"Planets, stars, even the universe itself... all of this is coming to an end".
— Abyss, Avengers #35
Time Runs Out is a Bat Family Crossover running through the Marvel Comics titles The Avengers and New Avengers. It’s written by Jonathan Hickman.
Set in the shared Marvel Universe, it leads into Secret Wars, the Crisis Crossover that ends Hickman's Avengers run.
The Earth that's home to the Avengers and Marvel's other heroes is also known as Earth-616, to disambiguate it from the huge number of Alternate Universes that exist alongside it. Travel between them, on a small scale, has been a feature of many previous Avengers adventures. Some heroes, such as Captain Britain, are even part of an Alliance of Alternates.
But now those universes are colliding - with Earth as their focus - and the result of each such 'incursion' is the mutual annihilation of both realities. Why is it happening? Why now? Can even the Avengers stop a threat on that scale? And... even if they can... what price are they willing to pay to save their own world?
The storyline weaves between the two books, often in parallel stories that don't directly interact, whereas the collected editions arrange the issues in chronological order.
Time Runs Out provides examples of:
- Apocalypse How: Every Incursion destroys either one Earth or both Earths, taking their universes with them. Toward the end, Beast and Reed reveal every universe but theirs and one other has been destroyed. New Avengers ends showing how that one happened.
- Bookends: Tony and Steve's first scene and conversation in the beginning of the first Avengers issue is shown again in the final scene of this event, intercut during Tony and Steve's final fight while the final incursion happens.
- The Bus Came Back: Hank Pym returns toward the end, having disappeared into the multiverse just before Infinity happened.
- Characters Dropping Like Flies: The Avengers (Jonathan Hickman) doesn’t start out like this, but once it reaches thos story arc, all bets are off and soon there aren’t many Avengers left. In fact, it ends with the entire Marvel Universe being destroyed. Thankfully it all gets recreated, but still...
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The hammer of Thorr (sic), which was left behind on Earth-616 before Original Sin. Thor uses it as a replacement for his own Mjolnir.
- The fragment from the first Mapmaker Earth that Doom acquired in New Avengers issue #3. He uses it to successfully figure out who and what Molecule Man is, and from there start working out how to thwart the Ivory Kings.
- The rogue planet for the Avengers.Now issue. Tony uses it as fuel to blow up the alien fleet in the final issue.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Just before Infinity, Tony and Reed have an unseen conversation with someone they approach to do something they don't specify. It's not until "Time Runs Out" that this person's identity and task is revealed: Hank Pym, who they sent to explore the multiverse and find out what was going on.
- Continuity Nod: As they go over the nature of the multiverse, Owen Reece notes to Doom that there's a lot less of him running around than their should be, a result of the Council of Reeds going after any Doom they could find in Hickman's Fantastic Four.
- Demoted to Extra: The Mighty Avengers, during Time Runs Out, despite having several heavy-hitters and long-term Avengers (not to mention several scientific geniuses among them) are reduced simply to Steve Rogers' flunkies, and never say a word; their role in and opinion on things is only shown in the last two issues of their own title.
- Deus ex Machina: The Cabal are trapped on an entirely dead Earth, with no means of getting off before T'Challa blows it up. However, just before he can, an entirely unprecedented second Incursion occurs, allowing them to flee to Earth-1610.
- Dirty Business: After the Cabal unveil the truth about the incursions to the world, the world governments pretty much let them have run of Wakanda because they are willing to do what most other heroes or villains want no part of.
- Do Not Go Gentle: Thor and Hyperion, left facing off against a horde of angry Ivory Kings when they had severe trouble just fighting two, to say nothing of Hyperion being blinded and Thor suddenly able to wield his weapon. They rush them anyway, but the narration makes clear they do die.
- Downer Ending: The heroes are unable to prevent the Incursions, as was foretold, and the Avengers portion ends with Steve Rogers deciding that beating Tony to death is a better use of his time than fighting the Incursion, and the two are so busy they're crushed by a falling helicarrier.It started with two men. One was life... and one was death. And one... always wins. Everything dies.
- Dramatic Unmask: The first issue has Amadeus Cho caught by the new head of SHIELD, a woman in a helmet, which she takes off to reveal she's Sue Storm.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him / Back for the Dead:
- Namor and the Cabal violently murder the cast of Supreme Power, recounted in the space of a single page.
- The entirety of the Captain Britain corps was wiped out by the Mapmakers, which is recounted over two pages.
- Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion: The last few issues of Time Runs Out has the greater galactic powers trying to destroy Earth to save their universe. They don't succeed.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Namor brought the Cabal together because he thought they'd be better than the Illuminati, who were constrained by their consciences and preferred hand-wringing and angst to solutions. One time skip later, Namor's stuck with the Cabal, who are all stronger than he is and are absolutely not under his command.
- Eye Scream: Captain Britain, having lost an eye to the Mapmakers.
