AVENGERS #32 REVIEW
Writer- Jonathan Hickman
Penciler- Leinil Francis Yu
Inker- Gerry Alanguilan
Colorist- Sunny Gho
Review by Justin Townson
Fans of Jonathan Hickman’s know what to expect with his work: long term storytelling, more questions than answers, and more than anything, to be patient. Although Hickman tells a long story, the pay off always seems to be worth it. After it was announced that he would be writing Avengers, I was excited for whatever the payoff would be. While its taken some time, as expected, the story has now found its footing, gained some traction, and the big picture is coming in to focus.
I’ve always loved time travel stories and the last few issues of Avengers has been spinning quite a good one. It’s always interesting to go into the future and see what has becomes of our heroes. After going forward 5045 years in this issue, we run into a fantastic guest cameo that absolutely floored me. However, if you are familiar with Hickman’s work, it won’t feel so much like as surprise as it will feel like coming home. Hickman works with an interesting idea that has fate woven in with time travel here. I found it to have worked really well. Can you change your fate? If you were armed with the knowledge of the future would you make the same choices as before? Would the universe even let you change them? The questions being laid at our feet are fascinating. The answers will have to wait for now but they’re something that I’m looking forward to getting.
Leinil Yu has been a personal favorite of mine since his work on Secret Invasion. I’ve always enjoyed his action scenes but not the way he draws faces and slower moments as much. In this issue the characters have very little action and spend most of the time standing around and talking, and I still felt this was some of his best work. The characters faces have much more expression and definition than I’ve seen from his pencils previously. There is a wonderful close up drawing of Natasha here that was beautifully drawn. I’m hopeful that this trend continues with his already excellent work.
Verdict
Buy it. It’s all starting to come into place. The over arching plot threads between this book and New Avengers are starting to line up with each other. Marvel has been hinting that something big is coming within a year and this feels like the start of something massive. Its been a slow burn I know, but I trust in Jonathan Hickman and so should you. Jump on board.
