“Everything dies.”

“You. me. Everyone on this planet. Our sun. Our galaxy. And, eventually, the universe itself. This is simply how things are.”

“It’s inevitable…”

“And I accept it.”

“What I will not tolerate — what I find unacceptable — is going quietly, like some mewling child, before my time.”

“There is something out there, coming for us all, trying to kill us all — and I would do to it what it would do to us.”

“Brothers. Sisters. All the angels have fallen, and we devils are all that remain…so I ask you…

Namor as written Jonathan Hickman

I think I said recently on Twitter (and if I didn’t, allow me to say it here now) that I read books to learn how to write.

I read comic books to learn what to write.

Jonathan Hickman wrote the Avengers books for about 3(?) or 4(?) years, building on momentous story after momentous story, until he crafted his multiversal masterpiece Secret Wars. (If you’d like to know how this all ties in to the Disney+ series, Loki, then check out my insane piece here.) Before he could get there, however, he had to write his characters as characters. His books are a a wonderful reminder that no matter how big the ideas get you can never lose sight of the people caught up in it.

The Avengers have found out their allies have betrayed them. A secret group of heroes, led by Tony Stark, Reed Richards, and T’Challa, are basically trying to prevent our world’s destruction and the collapse of the multiverse. To do that they’ve betrayed everyone they’ve ever known and abandoned all of their values. Soon, they are on the verge of murdering an entire planet and all its inhabitants in cold blood to save ours…

…but they can’t. No matter how close they come to the actual line, none of them ever actually cross it.

Until artist Valerio Schiti tragically reveals the one man who would throw away his morals and beliefs to save what’s his.

Of course it’s Namor. (SOURCE)

Namor is a tricky character to get down. An arrogant king, with a history of being spurned and betrayed by humanity, yet still does what he thinks is in the best interests of the world, shouldn’t be that layered. Yet, thanks to years of creators handling him the same way, there has been some 30-odd year consistency for this character, so that when he makes the call to doom another world so that our Earth can survive, it doesn’t feel out of left field.

It feels like…yeah, this guy would do that.

Signs of a great character and great writing.

Thanks for reading,

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