- Flash Forward: As of the "Time Runs Out" story arc, both Avengers and New Avengers undergo an eight month Time Skip.
- Fleeting Demographic Rule: The crossover has a number of similarities to Civil War. The only major conceptual shakeup is that this time, it's Iron Man and his team of heroes who are considered fugitives, rather than Captain America's.
- Gambit Pileup: Nearly everyone who knows about them has a plan relating to stopping the Incursions. Doctor Doom, Molecule Man and the Black Swans are killing other Molecule Men, the Illuminati destroyed worlds before the Cabal took over, the Maker is supporting the Cabal to his own ends, the Fantastic Four are simply preparing to evacuate by the end of Time Runs Out, and Cyclops is preparing the Goddamn Phoenix.
- I Am What I Am: The Maker's first scene has him chatting more-or-less amicably with Nick Fury, but once the man's out of sight states to City his supposed Heel–Face Turn from Cataclysm was in fact BS. He is the Maker, and he refuses to go back.
- Mr. Exposition: Owen Reece's role is to explain what the Ivory Kings want to do. Captain Britain largely serves just to explain what became of the other Captain Britains.
- Never Recycle Your Schemes: The Maker is asked by the City if he's considered reviving the Children (who had mysteriously died in Ultimates for no given reason) to fight the Incursions, but he refuses after they'd already turned against him.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In one of the most impressive examples of this on record, Doctor Doom manages to blow up most of the multiverse by accident. And that's in the process of trying to stop it being blown up.
- Noodle Incident: Thor and Hyperion lead a team off into the multiverse. A few issues later they reappear, having had many dramatic encounters with the Mapmakers and Black Priests, entirely offscreen.
- Obviously Evil: Jokingly invoked by Maximus, about Thanos, when he comments that Ultimate Nick Fury doesn't seem to trust them. Maximus points out that Thanos looks extremely suspicious.
- Only Sane Man: The group of Avengers who refuse to help Old Man Rogers chase the Illuminati during Time Runs Out. Steve ignores them until they force him to listen.
- Only The Worthy May Wield: Inverted. Only the unworthy may wield the hammer of Thorr, which is fine for our Thor... however, going on a heroic quest to stop the destruction of all existence is, naturally, enough to make him worthy again, and suddenly that hammer becomes a dead weight.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The resolve and maturity that Sunspot of all people displays really brings home how seriously things have already gone off the rails.
- Out of Focus: Reed, during large parts of the story. By the end, however, it's him, his family and T'Challa who have created the Life Boat, and who end up taking central roles as the Secret Wars commence.
- Paint It Black: During Time Runs Out, Captain Marvel, Hawkeye and the Invisible Woman all don black versions of their usual outfits.
- Power Degeneration: Nightmask's powers come Time Runs Out, as each use slowly causes him to de-age. This is because they're a universal system that has broken. It eventually kills him.
- Put on a Bus: Spider-Man isn't present during Time Runs Out because he's joined the Mighty Avengers.
- The Reveal:
- The mysterious Rabum Alal the Black Swan had been talking about since she first appeared is Doctor Doom.
- The Ivory Kings are another name for the Beyonders.
- Revenge Before Reason: Steve Rogers, and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D., insist on hunting down and capturing the Illuminati, who are trying to prevent the destruction of the universe, and the rest of existence, while doing absolutely nothing to solve this problem themselves. By the time Sue Storm gets both sides to sit down and shut up, the situation is beyond saving.
- Shoot the Dog: Gladiator's solution to the Incursions is to try and take a big ass fleet to Earth and blow it up, much as he'd rather not.
- Sixth Ranger: Time Runs Out adds Captain Britain, Hank Pym and Amadeus Cho to the Illuminati.
- Smug Snake: Tony, still inverted after Axis, which means even aside from an already pissed-off Steve Rogers, his total arrogance has driven away everyone else as well.
- Time Skip: The story skips ahead eight months from the previous issues of Hickman's Avengers and New Avengers.
- To the Pain: T'Challa finally gets a chance to kill Namor, as revenge for the death of his sister and the ruination of his country, but holds off so Namor can experience helplessness before he pushes the button, which allows Namor to get to safety.
- Underestimating Badassery: Gladiator, during Time Runs Out, when the Avengers manage to do a lot of damage to his attempt to destroy Earth.
- We Used to Be Friends: When Steve realises Tony reformed the Illuminati, and then wiped his memory about it, Steve relentlessly pursues Tony over everything else, including the imminent end of all existence.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- On briefing his team of Avengers, Sunspot makes a big deal about how they've got Validator on their side. She then proceeds to play no part in the rest of the story.
- The Guardians of the Galaxy travel to Earth to warn them about the incoming alien armada, then promptly vanish. The answer is that they were over in the roughly concurrent Guardians 3000 doing their own thing, until the Final Incursion happens.
