I'm really excited for tomorrow's Avengers #1.
Marvel Comics was gracious enough to send retailers participating in their Avengers Day Launch Party a personalized (!) advance copy of the comic, which obviously is really sweet. I broke my rule about not reading comics I care about in the shop (too hard to concentrate) to check it out, and, well, I was impressed.
Avengers #1 is a good comic. Hell, it's a great comic. Well, I think so, anyway. And that kind of took me by surprise. You'll know if you read my earlier post about Siege that I didn't really like that series when it started, and my feelings toward it didn't change at the end. It just didn't grab me; it still felt more like a Cliff's Notes outline of a plot than an actual, honest-to-goodness STORY. It truthfully made me about ready to give up on Brian Michael Bendis and the Marvel crew. There was redemption to be found, though, in last week's New Avengers Finale, which I found to be an engaging and even touching send-off to a series I'd followed (and mostly loved) from issue #15, and, well, it gave me hope for this newfangled Heroic Age thing Marvel's doing.
Avengers #1 has turned that hope into full-blown optimism. It's true, I'll always be more of a DC guy at heart, but if Avengers #1 is indicative of what I can expect from Marvel's team books in the coming months -- well, I'll be reading a lot more Marvel books than I thought. In the interest of not spoiling anything I'll save my actual critique of the book until it comes out, but, yeah, I'm a fan.
To end this post on a bit of a promotional note, I'm quite looking forward to Stand-Up Comics hosting the Avengers #1 launch party tomorrow. I hope the comic-buying public is as stoked for the new Avengers series as I am, and I also hope they're ready to get one of these killer prints from JRJR:
So join us for the Avengers Launch Party tomorrow! EXCELSIOR!
