Comic Review - (Marvel NOW) Avengers 4-6

Title/Storyline
(Marvel Now) Avengers Vol 5 4-6
Publish Date/Year
2013
Creative Team
Jonathan Hickman
Adam Kubert
Publisher
Marvel

Story
Issues 4-6 delves into the individual stories of the new members, namely Hyperion, Smasher & Captain Universe respectively. This was designed to give readers an opportunity to know who these new members are.

Issue 4 tells of how Hyperion was saved from his dying universe (the Squadron Supreme universe) by AIM and was held captive until he was saved by the Avengers.

Issue 5 shows how a farm-girl from Iowa chanced upon an alien artifact that transforms her into the Smasher and how she was inducted into the Shi'ar Imperial Guard after displaying her qualities, making Earth proud as she's the 1st human to ever be a member.

Here is an image by John Byrne (the BEST X-Men artist ever!) of his babies fighting the Shi'ar Imperial Guard.

Issue 6 has Shang-Chi (aka Master of Kung-Fu) use his Zen-like skills to help Captain Universe uncover who the person /host really is underneath the mask & power and why the Uni-Power (a universal force that selects a sentient host to wield the power of Captain Universe to address a threat) chose Tamara Devoux, a woman who has lost her memories when she entered into a coma, to become the current Captain Universe.

Meanwhile, "Darkveil", a humanoid "Adam" (for a moment, I thought that was the Marvel NOW version of Adam Warlock. I'd really like to see the Marvel NOW version) that was created by Ex Nihilo** on Mars and brought back to Earth by the Avengers, is actually Nightmask, and he is warning the Avengers of the coming of The White Event (see below for the significance of this event and this is 1 of the many reasons why I love Hickman's work). I can't wait to read the next issue!

** see (Marvel Now) Avengers Vol 5 1-3

Art
Kubert is a competent artist who delivers consistently solid work but he's not in the same class as Jerome Opena. Still, having said that, his work does not distract readers from the story but is in fact quite good.

However, it's just not good enough for me to tell the difference between his work and his brother Andy's.

Overall
The White Event - well, if you know what this is, then you are showing your age.

Back in the 80's when the then Editor-In-Chief & rising star Jim Shooter, wanted to capitalise on Marvel's success and had created a brand new line of Marvel Comics under the New Universe imprint. It was supposed to be paranormal events happening to the real world as we know it. The imprint had 8 titles, of which, Nightmask was 1.

Wow - that really got me going. I can't wait to see how Hickman will incorporate the New Universe and its characters into the world of Marvel Now. THIS, is what comic books are all about! I love it. Highly recommended.