Avengers, Volume 6: Infinite Avengers Review (Jonathan Hickman, Leinil Francis Yu)

The Illuminati have built a planet-destroying machine to stop planets from smooshing into each other - save one rather than lose two. Sounds better than nothing, right? Well, Cap’s not satisfied and so Doctor Strange erased his memory of finding out the Illuminati had reformed. Now, because plot, Cap’s suddenly remembered everything and he’s pissed. Cue pointless time travel into the future courtesy of the Time Gem!

I didn’t think Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers could get much worse but it’s still so, so bad! Volume 6: Infinite Avengers is still more wheel-spinning for no reason. We end the book exactly where it started - with Cap angry that his knowledge of the Illuminati was erased. Nothing that follows - all that irritating, convoluted time-jumping - adds anything.

I just don’t like time travel stories full stop. They’re so unimaginative and cliched. Whether it’s 50 years in the future, 5,000 or 50,000, there are Avengers in every era - why?? And why is Cap trying to stop the Illuminati anyway - they’ve actually got a practical solution to this massive problem. What’s Cap’s solution - a load of ideological hope? That’s not useful! The one time he was able to stop one of the incursions was with the Infinity Gauntlet which shattered all the gems afterwards anyway so it’s not like they could do that again!

And it’s not like the Illuminati are going out there gratuitously destroying planets - they’ve been given this impossible problem and they’re dealing with it as best they can. I don’t get Cap at all in this one. Also all the chapters are under the “Original Sin” event banner but they haven’t got a thing to do with it so yet more bullshit!

Time Runs Out has got to be better - I mean, the only way from rock bottom is up, right? Then again I thought this book would be better than the last and, phew, we’re still wading through the dregs. Man alive, Hickman’s Avengers is way overrated!