Avengers #34 Review: Cap Reaches The End Of The Line

The best Captain America story in comics over the last few months probably wasn’t in the pages of his own book.

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Instead, it’s been playing out in Avengers, where Jonathan Hickman and Lenil Francis Yu began their time-tripping tale with a team of Cap, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Thor, Hyperion and Starbrand — a nice mix of stalwarts and newer members — and gradually dropped heroes off along the way until only Steve Rogers remained. In Avengers #34, he reaches the literal end of time and discovers that the only beings left to maintain the legacy might be some of its oldest enemies.

As with most Hickman sagas, it took a while to determine where this one was headed, but the payoff is excellent. Whenever one of the Infinity Gems is involved, they have a tendency to overshadow everything else, but here the Time Gem really is just a plot device that enables each chapter to unfold in a different era. All the loose ends are tied up nicely, and it’s great to see how Original Sin provides the spark that threatens to turn next year’s Time Runs Out event into a four-alarm blaze.

We even learn what future Hawkeye said to Cap earlier in the arc, something that dovetails nicely with his personal convictions. And really, that’s what makes Steve Rogers so great: even when faced with the impossible and when he’s hopelessly outgunned or in over his head, he’s going to do what he thinks is right.

As for the ramifications, we’ll find out soon enough, as the next issue jumps eight months ahead in real life time. Let’s get on with the warning …

SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT!

Unlike Captain America’s last solo stop, there’s at least one friendly face at the end of time. It’s Iron Lad, a good Kang if there is such a thing.

Unfortunately, Kang and Immortus are also there, and the three Kangs have a plan to keep Cap from disappearing into time again.

They also want Steve to stay put so that the Illuminati can keep saving the prime Earth from future Incursions by destroying more parallel worlds. The Kangs feel that is the only option, because they say that they’ve seen what happens when Captain America travels back and convinces Iron Man to find other ways to hold off the Incursions. None of them work.

Ah, but kind of like Han Solo, Rogers has always been a “never tell me the odds” kind of guy. He can’t take on the Kangs directly, but he does manage to outsmart them, grab the Time Gem and get back to the present.

With his knowledge of the Illuminati and the Incursions fully restored, he springs into action, telling the other Avengers that it’s time to take on the Illuminati.

(* Cue ominous music *)

It’s interesting to note that back when he first came on both this book and New Avengers, Hickman said they were both flip sides to what was essentially the same story, but it’s more like the Illuminati were dealing with a universe-level threat while the Avengers were only saving the galaxy from the Builders and Thanos. But now both teams are clearly on a collision course in what appears to be Marvel’s 21st Century version of DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths. That should be fun.

Favorite moment: The time-honored “Wasn’t aiming for you” gambit never gets old. Steve is going to have to show Sam Wilson how to do those multiple wall bank shots ASAP.

Final thought: Even though Original Sin can’t be accused of not having any lasting effects for other characters(there’s now a Tenth Realm, for Heven’s sake!), the revelation of Cap’s mind-wipe by the Illuminati is clearly going to be the most important secret that came to light.

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