New Avengers #29
Marvel
Written by: Johnathan Hickman
Art by: Kev Walker & Scott Hanna
I’m really tired of the Incursion stuff that’s been happening in the Marvel Multiverse lately. I mean super tired of it. So why read this book? I mainly want to know where Johnathan Hickman is going with it. I’ll admit I was intrigued for the first few arcs of New Avengers, but now that the incursions are causing such a mess and are eventually going to bring us to Battleworld and persist past THE END, I’m really just wanting it to be over. I was hoping they’d wrap it up after the Ultimate Universe and 616 combined, but it doesn’t sound like it will. This whole issue is nothing but Reed talking about some plan he has, everyone else asking about his plan, and talking about how this plan won’t work. What’s the plan? Hell if I know, because I don’t think they mentioned it yet. It’s basically just Cap and team blaming the Illuminati for their crimes and Sunspot wanting to know the origin of the incursions. Before this story actually gets into any of the juicy storyline stuff (besides the pages with Doom in it) Yellowjacket finally returns (just before the movie too!) to deliver some news that will shake things up.
To say I was not impressed with the writing of this issue is an understatement. Johnathan Hickman seems to be just as tired writing incursion story lines as I am reading them. I swear one page in this book was just of different people asking what the plan that Reed was purposing was and what kind of plan would work. It had some flashback bits that were good and were about stuff I actually would have loved to see in the comics, but they were just single panel images explaining things they had tried and not shown us. For people needing a catch up on this series it’s okay but overall this wasn’t a very exciting issue. Another reason I’m down on this issue as well is the art. I can’t say exactly why, but the way Kev Walker drew the characters in this book made them look strange and not like how they usually look. While some would argue that’s a good thing, I have a problem when Doom doesn’t necessarily look very detailed. Reed’s head was square shaped and Captain Marvel’s hair made her look like Sonic the Hedgehog. Overall I would say skip over this issue. If you’re following the incursions or the Illuminati then you may want this for the ending and Doom panels, but I don’t think much new information was given in this issue. I expected better.