Man, I had completely forgotten about those Earth-3 Avengers. I guess everything Hickman does is to a plan, though, so I shouldn't be surprised.
Wonder if that's them on the Secret Wars cover instead of the Silver Age heroes?
Glad to see Strange not just being the guy in the background doing nothing! I'm please to see him handling this in a reasonable way. I wasn't sure after his meltdown earlier where they were planning on taking him.
I'm not sure that it was confirmed that the Incursions were CAUSED by the war. Strange's words are "They... ahem, we -- You see, the Black Priests are caught up in a conflict they were never intended to be part of. There is a war underway between two separate forces: the Ivory Kings and Rabum Alal. From what I have witnessed firsthand, they both want the same thing -- and it's the same reason you are here -- the destruction of everything."
So the source of the incursions is still unclear. It's also unclear why the Ivory Kings and Rabum Alal are fighting if their goals are the same.
The Black Swans could be a faction that betrayed the Ivory Kings and joined Rabum Alal. Ivory Kings implies an all-male faction, and the Black Swans are referred to as the Great Ladies. Maybe they were the queens to the Ivory Kings?
We also have to remember that Yabbat Ummon Tarru is an unreliable narrator, and that she may not even be a true Black Swan, so she could have been lying, or only partially understand the truth.
Agreed, I found the art really inconsistent this issue. Thor's puffy face and muscular arms suddenly become super skinny, Nightmask looks like a white guy with a tan. All the supernatural stuff was done well and there was a strong atmosphere throughout, but the people seemed really off. I don't see the artist listed in any of the future Avengers/New Avengers issues, and I don't remember seeing the name before, so it may have just been a fill-in.
The Ebony King from issue #13 was a confirmed misprint. It was meant to by Ivory King.
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My hope is that the Ivory Kings are Beyonders and that Rabum Alal is someone completely new. I think that'd be a lot of fun. I don't think the Beyonder is Rabum Alal, otherwise that cover completely spoils the reveal. It may even be that the Beyonder is a third party, unrelated to the incursions.
Love the issue. I like the art as well. In consistent at times, but the mood was not. Never took me out of the story. I still dont fully trust Strange. I think the swerve is coming and its not going to be on the Black Priests.
Anyone knows why Kev Walker wasn't the artist for this issue? I love his art.
I think this comes back to the "death" of the Living Tribunal and whether it is a cause or a result of what is happening. The core concept of the multiverse is that for every coin flip there will be a universe where the result was heads and one where it was tails. What I think we're seeing is, figuratively, a cosmic inbalance where Rabum Alal started forcing universes to end up with heads, everything dies. In response to that the Ivory Kings who I still think is the council of Reeds tried to force the coin flip to end up with tails, everything lives. But both goals are incongruous with the nature of the multiverse. The right answer would be, everything lives and everything dies.
so who is thorr? is he on the avengerrs with captain americaa and iron mann?