This week was an incredibly tough week. It started out with a slew of books that I felt were okay, but not nearly good enough to be my pick. Then we came to the big three; the ones I wanted to love more than anything. All of them were first issues, and all of them had some incredibly obvious reasoning behind their being brilliant.

Zatanna #1 was a fantastic first issue; captured the feel I expected and made me smile from page 1. DC Universe Legacies #1 was, possibly, one of the most beautiful comics I have ever laid my eyes on; and the story wasn’t too shabby, either. But then, we came to the gamechanger; the one that HAD to be good, or else I would potentially lose my faith, once again, in mainstream Marvel Comics.

Avengers #1 was absolutely fantastic. It was gorgeous to look at, displaying some top-notch John Romita Jr art, and also managing to serve as both a continuation of Brian Michael Bendis’ story, but also as the perfect beginning for both new readers, and those who felt The New Avengers Finale was the perfect end to the previous era.

In a short space of time, Bendis united a new team of Avengers, had them encounter a threat, established a potentially dark future for the characters and gave us a last page cliffhanger that had me pumping my fist in joy. Not only did I not expect that ending, but it felt truly perfect by the time we got to that point.

Bendis is the master of character; and with the aid of JRJR he has managed to craft some wonderful character moments in this issue. The scene between Bucky and Thor was absolutely brilliant; while the mocking of Bendis’ own overuse of word balloons was possibly the funniest thing I’ve read in a comic for quite some time.

All in all, I’m excited about what the future holds for this title; now, let’s see if next week’s Secret Avengers can be this good.