New Avengers

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Avengers Assemble!

The Marvel Universe's all-star superhero team, rebranded for the new millennium.

After Avengers Disassembled, Tony Stark disbanded the Avengers. Six months later, a prison riot at the Raft proved that the world needed an Avengers team, so Captain America (comics) recruited the other heroes who helped stop the riot - Iron Man, Spider-Man, Luke Cage & Spider-Woman - to form the New Avengers. As the first few arcs went on, the team was joined by Wolverine, The Sentry & Ronin (a disguised Echo, sent by Daredevil in his place). Following Civil War through to the end of Dark Reign, the team was forced underground, but with the beginning of the Heroic Age they were free to operate openly.

Currently, the team is officially sanctioned by S.H.I.E.L.D., and is one of two public teams of Avengers currently active in the Marvel Universe. They are led by Luke Cage and based in Avengers Mansion.

Tropes used in New Avengers include:

• A Day in The Spotlight: During Civil War, each issue focused on an individual member of the team who didn't have their own series, with Captain America & Iron Man also getting issues due to scheduling conflicts with their own series.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Any place they use as a headquarters typically has a hard time. Avengers Mansion has probably had it worst.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: During Secret Invasion, both this title and Mighty Avengers didn't feature the titular Avengers, but instead revealed backstory for several of the Skrull replacements. Justified, in that both teams were trapped in the Savage Land for a large portion of the story, and the story was originally going to be a Bat Family Crossover taking place in the two Avengers titles before Executive Meddling decided to make the story a Crisis Crossover limited series instead.
• Arch Enemy: The Hood, the Dark Avengers
• The Atoner: Daredevil, due to the events of Shadowland, and Doctor Strange to some extent.
• Avengers Assemble: Duh. Not so much after Captain America (comics) & Iron Man both left the team.

Luke Cage: Avengers! WHUP HIS ASS! Spider-Man: Uh, is that the catchphrase now? Wolverine: It is now.

