Avengers seems to be playing to all of Hickman's weaknesses and none of his strengths. On Fantastic Four, Hickman got to build the huge story architecture he seems to be obsessed with, but he also wrote tons of cool little character moments. Those moments made you care. They made some of his more Byzantine plotting get-through-able. On Avengers, there are just too many characters to allow for that, so Hickman gets tripped up in his big weird interlocking plot scaffold that he cares about way more than the reader does. It gets to be a little like watching Hickman play with action figures. That's another problem Hickman seems to have: empathizing with his audience. Hickman's stories often require a reread because he simply doesn't give you enough information to make you care when read forward. He seems unable to track what the reader knows versus what he knows. For instance, I have no idea what Validator's statement at the end of this issue is supposed to mean, or why it's significant. But Hickman has stuck it at the end of an issue as a dramatic reveal AND had a character kill himself over it. So obviously I'm supposed to find it shocking and/or care. But mostly I just closed the book confused. Hickman seems to try to make each issue a discrete unit of entertainment, which I appreciate. But possibly because of sheer lack of space, he doesn't put in the work in the first act of an issue to make you care and understand the stakes. Say what you will about decompressed storytelling in comics. At least it allows room to establish why stuff is important. With all that said, since it's Hickman, in ten issues I may go back and reread this with new info and think it's brilliant. But that's a pretty lousy way to have to read a comic book you're spending 3.99 on. (Deodato's art was pretty nice, I thought. This book, artwise, seems to be the colourist's show.)