Anyone remember the whole "AVENGERS: DISASSEMBLED" storyline? It was an extremely dark couple of months if you were an Avenger. She-Hulk destroyed Vision. Hawkeye was killed. A team is torn apart and the villain is revealed to be an Avenger.
So NEW AVENGERS #1 is the jumping on point for both the team as well as readers. ELECTRO stages a prison break from THE VAULT just when Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson, Luke Cage, and Jessicas Jones and Drew are visiting THE SENTRY. While they are there, all of the electricity goes out around the city (courtesy of Electro) and heroes converge on the madness. Spider-Man shows up and gets his proverbial webs handed to him as he's overrun by super-powered baddies, who break his arm and unmask him as well. So you get lots of action and a buildup that's a complete payoff in the end.
The book is classic BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS and the artwork by David Finch is some of his best in my opinion. This book got me excited about reading AVENGERS, which at the time wasn't near as popular as it is now. It also paved the way for members who fans thought they'd never see officially join the team like SPIDER-MAN and WOLVERINE.
You can pick up the #1 fairly inexpensive or the trade paperback of the first arc is called BREAKOUT and is an amazing read.
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