Avengers #28 Review

[People Of The Earth]

Hi guys, I made an infographic based on my suggested reading order for the series up to #24.NOW. I modelled it on Hickman's INFINITY checklist; the order itself is drawn from references and appearances from different characters throughout the series. Hope you find it useful, it's interesting to go back and read the run chronologically rather than by publication date.

Attachment 46

That's...just fantastic ! Damn you now, I won't have a choice but to test its mettle this week-end !
Also, between last Indestructible Hulk serie, and the prominent role he's being given here, Banner is officially starting to grow on me, BIG time...

[zlbenson]

Hey looking for some clarification/help here. I fell off Avengers for a couple issues, and while New Avengers has my rapt attention, I've occasionally fallen asleep for Avengers proper. So anyways - the Adaptoids we see in this issue - the ones that meet up with the Map Makers - I'm trying to remember where they came from. I remember that one thing that came from one of origin bomb sites - was that an Adaptoid? Or am I completely confusing this - are the Adaptoids just a straight up creation by AIM - or a bit from both?

Alright... off to read the latest New Avengers. Cool that Banner has joined up.

[vitruvian]

This was the most exciting thing I read this week, until the end of this week's New Avengers! I know some people don't like the 'decompressed' storytelling, but Hickman's Avengers books are by far the ones I look forward to the most. Most books I don't read until the weekend, but I had to read these right away.

Anyway, I am also not clear on which Banner is in prison and which one is with the Illuminati. Presumably one Hulk broke up the Avengers fight, then told Tony about the Hulk locked in Banners adamantium room. I suspect that it is 'our' Hulk, since he knew about the Dyson Sphere and was pretty pissed about the Illuminati; he specifically lost it when Stark called him 'Worldbreaker'. Though that bit could have been staged by them--just cause a mess so SHIELD shows up and arrests Hulk.
Whichever one it is, it seems that even if he is hiding in Wakanda, he will eventually Hulk out, and Maria Hill will realize that there are two of them.

They were pretty explicit that the one taken by SHIELD was actually the alternate universe Banner Hulk, the one that had had brain surgery to implant the control device that also rendered him a sociopath. Sequence of events:

1) Alternate universe Banner confronts our Banner, they talk, our Banner lays him out and takes his place with the alternate, evil Avengers, as our Bruce Banner explains to Tony in this issue.

2) After the alternate evil Avengers (except their Hulk is really our Hulk) get retrieved by AIM, AIM agrees to send them on their merry way to another world, except Banner (our Banner) stays behind, finds out about the collapse of the multiverse, Hulks out, and causes massive damage to the AIM installation.

3) Bruce then confronts Tony, pumping himself full of tranquilizers to give Tony time to explain himself.

4) Evidently deciding that the Illuminati are doing something necessary, or at least that he needs to be on the inside of this more than he needs to Hulk out and bust them up, Bruce and Tony come up with a plan to use the alternate Banner/Hulk to get Bruce out of the public eye and public arm of the Avengers so he can join the Illuminati. This involves a Hulk incident, unsure if they control alternate Banner into it or our Bruce Hulks out and then they sacrifice alternate Banner to SHIELD.

[DantonR]

I don't think it took a dive after Infinity really. Infinity left you out of breath. That ending was epic, and you needed a breather. So both Avengers books seemed to take a little breather before starting in again for another roller coaster ride of awesomeness.

Exactly. It is as if some were expecting the Masters of Evil to show up right after Thanos was frozen.

Story beats, people.

[Prof. Warren]

Issues like this and this week's NA #17 make me glad I never considered jumping ship on Hickman's Avengers. When things start clicking into place, it's awesome. I loved the conversation between Bruce and Tony in this issue and Bruce deciding to join the Illuminati is huge. So pumped to see where things go next.

[Enigmatic Undead]

Was it clarified which Banner ended up imprisoned?

I was a bit unclear on that as well.

[harashkupo]

I definitely enjoyed this issue. The conversation between Banner and Stark was well written and had me hooked the whole time. I wish the art could have been better.

They were pretty explicit that the one taken by SHIELD was actually the alternate universe Banner Hulk, the one that had had brain surgery to implant the control device that also rendered him a sociopath. Sequence of events:

1) Alternate universe Banner confronts our Banner, they talk, our Banner lays him out and takes his place with the alternate, evil Avengers, as our Bruce Banner explains to Tony in this issue.

