Question of the Week: How Central Are Avengers & New Avengers to Infinity?

Boatload of questions this past week (you guys & gals are the best!), but only two of them overlapped to the point that I said “Yeah, I better cover the Infinity reading order.” As a reminder, you can send all your Comic Book Herald questions to dave@comicbookherald.com or @comicbookherald on Twitter.

Marvel’s Infinity Event

The first part of our question comes from Timothy and asks: “With Infinity #1 – #6, I was wondering if reading the other comics like Avengers #18 is necessary or will just reading the 6 comic books be enough?”

This is a good question because with most Marvel events you can get away with just reading the primary event and skipping out on the tie-ins. Now, tie-ins are frequently a great way to fill in all the details and build out the Marvel universe for a wider variety of characters, but if you want to read AvX #1 – #12 and nothing else, you’re going to be able to do that and enjoy the story.

With Infinity, this isn’t really the case. Avengers and New Avengers are really fully functional chapters in the Infinity saga, to the point that the story continues very directly in each title. I’d think of Avengers and New Avengers less as tie-ins, and more as the next chapter in Infinity.

This approach could be very off-putting and feel like a money grab by Marvel, but I actually like the way Infinity reads as a result. All three titles – Infinity, Avengers, and New Avengers – are written by Jonathan Hickman, meaning he’s architecting and plotting the story. It’s a cohesive, thoughtful event, and it’s no suprirse that Hickman, one of the finest authors in comics today, expands the Marvel event into something one title simply couldn’t contain.

As a final note, you’ll notice that the Infinity trade collection includes all Avengers & New Avengers in addition to the “core” event. Again, the story just flows better with all Hickman written parts.

Speaking of Hickman’s Avengers & New Avengers

The second part to this question from Rob asks:

“I have a quick question as I approach the Infinity crossover. You have from Avengers 14 through infinity, and New Avengers 8- infinity  of the crossover listed, but I was wondering what the reading order would be for Hickman’s Avengers 1-13 and New Avengers 1-7. Do the two titles cross over any any point before infinity, that I should read in a certain order?”

This is a good question. If you’re a Hickman fan, fan of Brian Michael Bendis’ New Avengers: Illuminati, or just a Marvel comics fan in general, Avengers and New Avengers are recommended reading.

For the most part, you can read these two titles separately until you hit the Infinity tie-in issues. While they overlap in their Iron Man quota, the books largely run on parallel tracks prior to Infinity.

Personally, I read New Avengers as part of my monthly pull, and then catch up on Avengers in bulk through Marvel Unlimited. Prior to Infinity, I did not see any information gaps involving crossover between the two series.

Thanks for the questions every one. Again, hit me up at dave@comicbookherald.com, @comicbookherald, or in the comments with more.