The Good
The story of the young boy or girl who is obedient, gets good grades, and often gets overlooked in school until they are suddenly blessed with a super power is one that we've seen many times before in comics. It's similar to Spider-Man's story, if you think about it. Peter Parker was an average young man in High School, got good grades, never got into any trouble, and he is suddenly given this great power that allows him to transform into Spider-Man. But there was a lesson there for Spider-Man: that with "great power comes great responsibility." Parker wound up taking the power given to him and doing something positive with it, but that's not always the case, right? Not everyone that is given great power decides to be responsible with it. In fact, some people are downright irresponsible, and that's the reality. This is exactly the idea Hickman is toying with in the current AVENGERS series.
At the start of the first issue we were introduced to some rather interesting cosmic beings who were working on transforming Mars. Rather than eradicating them, the Avengers turned their backs on them and let these seemingly omnipotent beings do their thing so long as they stayed away from planet Earth. Well, you can't expect these guys to be in the same star system and not cause any trouble, I guess. At the end of issue # 3 of this series it had become clear that this was not the last we had seen of these characters, and we were right. The question is, what do they have in store for the Avengers?
The story here is rather interesting and picks up right where we had last left our heroes. Following the "White Event," a young boy is literally transformed, but how will he deal with his newfound power? That is the story Hickman introduces to new readers in this issue, and it seems to be the start to a very good one.
The art is, once again, incredibly pretty. The colors are very complimentary to the pencils in this issue and the result is really aesthetically pleasing and easy to read.
The Bad
As interested as I am in seeing what happens next and what decisions this new character will make, how his past will influence the individual he becomes now that he has this newfound power, it does seem like a rather tired and cliche trope we've seen before several times.
The Verdict
This issue is good, I really like that we had a break in between and now we are coming full circle to the start of the series : I think that's a good thing. The result is a positive issue and a lot of fun to read, and serves as a solid (and interesting) introduction to this new character. It will be interesting to see how he develops and eventually deals with members of the Avengers in the future. My only complaint is the fact that it's a character origin we have seen many times before, but I am still interested in seeing how Hickman takes this concept and makes it his own. The art in the issue is solid, and the colors really make everything so pretty. This continues to be an interesting story and a series I continue to look forward to.