[Comic Book Review] Marvel Comics Crossover Event – Infinity (2013)

Posted on February 17, 2014 by thegrandshuckett in Comic Books & Graphic Novels // 0 Comments

Plot Summary: While the Avengers join forces with a cosmic armada to repel the Builders, Thanos takes advantage of their absence to lay siege to Earth.

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Writer: Jonathan Hickman

Pencils: Jim Cheung, Jerome Opeña, Dustin Weaver

Issues: 6 Main issues, Avengers Vol 5. #18-23, New Avengers Vol 3. #9-12

Review: by Anthony

This latest volume of Avengers comics starts off with Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Steve Rogers (Captain America) toying around with the idea of expanding the roster of the Avengers and the overall need to "get bigger," so that they could continue to protect the earth from its many opponents.

Infinity puts this idea and plan to the ultimate test. With battles in space and back home on Earth and conflicts in other universes, the Avengers are everywhere, giving their all in the fight. Every hero is important; every hero both small and large has a part to play, a working cog in a larger machine all designed to build an Avengers World.

What I Liked:

Story

There were 3 main conflicts occurring throughout Infinity, and I really enjoyed the multiple story lines because there was plenty of action and interesting things happening to keep my attention.

First, there was the space battle against The Builders that the majority of the Avengers were fighting with assistance from the Galactic Council (Leaders of the Shi’ar, Kree, and Spartoi races). It was cool seeing the different members of the Galactic Council all together, bringing together my knowledge of them from various comics like Gladiator and the Shi’ar from X-Men, the Kree from Fantastic Four, and Spartoi from Guardians of the Galaxy. I really enjoyed seeing the council turn to and work with Earth’s heroes. I also liked how those heroes really stepped up to show that Earth was powerful as well.

Next, there were the incursion events of the Earths of different universes colliding that the secret Illuminati group (Mr. Fantastic, Namor, Black Panther, Iron Man, Beast, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt) attempted to prepare for and handle. I always enjoy it when the greatest minds of the Marvel universes come together to solve what seems to be an unsolvable problem.

Finally, there was the battle occurring on Earth against Thanos, the mad Titan, and his army as they sought out the infinity gems. I really liked this part of the conflict in Infinity because it brought in the Inhumans, and I’ve always liked Black Bolt. I also got to see Thanos and his group of army generals “The Cull Obsidian” wreak havoc on Earth.

Characters

Captain America was the stand out character over the entire series. He had all the plans. Everybody deferred to him. Even if they didn’t agree at first, they were forced to come around to his way of thinking, and that was really cool. I liked seeing the super soldier, versed in practically every military tactic, use his vast array of war strategies left and right.

Thor was the heavy hitter, the muscle, the hammer. The asgardian god really brought the thunder and lightning (pardon the pun) in Infinity. I’ll never tire of seeing Thor well written as he wields Mjlnoir with ease, decimating foes left and right.

Hyperion, Starbrand, and Ex Nihlo, while not new to Marvel Comics, were new to me, and I really liked all of them. Not only were their power sets awesome and fully capable of going toe to toe with the likes of Thor and The Hulk, but the characters themselves, their personality and motivations, were really cool to read about.

Black Panther and Namor picked up where they left off from Marvel’s Avengers vs. X-Men, and it was cool to see just how far things had developed between these two guys. Not only had their past conflict affected their personal relationship as friends but also their relationship as leaders of nations, so, with that in their past, it was cool seeing that boil over into Infinity, watching them make decisions, weighing personal bias and the greater good.

Art

With such large aspirations and the numerous battles, Infinity had some amazing artwork throughout the entire series. The space fights in particular were great, the sheer size of the battles were something I really liked. It didn’t feel like any characters got lost on the page in the large-scale battles, nor did it feel like there was too much being attempted in the large scale panels.

Not only did the major characters receive some great artwork, but the secondary characters got their time to shine as well. I really liked how the quality didn’t drop off from characters the artist may have been more comfortable drawing to the lesser portrayed characters.

Another thing I liked about the artwork in Infinity was the gritty and weathered look the characters had. With all the battles they were going through, nearing on constant fighting, I liked how the artwork kept up with the chips, scrapes, and overall battles scars they carried with them throughout the series.

What I Didn’t Like:

The Villains

A problem I had with Thanos in Infinity was that his initial goals seemed to be thrown away and forgotten halfway through the series in order to pursue a whole new goal, which when looking back was kind of pointless; had he stuck to his original plan, it would’ve solved both issues.

Another thing I didn’t care for were the portrayal of The Builders. The Builders were shown to be this supremely advanced and ancient race of creators, and in the early issues of Infinity their dominance of not only Earth’s heroes but the other members of the Galactic Council displayed their greatness. The heroes were vastly out of their league and certain failure was all but imminent. My problem arises with how they were ultimately defeated; it felt a bit cheap and rushed and very deus ex machina.

Summary

This was a much better crossover event from Marvel, all due to the writing of Jonathan Hickman and the high level of artwork throughout the series. While I had some problems with the villains and their overstated “bad-assness,” Marvel’s Infinity was definitely worth the read.

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