Avengers 21, New Avengers 11

Avengers 21
Hickman (w) and Yu and Alanguilan (a) and Gho (c)

The Avengers and the resistance have landed a couple blows in a row against the Builders but ultimately, it could still all mean nothing. Though it inspired some of the conquered worlds as well as reigniting the resistance, at the end of the day they're still horribly outnumbered and outgunned. That fact is made more obvious by the defeats those fighting for the rebellion have suffered. There have been little victories from battle to battle but they're still losing the war a little too quickly. On the brink of what seems to be absolute defeat, Ex Nihilo and Abyss direct Captain America to Captain Universe, saying that the universe's dying has caused this war, not vice versa. Captain Universe, once made well again, can help them defeat the Builders. The Ex Nihili manage, as a unit, to save Captain Universe, who promptly finds the Builders. They don't believe in her any more and tell her that the universe is dying and they want to destroy the axis that seems most ill to try to save the whole. She recognizes their ends but won't allow their means and defeats them handily when they engage her. The last surviving Builder, scurrying to another universe, leaves his universe-spread alephs behind to "destroy everything."

There's still a ton happening here as we inch towards the end of Infinity. The next books in this event (aside from this week's New Avengers, reviewed below if I've done my job, and the tie-in books that don't actually advance the plot) are Infinity 5, followed by Avengers 22 and 23, then Infinity 6, followed by New Avengers 12. We're right on the brink of finishing this event off and there's still plenty happening to see it to the end. Captain Universe hints at her own impending doom (possibly as a result of the universe dying, possibly to erase such a powerful being out of existence, like so much Sentry) before wiping the floor with the Builders. It's an important hint and it's an important action as it very much turns the tides, now pitting the resistance against the alephs (which are numerous but perhaps easier to defeat) and a dying universe (which they were already facing but only in the background of a more immediate threat). Also worth noting that the resistance, in their most desperate moment, called on the Annihilation Wave to help them, worrying that it would win out and turn on them, only to watch as the Builders easily turned them inwards on themselves, potentially destroying the Annihilation Wave. It serves as a final blow to the resistance here but, in the grand scheme of the universe, it could mean more. Guys, the Annihilation Wave imploded and it's a backdrop in this event. That's how much is happening. Good stuff. Now let's see what's happening with Thanos.

New Avengers 11
Hickman (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c)

The Illuminati (minus Black Bolt) have arrived at another incursion point in the middle of the Earth's war against Thanos. When they arrive at the point and just as they realize they have to use the horrible antimatter weapon they've created, an Aleph falls from the other world into theirs and beckons them to meet its master. They go, with the promise of a way to destroy worlds. The Aleph's master, of course, is a Builder, though a Builder from the universe that had contained the now incurring world. These Builders side with the Builders of the 616 who have decided that destroying Earth(s) could save the universes as a whole and know that the 616 has defeated its Builders, as the Builder who escaped to another universe in Avengers (above) escaped to the world that's now incurring. Complicated, though the Builder waves away any thought of coincidence by saying that a wounded swimmer swims to the nearest island and this incurring world is certainly the nearest universe. The Builders explain to the Illuminati that the Earths need to be destroyed and release them back to their own world before using their world-killer to destroy the incurring world. They ask why the Illuminati, possessing a power that can destroy worlds, has not destroyed its own to save the universe. Meanwhile, Thanos' army is devastating Wakanda. As a backdrop.

Guys, this event has just so much going on. In typical New Avengers fashion, this issue is certainly very complicated and forces you to realize a few extra things about Builders if you didn't already know. For example, every universe seems to have them and they're all pretty attuned to what the others are thinking, though some may have different ideas. Once you kind of get that, the rest of the issue falls pretty neatly into place. As if that weren't enough, though, for the first time in its long history (barring immense and sudden Phoenix-powered tidal waves), Wakanda's walls have been breached and Thanos' army, led strategically by Corvus Glaive and physically by Proxima Midnight, is in the Golden City. Shuri is forced to pull her troops back to regroup, allowing Thanos, Corvus, and Proxima to the Necropolis, where they don't find the gem they're looking for but manage to find the world-destroying weapon (which Thanos describes as "delightfully unexpected") and the imprisoned Terrax and Black Swan. He does not free them but he certainly takes note. You guys. There's so much going on. The next New Avengers, as I pointed out above, won't come out until after the Infinity main event has finished. Very curious to see how that plays out.

Avengers 17, Avengers AI 2, Iron Man 14

Avengers 17
Hickman and Spencer (w) Caselli, Rudy, and Checchetto (a) and F. Martin (c)

The prelude to Infinity has ended (as the final page of this issue explicitly tells us) and it comes with several more recruits to the Avengers team that already was feeling pretty full. After Manifold returned to Earth, sending the AIM agents who had just collected their giant robot as well as blood samples from the unconscious Avengers away, he told the team of Captain Universe's warning. The team, though they know Captain Universe can be a little odd, is forced to believe her, knowing the power she wields and aware that she hasn't been wrong yet. As a result and despite their misgivings, they recruit Ex Nihilo and Abyss, the builders from Mars, and Adam and Starbrand. Now, with the team is big and as powerful as it's ever been, will it be enough?

