BETWEEN THE PANELS: JONATHAN HICKMAN'S AVENGERS NEW AVENGERS INFINITY

Jim Cheung Art for Infinity

Over the course of the last two years comic book writer Jonathan Hickman has been in control of Marvel's biggest heroes and biggest title THE AVENGERS. Just to clarify, I had not read any of Jonathan Hickman's writing at all. It was his big Marvel summer event INFINITY that I finally read some of his work. I've read many comics books in my day and even quite a bit of the current Marvel Now! books including The Indestructible Hulk, Uncanny Avengers, Thor: God Of Thunder, Captain Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, and others so it's not like I'm completely out of step with current comics. This review is going to be of the last two years of Hickman's Avengers, New Avengers, and Infinity event books.

Jim Cheung Art for Infinity

First off, the plots. I jumped into the story around issue 14 of Avengers and issue 8 of New Avengers. Both books work together as companion titles. To get the full story you need to read both books. Avengers follows Captain America, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Sunspot, Cannonball, Shang Chi, Spider-Woman, Captain Universe, Starbrand, Ex Nihilo, Manifold, Hyperion, and more. The New Avengers follows the Illuminati, a group of elitist heroes working in secret. These heroes are Iron Man, Beast, Black Panther, Blackbolt, Mister Fantastic, Dr. Strange, and Namor: The Sub-Mariner.

Mike Deodato Jr. Art for New Avengers

The Multiverse is collapsing. Universes are colliding with each other and destroying one another. Earth seems to be the incursion point where universes meet. Infinite numbers of universes and parallel realities dying. It is only a matter of time before our universe is next. An Incursion occurs on our Earth. Captain America uses the Infinity Gauntlet to repel the invading universe and save our own. But afterwards the Infinity Gems shatter, all except the Time Gem which blinks out of existence. Captain America is brought into the fold of the Illuminati. Cap can't condone the Illuminati's actions, namely ending the lives of everyone living in these universes. The Illuminati decide to have Dr. Strange erase Cap's memory of the Incursion and the Illuminati's existence. Black Panther is the next one to step up and stop an Incursion, destroying another universe before it destroys ours.

Valerio Schiti Art for New Avengers

The Avengers get wind of an interstellar fleet of beings called The Builders. The Builders travel from galaxy to galaxy destroying planets. The Avengers head into space to save the universe from destruction. They team with Ronan of the Kree, Gladiator of the Shi'Ar, Annihilus, and Super Skrull. Together they stop the Builders without them ever stepping foot on Earth. The entire galaxy sees the Avengers fighting for them. This creates a tentative unified galaxy.

Leinil Francis Yu art for Avengers

 Meanwhile on Titan the evil Thanos decides to make a raid on Earth. The only heroes left on Earth are the Illuminati. Thanos and his generals, the Black Order lay waste to Earth in search for the Infinity Gems. But Thanos has another agenda, to find the last spawn of his loins, finding and killing his last living child Thane. The rest of the Avengers return and defeat the Black Order but even the most powerful of the heroes fall before Thanos's might. In a desperate attempt to defeat him Blackbolt drops a bomb on New York City releasing terrigen mists over the planet. The mists transforms anyone with inhuman genes into their true inhuman form.

Jerome Opena art for Infinity

Thanos eventually finds his son, now transformed by terrigen mists into a super being. All the Avengers descend upon Thanos. Not even Hulk, Thor, or Captain Marvel can stop him. He lays waste to them all within inches of his achieving his goal when his son Thane decides to fight back. Thane discovers he has a unique power to cause death. In Thanos's case Thane has an even crueler punishment, placing him in suspended animation inside an amber cube. The death loving Titan forced to live forever. The Illuminati place Thanos in their personal prison in Wakanda.

Jim Cheung art for Infinity

The Illuminati continue their plans to fight off Incursions. Meanwhile Captain America's memory returns and he sets out to stop the Illuminati from killing more universes. Then the Time Gem returns and hurls Captain America and a host of Avengers through time to the future. They end up in several different futures where current Avengers encounter them and try to tell Captain how to save the universe from the inevitable final incursion.

Jerome Opena art for Infinity

Meanwhile a survivor of another universe's incursion, an enigmatic being called Black Swan, tells the Illuminati how to construct a mirror which allows them to view other universes incursions and destruction. The heroes watch dozens and dozens of universes die. They also discover beings who have been surviving incursions and killing scores of universes: The Black Priest and the Mapmakers. Finally they observe a reality not far off from their own with good heroes trying to do the same thing, save their world. This universe collides with ours and it's up to the Illuminati to fight off the other reality's ultimate heroes. They succeed and place a bomb on the other Earth. Every hero fails to strike the killing blow save Namor, who picks up the trigger and kills an entire universe.

