Avengers #1

History

Hickman came to Avengers directly off a celebrated multi-year run on Fantastic Four and FF, and was tapped as part of Marvel NOW! — the 2012–2013 line-wide relaunch that followed Avengers vs. X-Men — to succeed Brian Michael Bendis as the franchise's chief architect. Rather than produce a single title, Hickman conceived the run as a dual-book structure from the start: the main Avengers series would function as the expansive, optimistic 'book of life,' while the companion New Avengers would explore the Illuminati's morally compromised shadow war against multiversal Incursions. The interconnecting Dustin Weaver covers for issues #1–3 (originally planned as six) were an editorial invention: senior editor Tom Brevoort suggested the triptych format after Weaver rejected the idea of simply repeating the single-character spotlight design he had used on Hickman's earlier S.H.I.E.L.D. series. The issue's opening line — 'It started with an idea' — was written as a deliberate echo of 'Everything begins with an idea' from Hickman's S.H.I.E.L.D. #1, a quiet signal that this run was conceived as a continuum.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Ex Nihilo, Abyss, and Aleph — the three alien Gardener-class entities whose attack on Mars drives the issue's central conflict — all created by Jonathan Hickman and Jerome Opeña (confirmed by Wikipedia, Marvel Database, and CMRO).
• Written by Jonathan Hickman, penciled and inked by Jerome Opeña, colored by Dean White, lettered by Cory Petit, with cover art by Dustin Weaver; edited by Tom Brevoort, Lauren Sankovitch, and Jake Thomas under Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso.
• Published under the Marvel NOW! banner; on-sale date December 5, 2012, with a February 2013 cover date — making it a December 2012 release despite its 2013 designation.
• Hickman deliberately opened the series with the same six-member lineup as the 2012 MCU film (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye), then used their defeat at Mars as the narrative engine to justify a massively expanded roster — the 'Avengers World' premise.
• The expanded roster introduced across the opening arc includes Cannonball, Sunspot, Smasher, Manifold (Eden Fesi), Captain Universe, Hyperion, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Wolverine, Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel), Falcon, and Shang-Chi, among others — one of the largest team expansions in Avengers history.
• The Dustin Weaver covers for issues #1–3 form a 180-degree interconnecting panorama — an idea proposed by editor Tom Brevoort after Weaver declined to replicate the single-character format he had used on Hickman's S.H.I.E.L.D. series.
• The issue's first line of dialogue — 'There was nothing' — and the narrator's concluding 'It started with an idea' echo the opening of Hickman's S.H.I.E.L.D. #1, tying his broader Marvel work into a single thematic continuum.
• The run collected in multiple formats: Avengers Vol. 1: Avengers World TPB (issues #1–6); Avengers by Jonathan Hickman: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 (issues #1–5 plus New Avengers #1–6); and the Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus Vol. 1 (issues #1–23 plus New Avengers #1–12 and the full Infinity event).

Full credits

Key issues in Avengers

Variants (11)