Review: New Avengers Vol. 1- Everything Dies
Quick Summary
Pros: The story is filled with suspense and even a bit of horror. The themes surrounding self-preservation are interesting. The entire book follows an atypical concept that is simultaneously complex and accessible. The artwork looks good and helps enhance the storytelling.
Cons: Nothing significant.
Overall: The New Avengers series is off to a fantastic start. This volume blends suspense, horror, and genuine good storytelling to tell a highly entertaining and unique story. Plus, the entire experience works toward a theme that proves to be both thought provoking and interesting. Readers looking for a novel take on high-stakes Marvel adventures should absolutely pick up this volume.
Story
New Avengers Vol. 1: Everything Dies is an incredibly unique and impressive volume that kickstarts a series with tons of potential. Within this one book, writer Jonathan Hickman deftly introduces readers to a complex crisis of multiversal proportions. This tests some of the most powerful members of the Marvel Universe and creates the perfect conditions for developing suspense and exploring the depths of human nature. All of this is done through a storyline that is remarkably engaging and hard to stop reading. I’m thoroughly looking forwarding to seeing how this epic develops as this series progresses.
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The most impressive aspect of Everything Dies is the introduction of concepts and ideas that are incredibly novel and complex while simultaneously being easy to understand. Hickman details how a series of cosmic chain reactions are bringing about the end of the multiverse through diagrams and the metaphors of Black Swan’s dialogue. This allows the comic to be a wholly unique and different adventure, while still being relatively simple to access.
The volume also stands out as a unique story due to the unusual nature of the book’s antagonist. Rather than being a typical superhero story, where a villain threatens humanity and a hero is forced to stop them, the antagonist here is the very structure of the multiverse. This removes physical confrontation from the equation and aligns the threat with something more akin to a cancer rather than a standard enemy. In many ways, this gives the story some Lovecraftian horror undertones and makes the storytelling more menacing and terrifying.
This unique antagonist also gives the book an opportunity to explore the depths humanity is willing to endure in order to further self-preservation. Readers are forced to watch as their heroes go from stalwart defenders of righteousness to men fully willing to trade one life for another. Captain America’s disappointment and Black Swan’s approval speak volumes on the change the group undergoes and call the reader to question what they would do if they were in the same situation. The best part about this theme is that it does not necessarily pick sides and, thus far, simply poses the problem as a question to ponder.
Another impressive quality found throughout this book is how much anxiety and dread Hickman is able to develop simply through conversation. A large portion of this book depicts the members of the Illuminati siting around a table talking to one another or talking to people on a more private basis. In any other comic, this would be a recipe for disaster; as it would not provide the story with enough excitement to engage the vast majority of readers. However, within this volume, the conversations are so stimulating and interesting that they immediately demand readers’ attention.
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Art
The artwork throughout Everything Dies is well executed and does a fantastic job as an accompaniment to the story. Steve Epting’s pencils detail good-looking characters and locations that go on to form a solid base upon which the volume is set. However, the true achievement in this book’s artwork comes from the way in which it actively enhances the storytelling. This comes from a variety of factors that range from creative diagrams, which make complex concepts easier to understand, to character expressions, which tell the reader more about the situation than can be expressed through narration. Even the book’s colors, which are provided by Frank D’Armata, help by depicting the bleak nature of the heroes’ situation or immediately clueing the reader in on some cosmic change. Overall, this is a good-looking book that is significantly enhanced by the nature of the artwork.
The only real flaw with this volume’s appearance is from the narration, rather than the art. This minor flaw comes from a few items and places that are mislabeled. Though this isn’t too big of a deal, it is a bit noticeable in one scene where the Infinity Gems are all colored incorrectly. This still isn’t a major problem, as the volume still looks great, but is worth noting.
Continuity
New Avengers Vol. 1: Everything Dies starts a new New Avengers series. Though it is technically a successor to the previous series, which ended in New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection Vol. 7, the two series have very little to do with each other.
The story here continues in New Avengers Vol. 2: Infinity.
This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:
- The flashback at the beginning of this volume shows a conversation from New Avengers: Illuminati #1. This issue is collected in New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection Vol. 2.
- The events of Avengers vs. X-Men explain the animosity between Black Panther and Namor.
- The events of Avengers vs. X-Men also explain Professor Xavier’s current condition.
- The members of the Illuminati received their Infinity Gems in Avengers #12, which is collected in Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection Vol. 1.