Comics Bulletin logo
Search
  • Columns
    Random
    • Bin There Found That

      Chris Wunderlich
      February 24, 2013
      Bin There Found That, Columns
    Recent
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 2

      Daniel Gehen
      December 4, 2020
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 1

      Daniel Gehen
      October 30, 2020
    • Comictober 2020: DRACULA MOTHERF**KER

      Daniel Gehen
      October 27, 2020
    • What Looks Good
    • Comics Bulletin Soapbox
    • The Full Run
    • Leading Question
    • Top 10
    • The Long-Form
    • Jumping On
    • Comics in Color
    • Slouches Towards Comics
  • Big Two
    Random
    • 2.0

      More Human Than Inhuman: Extraordinary X-Men #7

      Chris Wunderlich
      February 22, 2016
      Big Two, Big Two Reviews, Marvel Comics
    Recent
    • 4.5

      DCeased: Dead Planet #7 Presents a Hopeful Future (Review)

      Daniel Gehen
      January 22, 2021
    • Retro Review: Detective Comics #826 Remains a Holiday Classic

      Daniel Gehen
      December 3, 2020
    • Stan Lee

      nguyen ly
      November 7, 2020
    • DC Comics
    • Big Two Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
  • Indie
    Random
    • 4.5

      Review: BATMAN UNIVERSE #3 Puts The Universe In Batman Universe

      Chris Wunderlich
      September 12, 2019
      Big Two, DC Comics, Reviews
    Recent
    • Review: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist

      Daniel Gehen
      December 14, 2020
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 2

      Daniel Gehen
      December 4, 2020
    • 4.5

      TMNT: The Last Ronin #1 Lives Up to the Hype (Review)

      Daniel Gehen
      October 29, 2020
    • Reviews
    • Archie Comics
    • Boom! Studios
    • Dark Horse
    • IDW
    • Image
    • Oni Press
    • Valiant
  • Reviews
    Random
    • Keeping It Ghastly: Blame! Volumes 1-3

      Chris Wunderlich
      August 7, 2015
      Keeping It Ghastly, Keeping It Ghastly, Manga
    Recent
    • 4.5

      DCeased: Dead Planet #7 Presents a Hopeful Future (Review)

      Daniel Gehen
      January 22, 2021
    • Review: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist

      Daniel Gehen
      December 14, 2020
    • Retro Review: Detective Comics #826 Remains a Holiday Classic

      Daniel Gehen
      December 3, 2020
    • Singles Going Steady
    • Slugfest
    • Manga
      • Reviews
    • Small Press
      • Reviews
      • ICYMI
      • Tiny Pages Made of Ashes
  • Interviews
    Random
    • Derf Backderf: My Friend Dahmer Surprises Both Audience and Author

      Chris Wunderlich
      March 16, 2012
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview: Jon Davis-Hunt Talks SHADOWMAN

      Daniel Gehen
      June 8, 2020
    • Interview: Becky Cloonan talks DARK AGNES and Her Personal Influences

      Mike Nickells
      March 4, 2020
    • Simon Roy

      Interview: Simon Roy on His Inspirations and Collaborations on PROTECTOR

      Mike Nickells
      January 29, 2020
    • Audio Interview
    • Video Interview
  • Classic Comics
    Random
    • Larceny in Small Parts: Will Eisner's PS

      Chris Wunderlich
      September 16, 2011
      Classic Comics Cavalcade, Columns
    Recent
    • Countdown to the King: Marvel’s Godzilla

      Daniel Gehen
      May 29, 2019
    • Honoring A Legend: Fantagraphics To Resurrect Tomi Ungerer Classics

      Daniel Gehen
      February 15, 2019
    • Reliving the Craziest Decade in Comics History: An interview with Jason Sacks

      Mark Stack
      January 2, 2019
    • Classic Comics Cavalcade
    • Classic Interviews
  • News
    Random
    • This Week in Boom! for 02/04/15

      Chris Wunderlich
      February 4, 2015
      This Week in BOOM!
    Recent
    • 2020 Ringo Awards Winners Announced

