Avengers: Time Runs Out [Marvel Premier Collection]

by Jonathan Hickman, Stefano Caselli (Illustrator), Mike Deodato Jr. (Illustrator)

Featuring an exclusive foreword by Marvel Studios' Doomsday directors Joe & Anthony Russo.

Earth's Mightiest Heroes ­fight in vain to prevent the end of everything in a streamlined vision of the cataclysmic lead-in to SECRET WARS.

One by one, the realities of the Multiverse have collided and been destroyed, leaving the Marvel Universe as one of the last standing. Now the final Incursion is drawing near — and in the wake of the desperate, world-shattering actions taken by the shadowy group of heroes known as the Illuminati, the Avengers are fragmented. While one group seeks to confront their former Illuminati allies, another takes the fight to a dark new threat! But what has become of Tony Stark and Doctor Strange? Will all the battles they’ve endured — and the sacrifices they’ve made — prepare the Avengers for the inevitable? Time runs out as the stage is set for SECRET WARS!

 Material from Avengers (2012) #35-44; New Avengers (2013) #24-33

Written by Jonathan Hickman
Penciled by Stefano Caselli, Mike Deodato Jr., Mike Mayhew, Valerio Schiti, Kev Walker, Szymon Kudranski, Dalibor Talajić & More

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels

344 pages, Paperback

Published August 18, 2026

About the author

Jonathan Hickman is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for creating the Image Comics series The Nightly News, The Manhattan Projects and East of West, as well as working on Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, FF, and S.H.I.E.L.D. titles. In 2012, Hickman ended his run on the Fantastic Four titles to write The Avengers and The New Avengers, as part the "Marvel NOW!" relaunch. In 2013, Hickman wrote a six-part miniseries, Infinity, plus Avengers tie-ins for Marvel Comics. In 2015, he wrote the crossover event Secret Wars. - Wikipedia

Reviews

[John Frakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dense and a bit convoluted but I was so disappointed when it ended, it was so interesting! The choices everybody makes when their universe is about to end.

[Cameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this one lost me. While part of its charm is that it tells a story that’s already in progress (and quite literally my understanding is it’s the end of a larger run). I feel like I spent most of the time trying to figure out what was going on. Maybe on a second read through it would hit a bit harder. Art was very nice tho.

[Josh Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s probably too much going on in this. It’s the penultimate conclusion of Hickman’s run, so it naturally is tying up all storylines in a way that leads to the singular-centric storyline of the conclusion. However, at times I found this hard to follow, and some storylines I found myself just not caring about.

The Tony-Steve stuff is really good. The Doom stuff is great. And everytime Sue was on the panels I was so locked in.

[Burns Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow… that was a lot. Lots of crazy moments I didn’t completely understand, but I enjoyed everything that I did understand. Not a fan of the New Avengers art style.
Can’t wait to read Secret Wars.

[Christopher Perez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this without any prior knowledge of Jonathan Hickman’s run on Avengers and New Avengers was tough because it was like I was dropped in during season 3 of a show that I’d never watched before. Had to research some things for the storyline to make sense. Upon second read, I liked the story a lot better and I found it a satisfying lead up to Secret Wars.

[will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Holy moly some parts of this book drag but when it’s good it’s really good

[Simon Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Premier Collection in general is the best idea marvel has had in a long time, and this piece shows exactly why.

Hickman’s Secret Wars is one of the first comics I’ve ever read. It stands well on its own, but the lead-up is difficult to follow. The Illuminati, Avengers, secret avengers, doom, dr. strange, AXIS Iron Man, the list goes on and on. I didn’t make it easier on myself by initially reading the stories out of order, but I know that many others share that experience with me. This premier edition collects the most important threads into a self-contained, affordable package. It doesn’t have everything, and marvel could really bring back its old - * As Seen in: - text boxes. But you have enough that even the most uninitiated reader can consume the story.

And what a story it is. It may be controversial to say, but the Hickman saga leading up to Secret Wars is the greatest superhero saga ever written. It is the peak of the medium. There are better individual graphic novels, there are other great runs, but nobody else has ever taken advantage of superhero comic-books ability to tell multiple stories at once in a meaningful way. Hickman is an artist, and even now, having read the series multiple times, my jaw drops. Doom, the Black Swans, Black Panther, Namor, Iron Man, Captain American, Thor, and so many others have are all character perfectly. Twisted, pulled apart, and pushed back together while still whole.

Hickmans core question - what do good (and some less than stellar) people do when confronted with an unsolvable moral conundrum? - is a fascinating one.

The edition could also have benefited from an introduction giving key background information - only in the very beginning. Other than that, I am very happy with this purchase, and cannot wait to read my copy of Secret Wars itself.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first foray into the Marvel Premier Collection, and it was for a run I've never read before. I found the format super interesting - this is 20 comics selected from the "Time Runs Out" arc, presented as one single story (no breaks between issues, and possibly part of different issues stitched together to keep the stories flowing concurrently? which does not appear to be the format for all of the Premier Collection books) and it mostly worked for me.