• Back for the Finale: Wolverine, after being unavailable for the last few arcs due to events in X-Men.
• Badass in Distress: The first things the second line-up do are try to retrieve Captain America's body from S.H.I.E.L.D. after learning that he may still be alive, before flying to Japan to save Echo from being forced into the Hand.
• Badass Longcoat: Doctor Strange.
• Big Brother Mentor: Iron Man & Spider-Man shared this sort of relationship, until Civil War.
• Book Ends: Vol. 2 #16 (The final Fear Itself tie-in) opened with Hawkeye questioning what makes someone "Avengers material" & several Avengers arguing that certain people don't belong on the team; the issue ends with the same Avengers pointing out that applying Alternate Character Interpretation means that same person is very much the type of person who should be an Avenger.
• Casual Danger Dialog: Naturally, Spider-Man is the chief offender, but they all have their moments.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Ronin. Despite being on all of the early covers, the character didn't appear until the midway point of the original line-up's run (and then immediately went to Japan to spy on the Hand), before becoming part of the team properly after Civil War.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Echo, after Secret Invasion. Lampshaded by Spider-Man asking if anyone knew where she'd gone; and again with her reappearance when Luke Cage & Jessica Jones were looking for a Nanny, as she angrily asks if Cage even remembers that she used to be on the team.
• Costume Copycat: Spider-Man lampshades the Dark Avengers use of costumes previously worn by actual heroes.
• Deep Sleep: After witnessing Brother Voodoo repel Agamotto's invasion (with tragic results), Doctor Strange wakes up in the next issue and is told he's been asleep for fifteen hours.
• Disability Superpower: Daredevil has enhanced senses, including a "radar sense" that shows him the world around him.
• Double Agent: Victoria Hand, with the requisite "whose side is she really on?" questions.
• Establishing Character Moment: The Sentry grabs Carnage and flies him out into space & tears the symbiote in two. The second arc established the Sentry's character to a fuller extent, but this established that he was not going to be a low-level hero.
• Everyone Went to School Together: Spider-Man & Jessica Jones, complete with the embarrassing revelations that she had a crush on him; and that Peter didn't even realise that Jessica Jones, superhero & former Bugle co-worker, went to the same school as him as he only knew her as "Coma Girl".
• Fake Kill Scare
• Fantastic Voyage Plot: In one story arc, Hank Pym and Doctor Strange enter Luke Cage's body to remove an explosive device from his heart.
• Fastball Special: With Wolverine on the team, one of the heavy hitters will occasionally perform the traditional variant.
  • Spider-Man & Iron Fist used a variant in a battle with Ragnarok, with Iron Fist as the projectile.
• Five-Man Band
  • The original line-up
    • The Hero: Captain America (Steve Rogers)
    • The Lancer: Iron Man
    • The Big Guy: Luke Cage
    • The Smart Guy: Iron Man & Spider-Man
    • The Chick: Spider-Woman (Veranke)
    • Sixth Ranger: Wolverine, The Sentry
    • Eleventh-Hour Ranger: Ms. Marvel
  • The post-Civil War line-up
    • The Hero: Luke Cage
    • The Lancer: Ronin (Clint Barton)
    • The Big Guy: Iron Fist, Wolverine
    • The Smart Guy: Spider-Man, Doctor Strange
    • The Chick: Echo, Spider-Woman (Veranke)
    • Sixth Ranger: Ronin, Echo
  • The post-Secret Invasion line-up
    • The Hero: Ronin (Clint Barton)
    • The Lancer: Ms. Marvel, Captain America (Bucky Barnes)
    • The Big Guy: Luke Cage, Wolverine
    • The Smart Guy: Spider-Man
    • The Chick: Mockingbird, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)
  • The current/post-Dark Reign line-up
    • The Hero: Luke Cage
    • The Lancer: Ms. Marvel, Daredevil after Fear Itself
    • The Big Guy: Wolverine, The Thing, Iron Fist
    • The Smart Guy: Spider-Man, Doctor Strange
    • The Chick: Jessica Jones, Mockingbird
    • Sixth Ranger: Doctor Strange, Daredevil
• Groin Attack: The Hood to Wolverine. With bullets.
• Handicapped Badass: Echo, a deaf woman with photographic memory; Daredevil, a blind man with "Radar Sense".
• Heterosexual Life Partners: Luke Cage & Iron Fist, naturally.
• Hey, That's My Line!

Spider-Man: I'm telling you. This is fishy. Fishy fishy. Luke Cage: My spider-sense is tingling too. Spider-Man: That's copyrighted.

