New Avengers #15

   The complex storyline that Jonathan Hickman has been building in the New Avengers series has been challenging but rewarding - but with this issue, it seems to have dipped over the line a bit.

   The series has focused on The Illuminati - Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Namor, the Beast, Black Bolt and Black Panther - as they confront a terrible problem.

   Alternate Earths are colliding,  and the result is either the destruction of each Earth - or the elimination of one. So far, the team has managed to preserve "our" Earth by eliminating the invading worlds (which were either uninhabited or controlled by evil forces) - but there are forces out there that are far more powerful than our heroes, so the Illuminati are trying to come up with a solution.

   Whew! So it's a heavy series of events, and this issue is especially dark, as it focuses on the mystery behind the woman known as the Black Swan, who appeared on our world when this crisis began.

   It's a grim tale of death (and murder), cosmic powers and impending destruction. It also poses as many questions as it answers.

   Part of the problem may be the art by Simone Bianchi and Riccardo Pieruccini. It's quite good, but it's dark and disturbing and sometimes hard to follow. The final two sequences in the book don't exactly make sense (no doubt deliberately so), and the story feels like it's dangerously close to grinding to a halt.

   I'm all for epic storylines, and I've been enjoying this one - until this issue. I assume it's just a glitch (or perhaps a failure on my part to sort it out properly), and I'll certainly keep hanging on to see how this plays out - but they're not making it easy on us.

Grade: B

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