      Daniel Gehen
      October 26, 2020
    • BAD IDEA Announces 2021 Publishing Slate

      Daniel Gehen
      September 29, 2020
    • A Full Replay of NCSFest 2020 is now Available

      Daniel Gehen
      September 15, 2020
    • Press Release
    • Kickstarter Spotlight
  • Books
    Random
    • Review: 'Kickstarter for the Independent Creator: A Practical and Informative Guide To Crowdfunding'

      Chris Wunderlich
      September 14, 2015
      Books
    Recent
    • Collecting Profile: Disney Frozen

      CB Staff
      November 22, 2019
    • Collecting Profile: NFL Superpro

      CB Staff
      August 31, 2019
    • “THE BEST OF WITZEND” is a Wonderful Celebration of Artistic Freedom

      Daniel Gehen
      September 15, 2018
    • Review: ‘Machete Squad’ is a Disappointing Afghan Memoir

      Jason Sacks
      July 31, 2018
    • Review: ‘Out of Nothing’ is the Antidote to Our Sick Times

      Jason Sacks
      July 23, 2018
    • Review: ‘Bizarre Romance’ Shows Rough Edges in the Early Days of a New Marriage

      Jason Sacks
      July 10, 2018
What's New
  • Collecting Profile: If I win Powerball, I will buy Amazing Fantasy 15
  • DCeased: Dead Planet #7 Presents a Hopeful Future (Review)
  • Collecting Profile: Batwoman
  • Collecting Profile: Daredevil
  • Collecting Profile: Floronic Man
  • Review of Cheetah in Wonder Woman 1984
  • RSS Feed
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Contact Us
  • Write for us!
  • Visit Video Game Break!
Home
Columns

The Full Run: Hickman’s ‘Avengers” #19 and ‘New Avengers’ #10

Chris Wunderlich
July 20, 2015
Columns, The Full Run

*of course, huge spoilers ahead*

AvengersVol519AInfinity79652_f

Avengers #19

Written by Jonathan Hickman

Art by Leinil Francis Yu

Coloured by Sunny Gho

Cover by Yu and Laura Martin

Dated November 2013

Infinity marches on. The Builders are tearing through space and have just wiped out a significant portion of the galactic council’s forces. Captain Marvel (that’s Carol Danvers here) and her small ship of Avengers were crippled and captured. The Builders have some ‘splainin’ to do.

In the classic “waste of time and space” style of Jonathan Hickman, this book opens up with six pages explaining how Captain Marvel had been captured. A female Ex Nihilo (here called Ex Nihila) takes an interest in her and drags her before the Builders, leaving Hawkeye, Cannonball and Sunspot all tied up with no place to go. See, the Builders may be the all-powerful creators of the Universe, but they still need to gather information the old fashioned way—prisoner interrogation. Specifically, they want to know how Cap Marvel and her gang wound up with (the now captured as well) Abyss, Starbrand, Nightmask and Captain Universe. Those are Builders’ toys! Oh, and apparently Abyss is the last Abyssll (as they refer to her), a Builder creation that was thought to be completely gone.

av 19 1

At the same time, we get a closer look at the recent battle-wounded and refugees that have taken asylum on The Behemoth Ringworld. See, a few issues ago Captain America and Hawkeye were on Earth beating the crap out of innocent Skrull refugees. Here, Manifold, Spider-Woman and Shang-Chi tend to wounded and lost Skrulls and wonder what savagery could be responsible. Does this show the dichotomy of heroism, mischaracterisation, misunderstanding or revelation? It shows that Hickman’s head is always in the clouds with the greater plot at hand. When he tries for smaller character moments they don’t always make the most sense.

