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Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers Reading Order

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After completing his acclaimed run on Fantastic Four and several years before becoming the mastermind behind the famous Krakoa era of The X-Men, Jonathan Hickman was the main writer of Marvel’s Avengers line during the Marvel NOW! initiative, following Brian Michael Bendis’s departure in 2012.

In Avengers (vol. 5), Hickman introduced a series of escalating threats while significantly expanding the team’s roster and operational scope, shifting the Avengers from a primarily Earth-based defense force to one operating on a global, cosmic, and interplanetary scale. This approach laid the groundwork for a reality- and cosmos-threatening conflict that would define his run.

In the companion series New Avengers (vol. 3), Hickman focused on the Illuminati—Black Panther, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, Mister Fantastic, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and Beast—depicting their clandestine efforts to confront the phenomenon of “Incursions,” in which parallel Earths collide across the multiverse. Armed with the Infinity Gems, the group attempts to prevent the collapse of all realities while grappling with profound moral and political consequences.

All of Hickman’s work on the two series ultimately culminated in Secret Wars (2015), the famous line-wide crossover event that depicted the collapse of the Marvel multiverse and its subsequent reconstruction. This miniseries concluded his long-running story by effectively redefining the structure and history of the Marvel Universe going forward.

Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers Reading Order

As a Marvel comic book writer, Jonathan Hickman rarely starts from scratch, and you can check out the complete Avengers reading order to explore what came before. If you start reading his Avenger run, you’ll encounter easily understandable concepts, but you may be curious to read more about them.

Before Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers: Reading Recommendations

Brian M. Bendis wrote the Avengers for a very long time. You do not need to read his complete run before going into Hickman’s. However, you may want to check out some of his stories.

The Illuminati is a secret group within the Marvel Universe, comprising several of Earth’s most powerful and influential figures. The team was originally formed in the aftermath of the Kree–Skrull War. Its founding members—Iron Man, Mister Fantastic, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and Professor Charles Xavier—came together to quietly exchange information and coordinate responses to major global and cosmic threats without public oversight. 

They were first introduced during the New Avengers: Sentry storyline, but reading New Avengers: Illuminati miniseries will give you a better idea of what they are about.

The Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610) was introduced by Marvel Comics in 2000 as a separate continuity offering modernized reinterpretations of its core characters, beginning with Ultimate Spider-Man. Designed as an accessible alternative to the main Marvel Universe, it developed its own distinct history before ultimately intersecting with and concluding during Secret Wars (2015).

The ending of the Ultimate Universe plays a part during the Time Runs Out storyline that marks the end of Hickman’s Avengers run. Reading it completely is a huge endeavour, we have a guide if you want to try. But you may just want to familiarize yourself with The Maker, a key character in the story Hickman himself helped develop.

If you are curious about the conflict between Black Panther and Namor, you may want to read the Avengers Vs. X-Men storyline.

A lot more is going on, but this should give you a good start. As before, you can start reading Hickman’s run without any prior knowledge. However, the story will eventually become confusing. That’s just the way he writes. Keep reading, explanations will follow.

Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus Collection

Being a popular run, Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers has been collected in multiple formats. The omnibus collection is the ultimate oversized hardcover edition. Two massive books with everything in them, except for the Secret Wars miniseries.

Avengers by Jonathan Hickman: The Complete Collection

This is a collection of five big paperback books collecting the full run. Like with the omnibus collection, you have everything by Hickman here, except for the Secret Wars miniseries. 

Avengers by Jonathan Hickman: The Trade Paperback Reading Order

The original trade paperback collection. It may not be the best way to read the run (the two previous collections are better at juggling with the different issues), but this is where you’ll find complementary information about what happened in the Marvel Universe during that time.

Before Infinity, the New Avengers storyline introduces concepts that will be major for the rest of the run, past Infinity. The Avengers comics are what led to the Infinity crossover event.

Infinity: The story unfolds across two interconnected fronts: in deep space, the Avengers join a unified galactic alliance to confront the Builders, an ancient race whose assault is triggered by the activation of Earth’s Origin Sites, while Captain America leads the off-world campaign and Iron Man remains on Earth to prepare a final line of defense. This absence enables Thanos to launch a calculated invasion of Earth with his Black Order, exploiting a long-concealed secret tied to the emergence of the Inhumans and escalating the conflict on a planetary scale.

Jonathan Hickman wrote the miniseries and the New Avengers/Avengers tie-ins. That’s all you need here, but if you want to read the complete event, we have a reading order.

