Avengers become an unofficial group of unregistered heroes opposed to the Superhuman Registration Act. The team moves to Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum in Greenwich Village before relocating to an empty apartment building owned by Danny Rand's (Iron Fist) Rand Corporation, but leased in the name of Samuel Sterns (the Leader, an adversary of the Hulk).^[5][6][7]

Following this, the Avengers play a major role in the "Secret Invasion" of Earth by the shapeshifting alien race the Skrulls. In one confrontation, the team rescues several heroes who had been kidnapped and replaced by Skrull impostors at various unspecified times in the past. This includes the presumed-dead Mockingbird, wife of Clint Barton (Hawkeye and later Ronin), with whom she reunites. The Avengers also learn that Spider-Woman was replaced by the Skrull queen, Veranke, prior to the prison break at the Raft that had led to the formation of the New Avengers.

Upon the Skrulls' defeat, the revamped Avengers roster consists of Captain America (Bucky Barnes), Spider-Man, Ronin, Mockingbird, Luke Cage, Ms. Marvel^[8], Wolverine and the real Spider-Woman. Captain America offers these "new Avengers" his home as a base of operations. Iron Fist announces he must leave the group to attend to personal business, but will remain on call. The team elects Ronin as leader (with Ms. Marvel as second-in-command), and persuades Spider-Man to reveal his closely guarded secret identity to his fellow members.^[9]

Bibliography

• New Avengers #1-present
• New Avengers Annual #1-3
• New Avengers: Most Wanted Files
• New Avengers Illuminati #1
• New Avengers Illuminati vol. 2 #1-5
• New Avengers/Transformers #1-4
• New Avengers: The Reunion #1-4

Collected editions

The New Avengers has been collected in the following trade paperbacks. They were released as hardcover editions previously.

The New Avengers also have been collected in the following hardcovers:

Other media

• In the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, New Avengers are considered a team bonus if the player has any combination of Captain America, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Spider-Man, and/or Spider-Woman on a team.

• In the video game Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Wolverine combats Spider-Man because of the Spider-Man's black suit. To prove that he is still himself, Spider-Man is asked a series of questions by Wolverine, including who turned down the offer to join the New Avengers (Daredevil).

Notes

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The New Avengers (comic book)

• The New Avengers at Avengers InfoCenter
• The New Avengers at marveldatabase.com