PREVIEW: New Avengers #31

[teepee]

Hickman said it was a new character. And we know the incursions began on an alternate earth...but perhaps doom & Owen's journey into the space between universes leads them back in time to an alternate earth and somehow they cause the initial collapse, creating a causality loop...but I doubt it based on the NA 32 cover. Doom is laying there crumpled with his mask blown off. Someone rocked him hard.

Maybe Owen did the damage. I'm thinking that visual has a real echo of Doom's fight with Beyonder in Secret Wars 10, before he merged with him. Quite a lot of this plot is echoing Secret Wars and I can't believe it's coincidence that the two main players in Secret Wars' ending, Doom and Molecule Man, just happen to be traveling together back in time towards Rabum Alal's birthplace. If they merged it would technically be a new character of course, like Onslaught was. Misdirection.

Also the solicitations says the identity would be "revealed." That doesn't sound like something you'd do to a new character. Plus he's wearing Doom's cloak. C'mon. They at least want us to think it's Doom, even if it's another misdirection.

2407785-marvelsuperheroessecretwars10.jpg

[jackolover]

Cover shows women with Hydra octopus leeches on their heads. Is this related to Earth X where these leeches first appeared?

[jackolover]

It could be Reed Richards. It could be the Cosmic Cube Bucky used in Captain America :Winter Soldier, because after he ended up in Camp Lehard, the Cube disappeared, and has never been seen again.

I never considered Nick Fury as the guy in the tattered cloak on the cover. If it is, then it comes out of left field, and whatever Nick did, it must have been something obtuse for it not to have been noticed before now.

I like the suggestion it was the appearance of super heroes that started the Incursions because it suggests there is something unbalanced about a world that can't be beat. The theme right through the Silver Age onwards has been that there is no way of beating the Earth, and that has come true, up until Hickman took the reigns, and then we get this reverse happening to the effect that all Earths wins are coming back to haunt them in this one retribution of nature. Squirrel Girl is the the emblem of the previous Marvel Universe, because it was her major power, that she beats everybody. It was such a ridiculous premise that a character couldn't lose, in a universe where every hero was so frustrated with their origins being based on selfish individuals. Squirrel Girl was the pure super hero.

[jackolover]

I just hope I'm wrong, and Alonso/Brevoort aren't looking to bail the Comics division after this mega cash-grab.

However, if they're setting the table for Brevoort's first run as EIC, then this is as good a way to set it up as any.

Axel has only been in the job 2 weeks. He hasn't even started yet, and now Tom is taking over?

[SickAlice]

I feel pretty clueless but I kind of like of that. The whole " his universe died as a result of his birth part " has been the main point of contention here. Running around the multiverse on a path of destruction, being really powerful, these things are vague yet specific enough. But that birth part messes with a lot of theories I've seen particularly of course ones where the theory includes " then destroyed his universe " as in after infancy which would be contrary the case.

I don't believe these characters are the case but noting some visual similarities for fun here. Rabum Alal in at least motive (destroy the mutliverse), power and well as much of a tattered cloak appearance as he seems to have reminds me a little of another F4 character the Marquis of Death. The Swans while already indicated all seem to have elements of various Marvel women and more specifically women from the X-Men universe, visually strike as inverted Phoenix Force wielders even down to their energy signatures in this preview being cold colors as opposed to the hot colors a normal PF usually displays. Black Swan herself still reminds me way to much of a grown Valeria, from the hairstyle, facial features, right down to a lot of her lingo almost mirroring Val's in Time Runs Out and worse in conversation with Reed of people. Both with a noted dedicated eye on Reed's destiny and fleeting nature in this event and likewise their reasoning given to Reed lines up in the same manner. If not the same or version of each other I can assume it seems that way visually as both characters were being written and illustrated together at the same time and it's possible both the writer and artist just subconsciously drew off Val for Swan.

At the end of the day I don't know. And I love that. I really don't like when I can trace a plot because the clues are to easy, it waters down the reading process without the surprise in place. And I think that's the biggest reason I get so excited for this series. It catches me off guard a lot.

[PeteGunn]

Where's Kang in all this?

[Random4]

what has exactly been Tony doing?...

honestly it seems like Reed and T"challa are the only ones doing work to solve this thing in the illuminati

[TheObsessor]

I know a guy who knows a guys' cousin who has a brother who has a girlfriend who said that it's Frogman.

