In Jonathan Hickman’s first Avengers arc Steve Rogers and Tony Stark declared Earth to be an Avengers World. One year later there’s a new series of the same name coming to show the global power and presence of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Avengers World #1 by Hickman, Nick Spencer and artist Stefano Caselli was one of the major Marvel New York Comic Con announcements. Here are more details about how it fits with the flagship book and what fans can expect.
“The premise of the book is that it’s the Avengers, doing big things, because it’s an Avengers World now,” editor Tom Brevoort tells Marvel.com. “But while we’ll field the same potential lineup of 18+ Avengers in WORLD, we’ll specifically be looking to give greater screen time to some of the newer Avengers, like Hyperion, Smasher, Cannonball, Shang-Chi, Starbrand and Sunspot.”
Nick Spencer co-wrote the Avengers flagship book with Hickman in the Prelude to Infinity. and now they’ll tell stories following that cosmic event.
“One of the big themes of Jonathan’s run so far is that this world is what it is because of these heroes; that this world very much falls under their protection. There was a lot of great story to mine in the challenges to that, and the challenges of that, both in terms of other forces trying to assert their control from within, and also just the changing face of the globe itself,” Spencer tells Marvel.com.
“That was a huge mission-statement for the book: taking Marvel’s Earth, breaking outside of the U.S. and outside of New York, and really saying, “What does a world with these kinds of people in it look like? How will that affect the boundaries of nations? How does that affect governments and societies? How different can things be while still keeping that innately Marvel connection to our real world?”
Hickman recruited Shang-Chi, New Mutants Cannonball and Sunspot, a new Smasher, a new Captain Universe and Manifold (of Secret Warriors) to his expanded roster. These heroes will be featured in the new global book but Spencer shares his favorite to write so far:
“I like Smasher the best. When Jonathan created the character, I was immediately drawn to her. “That’s my new favorite.” There’s a lot of great territory to mine. It’s a great idea, plucking this girl off of a farm and shooting her up into the Shi’ar Empire and making her an Avenger. She gets to be your fresh eyes in this story. More than that, to have the fresh eyes with the enthusiasm for adventure, with that joy and excitement in being there, that’s a lot of fun. But I also love writing Cannonball and Sunspot, too. That’s a great buddy dynamic. Early on, those are my favorites. But like I said, it’s a big cast. I mean, we have Shang-Chi—who can turn that down?”
Watch for Avengers World in early 2014.
By Editor