• Hidden Depths: Spider-Man's status as The Smart Guy, but only after the changes due to the One More Day Reset Button took effect.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: When the team were hiding out at the Sanctum Sanctorum, Doctor Strange cast a spell on the building that it made it appear as if it had been long been deserted. He even went so far as to use a codeword which also hid any inhabitants that used it. Subverted, as Iron Man suspected the team were doing this, but couldn't find a magic user (or at least, a magic user willing to work with S.H.I.E.L.D.) able to overcome Strange's spell.
• Home Base
  • Stark/Avengers Tower until Civil War.
  • Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum until he left the team.
  • "Avengers Apartment" until Secret Invasion.
  • Bucky's Safehouse until Siege.
  • Avengers Mansion since the end of Dark Reign.
  • Avengers Tower until its destruction during Fear Itself.
  • Avengers Mansion (current)
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Daredevil pulls this when Captain America first approaches him to be part of the first line-up. He tries to pull it again when Luke Cage & Jessica Jones ask him to join the team following Fear Itself, but they point out it doesn't really work, since he'd be an Avenger & they'd have his back.
  • Doctor Strange tries a similar argument after Daniel Drumm swears vengeance on him, which sets up one of Luke Cage's better lines. "Okay. Raise your hand if any of you [the gathered members of the New Avengers] have ever had the bad guy threaten all holy hell on you before he died, went to jail, disappeared, vanished, or just in general felt like lipping off." Every hand in the room goes up.
  • On the other hand, Jessica Jones walked away from the team because her daughter's life was threatened by Norman Osborn.
• Legacy Character: Subverted - After the death of Steve Rogers, Luke Cage states that they are Avengers, because Captain America said they were.
  • Played straight, however, in Clint Barton assuming the Ronin name after Captain America's death and keeping it until the start of the Heroic Age.
  • Discussed by Iron Fist & Doctor Strange following Civil War, with the two of of them bearing mantles (Sorcerer Supreme & the Iron Fist) that had been previously passed down to them, and they will later pass on in their lives.
• Loophole Abuse: In the initial arc, Maria Hill informs Captain America that he can't just form a new team of Avengers because he feels like it. Cap then tells her that she can check his S.H.I.E.L.D. file & verify for herself that he was previously given "Full Champion License" during Nick Fury's tenure as S.H.I.E.L.D. director; which means that he has the authority to assemble any team he sees fit to go on any mission he sees fit & they don't need S.H.I.E.L.D. permission to put the Avengers back together.
  • When Brother Voodoo challenges Agamotto one-on-one, he uses a spell that gathers the collective strength and fighting ability of the New Avengers into a single person.
• The Mole: Spider-Woman is really the Skrull Queen Veranke until after Secret Invasion.
  • Flashing red neon letters pointing directly at Victoria Hand. (But is it a little too obvious?)
• Never Live It Down: In-universe, The Sentry throwing the Void into the sun.
  • Similarily, Spider-Man reminds everyone that Victoria Hand was Norman Osborn's right hand during Dark Reign at every opportunity.
• Playing Both Sides/Reverse Mole: Victoria Hand, formerly Norman Osborn's right hand during Dark Reign, serves as the team's S.H.I.E.L.D liasion at Steve Rogers's request, but provides info on the team to Osborn's new H.A.M.M.E.R organisation. However, this is also at Rogers's request, as she provides info on H.A.M.M.E.R to him, with the New Avengers' distrust of her providing the ideal cover.
• The Power of Friendship/True Companions: The team has a "family" vibe, complete with nearly-once-a-book scenes of them sitting around a table eating and talking.
• Put on a Bus: Wolverine, for the last few arcs of the first volume, due to his being on Utopia with the rest of the X-Men. Notable, as he was still considered a member of the team during this time - Everyone else who left the title wasn't.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: By vol. 2 under Luke Cage, the team consists of anyone he has managed to recruit, yielding a mismatched bag of heroes, some of whom are on their second (or third, or fourth) chance. Wong called them a "second-rate pile of Avengers" and Kyle Richmond, aka Nighthawk, said "clearly you guys are The Defenders."
• Running Gag: Whenever the Avengers are getting their asses handed to them, Spider-Man suggesting that Senty throws whatever is kicking the team's ass into the sun.

The Sentry: I don't throw everything into the sun...

• Terrible Interviewees Montage: Luke and Jessica trying to find a superpowered nanny for their daughter. Some candidates are horrible, some are offended, and some take the opportunity to get in a few zings at the team. But the last one is perfect.
• Token Evil Teammate: Wolverine, of the Necessarily Evil kind. Iron Man notes to Captain America (comics) that, aside from strengthening human/mutant relations, this would be an important reason to have Logan around - He'd be able (and willing) to do things that none of the other team members would.

Wolverine: [to Brother Voodoo] Bub, I can do what needs to be done in a way you can't. The Thing: I think that's a compliment, by the way.

• Trauma Conga Line: This series has been hard on Doctor Strange. The final flare-up of dark magic which led him to give up the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme; the quest for his successor with a Dormammu-empowered Hood at his heels; and finally the abrupt invasion of Agamotto into their dimension, which the new Sorcerer Supreme, Brother Voodoo, repelled at the cost of the Eye of Agamotto and his own life -- all happened in issues of New Avengers.
• Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: "I've always wondered what would happened if I Iron Fisted a Hulk..."
• Wham! Episode: Issue 31 - The Reveal that the Skrulls were covertly replacing high powered figures on Earth in preparation of an invasion.
• Wolverine Publicity: There are three characters who have been in the book since the very first arc - Luke Cage, Spider-Man & Wolverine. Guess which one's the Creator's Pet & which two this trope applies to.