There is so much crazy stuff going on in Jonathan Hickman’s ‘Avengers’ right now. It’s gotten so crazy that the action had to spinoff into ‘Avengers World’ and Nick Spencer had to step in to help carry the load of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. However, that doesn’t mean that the writer has skipped a beat. Even though his audience might have thought he did when word got out that he would be taking a page out of Brian Michael Bendis’ book, Hickman sends us all for a swerve once again with his ‘Rogue Planet’ storyline.

In the last issue, the Avengers were getting some much needed R&R to celebrate Christmas holiday after the back-to-back battles they faced against the Builders and Thanos. But their good time was quickly interrupted by someone sporting Iron Man armor showing up on their doorstep from the future in order to warn them about a rogue planet on a collision course with Earth. Together, they pull some crafty maneuvers that result in essentially the two planets becoming one. Finally, before the mysterious future figure returns to her own time, there was some mention of the Illuminati and their secret mission regarding alternate universes.

Now, the events of ‘New Avengers’ seem to seep further into ‘Avengers’ as AIM continues to meddle in science far beyond them because during a series of experiments on their island, they’ve somehow managed to bring the original team of Avengers to the present. After they escape from the Scientist Supreme and his minions, S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up at the scene of a high profile death with plenty of reason to question Captain America, Iron Man, and the rest of their crew.

Like I said in the introduction, there’s some crazy stuff going on here, but I mean that in the best possible way. The Marvel Multiverse has existed for years, but no one has played with it as much as Hickman has been recently. When he first took the reins for Marvel NOW, he said that ‘New Avengers’ would be the dark side to the idealistic world in ‘Avengers’. But after this current arc began, it looks like the light and dark are starting to blend together. Basically, barriers are breaking down and the Avengers World is getting even larger and it’s getting harder and harder to put into words all of the good things about these books.

With all this grand sci-fi epicness going on all around every book with Hickman’s name on it, the writer manages to balance it all pretty well and deliver a story that one can’t help but follow. Everything is so intricate and it spans over multiple decades and universes. It’s all too big to be ignored, so everyone should be picking it up. If not for the fact that this is all really interesting to follow, we know that the OG Avengers are gearing up for a meeting with the current Avengers some time soon. And just like Hickman swerved us with the premise of this issue, he’s probably going to continue to avoid predictable tropes and keep surprising us issue after issue. If ‘Avengers’ hasn’t cemented itself onto your pull list yet, then you should really get your act together and throw it up on there right away.

Final Score:

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Avengers #25
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Salvador Larroca & Frank Martin