Written by Jonathan Hickman
Penciled by Jim Cheung
Inked by Mark Morales with John Livesay, David Meikis and Jim Cheung
Colored by Justin Ponsor
Part One of Six
To get it out of the way, I must admit that I was pretty excited when I turned to the list of characters and saw there was an X-Men roster.
Then I was disappointed that Kitty, Storm and Wolverine’s one page was a reprinted material from the Free Comic Book Day issue. It holds promise that the X-Men might, at least, be appearing in this series.
Really like Cheung’s art, it is very clean and nice. I bet that if I look it up, every time I’ve seen it, Ponsor has colored it.
I like how Beast is the X-Men substitute for Xavier in the Marvel Illuminati.
I like looking at the list of characters, for these big crossovers, and seeing who I don’t know:
Black Swan
The Builders
The Spaceknights (If Rom isn’t there, do they matter?)
This version of Captain Universe
Ex Nihilo
Nightmask
Starbrand
Manifold
Not to bad. Took me til I was looking at the list to notice Iron Man is listed twice, for Illuminati and Avengers. Different suits for each. Do not like the Avengers helmet at all, looks silly or something.
Nice seeing Abigail Brand again, been a fan since her first appearance.
Black Bolt has five wives!?! Oooof, I wonder how Medusa felt about that? And which story did all of that happened in? Miss those little editor’s boxes at times like these. Or a note in the back. This is my first exposure to Hickman, so it was probably in his previous work.
He loves one, Medusa, and hates one, hopefully not the horse headed one.
I’m a sucker for the whole, look at this panel, now notice the difference in this panel. It’s a great use of the medium. The Illuminati, first with their proper faces, then with skulls.
I really like the idea of seeing which word Black Bolt says with his power. Every time I’ve ever seen it depicted before, you only seen the sound wave, and I’m left wondering what he said. It’s a very nice touch, hopefully it’s a new policy. Like in the late 90s, when they decided to actual make Sye Richards really invisible, even to the reader, that was a very awesome touch. It didn’t last long though.
The Earth may not have Avengers, but we still have X-Men, New Warriors, Slingers and The New Fantastic Four as options. So don’t fret too much ladies and gentlemen, we’ll be okay.
Looking at the tie ins, not slated to get any, I’ll see if I’m getting issue two or not. I like the break down in the back, makes sense, that if Hickman is writing the main mini, that you should buy his Avengers series, as they tie in. New Avengers 12, looks to be the aftermath issue, which I like those, and most likely sets up the next crossover. Which might be Cataclysm from the Ultimate Universe.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 