We covered them, folks. All twelve issues of the original 1998-1999 series, “A-Next”, starting here. I thought I had left no stone unturned. It turns out, that there was a sequel series waiting in the wings all along! That’s right, dear readers, we will be skipping ahead from the late nineties to the *checks notes* glorious mid-aughties? Yes, dear readers, take my hand as we venture into the twilight years of Marvel’s MC2 timeline with the 2006 miniseries, “Avengers Next”. Will it hold a candle to the original? Let’s find out together!
Avengers Next #1
Written by Tom DeFalco and Ron Lim
Illustrated by Ron Lim
Inked by Scott Koblish
Colored by Rob Ro
Lettered by Dave Sharpe
So, as it turns out, a whole bunch happened in between the last issue of “A-Next” and this one! I did a little research and the one thing that is referenced here that I found super interesting was the event (I had honest to god no idea this existed and I had thought I was reasonably well versed on this area of Marvel publishing) “Last Planet Standing”. I’ll give you the cliff notes: Captain America died and was reborn into a star (??), so Galactus wanted to devour and harness his energy, amongst all his other gathered cosmic powers, to kick off a new big bang (???), and make way for a new universe in which he will have transcended his hunger (????). I’m not going to cover that series in full here but just know I am shocked and astounded it exists, and that it has flown under my radar for so long and has such a massive scale.
With that all out of the way, let’s get into this issue. Since the “Spider-Girl” series and M2 as a whole have been active between 1999 and 2006, this story feels much more lived in than the previous series. The closest thing I can compare it to is late-life Ultimate Marvel. The first reason for that is obvious, in that letterer Dave Sharpe has a mixed case lettering style that evokes the tone of the more slick and modern Ultimate Marvel than it does regular 616.
The second is that the continuity and character arcs have twisted and turned so much that it’s become somewhat inaccessible, at least more than its earlier form and the Marvel 616 at the time. For example, it’s established on the title page that not only is Kevin Masterson back from his alternate universe jaunt, but he has also been depowered. Even further, some teammates like Stinger have left the team for weirdly vague reasons like “political infighting”. It’s a different beast than I expected, and surprisingly, it works for me. All these developments make the story feel mature and I love that these characters have evolved beyond just being legacy archetypes of those who came before them. DeFalco even does a good job at giving readers just enough information to be able to grasp what’s going on and immerse themselves in the story. This aspect I’m most surprised about, given the nature of this imprint. DeFalco originally wanted this universe to evoke silver and bronze age storytelling, and coupled with the fact that he’d been writing it for eight years at this point, I would understand if he didn’t care to make this issue new-user-friendly, but he did! And I appreciate that!
The gist of the plot here is that the Daily Bugle has published a feature saying that the Avengers are redundant, leading the team to question their place in the superhero community post-Galactus trying to eat Captain Starmerica. It almost feels like DeFalco is posing this question about whether this team fits in the modern Marvel lineup, and that this series is his final pitch at showing the M2 timeline still has some stories worth exploring. Lim and Koblish do a good job at updating these characters for a more modern audience, too. Gone are the harsh edges of Frenz and Milgrom’s linework, replaced with a softer ink line that eschews rough penciling in favor of slick, cinematic realism. However, Lim and Koblish’s figures still embody the cartoonish exaggeration that made the old series so much fun. Right from the opening splash, we see American Dream slamming her fist on a table whilst shoving a Daily Bugle into the air with a look of frustration. Later, we have a mysterious new villain (mild spoiler for a sixteen-year-old comic: it’s Ulik the Unconquerable!) destroy a stone pillar with one hand with his other curled into a stony, slightly ajar fist of rage. Lim and Koblish excel in high dramatism for their characters, which at that level separates this comic from the hyper-realism often employed by its contemporaries.
Ulik and his weird friends Warp and Sylene enact a plot to distract the Avengers: unleashing a horde of Zombified Avengers to disturb and confuse them. It really feels like DeFalco is throwing everything he knows that is 2006-popular at the wall here, especially considering the original Kirkman and Phillips “Marvel Zombies” series was published barely a year prior to “Avengers Next” to critical acclaim. It’s a simple enough premise but it does feel high stakes enough to re-unite the Avengers and a bunch of other disparate heroes like Spider-Girl.
Lim and Koblish do some good work at rendering these monstrous figures, too. The level of detail on each zombie’s skin and the way that they react to bring hit gives them a very uncomfortable, raw meat-like quality, with little flecks of viscera spraying after every blow. Rob Ro gives them a classic supernatural quality too, coloring them a sickly green with mottled shading against an oppressive orange sky. Ultimately, the threat is stopped, but not before it’s revealed to the heroes the real purpose behind the distraction: Ulik and his posse have stolen away with Kevin Masterson, the depowered Thunderstrike! What could they be plotting? Tune back in next week, dear readers, and we’ll find out together!