I definitely felt the fact that I was dropped in the middle of a story in progress, one I don't have the background for, but it was a great into to the Premier Collection, which, surprisingly, impressed me much more than the recent Spider-Man: Brand New Day compact comic - which was prettier but a complete mess. I loved the foreword from the Russo brothers, and the introduction by Jonathan Hickman.

I'm very curious to see how Doomsday pulls from this, and very excited to read the next volume, Avengers Secret Wars Marvel Premier Collection .

[Michael Kikle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Up front, I did not read the whole Hickman run. Matter of fact, I think this might be the first thing I’ve read from him.

Either way, this is the lead-in to Secret Wars 2015, and I wanted to read both of the Marvel Premier Collection books for the build-up to Doomsday and the Secret Wars movie.

This was so fucking messy and confusing, I could barely keep up with it.

One essence of the problem was that there’s obviously missing context, since it’s a big portion at the end of Hickman’s Avengers and New Avengers runs. The other essence of the issue I’m having with this book is that it’s just mainly a sci-fi plot, which means it’s way too complicated, and the storytelling is jumping all over the place—in what I consider to be a sloppy way. This run is regarded as the best Avengers run ever, but it’s definitely not for me lol.

The art is phenomenal 90% of the time, there’s a rare issue in here where it’s just ugly or cartoonish, but the rest of the book looks so awesome.

This is NOT the place to start with either Secret Wars or Avengers comics, no matter who tells you otherwise.

Not a fan. But I’m hoping SW will be better.

[Nicholas Dehler · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Time Runs Out” is the direct lead up to “Secret Wars”, but there is clearly a lot more context that did not fit into this book. The cast is gigantic and there are a million things happening, so it is somewhat difficult to keep up with. Once I got into it though, I found it very hard to put down. The plotting is super intricate and complicated and kept me on the edge of my seat. Doom is freakin awesome, Molecule Man is fascinating, Hyperion and Thor have potentially my favorite moment, Steve Rogers is annoying as hell, and at the end of the day, things are not looking good at all. This definitely gave a lot of context and hyped me up for Secret Wars.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hickman’s Avengers has a special place in my library as Infinity was the first hardcover collection that I bought brand new thanks to credit I earned from a now defunct game store in my hometown. That book introduced me to incursions and the Illuminati, along with Marvel’s cosmic side of the universe. Years later, I read Hickman’s Secret Wars. While some story is certainly missing in between, Time Runs Out’s premier collection provides an easily affordable way to read the lead-up the event that led to Marvel’s largest continuity shift in the 21st-century. I had trouble setting this down.

[Julian Meutstege · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik snapte de helft niet maar dat boeide me eigenlijk niet zo veel. Wat ik wel snapte was echt vet. Het was wel echt een zieke politieke thriller. Je hele wereld gaat naar de tering, en toch blijf je tegen elkaar vechten inplaats van de echte vijand. De laatste fight met Tony en Steve was echt peak. Ik ben nu zo benieuwd naar Secret Wars.

[Zachary Hatrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second condensed Hickman run in the Marvel Premier line. The expectation of this being an abridged version of the story eased the blow, but I still feel like this is such a whirlwind without any reasonable chapter or issue breaks.

[Bernardo Velásquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo mejor de todo es la pelea a muerte al final entre Steve Rogers y Tony Stark mientras el multiverso está acabándose para siempre.

Edit: no, lo mejor de todo es la batallla a muerte entre Thor + Hyperion vs The Beyonders. Honor y gloria.

[Piotr Piskorski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want whatever Hickman was smoking in 2012…

[Kevin Morrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many interesting ideas and character moments wrapped around in a needlessly complicated plot and some very weak artwork at times.

[Eli Baldwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really confusing for me since I have 0 background info and don't know half the characters but still a really great story that comes together very well

[Desmond Killian · Rating 1 out of 5]

... wait, "material from" issues #35 - #44? I knew something was fishy when we skipped the Phoenix Egg scene with Cyclops and Beast. What a #### rip-off.

[Chad Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captain hunts Iron Man in lead up to Secret Wars.

[Ryan Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a convoluted throat-clearing just to lead into “Secret Wars,” but the illustrations are often stunning and a shockingly bleak ending swing this into the positive.

[Noel Welsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a guy who hasn’t read a new Avengers comic in many years, I really “sure, whatever”-ed my way through this one. Happy to report that Doctor Doom is still sassy.

[Lee O Toole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy moly

[Bj Shea · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s whacked out multiverse stuff. Some parts I had no idea what was going on. The Dr Doom stuff I was all in. Cap and Tony at the end was great.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

[Mitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 Stars

[Jake Curletto · Rating 3 out of 5]

An avengers love triangle but instead of love it's a deep resentment of former homies

3.5 bc the plot and art was coo but it was hard to follow and most of the characters felt like the same

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not got the Premier collection, just reading digitally
Last read it 8 ish years ago and it's so good i remember every issue of this