Avengers #21 – Review

Jonathan Hickman (Writer), Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan (Artists), Sunny Gho (Colorist)

The Story: The resistance against the builders gains a lot of momentum as the Ex Nihilii tries to create a miracle.

The Review: Infinity is cosmic done right. As Jonathan Hickman advances with his larger story in the main title, the books tied to it also deals with the main themes without letting it own go away, creating a symbiosis of sort in terms of storytelling. The threats are huge, the players numerous and the events occurring in the pages are simply gigantic in scope.

Readers who were fans of Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Keith Giffen cosmic corner shall find much to love here, as many a great things are referenced directly from their contribution to the larger Marvel cosmology. The Annihilation wave, Annihilus, Gladiator, Kl’rt the Super Skrull, Ronan, the Imperial Guard and Ikon the space knight all appears in some manner in this tale, adding to the large tapestry weaved by Hickman. Not all of them receive meaningful moments like Ronan or Gladiator, though, with most of them being set in the background or participating in the action silently. Still, fans of the older cosmic stories will probably feel like Christmas came early this year with how those elements are handled.

Another element that is handled in a very competent manner is the tone, which makes the actions and the setting even bigger than it seems. Most of the tone is set in the narration and the dialogue itself, which may comes a bit cold in some places, yet for the most part it really set the mood of war and the tides turning for the heroes. It’s a space opera, a war comic, a super hero comics and a cosmic one, which makes this issue works really well when it deals with its stakes and with grandeur.

Infinity #1 – Review

Jonathan Hickman (Writer), Jim Cheung, Mark Morales, John Livesay, David Meikis (Artists), Justin Ponsor (Colorist)

The Story: The Builders are wreaking havoc everywhere in the cosmos as the Avengers prepare to face them in order to defend Earth. However, Thanos might just see this as an opportunity in disguise…

The Review: Event fatigue is something very real for readers. The world can be in crisis so many times before we can get jaded and tired of the fact that Earth (or America) always seems to be the target for whatever catastrophe is coming. Skrulls, political unrest, old Norse gods and so forth have tried to change the Marvel universe in a permanent way, yet nothing real stuck out in terms of quality*, nothing that people really called as timeless or flawlessly executed. However, this one is written by Jonathan Hickman himself, a master of long-form storytelling capable of reaching a rather large scope in terms of stories and conflicts. Could he be the one to actually deliver a Marvel event that could very well be satisfying?

It is, of course, much too early to say, as this is solely the first issue, yet this is a very promising debut. Hickman picks up a vast number of plot threads from his Avengers and New Avengers runs to create something that is logical and organic to his stories. The Builders, the destruction of the infinity gems, the fact that the universe is undergoing a certain crisis, all of these elements are brought to the forefront to create a large conflict that seems to expand as the issue goes on. People that followed both ongoing by Hickman shall be thoroughly pleased by this introduction.

Avengers #16 – Review

Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer (Writers), Stefano Caselli (Artist), Frank Martin (Colorist)

The Story: A big robot comes crashing down on the Avengers as we see some development on Starbrand and Nightmask.

The Review: It must be really hard to write a proper team book. Having to juggle with different characters, different personalities that can clash together as they face bigger threats that the members might not be able to overcome all on their own. We can all name some team books that are or were more successful than others, yet what made them so memorable for us? Was it the fact that each characters were important and distinct enough so that we got to see enough of them in order to grow to like them? Was it the numerous large or innovative problems they had to solve? Was it simply the action, seeing the characters display their fighting abilities and powers in ways that were impressive?

Many could argue that it takes a bit of all three elements named earlier in order to make a really good superhero team book. When all these things align, we know that we have something that we’ll look forward to each month. However, does Avengers, by the standard of this issue, possess these elements?

Plot wise, I’d have to say that this issue does deliver in a lot of ways, as both Hickman and Spencer advance several elements that can catch the interest of the readers while advancing the main plotline. Here, not only we catch up with what happened in all those early and confusing issues dealing with what happened to the planet, but we also see Nightmask and Starbrand again, two characters that had been teased as being quite important to the future of this title. While both plotline are significant for their own reason, the writers balance them quite well, giving us the burgeoning awareness of Starbrand and his discovery of what he can do and what he has become with the more action-oriented Avengers part. Of course, the issue also delves into other parts as well, as this arc does use what has been built before in order to prepare for Infinity.*

Avengers #15 – Review

By: Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer (Writers), Stefano Caselli (Artist) Frank Martin, Edgar Delgado (Colorists)

The Story: As the signal is constantly sent from the Perth site in Australia, the Avengers tries to understand what it is as what it does as they try to stop the madness it causes.

The Review: I have to admit, it is refreshing to see this title being written differently in the past few issues. From what we could see, the pattern that had been seen was that we’d get some action, some exposition and a whole lot of teasing and hinting at something larger. Starting with the prelude to Infinity that began with the latest issue, the whole pacing and the presentation has changed, for the better.

Sure, we still get some exposition, teasing and action, yet the amount in which Hickman and Spencer does so varies by a large margin. Instead of showing quick glimpses of action and of the general situation, both writers focus on a single situation and allow it to develop completely as the Avengers tries to deal with it. It is a much more satisfying read as we can see the depth and the gravitas of what they have to solve.

Avengers #14 – Review

By: Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer (Writers), Stefano Caselli (Artist), Frank Martin (Colorist)

The Story: The Avengers check out the sites that have been altered by Ex Nihilo as they deal with the multiple repercussions of his actions.

