Avengers by Hickman: Time Runs Out vol. 3

Jonathan Hickman’s penchant for planning out his storylines is well known.  I mention this now because this is the first time I felt that he may have bitten off a little more than he can chew.  This would normally be a really bad thing, except that there are plenty of positives to make this volume another compelling read in his “Avengers” saga.  The sins of ambition, if you will.

After the massive throw-down between the various teams of Avengers in the previous volume, a truce is reached in order for the Illuminati to enact their plan to sweep Thanos’ Cabal out of this universe.  This is a good thing, except for the fact that some score-settling on Black Panther’s part may have just made things even worse for the crew.  Meanwhile, Hank Pym returns from his journey across the multiverse with tales of madness and the mysterious Ivory Kings.  “Beyonders,” as he calls them.  While the news he brings is dire, the Shi’ar have finally found out what the Builders in “Infinity” already knew:  In order for this universe to survive, Earth must be destroyed.  Now they’ve marshalled all of the galaxy’s forces to take down their former comrades-in-arms.

There’s a lot going on in this volume, and most of it falls on the talking heads of Reed Richards and the aforementioned Pym to convey to the reader.  I won’t say that this is necessarily a bad thing, particularly when the information being discussed involves creating escape planets with a cosmic cube, the multiversal genocide of the Celestials, and The Last Stand of the Living Tribunal.  It does, however, come off as a very cleverly disguised infodump.  

Unfortunately, there are some key bits of information that are glossed over or left out here.  The parts where we find out about the Illuminati’s plans to save everyone is reduced to a handful of panels that really warranted their own issue for proper context.  Particularly with the fate of Franklin Richards that is implied here.  Also, while the Ivory Kings are established as a suitably powerful threat, they are complete blank slates as characters now.  Destroying the multiverse on a whim?  That’s bad news!  It would’ve been nice to know WHY they did it, so I’m hoping that Hickman is holding that information back for the next volume.

That, and just what’s up with Cyclops and the phoenix egg.  I certainly hope that particular plot point isn’t waiting for the October release of Bendis’ “Uncanny X-Men #600” to be addressed.

All of this doesn’t really cancel out the good stuff in this volume, of which there is plenty.  Black Panther’s revenge against Namor for all he has done was beautifully staged.  I also found it easy to sympathise with the time he takes to savor his victory and let it sink in for Namor.  Which made what happened next all the more dramatic.  Seeing Hickman return to Ultimate Reed Richards was also a great joy.  The writer effortlessly reversed Bendis’ half-assed redemption of the character in a couple sentences and re-established him as a major threat with his own stake in the multiversal collapse.  It was also great to see Gladiator written as the conflicted warrior he works best as.  Knowing that he owes the humans a great deal, but is forced to turn against them anyway for the good of everyone in the universe.  This makes for some great drama in the few pages he gets.

We also get some great character moments from the cast, like Steve Rogers’ angry acceptance at being defeated by those he once called friends, and some welcome bits of humor strewn throughout the book.  Most of these come from Cannonball and Sunspot.  Their self-aware “dudebro” act should have grated from their first appearance in this series, but it has emerged as one of its most amusing aspects.  The Guardians of the Galaxy appearance at the end was also fitting and welcome, if for no other reason than Rocket’s rant which closes out the volume.

Vol. 4 ends with the stakes higher than ever as our heroes face threats from within and without their universe.  Even if the premise of “Secret Wars” dictates that their efforts will ultimately fail, it’s clear that a lot is going to happen before then.  Now that all the players are on the board, and the exposition is hopefully over and done with, the next volume will deliver some awesome build-up to the main event.

(Wait, I’m cheering for build-up now?  …Well played Mr. Hickman.  Well played.)