Avengers Academy: Marvel's Voices

Avengers Academy: Marvel's Voices
The cover to the first issue, with art by Carola Borelli and colors by Carlos Lopez.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	Weekly
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	May 2024 – present
Main character(s)	Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur Red Goblin Bloodline Aaron Fischer Escapade Kid Juggernaut
Creative team
Written by	Anthony Oliveira
Artist(s)	Carola Borelli Bailie Rosenlund Alba Glez Pablo Collar Karen S. Darboe Ig Guara
Inker(s)	Elisabetta D'Amico
Letterer(s)	Ariana Maher
Colorist(s)	Carlos Lopez K.J. Diaz Ian Herring
Editor(s)	Sarah Brunstad Lindsey Cohick

Avengers Academy: Marvel's Voices is an ongoing Marvel webcomic written by Anthony Oliveira, with art by Carola Borelli, Bailie Rosenlund, Alba Glez, Pablo Collar, Karen S. Darboe, and Ig Guara. It is published by Marvel Comics through their Marvel Unlimited platform.

It is a spin-off of the Marvel's Voices webcomic. It focuses on the titular school and the superheroes attending it: Lunella Lafayette (Moon Girl) and Devil Dinosaur, Normie Osborn (Red Goblin), Brielle Brooks (Bloodline), Aaron Fischer (Captain America of the Railways), Shela Sexton (Escapade), and Justin Jin (Kid Juggernaut).

Publication history

In June 2024, Marvel announced that it would be launching a new Avengers Academy comic, this time as a webcomic on Marvel Unlimited, under the "Marvel's Voices" banner. The last five issues of the original Marvel's Voices webcomic (#95-#100) served as a backdoor pilot and introduced new character Justin Jin, Kid Juggernaut. The webcomic would be weekly, with new issues showing up every Wednesday, and it would be written by Anthony Oliveira and drawn by a number of artists, starting with Carola Borelli and Bailie Rosenlund. Per Oliveira:

There’s a school for heroes! Your favs are the teachers, their legacies are the students, the Savage Land is in the backyard, a vampire lives next door, and God might be in the basement!

Welcome to the AVENGERS ACADEMY—rising marvels of the next generation from every corner of the Marvel Universe, choosing for themselves what kind of hero they will be and what kind of world they will save!

Enrollment is beginning for the winter term!

The series is notable for having a number of queer characters, with Oliveira using the character of Arnie Roth in #21. "Arnie Roth feels like an impossible miracle: a queer character created at the absolute height of the AIDS crisis, beating at the heart of Marvel Comics itself in the origin of Steve Rogers. To make a gay man Captain America’s closest and dearest friend, a scrappy brawler who knew him before the serum, and who loved him so fiercely before the hero even arose—that, to me, is such an audacious, brave thing for J.M. DeMatteis and his creative team to have done. I think the courage of that still echoes with us."

Plot summary

Orientation Day/First Night/Lesson #1: The Fastball Special (#1-4)

Captain Marvel welcomes the new class of students -- Aaron Fischer, Brielle Brooks, Shela Sexton, Normie Osborn, Justin Jin, Lunella Lafayette and Devil Dinosaur -- to the new Avengers Academy campus, located in Manhattan, but also, due to a shard of the M'Kraan Crystal, in the Savage Land and in a place outside space at the same time, too. However, the campus is then attacked by Swarm. Everyone defends the campus against Swarm, while Justin meets M'Kraan, the physical embodiment of the M'Kraan Crystal. Shela manages to swap places with Swarm and Lunella puts the bees to sleep, but not before Aaron is stung many times. Examining the skull of Swarm, Lunella and the others discover it's a cloned skull that someone placed on campus and someone wants them dead. The first night on campus, not able to get to sleep, everyone gets to know each other, with Aaron and Justin, Lunella and Normie, and Shela and Brielle each talking during the night. Normie reveals his secret identity to Lunella. In the next few days, the class learns about fighting and the Fastball Special from guest teachers Wolverine and Colossus, while Lunella develops a special unbreakable metal called "Lunellum" which she makes a shield out of for Aaron.

Reception

The League of Comic Geeks gave the first issue a 3.8 average rating and 41 out of 48 people liked it. The series has consistently gotten over 4.0 average ratings, with a high of 4.5.