Marvel recently posted a preview teasing the upcoming relaunch of its flagship comic title.
Avengers tells the ongoing story of an elite team of super agents, working for a covert world-government organization called S.H.I.E.L.D. After the relaunch, the team has been somewhat reorganized, still lead by Captain America, but pulling in a few characters from elsewhere in the Marvel Universe, including the fan-favorite X-Man, Wolverine.
First, we’ve got this triptych cover art by Dustin Weaver for the first few issues which is awesome all by itself.
The real treat though, is these uncolored pages from the first issue, released via Newsarama, which teases both the new style of the comic, and the first adventure this team will have together. The art here is from Jerome Opeña.
These enemies don’t look familiar to me, though I’ll admit I’m not the greatest scholar of Marvel lore. Nevertheless, they appear to be some kind of arboreal demons, which sounds like a good challenge.
According to the press material “The greatest heroes in comics together on one unbeatable team! Now shipping twice a month, the Avengers ‘go large,’ expanding their roster and their sphere of influence to a global and even interplanetary level. When Captain America puts out his call – who will answer? Big threats, big ideas, big idealism – these are the Avengers NOW!”
The relaunch is part of hte Marvel NOW! relaunch event, and will run paralell to Uncanny Avengers, which will feature the same team.
Like DC, this isn’t the first time Marvel has tried renumbering and refreshing their lines to increase readership, but it is the first label-wide effort, and strongly reflects the New 52. They’re not singing the New 52’s song word-for-word, however. Marvel has its own ideas about how a relaunch should move forward, likely taking some cues from what did and did not work for DC.
Avengers #1 is planned for a December 2012 release.
