Avengers 3: Prelude to Infinity

Comic Info

Avengers (4) #12

Reprints Avengers (4) #12-17 (July 2013-October 2013).  Something is coming, but the Avengers aren’t ready for it.  The bomb sites around the world have a purpose, but even the minds of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner cannot understand their purpose.  When a signal begins to be sent out by a site, the Avengers realize the danger is growing and that the signal must have a purpose…what is coming next?

Written by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Spencer, Avengers Volume 3:  Prelude to Infinity is a Marvel super-hero book.  Following Avengers Volume 2:  The Last White Event, the series features art by Mike Deodato, Stefano Caselli, Marco Rudy, and Marco Checcheto.  The issues were also collected in Avengers by Jonathan Hickman—Volume 1 and Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus—Volume 1.

Hickman’s run (thus far) has been interesting.  Coming off of some of Bendis’s stories, the better rounded bigger scope of the Avengers has been interesting.  Like runs of Avengers that I like, Hickman and Spencer are using different characters and in different ways…but unlike the stories I like, the characters aren’t getting much time to develop.

Hickman is taking a somewhat real approach to a superhero team.  The characters are ranked and divided to take on specific challenges.  This feels like aftermath of teams like The Authority which decided to take a proactive effort to defend Earth.  While I liked the originality of the Authority and it also made sense, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it works as the best storytelling.

Avengers (4) #15

The characters are what has made Marvel Comics for me in the past.  They are rounded and layered.  In this collection you get some insight into Hyperion (a favorite of mine), but for the most part, the sprawling cast just serves the roles of soldiers trying to shut down a potential invasion.  I want the relationships between the team members, and I want the melodrama that comes with it…soldiers fighting a war might be realistic, but it isn’t fun.

This storytelling also points out the ridiculous nature of comics in this format.  It doesn’t make sense to have characters like Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Shang Chi in the same fight against the same enemies as characters like Thor, Hyperion, and Sunspot…I realize they are skilled fighters, but these aren’t your world’s best defenders…something that the Avengers (as Hickman and Spencer are setting them up) are supposed to be.

Those are the criticisms of the series.  In defense of the series, Avengers is doing something new and different in the Marvel Universe.  Hickman and Spencer seem to have a vision and a plan.  With Infinity coming, the stakes have to seem real and big…and they are pulling that off.  I just wish we didn’t have to sacrifice heart, character, and emotion to do it.  Avengers 3:  Prelude to Infinity is followed by Avengers 4:  Infinity.

Related Links:

Avengers 1:  Avengers World

Avengers 2:  The Last White Event

Avengers 5:  Adapt or Die

Avengers 6:  Infinite Avengers