The Avengers disassembled after a series of major events happened to key members of their team. Tony Stark was asked to step down as the secretary of defense, Captain America watched as Hawkeye sacrificed himself to save his team, She-Hulk, killed Vision, and Wanda Maximoff was responsible for all of these things and more. So there were no more Avengers. So obviously the world of villains were going to take this opportunity to cause some mayhem.
Less than a month later, Matt Murdock (Daredevil) with his law partner Foggy Nelson and their hired body guard and Hero for Hire Luke Cage made their way to the super people prison called "The Raft". They were met by Jessica Drew (Spider Woman). While the group was on their way to see their client the Sentry, Electro shut down the power to cause a riot and get Sauron out of prison. His actions caused a blackout across New York. This got Peter Parker's attention and he went to see how he could help. He hited a ride on a helicopter that had Captain America in it (yes, it's all coincidental. Just roll with it. It'll make sense). Thankfully they were all there at once because it would have lead to the deaths of a ton of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and more civilians when the villains made it to the main land. Iron Man hears the trouble at The Raft and shows up as well to help stop the breakout. The motley crew of heroes banded together to stop half of the villains from escaping. Cap took this as a sign. Just like how the original Avengers were put together.
After tracking down Electro and finding out who he was paid to breakout of prison, the group took off to the Savage Land. To the gteam's surprise, Wolverine was already their and trying to find Sauron himself. After they "completed" their mission, Stark asked Wolverine to be part of their team and this was officially the New Avengers roster.
So now that you've read the synopsis, why should buy this trade paper back? While you may know what happened, there is just so much more going on in the story. The banter between Spider-Man and pretty much the whole team is hilarious, The action was beyond cool, and this is also a great starting point for people to jump into Marvel and slowly catch up. Everything that happens in New Avengers directly links to Civil War, World War, Hulk, House of M, and Secret Invasion.
In this writer's humble opinion, this is also the first time the Avengers had a realistic roster. With the exception of Captain America, the team was built around doing things on their own or having a shady past. Spider-Man was a "Menace" Luke Cage was in prison (eventually cleared of all charges), Spider-Woman worked for Hydra, Sentry is insane, and Wolverine is...well, he's Wolverine. This was a team that knew what it was like to not live in a mansion and have Thor or the Hulk as a back up or have "I'm an Avenger" to fall back on if things went bad. This was a team for a new bunch of readers. This was easily the most relatable team of Avengers ever.
Writing: 9
Bendis does an amazing job of bringing this team together and writing them as the new team they are. While they have probably worked together at some point individually, they haven't all worked together. So sometimes people aren't going to understand why one person does one thing and not another. So it wasn't going to be roses and sunshine and fastball specials right out of the gate. It took time and a gret job was done by Brian Michael Bendis.
Art: 7
David Finch draws one heck of a gloomy and dark scene. He also draws amazing costumes. But all of his faces look the same. Also, sometimes Luke Cage has a mustache and goatee and sometimes he doesn't. It's a tad annoying. But it's not so bad that you'll put the book down. It's good, just not great.
