So, I finally caught up with the New Avengers today, reading the last four issues in a row... and I was flabbergasted by how far this series fell. Seriously, what happened? We had such a strong team of characters who were being developed well with a great art style and strong writing, but the last four issues have been mostly bland filler that pretty much ignores the characters who we've grown to care for. Am I alone on feeling this?

I think I'm just trying to validate how I feel about all this, because I cared about this book so much, but now I just feel so let down. Any thoughts?

depends. which volume of New Avengers are you talking about?

The current one, written by Hickman

I haven't read it, but it probably suffered greatly from the fact that there are like twenty Avengers books and that really splits the readership. How many people are going to pick up every single Avengers book? Most people just pick up the main one. I know that I only read Avengers Assemble by Kelly Sue DeConnick, and that just got cancelled too.

see, I think that's it right there. New Avengers is the only Avengers book by Hickman that I've been reading, and because it feels so supplementary to his other books, it's hard to see what the point of it is in and of itself. I really like the distinct cast and tone of the book, but because of not knowing what's happening in Hickman's other books, it often feels like I'm reading the tie-in issues of an event I'm not reading (which I guess I often am).

And, like his other books, even though these characters started out quite strong, they've basically become mostly interchangeable game-pieces for his large plots -regardless of their individual character.

I agree, especially with some characters, like Beast, never actually contributing much of anything.

I think what really upsets me here though, and what sent me for such a loop yesterday, was that I had read up to issue 12 prior to yesterday, where there's some strong character development for Black Panther, Namor, and particularly Dr. Strange, all characters who I've grown to really enjoy solely because of this series. So, when reading the next four issues, I was stunned and very let down by how Hickman all of a sudden decided to more or less abandon all of his character development threads and instead focus on these other worlds that you already know the fate of by reading the first few pages. When I read the first one, it was floored by how disappointing the art was, as well as the narrative, but took it as a fluke, a one time thing. Now I see that, unless next month's issue really ups it's game (which the solicit suggests), one of my favorite series has become nothing but fodder for a lot of uninteresting filler issues.

@twofacedjoker: I think I know what your're talking about. I love New Avengers but it seems that after Infinity the story is really dragging it out. We have had what? 3 issues of them exploring different alternate universes. I'm fine with lookig for a other universe for them to see an answer on how to stop the incursions but it feels that's all we've been doing that past four issues. I'm even considering dropping the book because the story isn't picking up any pace. The only thing we've got so far was a nice little exchange between BB and Namor and some more knowledge on Black Sawn but other than that you really didn't need to buy the last four issues which makes me :(

@humanrocket: EXACTLY! There was a little with the good Doctor that I enjoyed too, but these last four issues could have been easily condensed into one. Reed Richards could have pulled out his old universe-television... thing out of storage, and, after a brief explanation of what it does, each universe could have had 2 or 3 pages. The ending could have been the discoveries about Black Swan, which honestly felt pretty anti-climatic, and had the follow-up issue delve even more into the Doctor Strange stuff, which we are still waiting to see again.

This has gone from one of my favorite series to one of my most hesitant, if that makes any sense. And I'm really torn as to whether or not I'll be dropping this. I want to see how this all works out next, but at the same time I struggle with the fact that the last 3 months/4 issues has been absolutely disappointing.

This "arc" has definitely been drawn out way too much, but it looks like we're actually getting a story now, with the New Avengers vs Great Society arc that's coming up.

Agreed. I've been tempted to drop it but I feel once I do I will miss what the all the previous issues were leading up to.

Yes I thought so too. The last couple of issues could have been put together in one issue. Don't get me wrong I like the idea of being able to look at different universes and trying to search for a way to stop the incursions. But to take four issues to show this process is tracking the story a bid. I'm not sure if Hickman is doing this in order to give Avengers a time to catch up with their story arc so they are timing the Avengers and New Avengers to come together at the same time for Original Sin or if this is just how the story goes. But in any case I will not have to be a little bid more hesitant when deciding which issue to pick up. Like you I have invested much time into this series and I would like to see how it all ends.

Admittedly, I am looking forward to seeing what comes of all this as well

@humanrocket I have also theorized that Hicman is trying to hold back and sync up this series with something from the Original Sin or Avengers, as we saw that issue 15 was supposed to be 14 initially, suggesting that he was looking for some extra padding to extend things

I haven't really enjoyed it that much since Infinity. The last issue was good since we got some banter between Black Panther and Namor

Have they killed a planet yet?