809071badfrogman.jpg

[Biclopcicle]

what has exactly been Tony doing?...

honestly it seems like Reed and T"challa are the only ones doing work to solve this thing in the illuminati

I think it was NA #26 they reviewed Tony's actions. He tried to make amends with Rogers and then fought the Cabal (after the Axis event). He got pwned and put in the cube cage. Widow and Jessica Drew stopped by on the way to Sunspot's crew and offered to bail him out if he admitted he needed help. He brazenly refused. Then in NA#29 Reed and T'Challa went by his cell and saw some blood on the floor. Someone busted him out. We don't know who. But the cover of Avengers #44/NA#33 shows him fighting a young Cap in some kind of mechanical armor in time delay as 616 and 1610 collide....

That's all I got

[Biclopcicle]

Also the solicitations says the identity would be "revealed." That doesn't sound like something you'd do to a new character. Plus he's wearing Doom's cloak. C'mon. They at least want us to think it's Doom, even if it's another misdirection.

2407785-marvelsuperheroessecretwars10.jpg

Yeah it could still be merged doom/Owen...but then why is Doom defeated? In SW 1 #10 cover, as you showed, he's roughed up, but he's not done. As you may recall, he uses Galactus' power to take the Beyonder's power (not merge) while in his dimension. And yes, he barely survives the process. But he was never just dominated, mask off, etc like NA#32 cover. For what its worth. Elvis Beyonder also never toyed with Pym in NA#29 and yet that was the cover.

Also, this matter with "reveal"... Rorschach's identity was "revealed" eventually, but it wasn't anyone that was previously known. Its uncommon, but it can happen. I know, green goblin, hobgoblin, venom etc. all had their identities "revealed" but ended up being previously known characters. Which is fine. And I'm OK with RA being someone like that as long as it matches the story and isn't lame.

[hawkeyefan]

Quite good, actually. Just get ready for quite a few Doctor Manhatten shout-outs.

I would be fine with that.

I want to see Black Panther get into a fight with Rabum Alal, and win! There has to be vindication for T'challa...

He can put him in a chicken wing and tell him strength doesn't matter!!!!

what has exactly been Tony doing?...

honestly it seems like Reed and T"challa are the only ones doing work to solve this thing in the illuminati

Tony's been imprisoned for a while. They only just found his cage shattered and a trail of blood and determined that something bad had happened there...but we don't know what yet.

[teepee]

Yeah it could still be merged doom/Owen...but then why is Doom defeated?

Good point. Maybe they'll reveal Rabum Alal in #31 and then show how it happened in #32.

The thing against the theory is why would Doom want to destroy the multiverse. But then why would anyone?

[peterporker]

Yeah it could still be merged doom/Owen...but then why is Doom defeated?

If the entire Beyonder race is at fight with Rabum Alal (meaning they are not able to defeat him yet) how could Rabum Alal be Doom plus a half of a Beyonder? It doesn't make sense.

[vitruvian]

I feel pretty clueless but I kind of like of that. The whole " his universe died as a result of his birth part " has been the main point of contention here. Running around the multiverse on a path of destruction, being really powerful, these things are vague yet specific enough. But that birth part messes with a lot of theories I've seen particularly of course ones where the theory includes " then destroyed his universe " as in after infancy which would be contrary the case.
.

Not at all, since they didn't say, "immediately upon his birth". After all, even if he lived to 100 before doing whatever started the multiverse collapsing, if he was always fated to do that thing his whole life, it would still be true that "his universe died as a result of his birth".

Kind of like Damien or another Anti-Christ.

[vitruvian]

It could be Reed Richards. It could be the Cosmic Cube Bucky used in Captain America :Winter Soldier, because after he ended up in Camp Lehard, the Cube disappeared, and has never been seen again.

I never considered Nick Fury as the guy in the tattered cloak on the cover. If it is, then it comes out of left field, and whatever Nick did, it must have been something obtuse for it not to have been noticed before now.

I like the suggestion it was the appearance of super heroes that started the Incursions because it suggests there is something unbalanced about a world that can't be beat. The theme right through the Silver Age onwards has been that there is no way of beating the Earth, and that has come true, up until Hickman took the reigns, and then we get this reverse happening to the effect that all Earths wins are coming back to haunt them in this one retribution of nature. Squirrel Girl is the the emblem of the previous Marvel Universe, because it was her major power, that she beats everybody. It was such a ridiculous premise that a character couldn't lose, in a universe where every hero was so frustrated with their origins being based on selfish individuals. Squirrel Girl was the pure super hero.

There's nothing unique about 616 in having lots of superheroes, though...