Avengers Annual #1

History

Writer Stephanie Phillips architected the entire Contest of Chaos framework, scripting the backbone backup stories that ran through all eight preceding annuals as well as the finale itself; artist Alberto Foche provided interior art throughout, ensuring visual continuity across the event. Marvel announced the crossover on March 2, 2023, positioning it as an interconnected annual saga — a format deliberately chosen to give each participating title creative autonomy while building toward this Avengers-headlined conclusion, which shipped September 27, 2023, with a cover by Paco Medina and colors by Raúl Angulo, edited by Alanna Smith under Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski. The collected trade paperback compiling all nine annuals was released by Marvel on May 7, 2024.

Trivia · 8 facts

• This is the ninth and final chapter of the 2023 'Contest of Chaos' crossover event, functioning as the direct sequel and conclusion to eight preceding annuals released weekly from August through September 2023.
• Written by Stephanie Phillips with interior art by Alberto Foche Duarte; cover art by Paco Medina; lettered by Cory Petit; edited by Alanna Smith. Published September 27, 2023 (cover-dated November 2023).
• The issue assembles the core Jed MacKay-era Avengers lineup — Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Captain America (Sam Wilson), Black Panther, Thor, and Vision — against Agatha Harkness's chaos-possessed champions.
• The finale's key story beat: Carol Danvers inadvertently picks up Agatha's newly forged Darkhold, triggering an explosion that frees the possessed heroes — but the Darkhold survives in a sentient, child-like form, setting up future storylines.
• White Fox (Ami Han) and Taegukgi (Tae-Won), South Korean heroes who originated in the 2014 Korean webtoon 'Avengers: Electric Rain' and later anchored the 2022–2023 Tiger Division series, appear as chaos-possessed combatants throughout the event and are prominent in this finale — one of their highest-profile mainline Marvel appearances to date.
• The event was conceived as a structural homage to Marvel's classic annual crossovers; each preceding chapter paired two characters for a chaos-fueled fight (Spider-Man vs. Wolverine, Iron Man vs. Storm, Ghost Rider vs. Human Torch, Moon Knight vs. Taegukgi, Ghost-Spider vs. White Fox, Venom vs. Deadpool, Captain Marvel vs. Cyclops), with this annual serving as the convergence point.
• The Darkhold's sentient 'birth' at the end of this issue picks up on plot threads stretching back to Steve Orlando's Scarlet Witch series and the earlier 2021–2022 Darkhold event, in which the original tome was destroyed — making this a deliberate piece of long-form Marvel magical continuity.
• The full Contest of Chaos storyline was collected in a 256-page trade paperback released May 7, 2024, containing all nine annuals.

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