Avengers #29 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (Writer), Leinil Francis Yu (Penciler), Gerry Alanguilan (Inker).

The Story: It’s Civil War part 2 as Captain America confronts Iron Man over his continued shadiness.

The Review: This was an extremely frustrating comic book, on the one hand Hickman’s Avengers Saga seems to be turning a corner and gaining momentum as it barrels along to its conclusion. On the other hand I had already read a third of this issue in New Avengers #1-4 last year. I can understand wanting to get readers up to speed but these pages succeed in doing little else, Bendis seems to be a big fan of re-framing sequences we’ve already read but usually shows it from another perspective that reveals something hidden or shows something new immediately preceding or following the scene. Here Hickman simply retells Captain America’s involvement with the Illuminati, making an already often slow moving story feel incredibly wasteful of the space it has to tell it’s story. It’s generally accepted that storytellers should show rather than tell when writing for a visual medium but here it does come off as an overly indulgent way to provide context for an issue.

Despite the issue I had with the first third of this issue, the fallout from Captain America remembering the Illuminati’s treachery is great as a righteously angry Captain America confronts Tony Stark as the Avengers are forced to quickly choose sides in the argument. Thor trying to placate Cap was an especially strong bit of characterisation for the two comrades, as was Tony Stark’s reversion back to his Civil War era attitude of “I know what is best and I’ll do what I have to regardless of who I have to screw over.” It seems almost a shame that this confrontation is interrupted by the re-emergence of the time gem which appears to fling the Avengers 48 years into the future, regardless of the outcome of this arc it’s enjoyable to see Hickman dealing with some emotional fallout after two years of  plot heavy stories.

Avengers #24 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (Writer), Esad Ribic, Salvador Larroca, Mike Deodato, Butch Guice (Artists), Dean White, Frank Martin, Paul Mounts, Laura Martin (Colorists)

The Story: An Iron Man from the future comes to warn the Avengers about a possible problem that could be prevented. After their barbeque, of course.

The Review: The tenure of Jonathan Hickman on the flagship Avengers title has been a weird one. There were moments of brilliance tempered with mediocrity, superb concepts and action but little characterization and a good load of other strong points and weaker moments. It has been something full of up and down that has garnered its fans and its haters all the same with an approach that was definitely different from the previous writer of the franchise as a whole. Still, now that one of the better moments has passed, it’s time to see if Hickman can do something else than just be ominous and if he has other plans for the franchise beside putting Thanos and an intergalactic war for this mighty team to confront.

Thankfully, Jonathan Hickman does seem to know that constant bombastic problems can be a bit tedious at times, delivering readers a bit of a breather with this tale. Fans of the ”break” kind of issue shall definitely pleased here, as the various members of the Avengers are seen resting as they play games, drink and have a barbeque with each other after their immense victory after the colossal event that was Infinity. There is a certain sense of levity and a smaller, though not that bigger, focus on characters here as Thor, Hulk and others are enjoying their modest time out.

Sure enough, though, this issue is not dedicated to those kind of moments as Hickman goes on to not only insert new elements for his run, but also pulls out newer plot points for the future of the title. Newer ideas like a rogue planet and a possible shift and expansion in the Avengers rosters are meddled with older, yet appreciated ones like the rather impressive Franklin Richards from his Fantastic Four run.

Hickman has a talent for big ideas, which is something he puts on display very well here, with the future being a mix between stereotypical techology from the future combined with some surprising elements like someone with the Mandarin rings and Stark Industries being a subsidiary from Richards Industries. There’s a certain boldness at play which indicates bigger things for the title and some upcoming elements that are rather exciting in the prospect.

Infinity #6 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (Writer), Jim Cheung, Dustin Weaver, Mark Morales, Guillermo Ortego, Dave Meikis, John Livesay (Artists), Justin Ponsor, Ive Svorcina (Colorists)

The Story: The fight against Thanos and the Black Order reach its crux as close to every players gets to weigh in on the ongoing action.

The Review: Well, this is it. Many events in Marvel’s history had a rather great premise, yet always failed to deliver on their ending, rushing things along to prepare for the next big status quo or to simply lead to the next big thing. However, with Infinity being rather different in many aspects when compared to the likes of Siege, Secret Invasion and Avengers vs. X-Men, does it actually delivers on the good with every players being in the grand finale against Thanos and his Black Order?

