Avengers (Vol. 5) #4

Background

With the problems on Mars sorted, the Avengers turn their attention to the origin bombs that had hit the Earth. It also gives us the excuse for a couple of issues worth of back stories for the new characters.

Story 'The Death and Resurrection of Major Titans'

Fives sites on Earth have been successful identified as where the origin bombs that Ex Nihilo sent in Issue 1 have struck and have all been contained. But then, Hyperion discovers another site in the Savage Land. We then have two stories told intermixed with each other: Hyperion’s history and the Avengers going to the Savage Land to get to the sixth origin bomb. For ease of review I’m going to split them up in the whole stories at once and not intermix them like in the comic.

We learn how Hyperion was sent to Earth from a dying world. How a man found and raised him to help society, fighting for truth without compromise and other noble traits. But there was another Hyperion, hidden deep within. Anyway, the people of Hyperion’s Earth had made another Earth (somehow) and the coming together of these two worlds leads to their destruction, and the destruction of two entire universes. Hyperion, however, survived this and was later pulled into Earth 616 by A.I.M. where they locked him up, out of the sunlight – the source of his powers, until the Avengers busted him out and offered him a place on the team.

In the Savage Land, a small team of Avengers including Spider-Woman and Hyperion investigate and ultimately discover A.I.M. with a pod formed by the origin bomb. The A.I.M. team have already killed one of their interns by injecting him with a sample taken form the pod (just to see what’ll happen), when the corpse start sprouting tentacles which attack the scientists. Thor uses Mjolnir to zap the corpse and Hyperion burns the remains with his laser vision. Just then, the pod pops and out hatch a number of children who take a liking to Hyperion.

With the A.I.M. team being escorted from the Savage Land, Captain Marvel reports to Captain America that the sixth and final site is secure. We then cut to Norway, where another team of A.I.M. have discovered a seventh site…

General Comments

Now I didn’t know anything about Hyperion before Avengers, so I did what any normal person would and looked him up online! Apparently I needn’t have bothered as whilst the character Hyperion has featured in Marvel comics before, this is a new one from another Universe. Apparently this is the sixth different Hyperion (thanks Wikipedia!) so there’s no baggage or continuity to address, what Avengers says goes as far as this Hyperion is concerned.

Hyperion’s story is a familiar one (*cough* Superman *cough*), a alien sent to Earth from a dying planet who grows up to be their greatest hero. Although in fairness, Marvel fully admit that the first Hyperion character was as part of a team of villains loosely based on the Justice League of America, so that’s okay. However, this Hyperion’s story is also very familiar – a hero powered by the sun with an inner, darker persona (*cough* Sentry *cough*). It’ll be interesting to see where they go with Hyperion and whether this inner persona is another Void waiting to happen – hopefully not as frankly, been there done that!

The overall story is nothing special, mopping up a few loose ends from the initial arc whilst introducing Hyperion. I must admit I found the Hyperion back story a little confusing; we go from him being the protector of his world to suddenly his world destroying itself by creating another world! I’m not sure if this other world was a creation, from another universe or a counter Earth type thing. Arguably it doesn’t matter as it just sets up the fact that Hyperion is the last survivor of a dead world and was pulled into this universe by A.I.M. This in turn sets up his animosity when the Avengers meet A.I.M. in the Savage Land. Another thing that bothered me was the children from the pods. I would have assumed that any “man” formed from the pod would look like Adam from the opening arc, as Adam was the first of the new men Ex Nihilo created for Earth. Whilst Adam for all intent purposes looked Human, these children were four fingered with zebra-like coloration. Weird and maybe a bit inconsistant, time will tell.

As for our Spider character of the issue, well Spider-Woman was present but didn’t really do much – venom blasted the tentacle monster and that’s about it.

The art was nice enough, hopefully the various artists can agree on what Captain Marvel’s hair should be soon, it seems to vary a lot – even within this issue.

Overall Rating

Nothing special, but equally nothing that awful.

Footnote

The pod children speak the same builder's code Adam did.

Not sure the people of Earth would be too happy to know that Hyperion was brough this world after previous being the sole survivor of his planet (twice) - he does seem jinxed!