- Written by: Steve Foxe
- Art by: Luca Maresca, Kyle Hotz
- Colors by: Mattia Iacono
- Letters by: VC’s Cory Petit
- Cover art by: R.B. Silva, Jesus Aburtov (cover A)
- Cover price: $4.99
- Release date: April 16, 2025
Superior Avengers #1, by Marvel on 4/16/25, debuts the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in service to Doctor Doom, but whose side are they really on, and how far will they go to reach their objective?
Is Superior Avengers #1 Good?
Recap
At the climax of the Blood Hunt event, Doctor Strange foolishly strikes a deal with Doctor Doom to turn over the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme in exchange for stopping the Vampire Apocalypse. When the danger passed, Doom used a loophole to hold onto the mantle. Now, Doctor Doom has taken over the world as Sorcerer Supreme. This is one of his stories.
Plot Synopsis
Superior Avengers #1 begins with a group of “heroes’ fighting an Annihilation wave in Washington D.C. Through the fight, the chatter among the team members tells the reader their identities: Abomination, Killmonger, Doctor Octopus, Ghost, Malekith, and Onslaught. However, these characters look and act differently than the versions we know on Earth-616. The super team eventually holds back the line of super-bugs and sends Annihilus back to his home dimension.
The comic flashes back to a week earlier. Kristoff Doom eagerly works on a modification to his father’s time platform. Why? Kristoff attempts to bring to the present an Avengers team from the future that bore witness to the greatness of Doctor Doom’s leadership and came from a timeline where the world had become a utopia. Doctor Doom orders Kristoff to perform a demonstration. The platform brings forth an older Amadeus Cho/Hulk, but he leaps to attack when he sees Doctor Doom as the man who ravaged his timeline. Doctor Doom destroys Cho instantly and commands his son to keep working on it.
A week later, Kristoff holds a press conference after Annihilus’s defeat to introduce the Superior Avengers to the world. Later, the team returns to Doomstadt to resupply and rest until they’re called for another mission. When the team is alone, they use advanced tech to block all monitoring devices and open a portal to the Negative Zone, where the Superior Avengers have secretly stockpiled items they intend to use to destroy Doom and save their future.
First Impressions
Multiverse/alternate timeline stories have exceeded their expiration date, so launching a new Avengers title based on a team of variants was always going to be a tall order. However, this first issue is pretty okay, and it creates an undercurrent of drama for the One World Under Doom event with a lot of potential.
How’s the Art?
The art by Luca Maresca and Kyle Hotz is pretty darn good, with one exception. The future character designs look familiar but different enough to stand apart. The panel layouts and progression are spot on. And the overall visual flow of the comic is great.
What’s the one exception? There are a few spots in the fight choreography that don’t make sense or look as if a panel was skipped. For example, in the opening fight, a woman is chased by Annihilus, but she’s saved by the arrival of Killmonger. At that moment, all you see is a blurred hand smashing the ground, so the what and how of that save is incomprehensible.
What’s great about Superior Avengers #1?
Steve Foxe pulls a surprising bait-and-switch that builds out an Avengers team beholden to Doom that turns out to be secretly scheming to destroy Doom. The core concept alone makes this comic an interesting read. Is it executed perfectly? No, but Superior Avengers #1 is shaping up to be one of the better tie-ins for the One World Under Doom event.
What’s not great about Superior Avengers #1?
Beyond the hiccups in the fight choreography, relying on future variants of the Avengers from an alternate timeline is an overplayed concept that verges on annoying. Readers are sick to death of the multiverse-related concepts, and this title, with a strong concept, would have been much better served if Doom or Kristoff had concocted a better way to create a Doom-sponsored Avengers.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
Follow @ComicalOpinions on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
Final Thoughts
Superior Avengers #1 is a surprisingly good launch for an Avengers variant story that serves as a tie-in to One World Under Doom. Steve Foxe’s central premise does what a good tie-in should do by making the main event a little more interesting. Except for a few fight choreography hiccups, the art is pretty decent as well. If not for the overplayed use of multiverse variants, this debut would be a winner.
7.5/10
We hope you found this article interesting. Come back for more reviews, previews, and opinions on comics, and don’t forget to follow us on social media:
Connect With Us Here: Weird Science DC Comics / Weird Science Marvel Comics
If you’re interested in this creator’s works, remember to let your Local Comic Shop know to find more of their work for you. They would appreciate the call, and so would we.
Click here to find your Local Comic Shop: www.ComicShopLocator.com
As an Amazon Associate, we earn revenue from qualifying purchases to help fund this site. Links to Blu-Rays, DVDs, Books, Movies, and more contained in this article are affiliate links. Please consider purchasing if you find something interesting, and thank you for your support.
Weird Science Marvel Comics 