PREVIEW: Avengers #5

[jackolover]

Yes. I was thinking the same thing too: it's good Hickman/Marvel editorial are building on DnA's tremendous work.

Also... "Most Elite Fighting Force In The Known Universe." Interesting. I wonder if Hickman's laying the groundwork for an eventual conflict between the Avengers and the Imperial Guard. To my mind the most elite fighting force in the Universe is the Avengers -- as Cap told Ex Nihilo, Earth is so special because it's an "Avengers World."

I wonder... since the Avengers are "going Big" it stands to reason that maybe they're also going beyond their norm of defending just the earth. If Hickman's run last a while, I wonder if he'll have them eventually branch out beyond Earth? This is just speculation, of course, but that'd certainly be interesting... would an "Avengers Corps" include some of the other Annihilators like Beta Ray Bill, The Surfer and Quasar? To my mind, Hickman's got the writing chops to bring Avengers fans something as memorable as the Kree-Skrull War and the Korvac Saga.

Also, given the sci-fi bent that Hickman's introduced to Avengers, something like that wouldn't be entirely off-field or off the table (subject to editorial's approval, of course) -- ironically, I don't think I could have said the same of Bendis but now that he's writing Guardians, it just seems logical for the Avengers, as Marvel's premiere team, to explore that branch of the Marvel mythos and bring it closer to the mainstream.

It may be why Marvel took the Nova Corp off the table, if the Avengers are going to form Avengers Corp and incorporate the GoG and the Imperial Guard into them? Because that's what I would have done. It's just an extension of Avengers Initiative - put an Avengers team in each state. But in outer space, put an Avengers team in each galaxy or in each quadrant. So if you have existent pseudo-Avengers, just deputize them.

[XPac]

It may be why Marvel took the Nova Corp off the table, if the Avengers are going to form Avengers Corp and incorporate the GoG and the Imperial Guard into them? Because that's what I would have done. It's just an extension of Avengers Initiative - put an Avengers team in each state. But in outer space, put an Avengers team in each galaxy or in each quadrant. So if you have existent pseudo-Avengers, just deputize them.

We have a new Nova right now, so presumably the Nova corps aren't off the table though. Someone presumably gave him his powers and trained him.

We'll probably know more once the new Nova book comes out.

[jphamlore]

I amazed by the assumption that Hickman intends for an interstellar Avengers to be considered a good thing. Considering what Hickman has written in comics for Marvel or for his own comics such as Manhattan Project, or considering Avengers #1, I assert that one of Hickman's general themes is that an attempt at benevolent imperialism always results in horror and catastrophe.

I also suspect with the resolution of the collision of universes in New Avengers, there is going to be some multiplication in the number of the equivalents of the Infinity gems so that there something like 24 avatars of facets of the Infinity gems or perhaps even anti-gems. The Avengers are becoming a new type of Infinity Gauntlet, and that is probably NOT a good thing.

[jackolover]

We have a new Nova right now, so presumably the Nova corps aren't off the table though. Someone presumably gave him his powers and trained him.

We'll probably know more once the new Nova book comes out.

Not necessarily. Rich Rider never heard of the Nova Corp till much later didn't he? He was just a rocket man in New Warriors and later progressed to Intergalactic policeman? This new Nova, seems to have gone straight into space though. It remains to be seen what he is at this stage.

I amazed by the assumption that Hickman intends for an interstellar Avengers to be considered a good thing. Considering what Hickman has written in comics for Marvel or for his own comics such as Manhattan Project, or considering Avengers #1, I assert that one of Hickman's general themes is that an attempt at benevolent imperialism always results in horror and catastrophe.

I also suspect with the resolution of the collision of universes in New Avengers, there is going to be some multiplication in the number of the equivalents of the Infinity gems so that there something like 24 avatars of facets of the Infinity gems or perhaps even anti-gems. The Avengers are becoming a new type of Infinity Gauntlet, and that is probably NOT a good thing.

I wonder about Jonathan Hickman at Marvel? He has written SHIELD, Secret Warriors, Fantastic Four and now Avengers. Goes Hickman have a storyboard connecting all these disparate stories into one gigantic continuity, so that he can reference the Egyptians, Michelangelo, Hydra, and the War of 4 cities, into the space drama in the Avengers?

[erwinrafael]

We are now familiar with four of the events that Hickman hinted at in issue #1. Hyperion being rescued from a dying universe is referenced in issue 4. the Guard being broken on a dead moon may refer to this issue. Ex Nihilo terraforming Mars is issue #1. The light, based on Kubert's illustrations in #4, may refer to an Incursion.

So we are just left with the War (which looks like an intergalactic war), the Fall, and the end point which is The Race to the Light (is this the same as The Light?).

[PupsOfWar]

I think The Light refers to a White Event (and is the same referenced throughout the prologue). Which is a general conclusion around places. We haven't seen blinding, white light associated with incursions yet: just a reddened dimming of the sky.

Although I'm curious about the amount of light there was in the dimensionless void where Hyperion was floating. Which was a lot.

Where were all those photons coming from? Do only rest-massed particles annihilate during an Incursion?

[Rheged]

I don't think it was supposed to be light, so much as nothingness -- though, I still wonder how nothing can hold something, and be torn into. It would appear the end of universe doesn't wipe it out existence entirely.

[PupsOfWar]

I thought it might be a metaphysical or metafictional Nothing - a la the "page that hasn't been filled in yet" whiteness that you see in things like Morrison's Animal Man, or anywhere else authorspace is shown to intersect the narrative - but then I figured he was powered-up at the time AIM captured him, based on how he was managing to struggle against those robot arms. Meaning that he'd had a light-source.

But I'm probably over-thinking it.

Now that we've seen how strong he is, he could easily have been mostly-depowered and still been a handful.
Or I could have been misreading it and he was helpless against them.