Marvel's New Era of Avengers Comics Begins NOW

WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Avengers: No Surrender

The latest issue of Avengers wraps up the 'No Surrender' story, starting Marvel's range of Avengers heroes on completely new paths. With Marvel's Fresh Start relaunching new comics, heroes, and event stories, the deck needed to be cleared before diving into the reboots. That's being done in a few ways within individual comics, but Infinity Countdown and the upcoming Infinity Wars comic event will have a big impact on things. Then there's the 'No Surrender' story, responsible for merging the three existing Avengers titles into one new book (and team) set to kick off next week.

The story itself involves the original Grandmaster (aka the Challenger) playing against the more familiar version of the villain in a game pitting the Black Order against the Lethal Legion—with Earth as the battlefield. Last week saw the story wrap up as Scarlet Witch weaponized the 'Avengers Assemble!' cheer and the fate of Earth all came down to a single game of poker with the Grandmaster. The Avengers naturally triumph, but this week shows the fallout of the event, taking things in a number of interesting new directions.

Avengers #690 picks up after the defeat of the Challenger and the Grandmaster, as the heroes and villains of Earth go out of stasis and the battlegrounds are cleared. Voyager, having now redeemed herself after her initial deception, decides to take the Challenger off to be reformed. They watch over what is happening and get a glimpse of what's to come in the Marvel Universe. Meanwhile, the various characters of the 'No Surrender' story head off on their own journeys.

Here are the new twists and developments that fans will need to know before diving back into the simplified Avengers corner of Marvel's Universe:

Jarvis Becomes an AI

Though Agent Carter introduced us to a version of Jarvis that resembles his comic book counterpart, the first iteration of the character in the MCU was Paul Bettany's AI. Since then, the actor and AI have become the Vision, and the comics decided to play on this a bit. The Vision himself is repaired after Hulk got smart and killed him, but an ominous shot of glowing red eyes teases a possibly sinister take on the hero to come. Meanwhile Nadia, the All-New Wasp makes an AI version of Jarvis to help out around Avengers Mansion... and maybe even take the butler's place. For now, he's not having it.

Team Magic Hunts for Quicksilver

Pietro seemingly sacrificed himself chasing the Challenger's beacon, but Wanda isn't giving up on him. Joining with Doctor Voodoo and Quicksilver's former flame Synapse, Scarlet Witch sets out to find her brother. Of course, we know he's not dead but rather stuck in between time. In fact, the whole ordeal will soon be explored in a new Quicksilver solo comic.

Hulk and Hawkeye Make Amends

Hawkeye killing Bruce Banner as he transformed into the Hulk during Civil War II was a shocker, but 'No Surrender' didn't waste time in bringing the Green Goliath back to life. In fact, Hulk is now immortal—or rather always has been. Clint has gone on his own journey in the time since, teaming up with Red Wolf to handle more small-scale missions. Now, Lightning has taken Hawkeye's place with Red Wolf, while Clint and Bruce try to reconcile what they put each other through. Let's just say things aren't back to the way they used to be.

Grandmaster & Black Order Aren't Going Anywhere...

We haven't seen the Black Order since the universe reformed following Secret Wars, but their MCU debut in Avengers: Infinity War made this new event a good time to bring them back. But just because their game is done, doesn't mean they won't still be causing trouble. While the Lethal Legion decide to continue working together as a sort of evil Guardians of the Galaxy, the Grandmaster is throwing his lot in with the Black Order.

Along with these more major paths, we see Citizen V aka Sunspot become Citizen X and claim he's ready to take on some more down-to-Earth missions that help his people. Hercules, Thor, and Wonder Man, meanwhile, head off to Asgard for a celebration. Interestingly, we don't see any setup for the new Avengers team that will involve characters like She-Hulk, Black Panther, and Robbie Reyes (who weren't part of the main 'No Surrender' story).

But with so many changes happening in the Marvel Universe, it will be interesting to see how the Avengers continue to evolve when the new title begins.