AVENGERS #31: Days of Future's Future, with a Flashback

[starwolf_oakley]

AVENGERS #31 ties into ORIGINAL SIN, without having much to do with ORIGINAL SIN. The Time Gem is sending a group of Avengers to the future. As before, they encounter a group of that time's Avengers who knew they were coming. This time, they are 422 years in the future. Captain America and Black Widow are gassed and grabbed by the "Avengers" while Thor, Hyperion and Starbrand are kept in a large clear box. (Thor can hold his breath a long time, while Hyperion and Starbrand don't need to breathe, even though Starbrand didn't know this.)







Poor self-esteem much, Steve? The other Illuminati were saying "A big weapon to stop the incursions is the ONLY thing we can do." Maybe Cap just *isn't* smart enough to realize there isn't another way.

If there's another way to stop the Incursion other than the planet-destroying bomb the Illuminati has (but hasn't used yet) Hickman has to be clearer about it. Maybe he's going for a "At least we will still be alive to hate ourselves" type thing regarding the Illuminati and the incursion, but I hope not.





Ultron rules the world and Asgard(?) and there are only about 30 million humans left. The robot doubles of Captain America and Black Widow give the originals riddle-like information and a bomb for the next time jump.

Which takes the team (now just Cap, Natasha and Starbrand) 5045 years in the future. For some reason, Hawkeye, Thor and Hyperion are back in Stark's lab.

Comments

[drtechnobabel]

Is it a bad sign that when I first saw the Illuminati, my immediate reaction was, "Of course those assholes are the only Avengers left in the future. Why should I expect anything else at this point?"

[chrisdv]

My money's on the final incursion being Ultimate Earth, and we'll see a reboot of the entire Marvel line after the Earths merge.

[obsidianwolf]

I can't see Marvel doing a reboot while they are the top selling comic company. It just seems too risky to risk alienating long term readers with a reboot.

I mean maybe if DC's latest reboot had resulted in them gaining ground instead of staying in the same Event ups reader ship and then it drops back to what it was pattern that they've held for a few years now.

[drtechnobabel]

Also, they just started their 'Marvel NOW!' line like what, 2 years ago? Way too soon for a reboot.

[obsidianwolf]

I think next May marvel has some kind of event planned like the last few years rumors of it being a reboot show up all the time when Marvel plans an event. The fact Hickman's Avengers run has been extended to past it (unfortunately) makes me think we will see yet another rebranding but not a reboot.

[drtechnobabel]

Unless of course his run post-reboot involves the Illuminati somehow knowing that the universe was rebooted and trying to reverse it by blowing up the new Earth or defeating whatever new cosmic threat shows up out of nowhere.

But honestly, you're probably right.

[obsidianwolf]

Which would make it House of M part II only this time House of M would last longer.

Actually that would be a neat event if say for one year all the comics were going to take part in a reality warp like House of M or Age of Apocalypse with things set right at the end.

[drtechnobabel]

I'm honestly torn between saying "That's a stupid idea" and "It'd be about bloody time." Because let's be honest here, while it could turn out as bad as the New 52, Marvel has a LOT of continuity bloat and could actually benefit from trimming it down some.

[obsidianwolf]

Personally only way I'd be for it would be A. It was a total reboot (not just make things more like the movies Yay!) and B. It was a total reboot of writers and editor as well. I mean entirely new creative teams no one on the books they currently are on. New Editors who have a cohesive vision for the universe that type of thing.

Though I'd be happier with the Ultimate Universe being dumped and a new side imprint that was actually different being launched instead.

[burkeonthesly]

Can we keep Miles Morales, at least? And a non-oblivious Spider Family?

[ablackraptor]

Eh, I've never got the problem people, especially those within the comic industry, have with continuity, at least not in this generation. With the internet at out fingertips, I don't really see any issue with managing continuity because I can just google the characters and read up on the old stories I've not read. I mean, I began reading comics about 4 years ago, but I didn't have much issue getting into them because the internet allowed me to find what stories I could jump into or the info I needed to know before hand to make sense of it; I assume any new readers are going to do the same, especially since Marvel's relaunch seems to be about making the comics accessible from just watching the films (Well, the films Marvel own, at least).

Honestly, all the reboot did for DC was make it HARDER to manage the continuity because its not clear what's in canon or not any more.

[obsidianwolf]

Even in the pre internet days it wasn't that hard. If an obscure bit of canon was being references they'd either flash back to it, mention it or include a caption box mentioning it.

The DC reboot isn't helped by it being the same editors and writers who were telling the stories before the reboot still telling them now. I mean the tone of the universe didn't change at all. Only now some things that were canon weren't and some still were.

[arbre_rieur]

Not every new reader's going to be willing to do that kind of research beforehand, though. I, for example, can honestly say I've never done that for any series in any medium in my whole life. There have been times where I did research after I'd already seen an episode/issue/whatever of something, and found it enjoyable enough that I wished to learn more, but it still took that first issue to get me so motivated. If you produce a series under the assumption that every reader's going to have done the research even before that first taste, then you've already lost me and all the people like me, and I'd wager that's a pretty substantial potential audience being thrown away.

[ablackraptor]

True...but like you said, you still read up on it after you started reading/watching. While I get some people won't want to do any research at all when they jump in, they still have that option in case they get confused by something that happens and requires knowledge of prior events, which the New 52 robs people of by the vague resets and pointless changes to some characters making the events in history ambiguous.

[silverhammerman]

I think Marvel's gotten good enough at streamlining things and bringing them in line with the movies that they don't really need to reboot. Right now the comics can largely be read as extensions of the movies, someone could come to Iron Man or Secret Avengers having only watched the movies and the current runs would still make sense, so making everyone slog through a year or more of long form retellings of origin stories and first meetings/fights/team-ups isn't really needed. Plus most continuity that's more than a decade old generally gets treated as more of a loose guideline, to be ignored or retconned as the need may arise; reading Hawkeye's 1983's limited series isn't necessary to understand the new stuff.

Look at the new Star-Lord title for example; that character is on his second new costume and outlook in as many years because of the new movie, but no one on either side of the creator/consumer divide is pretending otherwise. Marvel seems perfectly willing to just be like "Hey, this character is like this now because there's a movie" and the readers largely seem willing to roll with that. It's a bit like the WWE now that everyone acknowledges that it's fake. DC's never quite been willing to do that, so they bend over backwards to come up with convoluted explanations for why Batman is younger and broodier now, even if they have to break their own universe to do it.

Plus, people seem to have been consistently predicting a Marvel reboot since DC's New 52, and Marvel seems to be doing just fine trucking along as usual. The most they've done is those Season One graphic novels, which frankly seem like the ideal approach to me; the format is perfect for the bookstore market and occasional/curious reader, it allows them to tell these stories without interrupting the ongoings, and Marvel gets a chance to revisit and revise some old stuff.

EDIT: Not to mention I think the Ultimate universe is a whole lot more interesting now that it's no longer being used as the updated version of the Marvel U and can just be a crazy playground to experiment with the characters.

[punishermax]

Chances of something massively game changing happening soon is pretty much given since they're hyping the event after Original Sn as being something the company has never ever done.

[espanolbot]

Hi OMAC!

[thanekos]

" And this is no longer Earth, human- it's PLANET ULTRON. "
" What-? No. No, you can't mean- "
" Yes. I do. Now.. can I start you off with a Heavy Metal platter, or would you like to order some drinks first? Personally, I recommend the Alkhemicalata. "