Review: Infinity- Heist/Hunt

Quick Summary

Pros: The concept for the Heist arc is unique and a few moments in the story are entertaining. The powers seen in Hunt are unique.

Cons: Both stories are poorly paced. The volume’s unique concepts are left underdeveloped. The Hunt arc has an uninteresting story. The artwork is mostly poor.

Overall: This is a disappointing collection that offers few positives. It features hurried pacing, generic fights, and lackluster artwork. Though the volume contains some interesting ideas, these ideas are never expanded or elaborated upon enough to develop genuine interest. In the end, this collection may be worthwhile for fans intrigued by the concept in Heist but should generally be passed over in favor of better comics.

Story

Infinity: Heist/Hunt, by Frank Tieri and Matt Kindt contains some neat concepts but is too weighed down by problems to be truly entertaining. The concepts here include a story focused on a fun adventure with lesser-known villains, in Heist, and some unique superpowers, in Hunt. However, neither of these concepts receive the attention they deserve. Instead, both stories are rushed to the point where it kills most interest in what is going on. In addition, Hunt fails to really generate much interest in the first place, as the central conflict is pretty generic. All in all, this volume is disappointing, especially considering what it could have been.

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The Heist portion of Heist/Hunt starts and ends with a really compelling concept. The series shows a group of lesser-known villains attempting to take advantage of the Avenger’s absence. This adventure sees them negotiate with other lesser-known villains, consider heroism, and grapple with their own inferiority complexes. Then, it closes with a killer twist that drives an emotional dagger into the entire affair.

The problem is that the entire situation feels too condensed. Power shifts and unexpected twists take place immediately after one another. There is no point where readers truly have a moment to catch their breath and get their bearings on the situation. This pacing prevents what starts out as and could have been a great concept from living up to its full potential.

Unfortunately, the Hunt portion of Heist/Hunt has even less appeal. The main narrative in Hunt takes even longer to get going than in Heist. This causes the story to become even more compressed and hurried. It also never fully elaborates on any truly interesting plot device. Instead, it becomes a generic fight between aliens and people with superpowers.

The only real positives in the Hunt storyline come from the unique powers on display throughout the arc. In a way, it feels like Matt Kindt is channeling the work he did on Mind MGMT (Reading Order) in exhibiting a vast display of superpowers. Unfortunately, this positive is not enough to save the arc as a whole.

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Art

The artwork in both arcs of Heist/Hunt ranges from poor to lackluster. Hunt contains mediocre depictions of characters that are even worse looking when the level of detail randomly drops, which happens on a few pages. Hunt also has a weird problem where the visuals indicate a character is frustrated or even yelling yet their dialogue indicates that they are talking calmly. Meanwhile, the artwork in Heist is structured a bit better. However, characters also look weird and the general appeal of the artwork is rather low. Overall, the visuals in this collection, like the story, are simply a bit disappointing. 

Continuity

Infinity: Heist/Hunt contains two miniseries that spin out of the Infinity (Review) event. Though they are impacted by the event, they do go have much of an impact on the event and mostly stand independent.

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

• Nefaria betrayed Whirlwind back in Avengers #165, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 17 (Review).
• Blizzard teamed up with the Thunderbolts across the New Thunderbolts series, which began with New Thunderbolts Vol. 1: One Step Forward.
• The events of Avengers Arena is mentioned a number of times.
• Inflamed tensions between Wakanda and Atlantis are mentioned. These tensions are due to the events of Avengers vs. X-Men.