2) After the alternate evil Avengers (except their Hulk is really our Hulk) get retrieved by AIM, AIM agrees to send them on their merry way to another world, except Banner (our Banner) stays behind, finds out about the collapse of the multiverse, Hulks out, and causes massive damage to the AIM installation.

3) Bruce then confronts Tony, pumping himself full of tranquilizers to give Tony time to explain himself.

4) Evidently deciding that the Illuminati are doing something necessary, or at least that he needs to be on the inside of this more than he needs to Hulk out and bust them up, Bruce and Tony come up with a plan to use the alternate Banner/Hulk to get Bruce out of the public eye and public arm of the Avengers so he can join the Illuminati. This involves a Hulk incident, unsure if they control alternate Banner into it or our Bruce Hulks out and then they sacrifice alternate Banner to SHIELD.

Thanks for clearing that up, I felt unsure about the ending.

[Loulou]

So I loved this issue! For having next to no action, this issue kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time!!!

I, like Tony, kept wanting to know what was in the case, and I enjoyed when we finally found out. When Tony stuck Bruce with that device I wanted to scream and yell at Tony! I thought he was doing it to keep his secret, which he did, but a different secret. I totally had the thought that they were gonna turn our Bruce into a non-feeling, controllable hulk too. Then I got to the next pages and breathed a sigh of relief that all my horrible thoughts were wrong! (At least mostly wrong...)

I liked the twist with the adaptoids. I had heard someone mention that possibility on one of these forums I think, and I was really excited to see that actually happen.

Now I would go read the new NA, but I'm behind on that one and still have the previous issue to read... :-/ Guess its gonna be a double feature weekend ;-)

[bad_trotsky]

Hrm Banner joined the Illuminati. It does seem the situation needs more of the smarter people of the MU. What does Namor or Black Bolt have to contribute? They should be consulted but they are not the brains. Heh, in some ways Maximus would be a better person to represent the Inhumans.

[Juggernaut Punch]

IWas it clarified which Banner ended up imprisoned?

Alternate Banner ended up imprisoned. Tony confirms it at the end when inducting 616 Bruce.

[saucemaster]

Hrm Banner joined the Illuminati. It does seem the situation needs more of the smarter people of the MU. What does Namor or Black Bolt have to contribute? They should be consulted but they are not the brains. Heh, in some ways Maximus would be a better person to represent the Inhumans.

Namor represents the population of 3/4 of the planet--more than anyone else in the group put together.

Black Bolt represents most of the Inhumans--which is a good enough reason alone--but, also, aren't he and his brother scientists?

I think Dr Doom should be on there, too. Maybe Magneto.

And someone who isn't a man.

[Andru]

I was not really a fan of these last few issues. Coming off of Infinity I found them rather boring & actually somewhat confusing.

However, I read them all in one sitting (25-28) and it read much better & made more sense to me.

The long breaks in between issues probably didn't help. We were spoiled with 2 issues a month.

[Daeron]

I was not really a fan of these last few issues. Coming off of Infinity I found them rather boring & actually somewhat confusing.

However, I read them all in one sitting (25-28) and it read much better & made more sense to me.

The long breaks in between issues probably didn't help. We were spoiled with 2 issues a month.

While I like what they're doing with the Great Society, I'm kind of missing them feeling really pressed for time. So far the Illuminati have had a lot of luck with the amount of incursions and the time in between.

Also, I loved how Banner was introduced to the Illuminati. For a brief moment I was disappointed about how short-sighted Stark was acting and then it clicked and made perfect sense.

[UltimateTy]

I was not really a fan of these last few issues. Coming off of Infinity I found them rather boring & actually somewhat confusing.

However, I read them all in one sitting (25-28) and it read much better & made more sense to me.

The long breaks in between issues probably didn't help. We were spoiled with 2 issues a month.

New Avengers was probably preventing this from double shipping

[saucemaster]

I was not really a fan of these last few issues. Coming off of Infinity I found them rather boring & actually somewhat confusing.

However, I read them all in one sitting (25-28) and it read much better & made more sense to me.

The long breaks in between issues probably didn't help. We were spoiled with 2 issues a month.

I admit I am confused by the roles of the Black Priests, The Mapmakers, the Ivory Kings, The Builders, etc, and the connections between them. I guess in a couple of years, I can go back and read the whole series at once for the best results--like Hickman's Secret Warriors.