New Avengers 31 *spoilers*

[Double 0]

I've got to say, Doom potentially being the hero makes sense. Though I doubt it.

T'Challa? Makes plenty of sense; out of all the Illuminati, he has lost the most.
Even Namor would almost work, but be problematic as hell.

Reed though? It'd be unearned. A total story failure. Despite being the "smartest guy in the room." He has lost the least. He is the least emotionally invested. Even Tony has lost more than him.

[Viteh]

I've got to say, Doom potentially being the hero makes sense. Though I doubt it.

T'Challa? Makes plenty of sense; out of all the Illuminati, he has lost the most.
Even Namor would almost work, but be problematic as hell.

Reed though? It'd be unearned. A total story failure. Despite being the "smartest guy in the room." He has lost the least. He is the least emotionally invested. Even Tony has lost more than him.

Namor has lost more tbh. Both lost their Kingdoms, but Tchalla didn't have to sacrifice his soul to save the universe, he got to keep it.

[Trident]

I've got to say, Doom potentially being the hero makes sense. Though I doubt it.

T'Challa? Makes plenty of sense; out of all the Illuminati, he has lost the most.
Even Namor would almost work, but be problematic as hell.

Reed though? It'd be unearned. A total story failure. Despite being the "smartest guy in the room." He has lost the least. He is the least emotionally invested. Even Tony has lost more than him.

Eh... It shouldn't be about who lost the most. This whole "Avengers" title has never really had a team element to it. It's been like two to three guys taking the spot light And the rest of the "team" standing around pretending they actually add something to the story. I really hope Hickman ends this as it being a team effort to save the day. Everyone having a part to the conclusion to a better end to make up for the lack of togetherness this book has had for the past three years.

[frostywontons]

Namor has lost more tbh. Both lost their Kingdoms, but Tchalla didn't have to sacrifice his soul to save the universe, he got to keep it.

I hope Hickman will properly rehabilitate Namor after all of this mucking around. The guy is just so deep in the dark stuff, which isn't necessarily bad mind you as I think it's doing a lot for character development. Just wondering where Namor will go from here.

[Jean Grey]

It actually makes a lot of sense. This will all come down to Doom 616 vs Reed 1610.

Everything alligns quite well with Reed's dialogue during cataclysm, and here I was wondering if there would be any payoff to u!Reed being left alone with Valeria in the baxter building when Miles had to escape.

It also makes sense for Marvel to cancel the FF to give space for these two to become the center of Secret Wars.

My guess is Reed is mad and wants to have only one earth left where he can have the family Reed 616 has. As corny as it sounds.

[robreedwrites]

The thing I'm worried about, though we probably won't know until the end, is that I don't want Hickman's other work to be REQUIRED reading for Avengers/New Avengers or Secret Wars to make sense. Supplemental? Fine. Encouraged? Sure. But I should still be able to understand this story, in terms of how Doom became Rabum Alal and the Incursion threat, as well as the emotional crux to the series, without being redirected to the Fantastic Four run.

[randomengine]

Doom has been here before.

doom6.jpg

All hope lies with Doom.

[Iron Maiden]

I think it was just rumors, because well, its not like there is a lot characters that could pull something like that off.

It was on his old formspring Q & A. robreedwrites posted the link earlier in the Guess the Identity of Rabum Alal poll thread

[randomengine]

The thing I'm worried about, though we probably won't know until the end, is that I don't want Hickman's other work to be REQUIRED reading for Avengers/New Avengers or Secret Wars to make sense. Supplemental? Fine. Encouraged? Sure. But I should still be able to understand this story, in terms of how Doom became Rabum Alal and the Incursion threat, as well as the emotional crux to the series, without being redirected to the Fantastic Four run.

They have done a really good job of recapping and summarizing past events in the summary pages before big moments. My expectation is for things to be explained in the coming issues.

[danelway]

Doom has been here before.

doom6.jpg

All hope lies with Doom.

Yep " All hope lies with Doom" is mentioned a lot in Hickmans FF run.
Now we get to see what happens when Doom (616) utterly
Destroys Reed (1610). Enjoy the ride

[Derek Metaltron]

[PlanetaryDevastation]

I had spoilt myself yesterday, now that I've read the whole issue I'm a little dissapointed. Not in the reveal, I'm okay with that, but the lack of explaining. Besides Doom being The Great Destroyer we learned nothing. Nothing about who the Black Swans are, nothing about the incursions, or what Doom's plan is. The issue could have easily just been the last 4 pages.

I thought the same thing.

[MindofShadow]

Reed though? It'd be unearned. A total story failure. Despite being the "smartest guy in the room." He has lost the least. He is the least emotionally invested. Even Tony has lost more than him.

Has Reed lost a single thing at all? like... anything? Did his fish die at least or something?

[Strangefan]

If this story were told in 1 year, it might have been decent, even with the reveal that Rabum Alal is Doom, or at least Doom is his stand in while he's gone walkabout. I just wish Marvel would create an impressive new bad guy, instead of always rehashing the same ones. I was really hoping that after all this time, he would have been someone new, and still hope that whatever caused the Swans to start their religion is still hanging about.

[stillanerd]

Not to toot my own horn, but I did (sort of) call this back in August of last year:

So what would be the solution to preventing the collapse of the multiverse? Well, the Illuminati can't stop the contraction, hence why they assumed the only way to save their world was to blow up the alternate Earths about to collide into them. But there is, potentially, a third alternative, one which I imagine the 616 heroes (and some of Marvel's fans) may not particularly like. And that is...

Universal Amalgamation--the combining of all parallel worlds into a single universe.

And if that is what Hickman is ultimately going for with his Universal Incursion storyline, I wouldn't be surprised if this solution comes from none other than Doctor Doom and Valeria Richards. And if they get asked why they never proposed this solution beforehand, Doom might tell them "You never bothered to ask," and also state, even though it would save the multiverse, it would also mean that the amalgamation might lead to unexpected results: such as people who once existed no longer existing, or parallel versions of themselves merging into a single entity with an entirely different history, or even multiple versions of the same person co-existing in the same universe. "And third," Doom could say, "Doom wanted the satisfaction of watching Richards squirm, undone by his own arrogance and pride in so-called intellect, to finally admit to himself that, contrary to his own delusional beliefs, he is not the 'the world's smartest human.'"

Granted, it's not 100% spot on as I didn't count on the Molecule Man or that this was going to lead to Secret Wars, but even so. And yes, I think that's exactly what Doom, as the "Great Destroyer" has been doing--anytime there's a red incursion, that's Doom using the Molecule Man to merge the universes together to create Battleworld, as opposed to a blue incursion that destroys both Earths and universes, which is likely the result of the Beyonders and the Mapmakers. It also makes sense now why Battleworld appears to have been divided into feudal territories since Doom is a monarchist.