Get Your Copy New Avengers, Vol. 3: Other Worlds Produced By Jonathan Hickman Released Through Digital Paper

is a lesser installment,
Of the two artists in this volume, I prefer Rags Morales to Simone Bianchi, as they have very different styles, . . But Bianchi's arc seems to matter more in this long run by writer Hickman, I can say this is al sort of intermediate, middle storytelling, without much resolution, the Morales arc even introduces ANOTHER JLAtype surrogate group in the multiverse, as if we don't have enough of those already,

Ugh. I get it, I get it, Can we please move on It's like this whole volume exists so the students that should have been moved to the remedial class ages ago can catch up with the rest of us.
Five issues and I don't feel like we've moved forward even a smidgen,

I do have to admit that the Doctor Strange stuff was cool but other than that, . . meh. Now we're getting somewhere! I cannot imagine having to read this title on a monthly issuebyissue basis, There's just too much scifi epicness going on to wrap your head around in any other way than just one sitting, Looking forward to Volume, which is waiting on my shelf!
Side note: This Jonathan Hickman Avengers series the other being simply titled, The Avengers is SO MUCH better than its companion series, and can be read alone very easily.
My good friend said the other day that he was far more interested in the build up to Secret Wars than the actual event, After reading this trade, I think I am going to have to agree with him, New Avengers is a pretty grim book, which features characters that are not usually "Dark" types Mr, Fantastic, Beast, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, The Illuminati are faced with a pretty nihilistic scenario, In this trade, they spend their time literally watching the Earth die over and over again on their newly made cosmic tv,
We see versions of the Illuminati from other Earths trying to prevent the apocalypse by fighting off some of the nastiest enemies the Multiverse has to offer.
This book is not for someone who has just seen Age of Ultron and wants to see what the Avengers are up to in the comics, This is as dense a super hero comic book as it can get, and like I said, bleak as can be, It is still a ton of fun, In this collection of the Illumnati Avengers, our intrepid secretive society finds a way to peer into the past of other worlds that have been destroyed in the current Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Wait, what, this isn't COIE Sorry, my bad, Anyway, on some of these other worlds, we see different versions of the usual Marvel characters, as well as some nice homages/parodies of DC's Justice League.
Namor and T'Challa have some nice banter even though they hate each other, and Reed Richards looks as oily and smarmy as ever,

The collection dragged for me because it was a bit too much of the same thing, One or two issues would have sufficed to bring the plotdevice in this book forward, but instead, Hickman keeps adding more and more until I was ready to say, "Enough with the parallel worlds, already!" Sheesh.


Still, the art is usually nice, and I like the way Hickman delivers dialogue to his characters,

./second read

I was in a better state of mind this time, and I enjoyed it more, The Archetypes of J. U. S. T. I. C. E. was an interesting pastiche of The Justice League, The tension and uneasy alliance between Tchalla and Namor is fun to witness and very well written, I love the high stakes, and I also find the Sci Fi element easier to follow this time around, Also, the Black Priests are scary and cool,

Im really enjoying this second read through of Hickmans Secret Wars leadup material,

first read
Not as good as the concurrently running Avengers story, but it still has its moments,

Doctor Strange is a badass here, The alternate Avengers dudes are fun to see, The fights are cool. I love how pissed everyone is at each other,

This is a good springboard for a discussion on morality,

The art was amazing, Squiggly art doesn't exactly entrance me, but I'm trying to give a "different" style artist a chance, But what the hell with all the random blobs Is this supposed to be "stylish" and not just distracting





I'm a fan of the alternate realities, struggling to resist the inevitable annihilation.
It's a nice counterpoint to the's Illuminati who seem to triumph without a scratch which feels more and more implausible, watching heroes and villains just as capable, end up as so much pulp on the floor.




