It isn’t – the story starts with the big fight against an otherworldly entity invading Earth that took place at the beginning of Civil War II #1. After that, everything else takes place immediately following it, before all the fridging, and even before the reveal of Ulysses the Clairvoyant Inhuman. So despite the crossover logo ruining the pretty covers by Julian Totino Tedesco, you can safely read all the New Avengers comics bearing it.
PREVIOUSLY ON NEW AVENGERS
After most of the team kicked themselves out of it to go and attack a SHIELD helicarrier holding Rick Jones prisoner, Wiccan, Hulkling, Squirrel Girl and former SHIELD operative Hawkeye formed their own New Avengers. Songbird revealed herself to be a secondary SHIELD plant, while actually working for Sunspot as a triple agent. Sunspot, Power Man, White Tiger, Pod, Max Brashear, Toni Ho and the rest of AIM fled a SHIELD assault on their island to their secondary base in Savage Lands, greeted by Cannonball and Zebra Kids. Meanwhile, away from all this mess, Ultimate Universe Reed Richards, a.k.a. Maker, leader of WHISPER, has formed his own team to counter Sunspot’s squad – the New Revengers.
NEW AVENGERS #12
Maria Hill is having a bad day. Not only is she on trial with the Security Council for the Pleasant Hill mess, no one is able to locate where Roberta Da Costa with the rest of AIM went. Hill is convinced the Supreme Leader position and the power that comes with it went to his head and corrupted him, turning him into a supervillain. Add the “fate of the world” thing that every active superhero is currently engaged in, and her mood becomes understandable. She’s taking it out on Agent John Garrett (whom fans of the Agents of SHIELD TV show might recognize as season 1 main villain) and orders him to think of something that will lead them to AIM’s current location.
Meanwhile Wiccan’s New Avengers (or All-New New Avengers, as the narration boxes tell us – gotta love Ewing’s lampooning of Marvel’s recent naming trend) are busy fighting the Celestial Destructor alongside almost every active superhero. The highlights of the battle include Hulkling summoning his King of Space sword with the words “By the power of EXCELSIOR!”, and Tippy-Toe shouting “Avengers Assemble!” (in squirrel language, of course). Also Wiccan, who’s part of the magic squad tasked with banishing the invader shares a nice moment with his mom, Scarlet Witch (continuing the trend of Ewing writing a better Wanda in a few panels than many do in their whole runs).
After they drive the bad guy back, Wiccan gets a call from Roberto Da Costa. After the rest of the team rejoins him and Clint goes to stand some distance away with fingers in his ears…
…Wiccan tries to tell Da Costa they are done with him. Unfortunately for him, Doreen and Teddy are too curious what Sunspot wants, so the team (sans Hawkeye) ends up agreeing to join him on some “light treason”. Wiccan worries SHIELD might be listening in or watching, but Roberto is positive they are safe.
Well, they are safe from SHIELD, anyway. After their Tokyo tussle with WHISPER in issue 7, they brought back a swarm of nanocams, which have replicated over time and covered every team member. So all this time, Maker has been watching them everywhere they went.
He’s waiting for the right moment, when the heroes start fighting each other and AIM is busy with SHIELD. Then he’s going to strike with his New Revengers.
Meanwhile Dum Dum Dugan is called to the SHIELD helicarrier by John Garrett, who’d like some help in tracking down AIM. That’s a lie and a trap, however – Garrett has decided that whatever he does, Hill will be blamed for it, so he might as well go all-out evil. He’s got a computer virus from one of SHIELD’s divisions that he uses to take control over Alpha Flight’s satellites to find AIM, and uses the schematics for Dugan’s robot body to hack him. And, additionally, all his spare LMD copies. The war between AIM and SHIELD begins.
You may have noticed the change in the art. For the Civil War II tie-ins the comic will be drawn by Paco Medina instead of Gerardo Sandoval. And while he’s not perfect (his facial expressions are weird and he’s unable to decide how long Doreen’s tail is), it’s still an improvement over the regular art.
I’ll see you in two weeks to see how Ewing deals with Civil War in Ultimates #8, and the New Avengers will be back with two issues in July.
Dominik Zine is a nerdy lad from northeastern Poland and is generally found in a comfy chair with a book in hand.