Surprisingly, Infinity goes for the unexpected as it manages to both create new possibilities for stories along with a new status quo, but it also conclude very well on some of its themes. Bringing a sense of evolution and change to some of its key players, the event does fulfill some of the promises that every events bring forth to readers. It doesn’t accomplish this without any sacrifice to some elements of the story, but it is still rather impressive nonetheless.

One of the biggest draw of this issue would be the action, with a good chunk of this book dedicated to the fight against Thanos and his lieutenants in the Cull Obsidian. These scenes, despite them not featuring most of the Avengers, are quite striking as members like Thor, Hyperion, Captain Marvel and other heavy hitters are along for the rather brutal, yet diverse enough slugfest. Other parts of the action are also divided amongst the Illuminati and the group fighting in space, but the main feature is the battle against the Mad Titan.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #1 – Review

Christopher Yost (Writer), David Lopez, Andy Owens (Artists), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist)

The Story: The Avengers sees Spider-Ock acting crazily, punching everyone in the street. I guess that means he has to be stopped.

The Review: As superior spider-month goes on, with its new series and the focus on how Otto is moving in new directions, we get here the second series that debuted in this market approach to the character, which is actually a reboot and retool of Avenging Spider-Man. However, does this title go farther in its own tone and status quo, differencing itself from its predecessor and does it actually tell a good story in the process?

In a way, this does feel like an extension to what came before, as Spider-Ock interacts with a lot more characters in the issue, proving the fact that this might be a bigger book and a shift when compared to the ancient title. Having scenes with many of the superheroes living in New York and an encounter with the Avengers in the second half of the book. It does seem a book that is unafraid to go large, using many characters, some of them not even possessing their own book, in favour of the story and the feeling of cohesion of the Marvel Universe.

As far as the story go, though, it’s a mixed bag, as the concept in itself is very good, yet executed in a way that does not do it justice. The problem here lies in the pacing, as we get many scenes involving Spider-Ock punching and fighting many costumed heroes, sometimes to hilarious result (the first one come as a surprise and was very entertaining to see), yet the second half comes too late, leaving not enough page to properly develop the tale it wanted to tell. While many of the scenes of Spider-Ock beating various superheroes lend to humour and deepen the mystery that is viewed by both the readers and the Avengers, there could have been some of them cut out in order to lead more pages to the resolution and to the actual conflict. The problem, mainly, is that when we actually understand why all of this is happening, it ends too soon, leaving us a few funny lines and some bedazzled Avengers and that’s it.

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 #4 – Review

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

The Story:  The Avengers race to a newly discovered sixth impact zone from the Garden’s recent mayhem.  The problem is that this one’s in the Savage Land and everyone’s favourite bee-keeper scientists may have gotten there first.

The Review:  Hickman’s Avengers so far has been solid and refreshing, but I’m still waiting for it to fully live up to its potential.  With the start of its second arc, this feels like one step forward but also perhaps one step back (so yeah, thankfully, not two steps back).  The heartening thing is that the back-tread has nothing to do with Hickman.

Instead, it’s Kubert that’s at fault here.  Don’t get me wrong, the artwork here isn’t bad.  I mean, it’s Adam Kubert, how bad could it be?  The problem is that, particularly compared to Jerome Opena’s hyper-detailed, hyper-polished artwork, Kubert’s work feels forgettable and bland.  Part of this may be due to Kubert’s simply being a more conventional artist than Opena, but the real problem is also that this simply isn’t Kubert’s best work.  It feels rougher than usual, perhaps even a little rushed.  Hell, the first few pages, the prologue of the issue, are particularly messy.  Frank D’Armata’s colors don’t particularly help as well, lacking the vibrance and energy needed to carry the day, opting instead to, much like Kubert’s work, not go any farther than merely getting the job done.  Regardless, there’s a pretty big gap between Kubert’s work here and Kubert’s recent work on Avengers vs. X-Men.  The result is a book that while visually functional, is also surprisingly uninspiring for its bulk, with the exception of Hyperion’s origin, which is admittedly nicely rendered.

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.