Oof. Jonathan Hickman’s eternal story of the colliding
Earths continues, and now he’s added a new wrinkle that is affecting my opinion
of the story. After years of turning Reed Richards, Black Panther, Iron Man and
the rest into almost villains, the contrast to real heroes seems even more
obvious. About halfway through this trade, Hickman introduces us to another world
that has battled incursions and the Justice League-like team that protects it.
BUT.
I am 100% cheering for the fake Justice League. I can only
assume such a turnabout is Hickman’s point, to show that he’s essentially
turned us against our normal lead characters. I don’t think that is a good
thing.
As we tour different realities in each issue of this
collection, we meet different versions of the Illuminati. Some face incursions,
some face the Black Priests. Some face Mapmakers. (I’m still having a hard time
telling everyone apart.) But in almost every case, I find myself more
interested in the one-and-done protagonists than in the cast we’ve been
following since this book started.
The glacial pacing has a great excuse here; we are touring a
bunch of different worlds, so of course our main story isn’t continuing yet. It
feels like we are treading water. Stalling only works when the detour is so
interesting you don’t realize that nothing is happening. That isn’t the case
here. I actually have to go back each month and remind myself what is going on
with the book (thank goodness Marvel Unlimited makes that easy.)
Mike Deodato, Leinil Francis Yu, and Simone Bianchi are top
notch artists. I’m glad to see the Avengers getting such top tier talent. I
wish I was seeing their art in books I love reading.
I know some folks love this EVIL book. Me? My Avengers are
over starring in the Mighty Avengers series.
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