Jonathan Hickman’s refusal to kowtow to editorial mandates continues from his Fantastic Four run (as do some other things!) this week in New Avengers. An interesting compliment to last week’s Avengers #24.NOW, the book concerns the collision of two Earths, known as incursions. It even goes so far as to open on an Earth on the path to convergence with our own. Given that little INH tacked on to the end of this week’s New Avengers, you’d assume that this book would be a tie-in to Marvel’s Inhumanity event, like “Avengers Assemble”, “Avengers AI” and a bunch of other books coming out this month. And hey, the release of the Terrigen Mist is talked about! For maybe two or three panels.
If this would have been your first rodeo with New Avengers, I’ve got some bad news for you: this is incomprehensible for the casual fan. Hickman, as he does with every book he writes, requires you to have at least a basic understanding of what’s going on in this book, in its sister book (the adjectiveless Avengers), and what happened in the tie-in issues of Infinity. Hell, a major call back occurs in this issue
One of Hickman’s “big ideas” in Fantastic Four was the idea of multiple alternate universes. Early on in the run, for example, Reed Richards invents a “bridge” to alternate universes and meets a council of Reeds from all of the alternate dimensions. Hickman has been playing around with this again in New Avengers since its first issue in January. To make an intensely long story short, the captive Black Swan helps the Illuminati (the “New Avengers” here) create a tool that will allow them to view the Earths headed for incursion. Reed Richards says “Nah, hey, I’ve got something here that can do that already.”And it’s the freaking Bridge. It is a payoff I honestly wasn’t expecting, and it took my breath away. More than anything from Infinity did, anyway.
Jonathan Hickman’s great, this much you know– because, hey, if you made it this far, you’re probably a fan– but the real star of the show here is Simone Bianchi. I’d read Thanos Rising earlier this year, and knew of his talent from elsewhere, but man, the art in this book is absolutely sublime, and unique from what monthly readers have come to expect. Bianchi brings with him an interesting, almost liquid style. Its difference from Mike Deodato’s usual bombastic art tells us immediately that we’re not in the same place we were last month, and when we do get back to Earth-616, you can tell.
So if you’ve read for a long time, hey, you know what you’re getting in to. If you haven’t, check out the trades as soon as you can. New Avengers is possibly the smartest, but definitely the talkiest Marvel book coming out. And it’s all the better for it.