Or watching the successful struggles of the Great Society on Earthmillion who look remarkably like a harmonic variant of a Justice League doing their best to beat back the incursions just like ourIlluminati.
This feels like Hickman and Morales are both exercising imagination just what is the range of heroism across the multiverse and not "stealing a whole team's concept, then twisting it around for our entertainment".
The Heroic Age parody/callback is kinda funny tho:



We are three volumes into this series and I feel like they are still hammering in the point they made in the very first issue: The world will be destroyed and there is nothing you can do about it.
In fact this collection has not one, but TWO, issues that reiterate that very thing, Don't get me wrong, I liked seeing the different Illuminati lineups of different earths, and wonder how they came to be a group, but did I really need to see it twice The answer is no, I didn't.

Here is how you could have made the first three issues of this collection one page:
Panel one: The Illuminati stand together, Reed is standing next to The Bridge, the machine he built during Hickman's Fantastic Four run.
Reed says "This is called The Bridge, It allows us to see different earth's at different points in time, With it I've been able to track other incursions from all points, and all times,
Panel two: Tighter shot of two or three members, Anyone says "And what have you found"
Panel Three: Large panel that shows a group similar to the earthIlluminati, but slightly different, fighting a group of Map Makers, or Black Priests, and losing.
Caption Box reads "That on every earth a group similar to our own has tried to do the very same thing we are doing, . . "
Panel Four: Tight close up on Reed, the look on his face suggesting exhaustion and hopelessness, Reed says "And we always fail, "
Bam! There you go! Then we can move this story along,
It's hard for me to write that, because I do enjoy this series, and Hickman's writing, but come on! This guy has such a decompressed writing style that when he spells decompressed it must be likeletters long.
This book takes place post Infinity, the event that Hickman has been building to since he started working on the Avengers, but somehow, this story is still going
I am not a fan of Simon Bianchi's art.
In fact in gave me a slight headache to look at, What happened to the super tight, super moody, art that this series began with I want that art back,
On the positive side of things, and I know this sounds super hypocritical, I like that the villains of this

story are a very serious threat.
The story does a really good job of showing you that, I keep reading thinking, "How the hell are they going to win this fight It seems like they can't, " A hero is only as good as his villain, and boy are these ones a couple of bad asses,
It was also pretty sweet to see the JSA show up in a marvel book, You knew who that was, right This is a pretty cool concept I hope they stick with, With all the various earths out there, and infinite possibilities of what occurred on those earths, why can't the Illuminati run across the Marvel versions of different companies characters That is a really neat idea.

Overall, I'm both happy and pissed at this series, I want to keep reading it, but at the same time I feel like I could just skip the next three volumes and not miss a damn thing.
It just takes too long for anything to happen, The countdown to the destruction of the multiverse continues!



And, yeah, its a buzzkill,

The New Avengers are back,

There are so many different Avengers, Jeff Mighty, Great Lakes, Uncanny, Astonishing, Lego, Who are these guys

Theyre supposedly the best and brightest read: smartypants heroes of the Marvel Universe, It would be as if your high school Latin club suddenly got super powers, but instead of clobbering stuff they sat around and brooded,

Abusus non tollit usum,

So Reed Richards now has invented a peep show machine that lets the eggheads peer into other versions of Earth because Earth is the nexus for destruction everywhere to see how other heroes are coping.
If youve read the previous volumes, this volume rings of déjà vu apocalypseporn more Earths, with different heroes in charge, get brutally destroyed,



Whats going on with Dr, Stephen Cumberbatch Strange



Hes MIA, in search for the ultimate power trip, Is the price of great power your soul Heh, one can only hope so,

Whos the weird hot albino alien chick who talks with reverse negative dialogue balloons



Thats Black Swan, She was captured at one of the smashups, Her role is unclear, but she brought hors d'oeuvres for the endoftheworld party, Pass the minihot dogs pastries my way,

Ive never had Atlantean wine, What does it taste like



Its fermented from rotted whale carcasses and it has a bouquet that reminds one of sea weed that's been lying on the beach for weeks, with a hint of eel and should be served at room temperature.


Bottom line: Hickmans epic storyline veers in quality from volume to volume and can be an obtuse read at times, but if you are interested, you really need to read these things in order and not jump around like I have.




Peekaboo!