A new team of Avengers is coming together which grabs many younger heroes from across the Marvel Universe. There are many threats that want to take over the planet, so a new team begins to form.
This issue is the very beginning of the formation of this new super-team. Not everyone comes together right away, which is the big difference compared to THE ULTIMATES or UNCANNY AVENGERS. The issue starts with everyone separated and they're not all screaming "Avengers Assemble" by the final page. There are two stories here, both written by Mark Waid, which deal with different members of this eventual team.
The first story features the art of Adam Kubert and the colors of Sonia Oback. Here we get to see Sam Wilson, Tony Stark, and Miles Morales come together as a new threat emerges, a Chitauri warlord who finds a new friend from Earth who is not your average Earthling. What's great about the story is you can see the progression and where it's going and why this team needs to form. It's not trying to stay ten steps ahead of the reader. It's a typical Mark Waid story: fun and exciting.
The second story involves a team-up between Sam Alexander and Kamala Khan taking on a beast that lives on an atom that was made a whole heck of a lot larger. Mahmud Asrar did the art with Dave McCaig on colors. The art here looks fantastic and is the perfect fit for this story, which deals much more with teen angst and teen emotions more than beating up giant monsters. McCaig's colorwork is perfect for the story and really makes Asrar's art pop off the page. This was a really cute story and gives these two a reason to come together for a common cause.
The only real downside to the issue is that I expected something a bit more or at least a bit larger from the first issue. While both of these single stories are great, there's no tie at all between them. The Sam and Kamala story feels more like introductions to these characters rather than building to an overarching story for the series.
ALL-NEW, ALL-DIFFERENT AVENGERS is a solid team book that feels like it has great potential. It's hard to say that this issue really gives the book an identity, but it does stand out from the two other Avengers-team books we've seen so far (I'm considering ULTIMATES an Avengers book). Both artists really fit a nice role for the stories they tell and once again, Waid delivers something pretty fun, even though these two stories don't really build together or play off each other. I highly recommend you check this one out.