Should I read Hickman's other Marvel work?

[Kingdom X]

I started consistently reading comics around when Secret Wars was coming out so I never read Hickman's F4 and Avengers runs leading up to it. For those that have read his previous Marvel work, do you think it's enhanced or given you a different perspective on his X-Men run so far? I'm mostly an X-Men fan, but with no new comics being released I'm willing to try something new.

[Maestroneto]

FF is amazing. SHIELD and Secret Warriors are great. Avengers is trash.

The Franklin/Galactus stuff in FF will probably be relevant way down the road.

[Kingdom X]

FF is amazing. SHIELD and Secret Warriors are great. Avengers is trash.

The Franklin/Galactus stuff in FF will probably be relevant way down the road.

Thanks! What about his Avengers run didn't work for you?

[JasmineW]

If it's not X-Men, we don't give a

[yogaflame]

Everything Hickman is doing in X-Men, is definitely telegraphed in some ways in his earlier works. His FF is gorgeous. I liked his Illuminati stuff better than the mainline Avengers stuff, but all of that building into Secret War was impressive. In a way, I'm not sure his X-Men stuff can be quite as good because he's sharing the story with less accomplished writers.

You can see his great strengths and weaknesses as a writer from his earlier Marvel runs. I'm still looking forward to seeing how his run on X-Men ends(because his stories are all about the end mirroring the beginning, with great formal symmetry), but ultimately I'm not sure if he actually can deliver with the X-Men because the female characters, and the emotional relationships, are so important classically. He managed to do an okay Sue, and delivered some impressive feels with the first family, but they are a very small group. In Avengers, he struggled to flesh out his vast cast, and the female characters in particular were dull(and his original female characters more plot devices than actual characters). He does fine with smart/mean females, but more nuance than that seems beyond him. We'll see how he handles Ororo in her Giant Size issue. That will be the litmus test for me to see if he can actually evolve as a writer(his use of Ororo in his FF and Avengers were pretty bad, and so far his use of her in X-Men has been underwhelming at best).

[Maestroneto]

Thanks! What about his Avengers run didn't work for you?

It was boring, poorly paced, was full of crappy OCs, most plot points landed with a thud and almost no character came out of it looking good.

[MechaJeanix]

I read through some of is FF run and enjoyed it. I also read (the so far incomplete) Black Monday Murders.

I do think it is a good idea to sample his past works.

[Snoop Dogg]

FF is a seminal Marvel run, Secret Warriors is pretty good, SHIELD is big brain and cool, Avengers is mediocre, New Avengers is really good so you have to read Avengers too I guess, Secret Wars is king shit.

[yogaflame]

Yeah, as ambitious as bringing everything together for Secret War was, the actual event/story was crap. I loved his FF run, though. Hopefully his X-Men run will be more like that, but honestly, the giant cast of a nation is looking more like his Avengers run... Still, his moments of brilliance might be enough to salvage things. We'll see(maybe, if comics ever get published again).

[Shadowcat]

Yes. Even his weakest stuff is pretty great.

[Vishop]

His FF and New Avengers were top-notch in Marvel. Even his Ultimates was also one of the decent works from Ultimates' comics but I have mostly like his East of West run more than anything from Marvel. It was the next level epic western comic.

[Snoop Dogg]

oh god i didn't even remember the ultimates run that was really cool until ribic left and humphries joined

[MarvelMaster616]

Yes, you definitely should. Hickman has had some incredibly epic runs on other Marvel titles. His run on Avengers and Fantastic Four are some of the best of the past decade. I highly recommend checking them out. Since it'll be another few weeks before we get new comics shipped, now is the best time to do that.

[ARkadelphia]

If it's not X-Men, we don't give a

Define “we”

[JasmineW]

Define “we”

Everyone who doesn't have the Sc*rlet W*itch in their signature, sweetie.