The Avengers turn over a new leaf in May. With an epic five-year storyline coming to a close, writer Jed MacKay (Moon Knight, Black cat, Doctor Strange) and artist CF Villa (Black cat, X-Men, Shatterster) take control of Marvel’s mightiest heroes with a new team, new threats and a new leader. Avengers #1 puts Captain Marvel in the captain’s chair.
When Polygon spoke to MacKay via email, he said that promoting Carol Danvers to head of the Avengers was just a logical step. “Her time as Captain Marvel, in my opinion, really propelled her to ‘iconic’ status in a way that I don’t think she was in her Ms. Marvel days. You only have to look at Kelly Thompson’s historic number 50 to see how her star has continued to rise. […] It was a lot of fun applying the challenges of leading a team like the Avengers to a character with the sensibilities of a brash fighter pilot.
Image: Stuart Immonen/Marvel Comics
You can see a bit of that fun in Polygon’s five-page exclusive debut Avengers #1. The issue takes a firm foot forward with Carol recruiting a hand-picked team of classic Avengers: Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, Sam Wilson’s Captain America, the Vision, and the Scarlet Witch. But every good Avengers team needs something to get revenge on or someone to get revenge on.
MacKay has been hiding the true nature of the threat, but we know it has something to do with another Marvel Comics character who has recently made it into the mainstream in a big way: Kang the Conqueror.
For MacKay, Kang is on a short list of villains that belong to the Avengers more than any specific Marvel hero. “Kang has seen everything, done everything. Unlike many Marvel villains, he is human and sees himself as the ultimate expression of our species’ excellence. Getting into what it looks like when he’s challenged in that assumption, and when he’s thwarted from getting what he wants, and how that challenges his beliefs about his own relationship with the Avengers is something I look forward to exploring.
“Kang is one of the Great Avengers Villains, and it’s as simple as that.”
Check out the full cover and five pages of Avengers #1 below.
Avengers #1 hits shelves on May 17.