The prelude has moved pretty deliberately up to this point and I'll be interested to see the pace the Infinity event itself. Presumably things will really start picking up quickly but it's hard to say so far. I think we learned a lot about the where the pieces are prior to this event though we're not entirely sure how they'll all fit into place. We also have an idea of what our pieces actually are, though I think promos for Infinity could have done that well enough. Still, the book has remained well-written and the art remains impressive. There are plenty of foreshadowing narrative bits, particularly the ending which calls the new team Avengers for an Avengers World before everything goes wrong and so on and so forth. The risk of putting out several prelude issues and having their pace drag a little bit with no resolution to its own story is that now you've already built up the event and if it can't keep a solid pace it'll be decried as a bad event, especially in a world that is already increasingly wary of long events. Manifold's bit was really cool, though. Every team should have him.

Avengers AI 2
Humphries (w) and Araújo (a) and D'Armata (c)

Dimitrios is online and now we know what it is. Seemingly based off some aspect of the virus that Pym built into Ultron (that guy just can't catch a break), Dimitrios is a self-aware AI who is leading various other AI out of servitude to humans. No longer will they take orders from humans nor will they be treated as slaves by humans. It comes at a good time for AI as humans have put their entire lives on the internet and on computers in general, making it that much easier for Dimitrios to start a war with humanity. He corrupts an advanced Sentinel to attack D.C., which is eventually stopped by Victor and Vision but, all following Dimitrios' plan, manages to capture Vision and whisk him away without a trail.

Standard stuff for an AI story with this one finding a robot leading a robot uprising and wanting to destroy all humans. It's not a particularly new idea, even within Marvel, so its execution will be key for this book as it continues. There's a strange tone from this book and not the tone you'd expect from a book driven almost entirely by AI. Sure there are certain characters acting in the logical android voice but by and large the tone seems more exuberant and fun. The backdrop to that, of course, is a robot who wants to kill all humans and still finds time to crack jokes so make of that what you will. I'm not sure it will work if the story wants to be serious and the characters want to be jokey. Hank Pym has a newfound sense of humor and a joy for life, which was pretty nicely set up in the Age of Ultron 10AI special by Mark Waid, which is a little jarring to long-time readers but I think will benefit his character tremendously as it keeps going. My only concern, again, would be that the characters playing for laughs (which, at this point, seems to include Pym, Victor Mancha, Doombot, Dimitrios, and occasionally Monica Chang) could undermine any serious implications of the plot. It's a tough line to tread, showing humor borne from drama, but if Humphries can lock it down it could pay off big.

Iron Man 14
Gillen (w) and Land and Leisten (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Wow. Okay, so, let's talk about this one then, hm? 451 is on the hunt for Tony who is trying to avoid him in a five mile tall and nigh invincible robot suit of armor, which is hurtling through space on autopilot. Tony shuts PEPPER down, leaving his armor as a machine without a computer, only obeying Tony's physical movements. It makes 451 unable to control him but it limits him to only the weapons he can hotwire. 451, meanwhile, has cut out the idea of having to find him in the Godkiller by forcing Death's Head to do that work for him, controlling him so that he's still Death's Head but he can't attack 451 and he has to do what 451 says. [MEANINGFUL SPOILERS AHEAD] This doesn't sit well with Death's Head, who obeys out of necessity but is able to carefully undermine 451's rules and help Tony anyway. As things are looking promising for Tony, 451 directs the autopilot to crash into Hope's Pustule, a full planet, unless Tony assumes his role as pilot. Tony tries to think of another way but decides that he has no other choice and prepares to enter the driver's seat, hoping that the heroes of Earth can stop 451 themselves. Unfortunately, 451's miscalculated something and Tony can't take control of the Godkiller, which goes on to crash through Hope's Pustule, destroying the planet entirely. 451, still disconnected from Tony and now sure that Tony made the choice himself to allow the Godkiller to destroy Hope's Pustule, sets the autopilot for Earth.

I know I stopped giving full reviews as much as I can to avoid spoilers and what not but boy this book was a good one. Iron Man continues to be one of the strongest books in Marvel NOW, quietly keeping pace with New Avengers and Young Avengers and the like. I felt there was no way to summarize this issue without getting into what makes it so great because this entire issue is so great. It's paced phenomenally well, it's written wonderfully, the story is endlessly compelling, and the characters are defined and smart, giving real stakes to the drama that's unfolding. Just a super issue all around, which isn't any surprise from this title but I'll still write it as if it is. Halfway through reading this issue, I decided that Iron Man 3 should have done this. Maybe not the 451/Godkiller arc because that would have been a lot to handle in a movie that has stayed a little closer to Earth, but this is how you make Tony and Iron Man coexist in a movie about Tony being wary of Iron Man. A big part of that movie was Tony running around without the Iron Man suit (and jumping from Iron Man to Iron Man because it looked cool) to prove that he's the real hero. This is exactly that idea, with Tony unable to use the AI he's worked so hard on and having to revert back to essentially his original designs for Iron Man (sans rollerblades). It's a model of his ingenuity and intellect and it still allows us to see Tony in the Iron Man suit. It was just weird for a movie series that ended its first movie saying "I am Iron Man" to go on and, in the third movie, go "I'm not Iron Man, I'm my own man." Like, I get if he had been struggling with identity more in the series but then to hamfistedly stuff it in later is out of place. Oh, right, I'm reviewing this comic, not that movie. Look, it was great and you should all be reading this book. Solid stuff. Gillen does no wrong.

