1037 ( )

In the wake of the Disassembled event, in which the Scarlet Witch had a mental breakdown that caused the deaths of three members, the Avengers broke up. Tony Stark could no longer afford to support the team and they were disheartened by the destruction wrought by one of their own. The New Avengers opens with a massive prison break at the Raft – where all the supervillains are kept. Several superheroes arrive to try and stop the chaos, and Captain America feels that fate has intervened to create a new team of Avengers. Forty-two villains escape.

The first section of the book entails Iron Man and Captain A convincing these heroes to become a team: Spiderwoman, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Wolverine and, eventually, the Sentry. Once they agree, the first order of business is discovering who was the intended target of the breakout and tracking that villain down. Along the way, they discover SHIELD is doing something it shouldn't be which causes dissension between the organization and the heroes.

The largest section deals with The Sentry. I’d never heard of the character before (except for his major role in Dark Reign/Siege) but readers don’t need to because the storyline is designed to introduce him. None of the Avengers know who he is and there is a reason for that. Once this is dealt with, the last brief story concerns the discovery of a crashed Kree vessel, which is no doubt a set-up for something down the road as nothing comes of it. The book closes with some “files” on the various villains imprisoned in the Raft.

Overall, this is a solid start for a new team. I like the mix of characters, especially Spider-man whose trademark wisecracks help lighten the action-heavy stories. Spiderwoman may or may not be working for someone else, and the Sentry may or may not have all his marbles. There’s a lot of potential here. I do feel that the files at the end didn't add much to the book. They were overly wordy, with lots of b or c level villains. Still, highly recommended. ( )

The Avengers are refashioned into Marvel's equivalent of the Justice League in this suprisingly good relaunch by the talented Brian Michael Bendis. Two great story arcs accompanied by some terrific art makes this well worth the money. ( )