Uncanny Avengers #1

By Gerry Duggan, Ryan Stegman and Richard Isanove

Uncanny Avengers #1 is out this week, and this all seems like familiar territory. This is now the third re-launch of this series, and it really hasn’t been around that long. The difference here though is that for the first time we have a different writer on the series, since Rick Remender has stepped away from it. The team has some odd members on it, but Marvel doesn’t put out a new book without a line-up change.

Gerry Duggan takes over the series for this new launch, and has some experience working with Deadpool. He’s the character that shines the most this issue and comes off the best. Unfortunately, Duggan writes Spider-man very out of character and his appearance in the book is a low point. He does nothing but complain and act like a child, which doesn’t seem to mesh with how the character is normally written. Duggan does seem to do a nice job on the Human torch though. He seems very in character and fun loving, which is never a bad thing. As with many of the post Secret War stories, we are also dealing with the terrigen mist bomb in this issue. Duggan has an interesting development with Rogue that will be exciting to play out. While Deadpool is responsible for most of the comedy in the issue, we are also treated to Quick Silver speed dating, which is funny as well. This wasn’t a bad first issue, and once Duggan gets a decent grip on some of these characters it could become a very good series.

The pencils are handled by Ryan Stegman with colors by Richard Isanove. Stegman is decent this issue, but there are definitely some panels where characters look disfigured, specifically their legs. We also have some odd looking panels with Old Man Rogers where his face looks pretty bad. It could be the fact that his face has too many wrinkles or his head is too big, but those panels are rough. Stegman is successful on many of the Quicksilver panels. Seeing him go from city to city, country to country is pretty cool, and Stegman makes it look nice. The colors by Richard Isanove are very good, as usual. His colors are very bright and leap off the page at you. Isanove really gives Stegman’s art a boost.

As far as opening issues go, Uncanny Avengers was decent. It won’t blow you away, but it probably won’t be the worst thing you read this week. Gerry Duggan did a fine job with many of the new team members and should look to build on that. The art could be better, but this is a first issue and Stegman needs to get comfortable drawing many of these characters. This issue is worth a read, but still needs some work to really take off.