Jonathan Hickman is a crafty bitch. Avengers #24, also known as Rogue Planet #1, begins as one thing, becomes another, and then transforms into something different. The man who just finished amazing us with the depth of Infinity is setting up more pins to knock down. Who is in the crosshairs now? Let’s just say a certain shell-head might be staring down the barrels of a really crappy 2014.
Avengers #24 starts out in the year 3030, where all holy hell seems to be breaking loose. In the future Baxter Building, Iron Man has built a temporal device that will catapult the hero into the past. Stepping in to try and stop Iron Man is Franklin Richards, now all grown up and looking to stop Iron Man’s trip. Instead, Shellhead convinces the future Mr. Fantastic to let him go. This is the first layer of wool pulled over your eyes. After such an epic story arc in Infinity, alarm bells go off that Hickman might be falling back on the old “time travel to save the future” crutch. Nope. At least not how you’d expect it.
In the present day, the Avengers are having a BBQ to blow off steam. Thor is cooking, though admittedly the grilling of lobster has befuddled him. As the Avengers party, Tony Stark and Captain America discuss the future of the group. The machine Stark invented in Hickman’s first issue has worked. The Avengers are bigger and more spread out than ever before. It’s almost as if Stark has created a Cerebro for Avengers. Oddly, Stark is pessimistic about the future, and begs Captain America not to rely on the machine alone.
Cue the arrival of future Iron Man who, after slapping down the present day Iron Man, explains that a planet is rocketing towards Earth. Not some random rogue planet, but a planet that has been fired at the Earth. Who the hell can fire a planet? Well, that isn’t really important right now. What is important is that future Iron Man and the Avengers build a huge contraption on Mars that will deal with the coming planet. After a glorious sci-fi action sequence, the new planet is not destroyed, but actually able to occupy the same space as Earth at the same time. Future Iron Man, who turns out to be Stark’s granddaughter, says the energy this creates will help Tony Stark, who is about to face a world where everyone he knows wants to kill him.
See? See what Hickman did there? He started with a typical comic book story, then turned it into an establishment of who the Avengers are now, pushed it into a sci-fi adventure, and then ended it as a mystery. As always, Hickman’s writing is rich in dialogue and flawlessly paced. What turns the world against Stark, and how much of it has to do with the secrets of the Illuminati? Rogue Planet has busted open a new door, one that allows Avengers to continue to kick ass.
Sadly, the art is a muddled mess of multiple artists. Esad Ribic, Salvador Larroca, Mike Deodato and Butch Guice all contribute to this story, and their work never gels together. Avengers #24 never gets a visual flow to match the written one. All of these artists are tremendous, and if the issue was only one of them, it would be a grand slam. With the constant style switch, Avengers #24 is a visual mess that sometimes works and sometimes does not.
Regardless of the art hiccup, Jonathan Hickman as done it again. Just as he finishes raising the bar, he jumps it, leaving us stoked on an entire year of Hickman-driven Avengers stories.
(5 Story, 2.5 Art)
