Canada strikes back! In the latest issue of Jonathan Hickman’s ‘Avengers’, Captain America takes a team to investigate the damage that Ex Nihilo inflicted onto planet Earth in an attempt to rebuild it.

Before we get into this issue, in the last issue, when Starbrand and Nightmask uncover the plans of Ex Nihilo, they ventured back to Earth to see it unfold before their eyes. Seemingly, they stopped whatever it was that was forming, but the Avengers took issue with how they did it, so the two parties met in battle to resolve some unfinished business. In the end, the two spawns of the White Event were left in a space station because they were dubbed to powerful to keep on Earth. Yeah, I’ve heard that somewhere before, and somebody big and green didn’t like it then, so the resulting aftermath wasn’t very pretty. Unfortunately, Kevin Connor and his companion went peacefully… for now.

With one problem subdued, the Avengers shifted their focus back to Earth. After Department H, the Canadian equivalent of S.H.I.E.L.D., failed to penetrate the dome that formed from one of Ex Nihilo’s pods, they called in Earth’s Mightiest Heroes with the hope that they could succeed where Canada’s Omega Flight could not. But once in the dome, Cap, Wolverine, and the rest of the crew encounter something quite unexpected inside the dome.

First of all, Omega Flight was never a team that I thought the Avengers would be working with these days. Okay, I know that Marvel is working on showing more diversity in their line up of books, which is a great thing, and since the pod landed in Canada, it was a no brainer that Canada’s premiere superhero team would be involved, but they didn’t really serve as much of a purpose as they could have. They were involved in the story, but they weren’t really showcased in any way. At risk of being spoilery, I felt like Omega Flight was basically used as red shirts in this issue and that’s kind of a bummer. Not saying that I’m going to go out and buy an Omega Flight book or anything, but I would’ve liked to know a little bit more about them in this story.

That being said, the mystery surrounding Validator was pretty awesome. I found that to be very interesting and I want to see how those aspects factor into how the Avengers deal with these threats from Ex Nihilo from here on out. Additionally, the way the dome affected the team was super trippy. I hope that stuff comes into play again somewhere down the line. Seeing how Hickman has handled his run so far, I have a feeling that it will, mostly because there’s still a whole other pod that the team still has to deal with in Australia.

I’ve said it before, but I really love how complex Hickman’s story is in ‘Avengers’. I’m really enjoying this mystery and watching it unwind each issue. It’s probably one of the most intricate comic series that I’ve ever followed and I’m looking forward to reading more.

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AVENGERS #10

Written by JONATHAN HICKMAN

Art by DUSTIN WEAVER, MIKE DEODATO, & JUSTIN PONSOR