Originally Posted by
Revolutionary_Jack
Reading it in the trade, it was all great fun, big ideas, and if you stick around careful understated humor.
I think of the lot, NEW AVENGERS was the most consistent title on an issue-by-issue basis where Hickman really brought together his thematic interests and inclinations. The opening issue of Hickman's New Avengers set in Wakanda is one of my favorites, and the dialogue there is so good that Hickman kept recycling it, often to ridiculous levels ("Everything dies").
What I like best and remember most of this run:
-- Hickman's Reed Richards is frankly the best version of that character, and indeed it was the first time reading the Fantastic Four I actually cared more for the Richards (Reed, Sue, Franklin, Valeria) than Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm. Which is not to say that Johnny and Ben didn't get great moments because they did, especially with "Three". Hickman's Reed and especially his obsession with wanting to "Solve Everything" ties together and explains everything about him going back to his rivalry with Doom, the flight with the rocket, his adventures, g this marriage, the Council of Reeds.
-- Valeria Richards was a total delight and my favorite Richards, her entire bond with Doom and Reed was quite moving.
-- Hickman's Namor and T'Challa danceoff is my (second) favorite comic rivalry (#1 is Doom and Reed) the way the two of them can't stand each other and T'Challa's repeated "I can't even with this guy" has this incredible depth and seriousness, as well as hilarious pettiness. Also moving moments like when they share a drink.
-- The Avengers issues with Steve Rogers and him being teleported several futures to repeatedly challenge his idealism and his defense of it is great, you can sense that Hickman is both admiring and critical at the same time.
-- That bit in Fantastic Four where after toppling Annihilus in the Negative Zone the Fantastic Four allow the N-Zone people to hold an election and they vote in Annihilus in a landslide.
-- Time Runs Out on the whole.
-- Namor whining about the Black Order to Doom over dinner at Latveria.
-- The particular sense of growing hopeless despair which is somehow entertaining and captivating even if it shouldn't be.
-- For reconstructing and confirming the mammoth importance of Jim Shooter's creations and his writing on SW'84.
-- The Maker, who Hickman introduced in his Ultimates relaunched and who he successfully introduced as a 616 villain here. That scene between the Maker and 616 Reed in SW'2015 is great.
-- Doom, "A throne was my birthright, I have now set myself higher than that". Like a Boss (or Like a God).
-- The Doom-Reed fight at the end and the finale where Doom's face repairs and he finally has a moment of peace and smiles for legit. "Everything lives".
I mean if you were to tell me that Hickman's entire trilogy would end with an unambiguously happy ending, and a reconstruction of the MU after the deconstruction he put everything through all without walking back any of his moves...I wouldn't have believed it.
My one negative caveat is that on the whole Hickman's run felt very run-on and TPB-made. Like I can't remember off-hand many individual issues that stand out. I remember moments and scenes but not issues. It's also not very standalone yet it's so detailed, intricate and moving, that you kind of want to dig deep and read more. Like that's one area his X-Men is better at. HoX/PoX for instance works as a standalone story. And it has great single issues, especially HoX#2 (aka "The uncanny life of Moira X"). And his run on X-Men is very standalone focused, so he's developing.
But yeah, Bendis was the writer of the 2000s, Hickman was the writer of the 2010s.