if is going Marvel going that route?

Okay this has been on my mind a lot lately, matter fact ever since the launch of Marvel NOW! and ever since Hickman took over the Avengers title. Most people say Marvel especially when it comes to Marvel Earth are not really good at writing very powerful characters compared to DC. And I'm mostly talking about heros by the way.

Before it seem Marvel before was having a bit of trouble writing heros at least on the level of high heralds(people like Thor) when it came to Marvel Earth. Case in point being Sentry. And I don't have to touch base on that one. You can mention Hulk, but he mostly had his own solo and his own villains and rarely appeared in team books. But not only that, Hulks power level depends on his state of anger and which writers can use for plot. And also some characters have to be toned down just for Hulk to fight them(some may disagree). As for Thor, when he was usually on team books he had to be toned down. But when you see him in his own books he looks extremely powerful, because in his books he is rarely on Marvel Earth and is fighting cosmic beings, gods or demons and what not. Whenever Marvel made an high herald superhero around Supermans level on Marvel Earth they are usually killed off, turned a villain or go in limbo where they are never used again.

But fast forward to Marvel NOW! and Hickmans Avengers, we start to see something completely different in my opinion. With Hickmans Avengers he seemed to have made an Avengers team that rivals or even beats the Justice League whether they be pre/new 52. Again my opinion, but he made a team of very powerful heros, some even more powerful than Superman. Characters like Thor, Hulk, Hyperion, Captain Universe, Starbrand, Captain Marvel, Ex Nihilo and Manifold. As a result it seems like the very powerful characters I listed sometimes or almost all the time overshadows the less powerful ones. When before it was completely the other way around. To me I like this, because I like overpowered characters. :P

Hey you can sue me. And also it seems that Hickmans Avengers and Marvel Earth now take on much more deadlier foes and are always fighting cosmic battles and what not compared to just regular Earth base foes. IIRC I remember in Infinity one of the aliens stating that many people outside of Earth are afraid to invade Earth due to the humans always putting up a strong resistance. I mean that should have been the case a long time ago, considering the many powerful hero's Marvel Earth has.

As for Hickman writing his characters. IMHO I like how he balance things out a bit and try to get most people panel time, even the very powerful ones like Hyperion. Speaking of Hyperion. Before Marvel NOW! there were many Hyperions which failed due to Marvel trying to make a Marvel version of Superman. They either turned villain or were killed off. But with this new Hyperion, Hickman seems to know how to write him well. Some people may bring up his fight with Hulk, but there was context behind that fight. Anyways unlike the other Hyperions, this Hyperion is written much more powerful and yet he doesn't overshadow the other Avengers IMO, because it seems Hickman knows how to balance everything out. The Avengers is looking like the Justice League Unlimited.

As for non Hickman Avengers like the Mighty Avengers. They have characters like Blue Marvel and Monica Rambeau who are both extremely powerful, especially Monica IMO.

So is Marvel getting to know how to write powerful superheros much better now since Marvel NOW!? And does Hickman know how to write powerful characters? I know many will disagree with me, but all of this is just my personal opinion. I think he does know how to and I think Marvel may be following this route, until at least Hickman is down with his Avenger run.

Anyways thats my rant.

I may agree with you since I actually liked "Infinity" and its been a long time since Marvel was able to do main events involving immensely powerful characters. Though IMHO its not on the same level as "Annihilation" or Abnett's "Thanos Imperative", Hickman did a pretty good job adding powerhouses to the Avengers to give Thanos slightly a challenge than stomping them effortlessly all over again.

But sometimes I fear Hickman goes overboard with making new immensely powerful characters like the most recent one who was "Thane" which to me was too powerful since he was able to just encase Thanos with just one hand. Though I'm quite hopeful Hickman or other writers would develop him properly hopefully with universal balance, and not be like Franklin Richards who in my opinion was way too much power to a godlike scale just to be given to just one lone mutant, kinda wondering why they never killed him of probably because he's just a kid? Cause i remember Claremont did kill him off in 1981 with "Days of Future Past", but no mention of his power was mentioned at that time yet, until Marvel invented Onslaught which was completely un-necessary IMHO, just to have an excuse for a reboot.

You are right about Marvel having a habit to kill off heroes that gain immense powers. Look what they did to Quasar and Nova (Richard Rider). LOL! I'm also hoping they return Richard Rider in an epic way like make him come back as "Nova Prime" and retain Sam Alexander as the ordinary Nova now. They can't keep him dead since Star Lord and Thanos escaped their "demise in Cancerverse".

Great post. And yeah Hickman can go a bit overboard, but also we still don't know much of Thane. I'm just surprised that Hyperion and Thor are even on the same team, I thought Thor would be enough but that doesn't seem to be the case. I also like how both Thor and Hyperion are friends. But as for Franklin Richards, I don't think he's been killed off because like you said he is a kid but not only that his parents are FF members and it would have a huge impact if he was killed off.

As for Rick Rider, I think I remember Bendis stating that Nova may have escaped. I don't know.

You know what! we are about to find that out this August.

What? Marvel isn't good at writing powerful characters? Meanwhile thor breaks celestial bodies by making vibrations travel through a vacuum, Sentry can't die, Ironman can take a nuke to the face while on 3% charge, Hyperion tanks to universes crashing into eachother, Silver Surfer can open up a blackhole like a coke bottle, Hulk can support the weight of a star, and Gladiator pretty much only shows up to get feats and you guys still arent pleased? Seriously go count the planet destroyers that live and/or operate on and around Marvel earth. I bet there are more of them than there are named green lanterns.

@vandersexxx: Interesting! Can't wait.

@king_stranglehold_da_first: Nova (Richard Rider) has a movie coming out in the next few years. He'll be back soon.