With ‘Infinity’ coming to an end this week, the latest issue of ‘New Avengers’ acts as an epilogue to the whole event. The issue catches up with the members of the Illuminati after Thane and the Avengers quelled the scuffle with Thanos and now they’re free to revisit the things that plagued them before the alien invasion. You know, like the end of multiple wars and impending war between nations.

This issue might be my favorite ‘New Avengers’ issue of the entire ‘Infinity’ event. I mean, it says something if I’m actually writing about it considering the last one I reviewed was issue #9, right? First, we had T’Challa being confronted (and subsequently banished) from his kingdom by his sister, the Queen of Wakanda, because of his interactions with Namor, the ruler of a nation at odds with their own. Now, I haven’t read much Black Panther, but every time that I have, I’ve always found him hopeful and strong. However, in this series, he’s much darker. He’s very troubled and, as Namor says, he’s at the “very edge”. It’s a side that I’ve never seen of this character and I’m curious to see how much deeper this will go now that he’s basically lost everything.

Then, we see Black Bolt and Doctor Strange attempting to regain their strength in their own ways. Both men have been through a lot since the invasion began, so they definitely need to recharge their batteries. Also, the good doctor looks as if he’ll be getting back into some major avenging. If I recall correctly, he was semi-retired until the Eye of Agamotto and the title of Sorcerer Supreme were returned to him fairly recently. So, if he gets back into action and somehow ends up with his old Defenders running mates, then that’s something that I could totally get into.

Finally, the reason that I love this issue is because of what Beast, Mr. Fantastic, and Iron Man are up to when they take the living-dead Thanos to Necropolis where Black Swan is being held. She straight up calls them out for not doing anything to affect the outcome of the battle with the invaders. It was all luck that Thane was there and stronger than his father and that Maximus dispatched Supergiant.

This was something that had occurred to me while reading ‘Infinity’ #6 since the Illuminati had done so much to try to prevent their world from ending, but none of it really worked in the end. It all came down to luck. And this isn’t the first time this has happened either. But I believe that it is the first time that someone in the comics calls these heroes out on their sh*t. Not saying that I don’t appreciate the team’s efforts, but it’s quite different to hear one of their allies call them out like that. The best part? The look in the trio’s eyes in their final panel definitely knows that she’s right. While the world may have not ended, worlds have for people like Black Bolt, Namor, T’Challa, and Thanos. These things are too big for them to not get addressed again, so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing where Jonathan Hickman takes the story after this because up until this point, he’s given us some pretty heavy sh*t that I can’t really put down.

Final Score:

atoms_4.5

 

NEW AVENGERS #12
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Mike Deodato & Frank Martin
Cover by Mike Deodato & Laura Martin