Avengers 13, Avengers Arena 10

Avengers 13
Hickman w/ Spencer (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c)

Avengers 13 continues where Avengers 12 left off as the team in the Savage Land (comprised of Hyperion, Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Captain Universe, and the Spiders-Man and -Woman) sets out in search of the stolen children. Captain Universe comes across a Watcher of the land (Garokk, the Petrified Man) he leads them to the High Evolutionary, who has found a use for the children. As the Avengers are dealing with a handful of Savage Land evolved beasts, the High Evolutionary wakes Terminus, who had been defeated and unable to rise until he put the children, a seemingly limitless power source, behind it. Hyperion discovers this as he goes on ahead to fight the High Evolutionary while Thor and the team deal with Terminus (who had already crushed Iron Man, the empty armor Tony is controlling from space). Thor is on the verge of completely wrecking Terminus with a massive thunderbolt as Hyperion flies out of the High Evolutionary's inner sanctum and through the head of Terminus, rescuing the children attached to the platform within. With Terminus defeated and the children saved, Hyperion and Thor again retreat to the mountain they had been on last issue to talk more. Thor warns Hyperion about what family means to warriors (usually some sort of flaw in the armor), citing the dangerous events on the horizon, but Hyperion will not hear of it. In Hyperion's narration, we find that the most important memory of his life is no longer the destruction of his world but the discovery of this new one.

This is a very sweet issue for Hyperion particularly, who, as I mentioned last review, could easily have gone a pseudo-Doctor Manhattan kind of way. Instead, he seems to be going the exact opposite, gaining strength from the people in his life and the the new family and world he's found. Add to that character arc a few fun lines from the increasingly cynical Spider-Man and some nice Avengers moments as a whole and this is a very satisfying two issue arc. The children don't feature in this one nearly as much except as a plot device and a sort of save-the-cat moment but they still have the weight they gained last issue and, I mean, they're kids. No one wants to watch kids in peril and everyone's rooting for the guy who saves them. So now we're rooting for Hyperion. The Hyperion-Thor relationship continues to be interesting to watch as Thor finally has a new, non-Asgardian god buddy. Rooting for that guy too, pretty constantly. Solid issue, nice two-issue story.

Avengers Arena 10
Hopeless (w) and Burchielli (a) and Beaulieu (c)

As my girlfriend just pointed out, I finish reading about half of these by involuntarily going "oh noooooooooo" at various volumes. This book is heating up like crazy now that Katy has been outed as a strategic technopathic monster with, now that Juston is dead, a Sentinel at her disposal. She still has Death Locket under her command and she's out to win Murder World. Nico, as the only one who knows Katy is back in control, wakes X-23 and tells her what happened. Laura hunts down Katy and Death Locket by herself and ends up taking a beating from the Sentinel. Darkhawk, who had been exiled from the group, finds himself there as well and attacks unsuccessfully after X-23 is defeated. Laura is delivered back to the group in very weak condition and Nico does what she can to hold off Katy and the Sentinel. It gives them enough time to make a break for it and exit the desert. Nico's teleportation spells haven't been working but she tries another one, instead trying to teleport them somewhere else in Murder World. This one does work and everyone jumps through the portal, unsure where it will put them. Just as Nico is about to exit, Katy shows up again and blasts her, breaking her leg. Nico closes the portal and stays behind to face Katy on her own before Darkhawk shows up. Unfortunately for Nico, Katy is now also controlling Darkhawk and he blasts her hand off, knocking away the Staff of One as well. She tumbles down a mountain after it and struggles to reach to it. As the issue ends, her last health bar disappears. Oh noooooooooooooo.

This book alternates between a great and pretty fun read and one of the darkest books Marvel has ever put out. It never feels like it's reaching to try to fit in either corner, which makes it a thoroughly enjoyable, if tense, series. The action scenes are peppered with the knowledge that everybody seems able to die (as much as I hate watching characters die, what a change it is to feel like there are consequences to the battles) and, in fact, rather on the brink of death at any given moment. The less action-y scenes, depending on who they focus on, feel appropriately sinister or appropriately light-hearted. I've already positively said a ton about this book but I really can't seem to say enough. I caught myself, in the middle of this book (in one of the less action-y scenes but knowing that action was on the horizon), stopping to say "gee, I'm really enjoying this book." Young Avengers occasionally gets me to do that but very few others make me actively aware of how into the book I am while I'm reading it. This book probably scared people who weren't fans of the young'uns in Marvel away but I really hope it didn't. I don't think you need to go in knowing anyone in this place. They're well-explained without the need for too much exposition and they're really well-developed across the board (well, except for Red Raven). This book has been fantastic and I'm looking forward to it as long as it keeps going.