Jonathan Hickmans work for Marvel has never been anything less than exemplary, with his feted run on Fantastic Four eventually convincing the House Of Ideas to hand over the keys to the kingdom. With the twin epics of Avengers and New Avengers Hickman has spun a cosmic epic that takes in the whole of existence, as multiple worlds crash into each other and are destroyed in a series of incursions. Eep. The multiverse crashing into each other is a particularly huge plot thread thats due to culminate next year in Secret Wars, a new mini-series crossover event that half-inches its name from a similarly infamous series from the eighties and will involve a bunch of alternate reality superheroes being bunched together on a single continent and forced to fight. And chances are, it will suck. Hickman is a good writer, and the last event he presided over (Infinity) was okay, but theres no way this will be a satisfying conclusion to his epic. Its going to be messy - in a bad way - its going to be complicated - ditto - and more than anything, its going to be expensive.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
