Avengers: No Surrender kicks off with a theft — and a mystery

No Surrender delivers on its promise of Grand Theft Earth, and its first chapter also introduces an intriguing mystery.

If Marvel Legacy is all about getting back to what longtime superhero comics readers find familiar, then “Avengers: No Surrender” delivers on that promise in Avengers #675, the weekly epic’s first chapter.

Unless you’re new to the genre, and Marvel in particular, the set-up provided by writers Mark Waid, Al Ewing and Jim Zub is a comforting one. There’s a threat to the Earth so big that it’s causing natural disasters all over the globe. Every current team of Avengers is required just to prevent more life and limb, not to mention former members not currently on any roster.

The threat is something Marvel advertised before this crossover began: someone has stolen the Earth. As in physically stolen, with the planet not where it’s supposed to be in the cosmos.

If that’s not enough, a good chunk of heroes (and villains, as we later discover) are taken out of commission, seemingly frozen in time. It suggests that Kang, perhaps the greatest Avengers villain of all time, might be involved, except that he’s been a thorn in their side in the not too distant past. But something that messes with Marvel history as we know it is going on, because the final page plays off something from Marvel Legacy #1 and introduces Voyager, a founding member of the Avengers.

The way that other characters react to her dramatic appearance implies they’ve always known her, which is odd, even for a superhero crossover. We’ve seen this “hero who was part of the Marvel past but we’re just meeting for the first time and here’s the reason” theme before with the Sentry, but the expectation is that there will be a twist coming that explains her in more detail.

(And perhaps why Jarvis sort of, kind of felt she didn’t belong in Marvel Legacy #1, though he’s also not in the best of shape by the issue’s end.)

Voyager is simply the final part of Avengers #675 that feels like an homage or tribute to crossovers of the past. It’s way too early to say that “No Surrender” is derivative, especially since its nostalgia-inducing elements are intentional, but someone looking for the more out in left field theatrics of Secret Wars or even Avengers: Standoff is going to find this to be the exact opposite.

Even if the story isn’t to your immediate liking, it is a good showcase for artist Pepe Larraz, who shows off the chops for both widescreen heroics and more emotive, character-focuses panels. Larraz’s style tends toward slight exaggeration at times — Rogue’s hair, for example, seems impossibly big, like she used her mutant power to absorb the qualities of copious amounts of hair care products — but he seems more than up for the challenge of such a wide-ranging cast, and he’s ably aided by colorist David Curiel in establishing a properly epic feel. The wraparound cover by Mark Brooks is equally gorgeous, and a good reason to pick up a hard copy even if you usually do your comic book reading digitally.

Next: Marvel Legacy #1 review: Back to the future

More than anything, though, the first chapter of “Avengers: No Surrender” gets the pacing right. Too many weekly stories in years past have meandered when they should be zipping along, and Avengers #675 gives you every impression that this one is going to move. Assembling at your LCS every Wednesday for the next few months is probably a good idea.