>Tom, I am taking a break from whining about $5 comics this week to tell you that I bought Avengers 40 and it was VERY good. Hickman is just about the only writer I can imagine paying $5 to read but certainly the payoff for this story was worth the wait. The art was great, and the brutality of what happened in those last pages was…he had it coming. I bitch at you a lot about peripheral stuff, but I cannot fault you for the stories. I am in it with Hickman until the end, whether you charge $4 per issue or $5 per issue.

Whether I keep reading afterwards is an open question, but for now I am still hooked. I eagerly look forward to every issue of Avengers and New Avengers every month, and I am really excited to see him tie it all together. Hickman’s FF run made me cry a few times before the end there, and after Avengers 40 I have a feeling there could more heartbreak on the way. I hope you guys are able to pull this off, I am rooting for you as much as I have sounded like I hate Marvel in the past, I really don’t. I can’t wait for Secret Wars! So here’s my question that you prolly aren’t gonna answer:

Will we see Future Franklin and/or Val again before the end of Secret Wars?

Here’s another question that you maybe can answer: Is Galactus still trapped in the Negative Zone? (I haven’t read Silver Surfer so I don’t know if he has shown up there, but last I read Galactus was stuck there after the events of Cataclysm, right?)>

Very glad you enjoyed AVENGERS #40.

Sorry, can’t answer your question about Future Franklin and Val. Wait and see. But Future Franklin was in AVENGERS a short while back, #33 I think it was.

No, Galactus is no longer in the Negative Zone. He returned to the Marvel Universe in INVADERS.