Zub Tales

The final issue of Avengers: No Road Home arrives in comic shops today. It’s a big and bold tribute to the Marvel Universe, released during Marvel’s 80th anniversary and just a handful of days before the Avengers: Endgame movie caps off a decade of Marvel movie magic.

Wow.

Getting the chance to work on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes for the past two years (almost three years if you count my seven issues of Uncanny Avengers in there too) has been such an incredible experience. Everyone involved has worked so hard to see these stories come to life.

Al Ewing and Mark Waid have been brothers-in-arms and dear friends, collaborating at every step to make the best story possible. We put our hearts and minds into building a story we could be proud of. We leaned on each other’s strengths and filled in for each other’s weaknesses. Mark and Al have taught me an incredible amount about writing and teamwork.

Paco Medina (with Juan Vlasco on inks), Sean Izaakse, and Carlo Barberi stepped up to deliver the best art of their careers (so far). These character-packed epics are tough to write, but they’re way harder to illustrate and our line artists tirelessly pushed to put their best on every single page.

Jesus Aburtov, Marcio Menyz, Erick Arciniega, and Jay David Ramos brought their A-game to the colors as well, adding stunning palettes, light and mood to complete the look.

Corey Petit and Joe Sabino have been our intrepid letterers, focusing and finalizing our words, sometimes making sweeping changes at the last minute to ensure that everything flowed even as we hit our grueling weekly deadline for the printers.

Yasmine Putri delivered ten covers (as shown below) that effortlessly distilled each chapter into a stunning illustration that grabbed readers from across the store.

Joshua James Shaw took the broad concepts we brainstormed for our foes and designed them to be iconic and distinctive villains worthy of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the best in the Marvel canon.

Editors Alanna Smith, and Shannon Andrews ran the gauntlet of scheduling, story development, and continuity. No matter how much prep gets done, these weekly titles always end up being a sprint at the end. They kept pace and made sure the baton completed the journey so we all get to enjoy this celebration at the finish line.

Editorial lead Tom Brevoort has always been at the forefront of these weekly Avengers projects. His leadership carried them from the wisp of an initial idea into something so much more. I can’t thank him enough for having faith and trust in our crew, giving us the freedom to come up with these crazy stories and guidance to see them through to the end.

Editor-In-Chief CB Cebulski was in the room as we developed the story that would become No Road Home. He let us run wild with ideas, and helped refocus us when we’d gotten off track. He also had the brilliant suggestion of adding Rocket to our cast, an outside-the-box idea that brought a lot of joy and pathos to the final story.

Like the Avengers themselves, these books are a team effort and being a part of this team has been a thrill.

Thank you for this wonderful experience, again. It’s stunning to be a part of it and it’s stunning to hear from so many people that we delivered the goods and made our mark.

Zub