Unfathomably powerful aliens called Builders are out to destroy the universe – Avengers gotta punch ‘em! The Nihili (the living Oscar statues) are up to summat and Thanos is on Earth doing his Infinity malarkey. Hmm…
Avengers, Volume 4: Infinity is more like the dull Jonathan Hickman Avengers comics I remember! The story alternates between various alien factions standing around talking rubbish and generic space battles with pew-pew lasers. It reminded me way too much of the Star Wars Prequels (obligatory gagging). The action is kinda boring because it’s rushed, repetitive and unengaging, despite the epic scale – it’s nothing anyone who’s familiar with space operas hasn’t seen before.
Despite this book tying into the Infinity event with New Avengers (all written by Hickman), it’s a surprisingly coherent read – it’s just not very interesting. I feel that Hickman’s reputation as a genius writer is overstated. He’s not presenting any new ideas or doing anything original with the form, he’s just a convoluted, slow and clumsy storyteller, and his messy style confuses people so they think they’re too stupid to understand him.
It’s really not that complex a story. In fact it feels like Hickman used the boilerplate space opera storyline and rammed in Marvel characters whether they fit or not. I mean, why is anyone listening to or looking to Cap for leadership/advice – yeah he’s a super soldier but he’s still a human; the kind of forces at play here are far, far beyond his abilities! Ditto everyone else on the Avengers! Maybe Hickman’s a Flash Gordon fan – Cap’s basically a quarterback who’s caught up in saving the galaxy!
The ending was very flat too – things just stop. That’s the only part that keeps it from being a standalone book, or at least solely part of this series anyway – the reader’s expected to go read Infinity to see how the finale plays out (tediously is the answer).
The Builders came off as the blandest of bad guys – out to destroy everything just ‘cos – until their chat with Captain Universe (I know, why is a being that is somehow the manifestation of the Universe at all concerned with human military rankings, and, if they are, why not give yourself the title of General or something higher than Captain – superhero comics, guys) revealed their intentions to be surprisingly similar to the Illuminati’s in New Avengers, which I thought was a clever twist. I also appreciated that this book had consistent art throughout – a rarity in event tie-in books - from the very talented Leinil Francis Yu. And I liked how well Hickman wrote Thor. His speech to Manifold at the end was pretty fucking cool.
I’m gonna power through the rest of this series because I want to try to understand what the fanboys consider a modern Marvel masterpiece, but Hickman’s fourth Avengers volume is just another dreary entry in an ambitious and flashy but ultimately very shallow title.
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