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A review by crookedtreehouse
Avengers: Time Runs Out, Vol. 1 by Jonathan Hickman
3.0
In action stories where there are a dozen or so moving parts, a bunch of characters coming together to overcome a problem, be it superheroes, a group of bank robbers, a government and a group of scientists responding to an approaching meteor, there is a point in the film/tv series/comic book/novel where we transition from excessive narration, character beats, and introspection and we get down to the fistfights, shocking reveals, and denoument.
That's where we're at in Hickman's Avengers run.
We're eight months after the last part of the story, everything is changed and feels more urgent, but rather than really understand the changes, we just throw the characters into the action and see what happens.
And, naturally, there are chess references.
It sort of works here. I believe all the characters' motivations. I like the way the plot is unfolding, but it's The End Of The Marvel Universe, and I'm not emotionally involved in any way. There's too much logic and not enough pathos. It's like listening to someone talk about a hobby they love, and have them clinically reproduce a Wikipedia article on every possible aspect of their hobby, as opposed to listening to someone's engrossing story about the part of their hobby that they really love. Yea, I'm getting the information I was hoping for, but it's just ... flat.
Second to [b:The Manhattan Projects, Vol. 1: Science. Bad.|15736709|The Manhattan Projects, Vol. 1 Science. Bad.|Jonathan Hickman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1350317627l/15736709._SY75_.jpg|21420399], this might be the most disappointed I've been in Hickman's writing. Again, it's not terrible. It's not even technically bad, it's just unfulfilling given the scope of this story. If you're a fan of large cast epic tales, this still might be for you. I was just hoping there would be at least one storyline that engaged my emotions as much as it engages Hickman's knowlege of Marvel conitnuity.
That's where we're at in Hickman's Avengers run.
We're eight months after the last part of the story, everything is changed and feels more urgent, but rather than really understand the changes, we just throw the characters into the action and see what happens.
And, naturally, there are chess references.
It sort of works here. I believe all the characters' motivations. I like the way the plot is unfolding, but it's The End Of The Marvel Universe, and I'm not emotionally involved in any way. There's too much logic and not enough pathos. It's like listening to someone talk about a hobby they love, and have them clinically reproduce a Wikipedia article on every possible aspect of their hobby, as opposed to listening to someone's engrossing story about the part of their hobby that they really love. Yea, I'm getting the information I was hoping for, but it's just ... flat.
Second to [b:The Manhattan Projects, Vol. 1: Science. Bad.|15736709|The Manhattan Projects, Vol. 1 Science. Bad.|Jonathan Hickman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1350317627l/15736709._SY75_.jpg|21420399], this might be the most disappointed I've been in Hickman's writing. Again, it's not terrible. It's not even technically bad, it's just unfulfilling given the scope of this story. If you're a fan of large cast epic tales, this still might be for you. I was just hoping there would be at least one storyline that engaged my emotions as much as it engages Hickman's knowlege of Marvel conitnuity.