Rate it: Avengers/New Avengers by Jonathan Hickman

[John Ossie]

The Time Runs Out issues, felt like they dragged a bit but overall I'd say the art was largely good, I enjoyed Infinity a lot, particularly the scene with Thor ''kneeling''. The stuff about Mars was interesting and the introduction of Starbrand was good IMO.

Overall, I'd say an 8 out of 10.

[runguy]

The first omnibus is set for July and the 2nd has (yet) not been announced. What has been released are several OHC's

[Doctor Know]

Avengers was great at the beginning but post Infinity, the time travel arc, and Time Runs Out; this title became stale.

New Avengers was a wild ride from beginning to end. The Illuminati, the Incursions, the universe hoping and battle with the J̶u̶s̶t̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶L̶e̶a̶g̶u̶e̶ Great Society, the dissolution of the Illuminati, was all great stuff. Time Runs Out, and old man Rogers prosectuion of the Illuminati members was less exciting. The Incursion doomsday clock really did take a back seat, and veered into less interesting drama.


Secret Wars was flat for me. The idea of it was good, but things just didn't pan out the way one would imagine.

[CentralPower]

"Avengers" was the filler series for Hickman's run. Post-"Infinity", it was mostly counting time until "Time Runs Out". Banner confronting Stark about the Incursions is still one of my favorite scenes for both characters though. (And, Stark handing the evil Banner over to SHIELD was hilarious.)

"Secret Wars" was, in some ways, less a part of Hickman's "Avengers" run than it was billed as. "Secret Wars" #1 could have been the last issue of "Avengers". The tone and focus of "Time Runs Out" was "Everything Dies". Then, the heroes lost, and...everything died. "Secret Wars" was a character study of Doom and a romp through his deranged fairytale kingdom. "Secret Wars" lacked the atmosphere of Hickman's previous runs. But, "Secret Wars" had to set up for a return to normalcy, obligating a more conventional ending.

[Wall-Crawler]

Bump, I'd like to see more opinions.

[cc008]

One of my favorites. Agree that Time Runs Out lost some momentum as it went on, but still one of my favorite comic runs ever.

[Wall-Crawler]

One of my favorites. Agree that Time Runs Out lost some momentum as it went on, but still one of my favorite comic runs ever.

Pretty much my opinion as well.

Secret Wars was absolutely amazing btw.

[cc008]

Secret Wars was absolutely amazing btw.

Yup, probably my favorite event since the initial relaunch in 2012.

[lordozone]

Pretty much my opinion as well.

Secret Wars was absolutely amazing btw.

Secret Wars was (with, maybe, Crisis on infinity earth) the best event that I have ever read.

And his Avengers title was cool, but has a lot of structural problems. His New Avengers title was a masterpiece, an epic journey; but it can't be in-continuity because Hickman has completely destroyed and deconstructed the heroes of this team.

[your_name_here]

Always felt the Avengers run needed to end with Secret Wars #1. It’s more of an “end.”

Other than that, it was great stuff and really was one of the first times in a long time I had no idea what was going to happen or how they would get out of it (though I predicted The Beyonder early on)
Secret Wars was fantastic. It could have done with one more issue inbetween that couple weeks jump they had. I always envisioned a classic Marvel Universe back from the dead vs Dooms reality, but we never got that either. But it was a classic end to the MU and I truly felt if it was going to end for Marvel comics that’s a great way to do it. The final Doom scene is perfect.

[scribbleMind]

New Avengers: 5/5
Avengers: 3/5
Avengers World: 4.5/5 (Nick Spencer's book, but still)
Secret Wars: 5/5

[Wall-Crawler]

Now with Hickman being front page again, let's revisit this awesome run, I loved both Avengers and New Avengers.

Infinity and Secret Wars are some of the best events in the last two decades as well.

[Mike]

It wasn't for me.
I gave up after a few issues.

[InformationGeek]

Avengers was garbage after passing Smasher's origin issue and was never good again. New Avengers was a very boring, blah series with incredibly dry dialogue, poor pacing, and stiff to ugly as hell art.

[JKtheMac]

I think it is interesting how divisive this kind of story is. There are those of us who consider this run one of the all time greats, and those that can’t stand it. Personally, I put that down to the approach to writing Hickman employs. Not that it’s controversial but it is very plot focused. Every character, and every situation serves the plot. If that means forcing a character into a specific stance then so be it. Fans of specific characters find this challenging. We end up arguing whether the conflict between specific characters is “in character” or whether the situations are “forced”.

Even these arguments are not particularly relevant because not only are they subjective opinions, the people that decide these things, the writers and editors, have complete power over the property and are only swayed by either sales or managerial directions. So we are left divided over something that is technically an element of the writers’ craft. A choice of tool from the toolbox.