Savage Avengers Makes Debut
Like Endgame or not, there is definitely a Marvel high that’s wafting through the air right now. Entering its second weekend, the final Avengers movie will, without question, continue to behave like a financial behemoth. Although this is the end for the super team, it’s certainly not the end for all things Avengers. New to comic book stores this month is a fresh take on the group, dubbed Savage Avengers! Issue #1 came out on May 1st and I had the privilege of feasting my eyes on it earlier today.
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First off, I can assure you that none of the traditional Avenger cast will be found here. That means no Cap, no Stark, no Nick Fury, you get the idea. Instead, we get a merry band of unlikely heroes (and anti-heroes) in the form of Wolverine, Elektra, the Punisher, Voodoo, Venom, and yes, Conan the Barbarian. The fact that Wolverine and Conan are paired up here is reason enough to dive into the premier issue, but the story found on these pages is truly where the meat of this series is.
The writing wastes no time in setting the tone, but also makes it a point to develop a solid plot and not spill everything out in one sitting. Writer Gerry Duggan (Deadpool, Star Wars: Chewbacca) does an exemplary job of setting the tone that falls somewhere between tension builder and bloodbath. The dark tones and splattered grit are brought to you by artist Mike Deodato Jr. (Batman, Old Man Logan).
Drawing an unconventional Avengers team is nothing new to Deodato as he did work on issues #1-6 and #9-16 of Dark Avengers back in 2009 and 2010, which, I might add, is a series that comes highly recommended. The Duggan/Deodato pairing works extremely well thus far, so here’s looking forward (like Christmas looking forward) to issue #2 when it arrives on June 5th.