Back with the galactic council, we see our heroes planning the next stage of attack. J-Son of Spartax points out that the Builders are simply too powerful, then goes completely out-of-left-field and lets us know just how much he hates humans from Earth, for no apparent reason. This was probably an attempt on Hickman’s part to make the Avengers seem less significant or out of place amongst the other galactic leaders, but it’s simply forced and sounds ridiculous.

av 19 3

Ex Nihilo then joins the council to explain his concern with these Builders. They created him to give life to things, but what he sees is only death and destruction. Something must be up. Oh, might the system be broken? Yeah, thought so. The new plan of attack? Well, we don’t get much, but Captain America mentions something about an egg—something about infestation.

av 19 2

Back on the Builders’ ship, they bring out a Spartax prisoner who seems like nothing more than a walkie-talkie linking up to J-Son back at council headquarters. Sneaking away, J-Son decides to take advantage of the situation and pleads with the Builders. They finally make their motives clear: they need to destroy earth to save the rest of the Universe.

Let’s pause here, shall we? The Builders: the race as old as the universe itself, want to destroy Earth. We know why—if you’ve been reading New Avengers (or this Full Run series) you know that the multiversal structure is collapsing. Earth’s from other dimensions are crashing together, eliminating entire dimensions in the process. Should one Earth be destroyed before they can collide, then a universe is spared. Therefore, destroying Earth would ensure the safety of the rest of the universe. It makes sense.

av 19 4

What doesn’t make sense is the process. This is an infinitely powerful race and they state in these very pages that their goal is preservation. Why, then, are they hell-bent on destroying everything in their path (things that they themselves created)? Why don’t they just fly to Earth and get rid of it? Why must every race in the galaxy suffer? Why did they destroy Galador, the Kree outposts and so many other planets? I expect these questions will be answered in future issues; otherwise this entire plot is left with quite the gaping hole. My guess is it has something to do with those huge blue tentacles that wiped out the Builders’ outpost so many issues ago (and led to the creation of Starbrand). Whatever sort space squid that was, it hasn’t been explained yet.

Oh, and a quick art critique: Leinil Francis Yu draws this issue and it’s all muddy and scratchy, as we’ve come to expect. It’s not bad work, but I’m not a huge fan.

Of the two threats in this Infinity event, I like the Builders side of things more than Thanos. Perhaps it’s because Hickman has been hyping up these guys since issue 1; we’re finally learning that all this “system is broken” nonsense almost makes sense. I’ll hand it to Hickman though, both plots are being handled very well. I’m a big fan of stacking these threats, as long as they can be juggled without losing focus.

NewAvengersVol310Infin79658_f

New Avengers #10

Written by Jonathan Hickman

Art by Mike Deodato

Coloured by Frank Martin

Cover by Deodato and Laura Martin

Dated November 2013

Forget the Builders now, it’s Thanos time.

We learn from the recap (and again, redundantly from the first few pages) that Thanos has come to Earth to collect the time gem and murder his son. His son is an inhuman and unless the Illuminati get to him first, Thanos might have his way.

Now it’s easy enough to say Thanos had a son and wants to kill him, but when you think about it, that’s pretty darn strange, isn’t it? Not the wanting to kill him part—Thanos is a death-worshipping psychopath and it’s never surprising when he wants to commit an evil deeds—it’s the “having a son” part. Blackbolt explains it as “dark things occurred in dark places, and an inhuman woman returned with the Thanos seed”. Maybe I missed a miniseries or something (there are plenty of Thanos stories out there I haven’t read) but isn’t that downright… wrong? I’ll try to ignore the thought while reading Infinity, because there’s no point in letting a small, disturbing detail like that cloud what could otherwise be a rather enjoyable event. But Hickman, let me say this, your small little bothersome details are starting to add up. There’s a danger of this event coming off the rails already—and we’re not even halfway through.

new av 10 4

So, Blackbolt gives the Illuminati a special codex that contains all the Inhuman secrets—including the rough whereabouts of Thanos’s son. Except, he doesn’t really give them the codex—he tricks them, working with his mad brother Maximus, and we aren’t sure exactly why yet.

