Normally I'm as big a fan of H.P. Lovecraft name-dropping as the next guy; throw down some elder sigils and Cthulhu f'tagns, and I'm there. But while that may work better in, say, B.P.R.D., I find it distracting in regular superhero books, and if I had one minor criticism of Thanos Imperative it's that it goes to the Lovecraft well often and obviously. ("Yog-soteric vibrations"? Come on.)

That said, Abnett and Lanning fish some pretty awesome ideas out of that well. Satanic Avengers? A universe where, with strange eons, even death has died? This is great cosmic action-adventure. They keep a lot of plot threads are constantly moving forward, and they're able to keep all of them separate and unique, giving each group of characters a chance to shine. I'm definitely in for the long haul on this series.