Language becomes tough and chewy, with words casually tossed around that sometimes don’t feel like they don’t mean anything to the reader. Hickman has a tendency to bombard the reader with dense, oblique concepts without slowing down to explain them – whole characters have massive and abstract origins or experiences that are collapsed down to four panels. The Illuminati has expanded from its tight inner circle, taking on super geniuses like Amadeus Cho, as well as Multiversally aware characters-specifically Brain Braddock, Captain Britain, whose adventures in the ’80s gave us the multiversal numbering system.
In the fifth and final volume of the Complete Collection, out this week, we see the Marvel Universe jump forward eight months, its relationships and team structures vastly different from the previous volume. Its central narrative-and large-scale concepts of the multiverse, its frailty, and its function-also remain poignant with both the publisher and the MCU exploring those themes. Ten years on, Hickman’s run still feels monumental, despite the fact that its only lasting legacy (post- Secret Wars) is Miles Morales being folded into Earth-616. The Avengers, having been restructured by Steve and Tony as a massive, utility-centered ‘machine’ of heroes, began facing major universal threats neither group knew to be instrumental to the multiversal collapse. Unaware of the origin of the destruction, the Illuminati scrambled against constant threats to their world, damning themselves in the process. While every other superhero in the Universe was oblivious of the fact, the Illuminati-and, eventually, the central Avengers-came to understand that the multiverse was collapsing. Using two titles-both Avengers and New Avengers-Hickman began some heavy work toward restructuring the entire publishing slate at Marvel Comics, setting up a cosmic end-of-everything scenario on two fronts. The most radical use of Avengers as Universal Steering Wheel was Jonathan Hickman’s run with the franchise-which also happens to be the last time Avengers has been used in such a way.
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