Avengers #34: "The Last Avenger"

[superboyprime]

'I get bored really easily. I just want to move on to other things and try out new stuff. That lends itself to the job when you’re working at Marvel on a mainstream book, on these continual second act comics.' - Jonathan Hickman

















"I remembered who I am."

Comments

[flint_marko]

I love Kang's response to Cap's latest self-righteous moralizing speech.

[icon_uk]

Exact opposite reaction from me, Cap is talking like a superhero, and Kang's reaction, whilst appropriate for a supervillain, is just too similar to the general disregard with which heroism is treated in this story.

[freezer]

Which was sadly undercut by the stupidity of LETTING CAPTAIN AMERICA KEEP HIS SHIELD.

[glprime]

I do too. "That's a really nice speech, Cap.... Too bad it doesn't FUCKING MATTER."

[monkey12]

Well, it's about damn time. People can talk all they want about wanting stories where "the heroes make tough choices", but I'll be glad to see some super heroes acting like, well, HEROES again.

[jlbarnett]

no one seems to realize that at this point fighting to save all the worlds is the tough choice.

I hope the book ends with the Avengers taking out the current editorial staff and writers at Marvel

[grumman]

This reminds me of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. That is not a bad thing.

[big_daddy_d]

This is the Captain America I love. Although Kang's response killed me. That was just perfect and yet it made me laugh. Still, I actually agree with Cap's stance, but I do see where the...Kangs are coming from.

[writeofway]

It reminds me of this little exchange from the series finale of Angel:

Angel: People who don't care will never understand the people who do.
Hamilton: Yeah...but we won't care.

[theflames]

This is nice, there's gonna be a certain amount of one off rule bending that makes our hero right and our bad guys wrong, but whatever, that's how this usually goes. Cap is maddeningly self righteous though so I don't know if I can reconcile that, though I've never been find of him.

[tugrul]

At least Cap is written with integrity. I agree this story is written to make the bad guys wrong and vilify them. Same way, they've started vilifying just Namor which is the laziest choice.

[jlbarnett]

he's completely right, so he has reason to be

[servant_iskandar]

I'd say this has been long coming!... We've all been wondering (here on s_d, as well) why the Illuminati never bothered to ask for help in dealing with this threat, given the kind of connections some of them can boast (up to and including S.W.O.R.D., star-spanning empires, heralds and whatnot).

Not only Cap's being written in character, he's going about the incursion problem the way Reed, Tony and the rest of the bunch should have acted since the start.

And yes, a "Kick reason to the curb / Believe in the You who believes in Yourself" is sorely needed given the depressing turn the story's taken (also, -Thanos-. That alone would be bad).

[drtechnobabel]

Given everything that's happened in this post, including all the reasons you stated, I think this video is more than appropriate to showcase my reaction to all this.

[night4345]

The Event, seriously? That's what you're going with? Anyway, my curiosity of the reason the Kangs don't know what's causing the Incursions is tempered by knowledge that the reason is most likely going to be full of plotholes. I'm glad Cap is pulling the everyone back together so they can solve this.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

"Come on, is this really necessary? Do we really have to name this thing, too? There's only three-- four of us here, I think we all know good and well what we're referring to when we say 'The Event.'

"Sigh, you know what? You want a name? Fine, we'll give it a name. How about George? Or Stan? 'Hey, remember where you were when Stan happened? Stan really sucked, didn't it?'

"There, are you happy now? Stan marked the end of the world as we know it, and now we all have to live with that."

[q99]

One thing that bothers me, heroism isn't about being able to save *everyone*, it's about doing what you can to save *as many as you can*.


Which, yes, hopefully is everyone, but if you cannot do everyone, you don't settle for a path that gets you nothing in a vague hope it won't turn out how it looks. You may put off that choice as long as possible while you search for other methods- what you should be spending the time on- but your job is to save as many as you can, not rely purely on the hope that there's a solution that solves everything.

