New Avengers #13 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (Writer), Simone Bianchi (Artist), Adriano Dell’alpi (Colorist)

The Story: An incursion event happens on another Earth as the Illuminati try to find a way to travel to other universes to observe such things unfold.

The Review: I am someone who craves high concepts. A comic that tries to be ambitious has better chances to work with me than others, especially in terms of cape comics. It’s go big or go home, usually, as far as ideas go. Smaller book can satisfy, of course, yet huge events and impossible high threats have a certain allure to them, don’t they?

However, despite the level in which the conflict is set and how everything unfolds, large concepts needs a proper execution in order for them to properly have an effect on readers. If things are too large and a bit incomprehensible, how can anyone be expected to follow if everything is too obscure for even the initiated?

It’s unfortunately one of the problem that plagues this issue a bit, as Hickman throws incredibly fascinating ideas in this issue, yet some of them aren’t fully developed or revealed enough in depths for readers to fully appreciate them. While the idea of an Illuminati group from another universe, one with Magneto, Captain Marvel, Shuri and Charles Xavier replacing the likes of Namor and Doctor Strange is actually really clever. The alternate manner in which the events of Infinity unfolded in the Earth they are in (Earth-23099) is very interesting, with the terrigenesis having a very different outcome along with some key differences in characters.