Avengers by Hickman: Time Runs Out vol. 1

In what will no doubt come as a complete and utter surprise to people who have been following my reviews of this particular “Avengers/New Avengers” run, I wound up really liking this latest volume!  Essentially the “beginning of the end” for Hickman’s run, it very much lives up to the title sentiment as things go from bad to worse for the heroes involved here.  Not everything works as well as I was expecting it to, but this volume successfully kicks the plot into high gear.

Eight months have passed since the previous volumes of “Avengers” and “New Avengers,” with the situation even more bleak than it was when we last saw all of the involved parties.  The Illuminati have picked up a few new members — Yellowjacket, Captain Britain, and Amadeus Cho — and have gone underground to avoid reprisals from their fellow heroes and find some way of solving the ongoing collapse of the multiverse.  Namor, as we saw at the end of the previous volume, has teamed up with the likes of Thanos, Maximus, Terrax the Enlightened, Corvus Glaive, and Proxima Midnight to from a Cabal to destroy all of the Earths that are part of the incursions into their universe.  Their methods are so unspeakably bloody, however, that Namor is now seeking help from his old friend Doctor Doom regarding this situation.  Then there’s Steve Rogers and the rest of the above-ground Avengers who are busy trying to find their former friends and figure out what to do about the Cabal and the threat they represent.

Right from the start, which features the Ex Nihili trying and failing to prevent the death of a star which had over seven billion years left in its natural lifespan, there’s a feeling that things have reached a tipping point and the moment of crisis is at hand for the Marvel Universe.  Heroes are fighting each other.  Villains are saving the universe.  Meanwhile, somewhere out there is the cause of all this chaos and an eclectic group of characters are about to be flung halfway across the multiverse to fight it.  It really feels like Hickman’s run is coming together and things are progressing towards an endgame that actually feels really well-planned out for a superhero comic.  I know that doesn’t sound exactly like a compliment, but it’s still well above what I’m used to seeing from Marvel.

It’s not all plot gears grinding away as Hickman also includes lots of little moments that prove to be memorable either for what they say about the characters involved, their flat-out awesomeness, or sometimes a mixture of both.  Seeing Susan Richards face down Amadeus Cho — both times — to find out the fate of her husband.  Witnessing Steve Rogers lose his cool over a holographic chess match between Beast and the Hulk.  Namor finding out that Doom is no man’s second choice.  They’re all great events (particularly that last one), even amongst a run that has been full of them.

One that bears special mention is the moment when Reed and Susan finally come face-to-face.  Finding out that the latter has been after the former for lying to her about his involvement with the Illuminati and the fate of the multiverse wasn’t all that surprising.  In fact, it was actually pretty irritating since Hickman had already been down a similar path with the two in his run on “Fantastic Four.”  While I won’t say what their encounter entails, my expectations were satisfyingly confounded by its outcome.

For all of the good parts of this volume, there are a few things that don’t work as well as they should.  While the mission that flings some of the characters halfway across the multiverse certainly sounds impressive, the nature of the threat is too vaguely defined to make it very compelling.  Though there are likely some events that are still waiting to be revealed as the Marvel Universe catches up to the events in this volume, I was quite surprised to see the Black Panther working with his sister again.  Particularly since Hickman had gone to some length previously to cut him off from Wakanda socially and spiritually.  Then you have Namor.  While Doom was handled beautifully in their conversation, it’s hard to feel very sympathetic towards the former King of Atlantis regarding the situation he has now found himself in.  I mean, he’s complaining about mass murder after hooking up with Thanos of all things!  Namor should’ve known that the guy who loves death and once killed half the Marvel Universe with a snap of his fingers would relish the chance to crush each new Earth under his boot in as bloody a manner as possible.  Realizing this just makes Doom’s response to his occasional ally that much more entertaining.

Then you have the art which features contributions from some very talented people.  Mike Deodato, Stefano Caselli, Valerio Schiti, and Kev Walker handle one issue each while Dustin Weaver, Nick Bradshaw, Paco Diaz and Jim Cheung are the jam session that handles the opening issue.  I like a lot of these guys very much and would’ve loved to have seen any one of them illustrate the entirety of this volume.  As none of them did, we wind up with a diverse mix of clashing styles that interrupts the narrative’s momentum from issue to issue.  Individually, their work is quite good.  It’s just that putting them all together here makes a strong argument for consistency of visual style in a volume.

As “Time Runs Out” is being told through both “Avengers” and “New Avengers” issues from both series are collected here.  This is a good thing because, in addition to how both series are finally on the same page regarding the story they’re telling, we’re going to get subsequent volumes at a much faster pace.  Vol. 2 arrives in March and after this volume it can’t come soon enough.