Back in his floating fortress above Attilian, Thanos gathers his agents to catch up. Nobody has found the time gem yet, Ebony Maw hasn’t been heard from (remember, he possessed Dr. Strange for his own nefarious goals) and Black Dwarf failed in Wakanda. Thanos whacks him in the head and tells him he’s done. That’s ok, Black Dwarf seemed like the least interesting of the Black Order.

new av 10 3

Now that seems like enough plot for the decompressed stylings of Jonathan Hickman, doesn’t it? However will we fill the rest of the pages? How about a stupid round-table scene where the Illuminati talks in circles, sayings lots but really nothing at all? Oh, and why not make everyone seem like idiots, unaware that Wakanda and Atlantis had gone to war? Sure! What kind of Avengers comic would this be if we didn’t waste a little time, space and logic?

new av 10 1

Fortunately, one last thing of interest happens before this issue ends. The team set out and quickly find Thanos’s son. What could have eaten up an entire mini-series is resolved rather uneventfully in a few pages—and that I am thankful for. Dr. Strange finds the lost colony of inhumans in Greenland, and with it the yet-to-be-transformed son of Thanos. Ebony Maw then releases his grasp on Strange, wiping his mind and setting sights on the newly found inhumans.

new av 10 2

And just to top things off, we finally get an incursion! Yes, what was only a tease a few issues back now genuinely occurs. Thanos sends his forces to Wakanda, sets down to face off with Blackbolt and the Avengers look up to red skies as another Earth prepares to come crashing down.

There’s always excitement on the horizon, right? Hickman never ceases to promise big threats and plenty of action, but when he takes up so much time with pointless, petty conversations (rarely to the benefit of character development) we tend to know what to expect. It’s always interesting to see which direction the plot takes, to see what unstoppable force might challenge the Avengers next, but if there’s one thing we can rely on its plenty of wasted space, repetition, reused panels and the necessity to suspend your disbelief.

That might make it sound like I hated this issue—I didn’t. It just didn’t do it for me. In fact, the only thing I hated was Mike Deodato’s art—but what else is new? This was another Hickman book that wanted to spin its wheels, get maybe one thing accomplished and make everything seem very epic in the process. It’s all build-up, very little payoff, then even more build-up.

Bring on the next issue of Infinity already!

AvengersInfinityJonathan HickmanLeinil Francis YuMarvelMike DeodatoNew AvengersThanos

Share On:
Tweet
Picks of the Week: July 22, 2015
A chat with Mike Richardson about Dark Horse Comics, past, present and future

About The Author

<a href="http://comicsbulletin.com/byline/chris-wunderlich/" rel="tag">Chris Wunderlich</a>
Chris Wunderlich

Usually buried under a pile of glorious, cheap back issues, Chris Wunderlich occasionally emerges to play guitar for Toronto-based bands Rhyme Jaws and Mellowkotzen. He also shoots and edits videos for Nice Move Media and anyone else who asks nicely.

Related Posts

  • Collecting Profile: Daredevil

    nguyen ly
    January 9, 2021
  • Collecting Profile: Fantastic Four

    nguyen ly
    November 21, 2020

One Response

  1. The Full Run: Hickman's 'Avengers" #19 and... July 20, 2015

    […] *of course, huge spoilers ahead* Avengers #19 Written by Jonathan Hickman Art by Leinil Francis Yu Coloured by Sunny Gho Cover by Yu and Laura Martin Dated November 2013 Infinity marches on. The Builders are tearing through space and have just wiped out a… #avengers #infinity #jonathanhickman  […]

Latest Columns

  • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 2

    Daniel Gehen
    December 4, 2020
  • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 1

    Daniel Gehen
    October 30, 2020
  • Comictober 2020: DRACULA MOTHERF**KER

    Daniel Gehen
    October 27, 2020
  • What Looks Good for the Week of 10/14/2020

    Daniel Gehen
    October 12, 2020
  • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – Monster Mash!

    Daniel Gehen
    October 9, 2020
RSSTwitterFacebookgoogleplusinstagramtumblr

Comics Bulletin is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, audible.com, and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, Comics Bulletin earns from qualifying purchases.

All content on this site (c) 2018 The Respective Copyright Holders