Review: Infinity

Quick Summary

Pros: Each of the event’s individual story parts are exciting and full of suspense. The way in which these parts are connected makes the reading experience better and leads to an awesome conclusion. The entire collection helps generate a lot of potential for future story arcs. The artwork looks beautiful on nearly every page.

Cons: The prelude feels a bit unnecessary.

Overall: Epic battles, fun adventures, and unending tension come together to turn Infinity into the joyride that it ends up being. This is a great event that celebrates Marvel Comics by placing numerous characters in situations that allow them to shine. These situations are all compelling on their own but also play off of one another in a way that generates even more excitement. Then, the event’s conclusion opens the universe’s possibilities even wider, leaving the reader ready for more stories of this caliber. Anyone with an appreciation for Marvel or an interest in good stories should consider picking this one up.

Story

Infinity is a massive undertaking that ends up being massively entertaining. Here, Jonathan Hickman brings together previously teased story elements and combines them with already established aspects of the Marvel Universe to create a cosmic epic that is nearly all-encompassing in terms of scale. Part of this adventure details an epic battle in space, where a seemingly unbeatable threat requires the combined might of the known universe. Another part of this adventure details Thanos taking advantage of the Earth, leading to multiple epic showdowns on the Avengers’ home world. Another part details a group of heroes’ fight against a less direct threat, one that could destroy the entire universe if mishandled. Individually, any one of these stories would be great, but together they are something else entirely. This is a volume that is consistently well written in a way that guarantees excitement and fun throughout the entire read.

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This volume starts out with an exciting prelude that shows the beginnings of two wars, a war between Wakanda and Atlantis and a war between a number of entities in space. However, the rest of this prelude seems to focus more on setting things up for post-Infinity arcs rather than the event itself. These are still great stories but their inclusion as a prelude to Infinity seems a bit odd. Luckily, once the event gets started, readers will be so swept up in the story that any problem with the prelude is immediately forgotten.

The main event follows three separate, but equally significant, occurrences taking place throughout the universe; a war against the Builders, Thanos’s invasion of Earth, and the Illuminati’s efforts to deal with an incursion. Typically, jamming a narrative full of such disconnected storylines would make it less entertaining, as juggling back and forth between them would be cumbersome. However, the way it is handled here makes the entire reading experience better. It allows for a constant feeling of tension and excitement, as victory in one storyline is juxtaposed against near-defeat in another. Plus, the finale sees the storylines coalesce in a way that makes the conclusion even more satisfying.

The war against the Builders comprises the bulk of this volume. It has the Avengers join an alliance of races from throughout the cosmos as they face off against an ancient, and seemingly unstoppable, threat. In this way, Hickman unites various aspects from the cosmic end of the Marvel Universe and raises the stakes from planetary to galactic proportions. This makes the story more exciting and incredibly satisfying, as readers get to see the universe’s respect for Earth constantly grow as entire planets rally behind the concept of the Avengers. The entire ordeal also contains a solid message against tyranny and shows how resistance matters, even in the face of unfavorable odds.

The rest of the volume details Thanos’s invasion of Earth and the Illuminati’s efforts to repeal it, while simultaneously dealing with an incursion from another world. This portion of the narrative is very exciting, mostly because the threats posed by Thanos and the incursion are just as real as the threat posed by the Builders. It is also incredibly interesting and introduces concepts that play out well here and are likely to play out well in the future too: including Thanos’s son, the Terrigen Bomb, the Black Order, and the possibility of Builders working with the Illuminati to solve the incursion problem. All in all, this portion of the event does well on its own but also does well in preparing the Marvel Universe for more excitement in the future.

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Art

The incredible storytelling throughout Infinity is constantly accompanied by equally incredible artwork. The actual event starts with Jim Cheung’s work on the opening chapter, which provides some fantastic views of Thanos’s Black Order, instantly letting readers known how vile and evil these entities can be. Then, Jerome Opeña and Dustin Weaver take over most of the other Infinity chapters. Pencils from these two look just as good and provide detailed depictions of every character in this story.

The Avengers and New Avengers chapters look just as good and help complement the storytelling. Mike Deodato contrasts the cosmic beauty of the Inhumans and the wonder of Atlantis with the destruction that war can bring to any place on Earth. Meanwhile, Leinil Francis Yu’s linework gives a gruff view of space that matches the dire situation that the Avengers are facing off against. Yu’s work also includes some beautiful views of the galaxy, which is important in a story based on space travel. Overall, this is a good looking book from beginning to end.

Continuity

Infinity is a massive event that primarily consists of a main storyline and crossovers from the Avengers and New Avengers series. In this way, this event continues the story from Avengers Vol. 2: The Last White Event (Review) and New Avengers Vol. 1: Everything Dies (Review).

In addition, there are a number of other comic series that tie-in to this event and explain what happens in between various chapters. These tie-in issues are explained in our “Infinity Reading Order” (coming soon).

The story here primarily continues in Avengers Vol. 5: Adapt or Die and New Avengers Vol. 3: Other Worlds. This event also provides the basis for the Inhumanity event.

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• Beast’s transformation occurred in All New X-Men Vol. 1: Yesterday’s X-Men.
• Namor’s previous attack on Wakanda is referenced a number of times. This took place during Avengers vs. X-Men.
• During the events of this book, Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four are also on a trip though the universe. This trip began in Fantastic Four Vol. 1: New Departure, New Arrivals.
• The end of Iron Man Vol. 1: Believe (Review) explains Iron Man’s new armor.
• The heroes are reluctant to trust Annihilus because of the events of Annihilation.
• The heroes are reluctant to trust the Skrulls because of the events of Secret Invasion.