Avengers World 3, New Warriors 1

Avengers World 3
Hickman and Spencer (w) and Caselli (a) and F. Martin w/ Fabela and Delgado (c)

With the nation of Madripoor raised up on an ancient dragon's back at the hand of Gorgon, Shang-Chi summons all of his strength to fight a much greater opponent. Shang does what he can, fighting in the dark to avoid Gorgon's gaze and, when that fails, using Gorgon's own torch to blind him, and drawing on the power, boldness and resilience of three of his predecessors (whose stories we see briefly as they flash through Shang's mind). In the end, though, it's not enough and he falls to Gorgon, who walks him to the edge of the moving landmass and drops his limp body off.

Not much by way of summary here because there's not too much to summarize. What there is a lot of, though, in this issue is characterization for Shang-Chi, an often forgotten (if somewhat reasonably) member of the Avengers. The book's writing and its focus on Shang as someone who connects deeply with his past and his heritage as well as on his own makeup and his own fortitude is what really drives this issue. And it works, thankfully. It's a pretty quick read and it's worth picking up, at that, even if what you get is a long fight scene that doesn't necessarily provide any new information. I don't know guys, this is a pretty weird one to review. I can't really point to anything that's particularly great about it but I'd definitely slide it to the "pick this issue up" side of the pile over the "worth a miss" side. Stefano Caselli's art is, as ever, impressive and Frank Martin brings his A-game to an issue that relies heavily on dark and on fire to set its tone. Solid work, overall, not a real game-changer of an issue but they don't all have to be, do they? It's the journey. If you want more Shang-Chi after this issue, well, you won't have long to wait. On top of me speculating he's probably not dead by issue's end, he'll be appearing in a new miniseries brought to us by Mike Benson and Tan Eng Huat (he of X-MEN LEGACY fame) in May called DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU.

New Warriors 1
Yost (w) and To (a) and Curiel (c)

Speedball and Justice are still dedicated to re-forming the New Warriors and, though they haven't really picked up supporters beyond an on-call and very hesitant Nova, they've set out to start righting wrongs. They start in New Salem, home of the Salem's Seven and their leader Vertigo. Justice and Vertigo get to talking and Justice learns the history of New Salem, a refuge for the magical born. As they talk, they're surprised by robots (Iron Man-esque robots) descending on the town to destroy what they call "half-breeds." Justice and Vertigo aren't the only ones running into this problem as Sun Girl runs into the robots attacking some mutated peoples in the subway lines of New York, and Nova runs into them in New Mexico, where we find that the robots are Evolutionaries and are led by what seems to be the High Evolutionary himself. Scarlet Spider and Aracely, meanwhile, find themselves on a beach in Mexico that is suddenly full of dead Atlanteans and Faira Sar Namora of Atlantis looking for heroes.

Geez, first issue and Yost didn't waste any time covering ground. We've met just about all of our players and, in good comic book form, they've all run afoul of the same enemy. This team should be assembled in no time and, though we knew plenty of the players well in advance, it seems like it will be a really fun one to watch. One of the things I've really liked about Chris Yost is that, on top of writing stellar ongoing titles like SCARLET SPIDER, he seems able to slot into just about any book for an issue or two and can write just about any character pretty well for whatever story he intends to tell. That will be put to the test here as he wrangles plenty of different heroes from different ends of the fame spectrum, ranging from new and unknown to older and unknown to older and moderately known to newer and moderately known. What I'm saying, guys, is that this isn't the Avengers and Yost isn't aiming for it to be. Justice even says that he's not sure there's room for the New Warriors in a world with the Avengers. All the more reason for everyone to check this book out. Even if you're not familiar with all the characters (I'm certainly not, particularly when it comes to the Salem's Seven), it's a quick read and one that explains just about everything you have to know for now within its pages without having to bog you down with exposition. Very well-handled and should be a refreshing read issue to issue.