Leinil Francis Yu art for Avengers

Down in the Illuminati's basement something begins to stir in Thanos's cube. Other prisoners Terrax, former herald of Galactus, and Black Swan prepare something dark on the horizon...

Jim Cheung art for Infinity

There, phew! That's a pretty condensed version of two years worth of stories but that's the gist. Here's what I like: The stakes keep getting bigger and bigger and the events of the Marvel Universe keep coming one after the other. This is a great foundation for something big on the horizon and the stakes don't get much bigger than multiversal collapse. The concepts and ideas here are pretty ingenious and intriguing. I like his character roster. Characters like Captain Marvel, Hulk, Doctor Strange, Namor, and Shang Chi are all among my favorites. Thanos is the sole reason why I even started reading Hickman's titles for he is my favorite Marvel villain. Hickman clearly has some creative and exciting ideas for the Marvel universe. His knowledge of science and usage of the scientific jargon is impressive. I also really like Thanos's generals, the Black Order. Those guys are very cool and I hope to see more of them in the future. They make great villains. The teaming of Ronan, Super Skrull, Annihilus, and Gladiator all on the same side is too cool for words. I want way more of that team!

Mike Deodato Jr. art for New Avengers

Here's what I don't like: Hickman's characters seem to run together. They all sound like detached scientific geniuses and speak cryptically. He has an understanding of the archetypes that these characters fulfill but their personalities all seem lost. Emotion doesn't come across very well. Many characters feel souless and robotic. But then again maybe that's what he's going for. The Illuminati feel like a bunch of souless bastards. I never cared for characters like Black Panther and Mister Fantastic. I like Beast, Blackbolt, and Iron Man but they aren't my tops. Namor and Doctor Strange are among my favs and they don't come across very heroic in this. His Captain Marvel too doesn't feel anywhere near right. Hulk is the closest thing to feeling right for me. Thanos too doesn't seem like himself, kind of a disappointment. The end of Infinity felt very anticlimactic too. It all comes down to what seems to be an inability to write personality.

I wonder what Leinil Yu had in mind when he sketched this little number?

The Art:  Jim Cheung and Jerome Opena do the art for the Infinity main title and it's quality art throughout. Jim Cheung's art is stand out here especially in the final fight against Thanos but it is Jerome Opena who truly shines here. I was unfamiliar with his art before this but wow it is really beautiful. The New Avengers tie ins are drawn by Mike Deodato and they are stellar as always. I have liked Deodato's art since his brief run on the Hulk during the mid 90's. In my opinion his art has only gotten better. The Avengers tie ins are drawn by Leinil Francis Yu. His art is a bit stylized for my tastes but it is still very impressive. Overall the Infinity event is drawn very well.

Post Infinity art for Avengers and New Avengers varies in quality however. For New Avengers the art is done by Simone Bianchi, Rags Morales, and Valerio Schiti. Schiti's art is probably the best out of this bunch. Rags's art isn't too bad either. The oddball here is Bianchi. While I like Bianchi's covers the interior art leaves much to be desired. Bianchi's style sometimes loses great detail transforming into curious amorphous shapes. Not really my preferred style of comic art. For Avengers its Esad Ribic for one issue, Salvador Larroca, and then Leinil Francis Yu again. Avengers clearly has the better art of the two titles. Yu's art is the same as its always been and Larroca's is quality through and through. Esad Ribic's is the best.

Esad Ribic art for Avengers

All in all the story Jonathan Hickman is writing is good. The imagination he brings to the book is incredible. The imaginations of the artists are even more amazing. The characters are faced with heavy decisions and the true quality of their characters comes out. Heroes cease being heroes and become real human beings. This can effect you, the reader, in one of two ways. One, you can fall in love with what Hickman is doing, think it's revolutionary and another reason why Marvel is ahead of the game. Or two, you feel betrayed by what Hickman's has done to your favorite characters, characters who have been heroic for longer than Hickman has been alive. Who is he to destroy our beloved characters? I guess you can tell which group I fall into. Yes, they're just comic book characters but they're something more too.

This all hinges on how Hickman ties this up. He has vaguely alluded to Black Swan maybe having some influence over the Illuminate. I sincerely hope this is the case. He's brought these great characters down to their knees and turned them in monsters. He better have a good reason when this is all over. More often than not it seems like most writers nowadays don't care at all about the characters they have the privilege to write. Don't let me down Hickman.

Overall Ranking so far: 5 out of 10

I realize I sound kinda bitter but that is only because I'm a fan of the characters and not the writers. And Marvel writers have ruined so many of my favorites in the last several years. These new writers have to earn my respect.