The Review: I had said once that this run on Avengers was full of wonderful ideas, yet almost no execution for them, that there was a lot of build up for close to no payoff. For the last thirteen issues, the book was planting seeds for further stories, giving us some pretty solid visuals and some terrific actions, yet those aren’t always enough or synonymous to a great book. Jonathan Hickman needed to do better as we knew he surely could.

Well, while I cannot say that this issue really paid up for all these previous issues, it can definitely be seen that Hickman is beginning to use all those issues so far. In this issue, the whole team is seen as they try to deal with just what Ex Nihilo has unleashed on their Earth as he tried to make the planet sentient. Here, Hickman and Spencer goes in full scientific mode in a way that is close to Warren Ellis as they gives us the full explanation to what is exactly happening and what the effects of these sites has on the rest of the planet. Giving us a whole unfamiliar and catastrophic scenario, it is there that we see just why the Avengers are so large a team under their pen as the threat they are dealing with is nothing short of planetary.

Avengers #13 – Review

By: Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer (Writers), Mike Deodato (Artist), Frank Martin (Colorist)

The Story: Don’t threaten Hyperion’s children while his Avengers buddies are here. Just don’t.

The Review: This run on this title has been a weird affair so far. There are amazing ideas being thrown, some great characters set in the teams that could very well expand the base idea of what the Avengers could very well be and a progression that is still building up to something greater.

With all those qualities, however, it seems that there are a lot of setbacks. For all the cool ideas, there is some really cold dialogue ripe with exposition. For all the cool buildup, there is close to no resolution or any sight of payoff. While none of the issues were an actual bore, this title lacked excitement in a ‘’rollercoaster’’ kind of way, with some issues being close to solid, while some were just confusing.

Avengers #6 – Review

By: Jonathan Hickman (writer), Adam Kubert (art), Frank Martin (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story:  Just who is the new Captain Universe and what forboding message does she have for the Marvel Universe?

The Review:  First, the good news:  the art is very much improved from Kubert’s first issue.  Last issue, I wasn’t sure how much of the improvement was REALLY owing to Kubert’s efforts and how much of it was only thanks to the switch in colorists, given how wonderful Frank Martin’s work always is.  This month, there can be no doubt: Kubert has tightened up his pencils.  Things no longer looked at all rushed, giving us the “high-budget,” polished, top-shelf work we usually expect from Kubert.  This makes him a good fit for a book like this: I’m so used to seeing Kubert draw big event comics that at this point, my brain is basically conditioned into thinking “this is important!” when seeing his work.  Basically, I think we can put his rushed performance on Avengers #4 in the rear-view mirror now; this is the Kubert you were probably expecting.

Sadly, while the artwork is improved, I’m not really sure that I can say the same for the script.  Hickman gives us another issue largely focused on one of his new Avengers, which remains a good plan of action for the series.  The problem is that, unlike Smasher last month, this new Captain Universe just….isn’t very interesting.  Much like last month, her origin is pretty by the books but unlike last month, we don’t have a strong, sympathetic character with which to prop that up.  Stricken with a happy dose of amnesia, Tamara Devoux is simply too much of a blank slate to carry the issue on her own.  As for her the Captain Universe sentience inhabiting her body, it’s really more of a walking, talking portent more than a real, sympathetic character.

Avengers #3 – Review

By: Jonathan Hickman (writing), Jerome Opena (art), Dean White, Frank Martin, and Richard Isanove (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story:  Cap brings his new recruits to bear on the Garden, fighting the good fight on Mars to save both his friends and his planet.

The Review:  Usually when you think of a book like Avengers or Justice League, or what have you, there’s a bit of an expectation for good old fashioned superhero comics in a very specific mold.  Hickman’s Avengers is anything but.  It’s chock full of ambition and there really isn’t anything else like it on the stands.

A key reason for this is Hickman’s emphasis on scale.  Hickman makes it clear that the sheer scale of the stories and conflicts in his Avengers book are greater than they are in perhaps any other Marvel title.   As such, you could say that with ridiculous powerhouses like Hyperion and Captain Universe on the team to go along with Hulk and Thor, all of them battling entities which are, in essence, gods of a sort, Hickman’s book has taken the old line about the Avengers’ being focused on “foes no single superhero can withstand” to heart.  Here, they are battling gods and as the scale of the threat goes up, so must the size and power-level of the team.  That’s the core concept of Hickman’s run and it shines here, so while Hickman’s run feels very different, you could say that it also is perhaps truer to the core concept of the Avengers.

Amazing Spider-Man #628 – Review

By: Main Story: Roger Stern (writer), Lee Weeks (art), Dean White (colors) & Joe Caramanga (letters); Back-up Story: Mark Waid & Tom Peyer (writers), Todd Nauck (art), Andres Mossa (colors) & Joe Caramanga (letters)

The Story: Spidey tries to save Juggernaut (of all people) from the new Captain Universe, meanwhile in the back-up story, Peter’s attempts to resolve his employment issues are thwarted by an untimely villain.

What’s Good: I’ve always loved Spidey versus cosmic entities! One of my favorite Spider-Man arcs when I was a kid was in ASM 269/270 when Spidey faced off against Firelord.  This was during a phase when Marvel (via Secret Wars) was showing that “your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man” could hold his own against the meanest and baddest folks in the Marvel U.

Thus, I was excited when Captain Universe was revealed at the end of ASM #627.  As if Spidey + cosmic entity wasn’t enough, this issue also features Juggernaut (one of my favorites), so this issue was just a bundle of goodness.  The big questions are: “Who is the new Captain Universe?” and “Why is he trying to kill Juggernaut?” I’m fairly sure Captain U’s alter-ego will be someone known to us, but I can’t wait to find out who he is.  I would also love it if he somehow crossed over into the Marvel Cosmic titles, but that might be too much to hope for.