Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Mike Deodato
Colors by Frank Martin
Published by Marvel Comics
With a cover that is an exact copy of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s The Ultimates #1, Avengers #41 brings the good ol’ (or not so old) Ultimate Universe into Jonathan Hickman’s epic multiversal vision for the Avengers and Marvel Universe as a whole. It also deals with the fate of the Cabal after Black Panther wounded Namor and sent him with the Cabal to another world, which he ends up destroying. Hickman’s writing is delightfully meta about how the Ultimate Universe has played out of the years going from possibly supplanting the 616 universe in the early 2000s to now being a sinking ship barely kept afloat by Brian Michael Bendis, Dave Marquez, and Miles Morales. Ultimate Reed Richards does a lot of monologuing in this issue, but by the end of the issue, his place is clear in Hickman’s bigger plan. Mike Deodato’s art is detailed, and he occasionally throws in a fancy layout like when Gladiator meets with members of the Galactic Council. However, some of his character designs are off, like a weirdly muscled Reed Richards, and Frank Martin’s colors in explosions sometimes get in the way of the storytelling even if he uses a cool color palette for the futuristic tech and lab scenes.
For the most part, Avengers #41 is predominantly an Ultimate Reed Richards solo book as Hickman positions him as an important piece on the board of universes destroying each other in the multiversal Incursions. He spouts a lot of exposition, but Hickman continues to remind readers how interesting a character he was back in 2011’s Ultimate Comics Ultimates as a utopian villain. Richards continues to be somewhere in the middle between good and evil and will end up being a big player. Luckily, the back half of the book deals with the fate of the Cabal from Namor’s POV, and Hickman throws in some big reveals to ensure that the master-plot of Avengers actually moves forward along with exploring Ultimate Reed Richards as anti-hero/anti-villain.
Because Avengers #41 is filled with conversations (Reed and his A.I. does count.), Deodato’s detailed facial work is a good fit for this book. Some of the body proportions are off for characters like Reed, Gladiator, and Black Swan, but this doesn’t distract from the story. He also creates some beautiful establishing shots like a Shi’ar ship watching a universe explode or the first page which is a snapshot of the Ultimate Universe featuring a dynamic Miles Morales swinging between panels from New York to the Triskelion. Some of the scenes featuring Namor and the Cabal take some getting used to as the Earth that they get sent to is a little too similar to the main Marvel Universe. This is more of a fault of colorist Frank Martin, who does a bang-up job showing force-fields, lights on science labs, and the destruction of universes, but makes a small mistake in the instance.
All in all, Avengers #41 is a game changing chapter in Jonathan Hickman’s “Time Runs Out” storyline with the introduction of Ultimate Reed Richards and the later events of the issue. For the most part, Mike Deodato’s art is detailed and clear, and it will be interesting to see how the actual Avengers teams react to this story.