More Filler -_-
While this is, in fact, for f***ing filler, it's not quite as bad as previously. Why? Because we follow knock-offs of the Justice League.
... Yes, really.
It's kind of refreshing to see a group of people other than Mr. Fantastic, Tony Stark, and friends fighting to save their planets, let alone one that, in the first few pages is revealed, survives. It keeps things a little smoother and interesting than usual.
Yet, the clear Justice League copy-cats are really distracting. We have Sun-God, who has an alien name and an emblem on his chest and cape, a brooding knight character clad in black, a character based on Egyptian mythology (as opposed to Wonder Woman being from Greek mythos), a fast character with lightening bolts all over her costume, a green alien figure, and a space man who's costume blends the red and yellow factions of the Lantern Society (or whatever it's called, I'm not very familiar with all that). Hickman doesn't really try to hide his inspiration for all this, choosing to embrace it, and making the world, in some respects, opposite to that of the here and now, making it an intriguing concept to explore.
We also get some strong dialogue and interactions between Black Panther and Namor briefly before we dive into the story, which is nice.
But none of this can hide the fact that this is ANOTHER DAMNED FILLER. What is going with Hickman on this? I mean... come on! The Avengers series has been suffering severely recently, and this one seems to be in a steady decline as well. I'm having a really hard time justifying purchasing this series any more, and I may have to pull the plug soon, which is so incredibly disheartening. But I keep feeling cheated out of my money, and this has been going on for MONTHS now. This isn't just a one time thing, this has been going on for far too long. Plus, with artists changing so frequently (there's a new one here too), and I don't feel like there's any consistency anymore.
I'm pretty steamed about all of this right now, so I may not be thinking straight, but I really hope that next months issue knocks my socks off, or else I may be dropping this series, at least until we start to see something good come of it again.