On the run from authorities for his refusal to sign the Superhuman Registration Act, Captain America reflects on his life, purpose, and ideals, as well as his membership in the Avengers. Confronted by SHIELD Agents, Captain America fights his way through them, taking down old friend and comrade Dum Dum Dugan along the way. Using a SHIELD transmitter, he reports that Captain America has been killed.
In a secret hideaway, he unexpectedly meets the Falcon. They renew their bonds and vow to fight together against the registration and those that support it. In their search for additional allies, they pay Hank Pym a visit, only to find that Pym sides with the authorities. Pym turns them in, and attempts to stop them from leaving. Agent Hill arrives with SHIELD agents, but Captain American and the Falcon have escaped.
New Avenger Dissembled: Part 1, a Civil War tie-in, is by far the best single issue that writer Brian Michael Bendis has produced during his tenure on the title. Uncluttered by superfluous background characters, weak 'humor,' and other padding, this issue suggests, once again, that Bendis does his best work when focusing on several primary heroes. If anything, Bendis' past work on the book suggests that team books aren't something he does well. Throughout this issue, Bendis seems to know exactly what it is he wants to convey and conveys it well. Thankfully, very little of Bendis' awkward, cluttered, and badly-executed 'SHIELD conspiracy' subplot is anywhere in evidence.
However, the fact that Bendis is already "dissembling" his New Avengers team after only 20 issues supports the theory, held by many, that his fairly oddball team simply doesn't work effectively as a team of Avengers by any standard. In arc after arc, Captain America, Iron Man and Spider Man have been given the bulk of the action, dialogue, development, and panel time, while the Sentry, Spider Woman, Luke Cage, and even Wolverine, none of whom Bendis has done much with, drift around uncertainly in the background. Should these characters leave the title after the present arc, few will remember them as historical Avengers of any standing. Cage's membership, in particular, has come to absolutely nothing.
In the August 2006 edition of Wizard, Bendis has said that "I think classic Avengers fans will be very happy post-Civil War. Or not. It's hard to tell really," which implies that either a second title composed of historic Avengers such as the Wasp, the Vision, Yellow Jacket, and the Black Knight will be published, or, more reasonably, that some of the historic Avengers will return to the team proper. It's certainly too early to hazard a guess, especially with Bendis at the helm. His idea of ''historic Avengers' membership seems to favor Ms. Marvel, clearly a character he enjoys writing, over more pivotal Avengers such as the Wasp, Yellow Jacket, the Black Panther, Hercules, Monica Rambeau, and even the Black Widow, who led the team for a good stretch in the 90s.
A large part of the credit for this issue's success belongs to artist Howard Chaykin, whose crisp, tight illustration work assists in carrying the story briskly along. It's easy to imagine how much better the New Avengers would have worked had Chaykin been the regular artist on the book from the first issue; another good choice, at least in theory, would have been John Byrne, whose work, like Chaykin's is both clearly defined and dynamic. Chaykin's work has a visual intelligence that Mike Deodato Jr.'s lacks since his return to the title for the previous arc, 'The Collective.'