Is this a Jonathan Hickman comic? A helpful guide:

Infographics? Check

Double page opening credits? Check

Villain with philosophical intentions? Check

Having a Carl Sagan approach to space? Check

Yup. Avengers #1 is definitely a Jonathan Hickman comic.

It is going to be interesting to see if Hickman can keep this pace up pass the initial issue. Apart from special instances, Avengers is not the type of comic book to have deep meaning involved. It is a big, dumb action book that has Iron Man and Hulk and Captain America teaming up. So Hickman has to somehow not only impress his fans but also keep the casual fans interested as well. Hickman does a nice balance here with his foray into his style of writing but also deliver on some mindless action. It makes sense that this book is going to be more than just the ‘movie team’ fighting the bad guys. He has a mission to expand the team to make it have more variety so his use of villain makes sense here. Also, he has a great handle on Captain America even though he has very little dialogue. That short sequence of him coming back to Earth is all you need to know about the man.

Weirdly, I haven’t read much involving Jerome Opena as artist. I feel like that should change after the jaw dropping beauty I’ve seen in these pages. Dean White should have gotten some big billing on the cover cause he is responsible for a lot of this looking so good. The bright colors mesh well with Opena’s detailed pencils. Captain America’s costume alone has a variety of stitching and seams that are mind boggling to look at. I could look at one tiny panel and see so much detail that I could be lost forever. It makes me worried, like with Uncanny Avengers, that this series could suffer from set backs but thankfully Marvel is already a step ahead with that by having a variety of artists fill in. Shame Opena can’t stay on for long though…

Great debut for Hickman on his first Avengers book. I have no idea if his style of writing can keep casual readers interested but I know I’ll be in for a long haul. You aren’t going to see an in-depth look into the team as Hickman is clearly prepared to write. It’s a damn good time to be a fan of Avengers.