Avengers #3

History

This issue is part of Avengers Vol. 7 (internally sometimes listed as Vol. 6 in certain bibliographic sources — see Flagged), launched in November 2016 as a direct successor to Waid's All-New, All-Different Avengers and set explicitly in the aftermath of Civil War II, which had fractured the team's roster and morale. Editor Tom Brevoort and assistant editor Alanna Smith shepherded the title under Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso. The 'Kang War' arc was conceived by Waid as a direct consequence of story threads from Tom King's concurrent Vision series, in which the Vision's emotionally driven choice to abduct baby Kang created the temporal paradox fueling the entire multi-issue conflict. Michael Del Mundo, known for his painted, illustrative work on titles like Weirdworld, was paired with Waid and also handled his own coloring, with Marco D'Alfonso as color assistant — an unconventional creative setup that gave the book a visual identity unlike any other Avengers title of its era.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of a future-timeline variant of the Priests of Pama (Earth-17383, 26th century), created by Mark Waid and Michael Del Mundo — distinct from the Earth-616 Priests of Pama originally introduced by Steve Englehart and Bob Brown in Avengers #123 (1974).
• Written by Mark Waid with art, colors, and cover art by Michael Del Mundo; color assists by Marco D'Alfonso; lettering by Cory Petit; edited by Tom Brevoort and Alanna Smith under Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso.
• Cover dated March 2017; released on newsstands January 4, 2017; part of Avengers Vol. 7 (the seventh volume of the ongoing Avengers series).
• Concludes 'Kang War Three,' the third chapter of the opening 'Kang War' arc; antagonists include Kang the Conqueror, the Scarlet Centurion, M.O.D.O.K. Kang, and Gorilla Kang.
• The featured Avengers team in this issue consists of Nadia Van Dyne (Wasp), Jane Foster (Thor), Hercules, Sam Wilson (Captain America), Peter Parker (Spider-Man), and Vision — the post-Civil War II lineup assembled by Waid.
• Nadia Van Dyne's Wasp is the issue's protagonist: she transports infant Kang through the timestream and, when offered the chance to have the Priests sacrifice the baby to eliminate Kang's threat, refuses — a scene cited by readers as the arc's moral centerpiece.
• The story resolves the Firewall of Time, which had been shattered across the arc, setting up the dangers that drive subsequent issues of the run.
• Collected in the trade paperback Avengers Unleashed Vol. 1: Kang War One (Marvel, 2017), which gathers Avengers (2017) #1–6; the series eventually led into the weekly Avengers: No Surrender event co-written by Waid, Al Ewing, and Jim Zub.

Full credits

Variants (1)