  • Infinity
    Collects Infinity #1-6, New Avengers Vol. 3 #7-12, Avengers Vol 5. #14-23.

The New Avengers and Avengers comics were also collected in:

Launched after Infinity, Avengers World is a series from Nick Spencer and Rags Morales that chronicles what the Avengers did on a planetary scale in parallel to Hickman’s run. All-New Marvel Now! Point One and the first fourteen issues tell one story, and Avengers #34.1. It’s available in Avengers World: The Complete Collection.

The 8-month gap…

The Avengers: Time Runs Out storyline picks up 8 months later. It was a way for the series not to deal with what was happening in the rest of the Marvel Universe. But what happened during all that time? A lot. Nothing was written by Hickman, and you can skip those stories. But here is what explained the key changes affecting the Avengers team:

  • The Original Sin event is set slightly before the gap. This story has a bigger impact on Jason Aaron’s run on Thor, but it affected the depiction of the God of Thunder in the Avengers comics.
  • Steve Rogers is Captain America no more, and he is an old man. It was part of Rick Remender’s run (in Captain America Vol. 4: The Iron Nail). After that, Falcon became the new Captain America.
  • The AXIS event. It puts the Avengers, the X-Men, and a group of villains against Red Skull after he succeeded in harnessing the powers of Onslaught and the recently deceased Professor Xavier. Issues #15-16 of Avengers World tie into the event.
  • Avengers #34.2 and Avengers World #17-20 led to Time Runs Out. Read issue #21 after New Avengers #25.

Time Runs Out

From that point on, Avengers and New Avengers are more complementary than ever as the two books tell on big story preparing for the conclusion in Secret Wars.

Secret Wars: It’s the end of Hickman’s Avengers run. Really, it ends with Secret Wars #1. The rest of the miniseries is about what came after the end: the interdimensional Incursions have eliminated each and every alternate universe one by one. And now – despite the best efforts of scientists, sages, and superhumans – the Marvel Universe and Ultimate Universe have collided…and been destroyed! All that exists in the vast empty cosmos is a single, titanic patchwork planet made of the fragmented remains of hundreds of devastated dimensions: Battleworld!

You can stick with reading the miniseries, but there are a ton of tie-in miniseries that tell stories in the Battleworld. Check out the Secret Wars guide to know more.

  • Secret Wars
    Collects Secret Wars #0,#1-9, Free Comic Book Day 2015.

Avengers by Jonathan Hickman: The Issue-by-Issue Reading Order

The following are only the issues written by Jonathan Hickman.

  • New Avengers #1-3
  • Avengers #1 -5
  • New Avengers #4-6
  • Avengers #6-13
  • New Avengers #7
  • Avengers #14-17
  • Infinity #1
  • New Avengers #8-9
  • Avengers #18
  • Infinity #2
  • New Avengers #10
  • Avengers #19
  • Infinity #3
  • Avengers #20
  • Infinity #4
  • Avengers #21
  • New Avengers #11
  • Infinity #5
  • Avengers #22-23
  • Infinity #6
  • New Avengers #12
  • Avengers #24.NOW
  • New Avengers #13-15
  • Avengers #25-28
  • New Avengers #16.NOW-23
  • Avengers #29-34

Times Run Out starts here!

  • Avengers #35
  • New Avengers #24
  • Avengers #36
  • New Avengers #25
  • Avengers #37
  • New Avengers #26
  • Avengers #38
  • New Avengers #27
  • Avengers #39
  • New Avengers #28
  • Avengers #40
  • New Avengers #29
  • Avengers #41
  • New Avengers #30
  • Avengers #42
  • New Avengers #31-32
  • Avengers #43
  • New Avengers #33
  • Avengers #44
  • Secret Wars #0, 1-9

After Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers

Following Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers and Secret Wars, Marvel Comics launched the All-New, All-Different Marvel initiative, set in the restructured post–Secret Wars continuity. Mark Waid assumed writing duties on All-New, All-Different Avengers, while Al Ewing took over New Avengers.

Hickman subsequently stepped away from the Avengers franchise before returning to Marvel in 2019 to relaunch the X-Men line with House of X and Powers of X, establishing a new status quo for Marvel’s mutant characters in the Krakoa Age.

Note: An earlier version of this guide appeared on our site in 2021. It has been completely refreshed and updated with more information, the latest releases, and new pictures.

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