New Avengers #4

The issue starts with the New Avengers going for space and with the exception of finally telling us how Sunspot is ill and might not have his powers, because of the Terrigen Mist, which Ewing has spoiled in like three interviews in advance, you could really leave it out, because the New Avengers arrival in the end has little to no impact and the information they were going for space was already given in the last issue.

We finally get an explanation for the Nightelves from World of Warcraft, pardon Kree Skrull Hybrids, which would have made way more sense to give in the last issue, before Wiccan and Hulkling would do what their kidnappers told them.
And it makes little sense, because it claims how a Skrullqueen and a Kree warrior, childishly called the ultrakree or something, fell in love during the first Kree Skrull war despite being raised to kill each other, no that would only be the case after the first Kree Skrull war, genius! And the Skrulls weren't even a warrior species when that one started! Ugh...
Then we get told how the Knights of the Infinite were founded by the Hybrid resulting from it, childishly called Dorrek Supreme, despite Dorrek being the Skrull emperors name, to bring the two empires together and immediately afterwards we get told that all they do is hide from both sides. Ugh...

Anyways they tell Teddy how he is the reincarnation of the first hybrid and how it is his fate to unite the Kree Skrull empire and how they have to do something quick or both empires will vanish, all of which is completely pointless when at the end of the issue they tell him how he can just leave and its fine doing so one distant day essentially. Aside from adding the pointless fate angle being pointless, Hulkling was never about one day becoming the Skrull emperor he was about rejecting a fate other people wanted to force on him for the sake of one he had chosen himself, being a super hero, which only coincidentally was the same profession as that of his father.

But hey what does Hulkling matter? This story only serves to set-up a plot-point regarding Wiccan, yup thats the villains actual objective. Once again completely neglectable in power Wiccan gets hit by the by the space wizard on the cover and starts by describing the pain outloud, no seriously he verbally describes what the pain feels like. Turns out at the end the Wizard is in his brain in an attempt to make use of Wiccans Demiurge abilities.
Yeah, after the 2013 run on Young Avengers made Wiccan a negleactable hurt puppy cutesy gay boy fangirls could giggle and homosexuals cringe about, who could do nothing unless everyone was holding his hands and a convenient love saves the day moment came along. The Deus ex Machina created for the last one of these moments is gonna be his sole plot point in this first arc written by the personal friend of said runs author.

But at least Ewing can change Wiccans name to Demiurge to help his own white guilt, by bringing the topic back up in an completely unnatural fashion. I actually went looking for this, but no practiotiner of Wiccan religion seems to have a problem with the character. Jews on the other hand have problems with the way Wiccan talks about their religion in Issue #3. But hey jews? Thats old-fashioned thats not this hip religion that has as many pretenders insulting their traditions with hollywood inspired nonsense, as it has real practiotiners.

Lets address the humor, for the most part we just add space to a bunch of words, because OMG thats so hip, because was anyone EVER in Marvel like really EVER in space before?! Or met people from space? Or monsters from Space? Even the book itself points out how everyone on the team was in space before already. What does this come down to? Ryan North making prodigy squeel at the thought of space in a storyline called original sins, that Ewing read as his sole research on Hulkling. And hey Ewing likes Ryan North books or Squirrel Girl wasn't on the book. Then we add a few references to seem even more hip.
But there is another joke. Hawkeye is an old dad quoting star trek. He even calls himself that, you knew in between being called an idiot. At least he finally does something in this issue, except getting called an idiot by Songbird, just too bad execept for Teddy he is the only one on the team that does.
And finally there is the good old fashioned "if we point out how stupid this is its fine"-joke. Like mentioned earlier they mention how they all have been to space and its really not as big a deal as the comic makes it out to be. It also calls the Knights elves at one point.

The fight was... okay. But one has to ask why the villain bothers to disguise himself in the beginning just to immediately reveal himself and why we see Hulkling battle the guy at the side of the Knights, who have barely any characterization and probably no future importance to the plot, instead of spending more time with him battling it alongside the New Avengers after their arrival, who now that I think about it also have gotten barely any characterization within the New Avengers book itself... Oh, and Teddy wins the fight with his new sword, which I'm calling now will be a plot device that randomly has new powers, so Ewing doesn't have to expand on Hulkling using his orignal powerset strength, speed, intelligence, weaponizing his body with shape-shifting and psychologically manipulating his enemies.

Lets talk about the positive. While the villain is ultimately underwhelming in his capabilities, you can feel a little tension in this fight, because he kills some of the Knights, albeit thats pretty much glossed over in the end, and Wiccan tries to heal said character, while under attack. Wiccan gets knocked down and Hulkling tries to defend him. And most importantly the villain is actually in the same panel as the heroes most of the time something the first villain in this series desperately tried to avoid. Also Hulkling and Hawkeye finally do something except telling lame jokes, albeit the latter not very much.

Whats the Fazit here. The issue is better than the last one, because it focuses on fewer characters and by the look of it Ewing is bad with groups. The issue contains unfunny jokes and ignores continuity pretending to expand it. Ugh... And is in many ways way to heavily inspired by writers Ewing is personally friends with. A throwaway line in Ryan North book an deus ex machina Kieron Gillen never gave more thought than it being a deus ex machina for a love saves the day moment he used for his pandering. The Fazit is the issue is bad and doesn't give much hope for the future of this series or the characters within it.