Review: Infinity Crusade Vol. 1

Quick Summary

Pros: The main narrative is captivating and stays intense from start to finish. The themes explored throughout the work are meaningful and touch on some thought-provoking topics. The characters continue to be both fun and interesting. The majority of the collection’s artwork looks great.

Cons: The main villain’s powers are explained poorly. A few minor plot points are not that entertaining.

Overall: The opening half of this event has everything necessary to hook readers in to the event as a whole. It has a captivating narrative, intriguing themes, a great cast of characters, plenty of beautiful artwork, and the exciting promise that there is even more on the horizon. Though there are some negatives along the way, the book is definitely mostly positive. Anyone interested in reading the conclusion to this exciting era in Marvel history should not miss this volume. 

Story

The first half of Infinity Crusade, by Jim Starlin, provides a compelling start to the last event in the Infinity Saga. The narrative features an intense, high stakes battle between a group of Earth’s heroes and an immensely powerful enemy. The resulting battle creates a situation where it is never quite sure if/how the heroes will prevail. Meanwhile, meaningful themes give the work an additional level of complexity and a cast of solid characters make it more entertaining. The downside is that there are a few more obvious negatives in this event than there were in previous events from this saga, as the villain’s powers are frustratingly undefined and a few plot points are mediocre. Overall though, this is a promising start to a pretty epic event.

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Like the two events before it, Infinity Crusade is instantly captivating and stays that way throughout the read. It opens with a high stakes premise, universal free will is in jeopardy; it sets up an intimidating antagonist, one capable of brainwashing some of the Marvel Universe’s best heroes; and launches an exciting resistance against the book’s main threat, one helmed by a great collection of characters. The battle between the Goddess’ forces and the heroes of Earth is exciting to see play out and the all-powerful status of the Goddess leaves the reader constantly wondering how she could possibly be defeated.

Also like the events before it, Infinity Crusade touches on and explores some interesting themes. The threat in this book comes from a religious extremist promising paradise to those willing to turn on their friends and devote everything to their new cause. This problem mirrors real-world issues and demonstrates humanity’s propensity to twist something good into something evil.

In addition, the characters are great throughout this event. The members of the Infinity Watch have been entertaining throughout this saga but Adam’s partnership with Thanos proves even more interesting than before, especially since readers now know Thanos was given the Reality Gem. Meanwhile, Reed Richards proves to be a unique balance to the insanity present on the Watch and Hulk works as one of Earth’s most entertaining heroes.

One of the narrative’s biggest problems is that the Goddess’ powers are explained rather poorly. The volume starts by seemingly showing she has the power to control anyone’s mind, then explains that her powers are long-ranged only and cannot impact the non-spiritual on Earth, then shows her powers impacting all of Earth. It is never clear what the Goddess can do and, therefore, it is never quite clear how much of a threat she poses. Readers are obviously aware that she is massively powerful but how this power impacts the overall battlefield is disappointingly underexplained.

In addition, there are pieces of the narrative in Infinity Crusade which are just not that enjoyable. These range from extended time with characters like Darklore to lengthy rehashes of information from past events in this saga. Plus, the focus on Pip ended up being far too much for my taste and the conclusion seems to indicate that this focus on Pip will only become more dramatic in the next volume.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The visuals in Infinity Crusade Vol. 1 are mostly positive. The artistic combination of Ron Lim, penciler; Al Milgrom, inker; and Ian Laughlin, colorist proves just as effective in this event as it did in the previous one. Their work is beautiful, detailed, and does a wonderful job in displaying a vast array of different characters. Meanwhile, the team of Tom Raney, penciler; Keith Williams, inker; and Gina Going, colorist provide a different but equally appealing take on the Warlock Chronicles chapters. These chapters are moody and atmospheric in a way that emphasizes the darker and more emotional tone of their storyline. In general, all of these artists provide good-looking work that improves this reading experience.

The only problem is that there are chapters from the Warlock and the Infinity Watch series that don’t maintain this same level of quality. A few of these chapters contain pages that feel more chaotic than normal and that distort characters’ body proportions in weird ways. Luckily, these chapters are in the minority when it comes to the collection as a whole.

Continuity

Infinity Crusade Vol. 1 is the first part of the sequel to the Infinity War (Review) (Reading Order) event. It also incorporates development done across Warlock and the Infinity Watch #11-17, collected in Infinity Watch Vol. 1 (Review).

This event has a number of tie-ins relating back to it. These tie-ins are explained in our “Infinity Crusade Reading Order“.

The story in Infinity Crusade Vol. 1 continues in Infinity Crusade Vol. 2 (Review).

This event is also a part of the “Infinity Trilogy” series of events. See our reading order for the trilogy here.

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

• Thanos’ grasp at control of all reality and Adam Warlock’s quest to prevent this occurred across the Infinity Gauntlet (Review) (Reading Order) event. Infinity Gauntlet is the first part of the trilogy in which Infinity Crusade is the finale.
• Sue Storm’s childbirth complications were explained in Fantastic Four #268, collected in Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 5.
• Moondragon killed her father back in Avengers #220, collected in Avengers: The Trial of Yellowjacket (Review).
• A number of events from the Warlock and the Infinity Watch series are mentioned throughout this event. All issues listed here are collected in Infinity Watch Vol. 1 (Review).
  • Warlock was forced to relinquish control of the Infinity Gems to individuals of his choosing back in Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1-2.
  • Pip stole vehicles from Earth’s heroes in Warlock and the Infinity Watch #3.
  • Hulk and Drax fought back in Warlock and the Infinity Watch #12-13.
  • Adam Warlock woke from his coma and received a mysterious orb in Warlock and the Infinity Watch #15.
  • Maxam showed up in Warlock and the Infinity Watch #16.