crookedtreehouse's review against another edition
3.0
The second part of Hickman's Avengers run ([b:New Avengers, Volume 1: Everything Dies|17251112|New Avengers, Volume 1 Everything Dies|Jonathan Hickman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409500228l/17251112._SY75_.jpg|23840560] being the first) is a mess of continuity, and is a terrible place for a new reader of comics.
A race of aliens called The Builders who destroy planets, in order to rebuild them as stronger biopsheres, focuses on Earth and The Avengers go to Mars to stop them. But they can't do it. So Captain America goes back to Earth and recruits a ton of new Avengers, including some of The New Avengers (Wolverine and Spider-Man), a member of The Squadron Supreme from The Ultimate Universe (Hyperion), some tertiary Avengers, and some completely new characters. From there, it's tough to follow what's going on. Not impossible, but tough.
Hickman's flipping back and forth from flashback to current time works well enough when you're following characters you know, but when you're trying to learn the origin of a new character, and you're following their current space adventure, only to hop back to their first space adventure, and then back to their current, similar looking, space adventure. It's a tad much.
I trust Hickman, as his Fantastic Four/FF run was also complicated, but worth it in the end, but if you don't already enjoy HIckman's work, this volume isn't going to make you a fan of his.
I also didn't enjoy the way Opena's work was colored in the first three issues. It made for some odd facial grammar, and some uncanny valley issues. I enjoyed his aliens and landscapes, but his humans didn't look right to me, and his Hulk looks like the live action The Grinch hit the buffet too hard.
By contrast, I loved Deodata's art on the final three issues, and am glad his style will be the focus going forward.
I only recommend this to people who can invest time in reading the whole Avengers run. As a stand-alone volume, it's mythical gibberish featuring some of your favorite Avengers being overshadowed by people you've either probably never heard of or definitely never heard of. But if you're willing to read the whole run, I'm pretty sure it will all make sense. Eventually.
A race of aliens called The Builders who destroy planets, in order to rebuild them as stronger biopsheres, focuses on Earth and The Avengers go to Mars to stop them. But they can't do it. So Captain America goes back to Earth and recruits a ton of new Avengers, including some of The New Avengers (Wolverine and Spider-Man), a member of The Squadron Supreme from The Ultimate Universe (Hyperion), some tertiary Avengers, and some completely new characters. From there, it's tough to follow what's going on. Not impossible, but tough.
Hickman's flipping back and forth from flashback to current time works well enough when you're following characters you know, but when you're trying to learn the origin of a new character, and you're following their current space adventure, only to hop back to their first space adventure, and then back to their current, similar looking, space adventure. It's a tad much.
I trust Hickman, as his Fantastic Four/FF run was also complicated, but worth it in the end, but if you don't already enjoy HIckman's work, this volume isn't going to make you a fan of his.
I also didn't enjoy the way Opena's work was colored in the first three issues. It made for some odd facial grammar, and some uncanny valley issues. I enjoyed his aliens and landscapes, but his humans didn't look right to me, and his Hulk looks like the live action The Grinch hit the buffet too hard.
By contrast, I loved Deodata's art on the final three issues, and am glad his style will be the focus going forward.
I only recommend this to people who can invest time in reading the whole Avengers run. As a stand-alone volume, it's mythical gibberish featuring some of your favorite Avengers being overshadowed by people you've either probably never heard of or definitely never heard of. But if you're willing to read the whole run, I'm pretty sure it will all make sense. Eventually.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
3.0
An Avengers relaunch. Again. This kind of has the feel of being related to the movies or at least not indifferent to them. The art is basically okay, the plot is extremely confused. I don't know if this Spiderman is not Peter Parker - but he's basically just done wrong. Everyone else seems vaguely okay but other than the inclusion of a group teleporter to get the Avengers off planet and a martial arts mystic to talk to a universe Mother figure - the characters almost seem chosen at random. Perhaps it will get better.
gohawks's review against another edition
4.0
I don't always like Hickman as much as I want to, but this one was okay. The "bad guys" were interesting because they didn't seem all bad. They were just agents of evolution. I also enjoyed the idea of recruiting a much larger Avengers team. And of course, the personalities of the core team with Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Hulk and Thor fit beautifully together.
standardman's review against another edition
5.0
The first issue of this is one of the best Avengers issues in decades. The rest are good but they're clearing building toward a bigger story, which makes the smaller story feel neglected. Still, that's a hell of a first issue.
andrewgraphics's review against another edition
3.0
According to GoodReads, this is the 2nd time I've read this, but I have literally absolutely no memory of the 1st time I read it; and I have extremely clear memories of things that happened whilst extremely drunk, so I'm doubting that.
Maybe it's so generic that it doesn't leave an impression..?
Maybe it's so generic that it doesn't leave an impression..?
justabookholic's review against another edition
2.0
why. also apparently when in doubt, give the universe pie.
trike's review against another edition
3.0
I generally don't like Jonathan Hickman's work in other comics. A lot of it seems to be retreads of stuff John Byrne did back in the 1980s. This time, though, I actually enjoyed his remix of story elements from the 1970s and '80s, namely stuff from the Infinity gems and the Gardener.
What I particularly enjoyed here was the pacing. After the dismal experience of DC's New 52 books, it was nice to see someone taking their time to build plot and characters. Authors should see how he gives the story room to breathe and punctuates dialogue-heavy bits with either fisticuffs or character conflict.
The art by Jerome Opena is lovely and the story is easy to follow. The latter aspect is not a given these days as artists experiment, trying to break away from the tried-and-true model of panel layout.
Hickman does love blowing up cities, though, which someone on Marvel's editorial staff needs to keep him from doing. Here he's destroyed Perth and Regina, as well as cities in Japan, Croatia and India. Plus the Savage Land. It gets a bit much after a while.
That said, I quite liked the origin stories of both Captain Universe and Smasher. This is how you do origin stories succinctly.
What I particularly enjoyed here was the pacing. After the dismal experience of DC's New 52 books, it was nice to see someone taking their time to build plot and characters. Authors should see how he gives the story room to breathe and punctuates dialogue-heavy bits with either fisticuffs or character conflict.
The art by Jerome Opena is lovely and the story is easy to follow. The latter aspect is not a given these days as artists experiment, trying to break away from the tried-and-true model of panel layout.
Hickman does love blowing up cities, though, which someone on Marvel's editorial staff needs to keep him from doing. Here he's destroyed Perth and Regina, as well as cities in Japan, Croatia and India. Plus the Savage Land. It gets a bit much after a while.
That said, I quite liked the origin stories of both Captain Universe and Smasher. This is how you do origin stories succinctly.
jimhart3000's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0