New Avengers #13.INH

New Avengers 13.INH is not fun, it is not easy to read, but it is an excellent comic book. This saga is one of the few that is not afraid of anything. So many comic book writers are terrified of producing material that is not written for the trade, or compressed into one single story arc. The Claremont run on X-Men was not written like that, it did not care about appealing to new markets or readers, what it did do was attempt to catch readers up to speed with dialogue boxes. This is something that Avengers and New Avengers both do not do. These stories do not care about appealing to someone who has not been following the comic book since the first issue. It is a dramatic change in terms of Avengers titles throughout the years to read a classic Avengers tale, and then enter the Jonathan Hickman era of the book.

 

The plot of this issue loosely revolves around the Avengers building the same bridge that was introduced in Hickman’s Fantastic Four run, to save the Earth from a threat that they are not even aware of. How many stories featuring these characters focus on a villain that they have not even seen before? To say this issue is bold, is something of an understatement. The tale opens with a glorious monologue from Reed Richards himself, talking about the state of the current New Avengers. This then reveals the Bridge concept again, and a peak at a parallel universe that went horribly wrong. The piece of this puzzle that is still completely unintelligible is Dr. Strange, when he used the Blood Bible earlier in the series something went horribly wrong.

 

This issue is essentially a grim look at vaguely horrific things that have not happened yet, and it is glorious.

 

Simone Bianchi’s art wonderously complements the story being told here. It is really dark, and abstract in a manner that will shock those who are used to the regular Marvel house style. In some ways, these panels look rushed, but the way that their looseness leaves the reader to interpret what is not seen on the page makes this issue still retain a sense of perfection. The peak into the alternate reality is masterfully drawn, and suitably hopeless for the story being told.

This could be the single greatest issue of New Avengers ever, and the one that has the potential to piss of the most readers. Hickman and Bianchi craft some of the most exciting storytelling that the Avengers franchise has ever seen.