Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

Fletcher Bumphrey

Avengers By Jonathan Hickman: The Complete Collection Vol. 4 Review!

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There’s still time.

Things are still falling apart in the Marvel universe, but the Avengers have had a victory, after fighting back the Builders and Thanos in Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 3. For the Illuminati, it’s a Pyrrhic victory. The death of everything is still coming. And now, the chaos that comes with that begins to seep into everything else. Things are unraveling, and the heroes begin to realize why.

If Infinity was an epic story, touched with character moments, then Avengers Vol. 4 by Jonathan Hickman and a host of artists, is focused on the characters, using the epic moments to bring us closer to them. And the question these characters are forced to ask themselves is – what have they become?

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Avengers by Jonathan Hickman – The Complete Collection Vol. 3 Review!

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From his first arc on Avengers, through New Avengers, Time Runs Out, and Secret Wars, Jonathan Hickman explores the dichotomy of life and death, their intersections, and how they, together, form the basis of creation. Infinity, his first major event, is the first crescendo of these ideas, the way they pull at and touch one another, collected in the latest Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 3.

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Doctor Strange Epic Collection: Alone Against Eternity Review!

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Doctor Strange is a character who can be difficult to use in comics with wide reaching continuity. Sorcerer Supreme? Master of the Mystic Arts? Sounds like a walking, talking Deus ex Machina, able to step in and solve any problem important enough to warrant his attention. This collection of Doctor Strange comics from the 70s deals with these problems in two ways. One way is by giving him problems so far outside the scope of human problems that they pose a challenge for even a sorcerer supreme. The physical manifestation of eternity? Go for it. Satan? Here he comes. How about a collection of beings who’ve decided they should replace the stars in the sky, by becoming stars themselves? Lay it on me. High concept and over the top, the success rate is mixed, but when the stories land, do they ever.

And dealing with all these heady ideas and beautiful nonsense, that’s where the second point stands out. Throughout these stories, Stephen Strange is plagued with doubt, and, despite his powers, fear of his all too human fallibility. It would be easy to dismiss the sort of character who battles Eternity as just another cardboard cut-out, if they couldn’t understand the doubts of our eponymous hero. [Read more…] about Doctor Strange Epic Collection: Alone Against Eternity Review!