Holy crap this series is good! Issue number 3 blew me away with all the huge MU shattering (if you read it you'll get the pun) moments and addressed my concern with Captain America joining the Illuminati, finally. The stakes are higher than I've ever seen since the Infinity Gauntlet story where Thanos was destroying galaxies left and right.

I'll refrain from discussion until I more people who are caught up with this series chime in on this thread.

I'm behind as I still haven't read issue #1.

Issue one was very Black Panther focused and only served to introduce his motivation for calling in the Illuminati. But 2 and especially issue 3 were where things really got good. Hickman nailed these characters perfectly in my opinion. This book is definitely better than his regular Avengers title, which is also a good book in my opinion, just not as interesting as New Avengers's Illuminati.

Also there is a subtle tie in between New Avengers issue #3 and Avengers #1. DAMMIT Hickman, you're brilliant and I'm hooked now.

I find that Hickman is involved in a lot of the stories I've really enjoyed the last couple of years.

Cap joined the illumati like a year ago after the gems were recovered from the hood.

My bad bmorr, I should have been more clear about my issues with Cap being on the illuminati. I did read last years avengers story with the Hood and the infinity gems and know that's how he joined the illuminati. My problem with Cap is that he doesn't fit the bill at all to be on a team comprised of the Earth's smartest and most powerful in terms of political or scientific/otherworldly influence. Cap is a soldier and still thinks like one. Sure they made him Commander Rogers recently, however it hasn't boosted his intelligence any and he really serves as nothing more than a moral compass to this team.

Cap is one of the greatest, the greatest depending on who you ask, Avengers of all time. No question there. But on a team with 3 kings: Namor, T'Challa, Black Bolt. Big brains like Stark, Richards, Beast and Dr. Strange (T'Challa also fits this bill) Cap just doesn't bring much to the table for universe ending threat conversations. Do they really need him to be there just to say, "find a way to save us, I know you can do it"? In my opinion, not at all.

This team is facing a threat on a universe ending scale, and all Cap was able to do was warn the others of not crossing a moral boundary to save everything even if there is no other way... because he has faith they will find another way.

Its the above that Jonathan Hickman specifically addressed in issue #3.

To be fair in issue 2 Cap did have a good idea to buy some time, but he botched that at the end of issue #2 in a really big way that will have a huge impact to the Marvel Universe later this year.