Just in time for the title's 60th anniversary, a new run of The Avengers will launch later this year by superstar creators, writer Jed MacKay and Marvel’s Stormbreaker artist C.F. Villa. This week, we've shared a variety of cool variant covers with you, including from artists like Stuart Immonen, Daniel Acuña, Kael Ngu, and Derrick Chew.
Now, we have John Tyler Christopher's cover featuring Vision in the artist’s trademark "Negative Space" style. That's accompanied by a Hidden Gem Variant Cover by legendary artist Paul Smith and interior artwork from the debut issue.
The breathtaking pages showcase Captain Marvel, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther, Captain America, Scarlet Witch, and Vision assembling against classic Avengers foe Terminus, the first of many epic challenges that await the team in the title's opening issues.
"For me it's about a question of scale – the bulk of my work has been on the scrappy, weirdo, street-level end where a guy with a mask and some goons is a major problem," MacKay says of his approach to the series. "With Avengers, we're looking at not one, but seven people who work at a much larger scale than Black Cat, Taskmaster or Moon Knight do, and in a much bigger and louder way than Doctor Strange and Clea."
"So, going into Avengers, I've been restructuring how I look at a comic book- the stakes are higher, the threats are bigger, and the heroes are Earth's Mightiest."
His and Villa's The Avengers run will kick off with a saga that sees the team embrace a new divine purpose after they’re gifted with knowledge of The Tribulation Events, a series of grand-scale disasters that will spark upheaval throughout the known universe.
We got our first glimpse at MacKay's overarching plan in December's year-ending one-shot, Timeless, where readers followed Kang in his hunt for the unobtainable "Missing Moment." Now, a dangerous game is afoot and the prize is greater than anything imaginable.
Will the Avengers be able to triumph in the face of the Tribulation Events and learn the connection behind these earth-shattering threats and Kang’s quest? Or will they be reduced to mere pawns in an extraordinary scheme beyond their comprehension?
The Avengers #1 arrives in comic book stores on May 17.