Avengers #10

I think I’m a fairly intelligent guy, but I really don’t understand what is happening in Avengers. Jonathan Hickman is a cerebral guy, clearly. He does open up with one of my narrative pet peeves, though. I hate flashbacks within flashbacks, I consider it lazy storytelling. Of course, in this issue it actually makes sense, but I’m not sure if that is a good thing.

Ten issues in, we know Ex Nihilo wants to evolve life on Earth. We know there are multiple dangerous sites that have been dealt with one way or another. But we don’t know what the end goal is. We don’t know if there is a ticking clock. We don’t know the why’s of any of it. Ten issues a long time for the story to still be teased out like this. Thank goodness I have lots of other comics delivering action and excitement every month, because this book has mostly gloom and melancholy.

That’s not to say it is all bad, at all. Hickman has some nice reveals and some great character moments in this one. Falcon makes the most of his one line of dialogue. I also appreciated the power level of the group sent into such a hostile environment. Most of all, I like that Hickman populated his team of redshirt heroes with new creations that FELT like they had ties to the Marvel U. Wendigo? Box? We know them, even if they looked new. They were replaceable. The other heroes were new but archetypical enough to have some weight. (If Bendis were writing this, he would have killed off Hercules and Crystal, or other heroes of that level.)

Mike Deodato does a nice job with his new hero designs, the reason they work as archetypes is because of the design. I also like his alternate Cap costumes.  

I sure hope Deodato likes drawing people talking and walking from place to place. The Avengers pick it up from a stroll exactly once. The Omega Flight team gets to shoot off energy blasts and fight on one page. Other than that, this is a whole lot of sad heroes and administrators talking to each other.

Does that seem weird to anyone else?

Fair