Marvel Comics' Avengers band together to take on the threats that no hero can face alone. That means they must be ready tackle any all large scale menaces to Earth be they cosmic, supernatural, superhuman, or manmade. Often times this means several different groups of Earth's Mightiest Heroes are protecting the Earth at once, but this spring a new era will begin where one incredibly formidable Avengers team will take on any malefactors foolish enough to threaten Earth.

It all starts this May when writer Jason Aaron and artist Ed McGuinness kick of a new volume of Avengers as part of Marvel's Fresh Start initiative. The book will feature a line up of iconic team members (Captain America, Thor and Iron Man); fan favorite Avengers (She-Hulk, Black Panther and Captain Marvel); and new blood (Ghost Rider, aka Robbie Reyes). What connection will the group have to the Avengers of 1,000,000 B.C., though? What kind of role will Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange, play in the group? And who will lead the team? For the answers to these questions and more, CBR spoke with editor Tom Brevoort.

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CBR: Most readers probably assume that Avengers will pick up threads from Jason Aaron's work across the Marvel Universe. Will it focus on any specific plot lines from the Legacy one-shot or his current Thor run, or are we seeing an all-new storyline kicking off?

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Tom Brevoort: Jason’s initial Avengers story directly picks up on elements that he set up for that purpose in Marvel Legacy #1 several months ago, so people might want to pull their copies out and refresh their memories (not that we won’t do that within the pages of Avengers #1 itself as well.)

At some point, we've got to see the modern team cross paths or become aware of the Avengers of 1,000,000 B.C. Is that a moment Jason has already planned out? If so, how far down the line is it?

That’s a huge spoiler question, I can’t answer that! But what I can tell you is that the very first page of Avengers #1 opens with the Avengers of 1,000,000 BC, and that the existence of that group will be a running story thread throughout Jason’s entire tenure on the series, much in the same way he’s been weaving the dual legends of Young Thor and Old King Thor throughout his time on Thor. We’re planning on doing a series of stand-alone issues along the way, each one focusing on a different member of that primordial group, The first one will be Avengers #7, the origin of the Mastodon-riding Ghost Rider of 1,000,000 BC, with artwork by Sara Pichelli.

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This line up features characters who have all been part of the Avengers in the past except for Ghost Rider, and Robbie Reyes has begun exhibiting abilities that hint at a new demon involved in his Ghost Rider deal. Will that be explored in Avengers? Does it have anything to do with his ties to the prehistoric Rider?

Ghost Rider is a part of this iteration of the Avengers for a reason, and that reason will become at least partly apparent by the end of the opening story arc. But we’re not really going to be tying up business from other appearances the character has made lately so much as driving forward and doing our own thing.

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Ed McGuinness is drawing the series, but with a planned 18 issues per year, we're guessing he'll be taking some breaks here and there. Can you tell us who else will be joining Jason and Ed on the book?

Ed is doing phenomenal work on the series, as you’d expect. He’s very much in his wheelhouse drawing huge and crazy things! But in addition to Ed -- and the aforementioned Sara Pichelli, whom I mentioned earlier -- we’re also going to have Paco Medina, fresh from “No Surrender,” in the mix, and a little bit further down the line, David Marquez.

Doctor Strange is on the cover of Avengers #1, but he will be having some upcoming adventures in space. Plus, Thor will still have his hands full with the War of the Realms. Will that effect their roles in this book?

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, Doctor Strange is around for the opening storyline, but he’s not a regular member of the group. Rather, he’s the first character to sit in the “eighth chair”, the rotating spot into which we’ll bring players from all across the Marvel Universe on an as-needed basis. So prepare to see some other surprising faces added to the mix in the months ahead.

As for the “War of the Realms,” with Jason writing both Thor and Avengers, you can expect to see the events of that conflict rage across both titles when the time comes.

This team features three very capable leaders in the form of Steve Rogers, Carol Danvers and T'Challa. What does that mean for the overall group dynamic? Will there be a classic Avengers' chairperson?

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I think you might be underselling the leadership skills of Tony Stark, Thor and Jen Walters in your analysis there, but there’ll be a definite leader for the team, yes—and the only person it certainly won’t be is Ghost Rider.

Finally, Jason and Ed have assembled a pretty formidable cast of heroes -- so who will they be facing? Will we see new versions of classic villain groups like the Masters of Evil or the new Lethal Legion that's appearing in No Surrender?

Jason and Ed’s Avengers is going to be a summation of the entire Marvel Universe, the crossroads of everywhere. So our intention is that every major story is a big epic, and they’ll span all of the cool locales and environments that the MU contains. That also means that we’ll be doing different stories with different flavors along the way. But the idea here is that if you just follow this one series, you’ll get a taste of everything the Marvel Universe has to offer, and all of the best characters together in a single group. So it’s not a cosmic book, it’s not a super hero adventure book, it’s not a supernatural menace book, it’s not a soap opera book, it’s not a gritty crime drama book, it’s not a swashbuckling adventure book -- it’s all of that, and more!

The other big sea change with this iteration of Avengers is the fact that, for the first time in recent memory, rather than having a bunch of different Avengers teams operating at once in different titles, there’ll really only be one -- this one. So everything important to the world of the Avengers will be taking place within the pages of this single, solitary book. One team, one title. It’s the only name you need to know to get your regular Avengers fix!