[servant_iskandar]

The only problem is with the notion of what constitutes "acceptable damage" or a "reasonable price to pay" and just how much - or how many - one would sacrifice to save just a few. That's in fact one of the main themes in the Fate franchise my avatar is derived from.

In this specific case, the Illuminati have gradually slipped away from "let's understand the Incursions and find a way to save the Earth(s), or at the very least as many as possible" until they've settled for the lowest common denominator.

By comparison, is Cap acting like a fool? I think not. He's reaching out as far as he can, and yes, Captain America is - very much like Big Blue - about Hope. Also, note that he's made a correct guess about the worst case scenario having already taken place.

[ablackraptor]

*'I get bored really easily...'*

Funny, that's how I get when reading Hickman's work.

Glad I got that burn in before anyone beat me to it.

[shadowpsykie]

see. i like the idea of this story... and normally i like Hickman, but this story has taken SOO long... i am bored...

i mean i don't even know the point any more. is Hickman criticising the concept of the Noble hero in favor of the Hard Men (hehehe) making hard Choices? Or is he saying sometimes they DO have to make the hard decisions?

because he had the Justice League Proxy CLEARLY being the more noble group. this moment with cap that (on one level comes off sanctomonious, but on another, comes off as HELL YEAH THIS is what i was looking for.) but on the other hand you have Namor standing by the idea that THEY started. He had the, for lack of a better word, integrity to stand by the principles they set out.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I said before that I want to see Doom solve this. Quickly, if possible.

But while I'm not fond off the guy so much of late, I'd sort of like to see Spidey dot the i's or carry the 2 necessary to save the multiverse.

[grumman]

I said before that I want to see Doom solve this. Quickly, if possible.

And in exchange, Doom only asks that that day be declared Doom Is Better Than Richards Day.

[protogarrett]

I hope he literally calls in every single Avenger ever. With this art and this story it would be just too damn fantastic.

[violetclm.livejournal.com]

That's what happened for the Morgan Conquest. Which was great, but I think I've said before that it introduces a basic issue: any later event for which the Avengers don't call in every member ever is automatically seen as a smaller problem.

So if Cap does call them in, well, it's about time.

[burkeonthesly]

It's about [emphatic] time!

[starwolf_oakley]

I wonder if Tony and Reed should have put The Punisher in the Illuminati as their conscience / moral member. After all, Frank is a Hard Man who makes Hard Decisions.

And Frank only joined Cap's side in CIVIL WAR because Tony and Reed hired Bullseye and other psychos.

[silicondream]

Three Kangs, working together to contain a cosmically important MacGuffin, and nobody remembers to bring a Cap-proof force field? What, do they not have coffee in the future?

[obsidianwolf]

Two possibilities one they are playing the long con and this is what they actually wanted/needed to happen and they were putting on a show to get Steve to make the choice they wanted.

Or this is a perfect example of why teaming up only with versions of yourself can be a really stupid idea. If you are going to miss the obvious then it is very likely other versions of you will also miss the obvious.

Time is on his side

[kuratowa]

Would that Steve choose to use the time gem to go back in time to, oh, say before Stamford and call together a group of Avengers to combat the threat before they were torn apart by the Civil War, before the Illuminati started on their darkest road. before....

Oh, he's going to go back to the moment where it's near too late to make any change that leads to tragedy? Good luck with that.

Re: Time is on his side

[obsidianwolf]

And that is why things were better when the time and Reality gems were the two infinity gems that couldn't really be used without the others to control them. Of course things were also better when marvel stuck to the whole the gems can't be used together rule they set up after Warlock lost the gauntlet.

[merrickm]

Has any of this been mentioned at all in non-Hickman books?
Because if the punchline is "the last Earth they have an incursion with is the actual Marvel universe" that'll be pretty cheap.

[draganoche]

There was a really random reference in Wolverine where the incursions somehow gave the ghost of someone who just died the chance to warn wolverine.

[shanonigans]

Five months since Winter Soldier came out and the phrase "end of the line" associated with Cap still makes me sadface.

I am totally cool with a Cap Saves The Day resolution, especially if it means this storyline can finally be over.