Comments

1. flapjaxx says:

   February 11, 2013 at 8:28 am

   Hey, you’re not following protocol! Standard procedure is to ignore any and all basic storytelling problems and focus instead on how “smart” Hickman is. What? His characters are often hollow, lacking any perceptible motivations whatsoever, and the basic plots are so hazy that we can scarcely speak of a plot even existing? Bah! Everyone knows Hickman “plays the long game”, meaning that you must buy years and years more comics in this saga, by which time you’ll feel so guilty about doing so that you’ll pretend to see meaningful connections and hearty storytelling everywhere.

   Seriously, though. Hickman’s superhero stuff is alright but it’s like most people on this site don’t even recognize the basic faults. He introduces a clumsy deus ex machina (whose character trait is that she “likes pie”) in Avengers #3, and no one here even remarks upon how out-of-left-field it is. He bizarrely decides to introduce the characters of New Avengers #1 halfway through the issue, and only speaks of the universal threat in terms so vague that they almost seem like self-parody, but everyone is like “This was a damn good first issue!” It’s like people are afraid to admit that half his comics are just poorly laid out.

   No, no, it’s all really “high-concept”. Just using that term makes everything okay.

   On the Wait What? podcast from last week they talked about how Hickman is the sort of writer people read in order to feel smart. Yeah, that’s basically it.

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2. flapjaxx says:

   February 11, 2013 at 8:31 am

   PS. I’m aware that Jimski mentioned and complained about the deus ex machina of Captain Universe in his column. But the reviewers didn’t.

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3. Jaedence says:

   February 11, 2013 at 5:59 pm

   I agree. I have just finished reading Hickman’s run on Fantastic Four and I LOVE IT. Three times I’ve read it now. But that doesn’t make me blind to this run on the Avengers. Sentry was a horrible idea for the marvel universe and this entire run s going in the same direction. Lets make the Avengers into the JLA with beings as powerful as Superman and turning the Avengers into some massive galactic task force. Hickman perfectly captured the cosmic event within a family family feel f the FF and I loved that! That is NOT THE FEEL THE AVENGERS SHOULD HAVE!
   I don’t think anyone has captured the FF as well as Hickman (Ben living thousands f years was heart wrenching) but I’m not enough of a fanboy to ignore this run on Avengers is a bad direction. Sorry if this is unpopular but Avengers are not the cosmic JLA.

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