Marvel's flagship Avengers series hasn't been in the greatest shape for the past decade. Even with very talented creators like Jason Aaron and Jed MacKay steering the ship, the franchise has struggled and largely failed to recapture the appeal of the Brian Michael Bendis and Jonathan Hickman eras. With this latest relaunch, Marvel has pinned all of its hopes on writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Marco Checchetto, the team responsible for one of the best Daredevil runs of the 21st Century. It turns out that they may be just the team to put this book back on track at long last.

Given the Daredevil pedigree, there was no way I wasn't going to be checking out this new series. That said, I did have certain reservations coming in. The team roster is oddly similar to that of Bendis' New Avengers run (albeit with the recently revealed Miracleman joining the fray). Is this merely a quick-and-dirty attempt at hearkening back to a better era for the series? Fortunately, there's a logic to which characters are included here, and the execution is different enough that this doesn't simply read like a retread of New Avengers, even if it definitely shares elements in common.

The basic idea here is that Zdarsky and Checchetto's Avengers chronicles the formation of a very different team in the wake of Avengers: Armageddon. The old guard have all tapped out for one reason or another, leaving the likes of Spider-Man, Wolverine, the aforementioned Miracleman, and a battered and brooding Captain Marvel to fill the void when the world cries out to be saved again.

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