Review: Infinity War (Comic)

Quick Summary

Pros: The opening chapters provide a tense and interesting start to the event as a whole. The progress toward the comic’s conclusion is a wild ride of unexpected and satisfying developments. The end of the event gives a great tease toward the next event. The main characters are well-written. The visuals look great and help the storytelling.

Cons: The actions of Earth’s heroes get uninteresting quick and feel like a distraction from better pieces of the narrative.

Overall: The sequel to Infinity Gauntlet captures the spirit of the first event but does so with a more satisfying focus on characters. This comic is interesting from start to finish, with very few lackluster plot points, and has visually pleasing artwork to back up this story. Plus, the focus on characters gives more of an emotional punch and their development makes things even more interesting. Anyone who read Infinity Gauntlet or with an interest in Thanos or Adam Warlock should consider picking up this volume.

Story

Infinity War, by Jim Starlin, is a worthy sequel to the Infinity Gauntlet (Review) event that even exceeds its predecessor in a number of places. This event has a gripping narrative that starts out with a great hook and keeps up interest levels all the way through. It then concludes in a sequence of events that is awesome to see play out. Along the way, characters are well-written and the character development behind the event’s protagonists adds some additional meaning to everything that is happening. The only downside is that the focus on Earth’s heroes ends up being disappointing in a few places. Luckily, for the most part, this event is highly entertaining and worthwhile.

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Infinity War starts out by building the narrative through a wonderfully satisfying introduction. Readers see the heroes of Earth in a tense battle against clearly evil doppelgangers and then watch them come to the thrilling realization that there may still be doppelgangers among them. Meanwhile, the Magus is introduced and his high-stakes plans are unveiled, quickly showing that he has gained power which even threatens Galactus. The way this is done allows for some satisfying conversations from Thanos and even some great moments from Doom and Kang, who’s participating in events adds an air of uncertainty.

From here, the narrative becomes a little more personal as the focus shifts over to the deliberations of Thanos and the Infinity Watch. It is clear that Adam Warlock is struggling with the weight of the decisions before him and that even he is unsure of what he should do next, which makes his actions even more interesting. Meanwhile, issues from the Infinity Watch series help significantly elaborate on the backstories of Thanos and Gamora, both of whom have been lacking character development up to this point.

As the event enters its endgame, it delivers up some fantastic twists and turns. The Magus’ plan makes it so that the actions of Galactus and Gamora are actually detrimental to the cause of the heroes, which flips the audience’s entire perspective on the duo’s interaction with the Living Tribunal. Then, the revelation behind the fake Reality Gem gives the event an awesome conclusion. Watching this all unfold makes the book’s climax and the build up to this climax even more fun to watch.

Finally, Infinity War closes with an awesome tease towards the next event in the series. It states that Adam Warlock’s “good” side is still out there and may present just as much of a threat as his “evil” side did. This ominous conclusion leaves the reader wondering how something “good” could be bad for the universe and personally got me super interested in finding out what comes next.

My only real complaint with Infinity War is that most of the Earth-centric drama feels pointless by the middle of the book. This drama starts out great, as the doppelgangers feel like a serious threat to everything going on. However, by the middle of the read, I barely cared about what Earth’s heroes were doing and just wanted the focus back on Adam Warlock and Thanos. The narrative admits that most of the problems plaguing Earth’s heroes are distractions put in place by the Magus but this doesn’t fix the fact that they also feel like distractions from the better pieces of the story.

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Art

The visuals in Infinity War are positive and stand up to the high-quality work present through many cosmic comics from this era of Marvel history. The artistic combination of Ron Lim, penciler; Al Milgrom, inker; and Ian Laughlin, colorist proves fruitful through the entire event. Their work does a great job in accurately and pleasingly rendering a wide variety of heroes and villains. It also is, almost always, structured in a way that seriously helps the flow of the narrative. Smaller panels are used in some places to fit in more information or to show a character’s quick reaction to an important event, while larger panels are used to emphasize important moments or to showcase a character’s power. All of this helps with the reading experience and makes the visuals stand out in a positive way.

My only complaint is that there are places where the layout of a panel or two doesn’t look that great. For example, the spread depicting nearly all of Earth’s heroes is positioned in a way that makes the group seem relatively small and unintimidating, which undercuts the awe that should be present in that moment. This does not happen too often but when it does it takes away from the moment.

Continuity

Infinity War is the sequel to the Infinity Gauntlet (Review) (Reading Order) event. It also incorporates development done across Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1-6, 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 War Reading Order“.

The immediate aftermath of Infinity War is felt most directly through the Warlock and the Infinity Watch series, starting with Warlock and the Infinity Watch #11, collected in Infinity Watch Vol. 1 (Review). In addition, Infinity Crusade (Review) (Reading Order) is the sequel to this event.

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:

• Adam Warlock and Thanos fought the Magus across most of Marvel Masterworks: Adam Warlock Vol. 2 (Review).
• A note in Infinity War #1 indicates that the issue takes place during issue #109 of Alpha Flight.
• The Avenger’s reluctance to trust Doctor Druid is likely due to his mentally manipulative actions starting around Avengers #294.
• Moondragon killed Drax back in Avengers #220, collected in Avengers: The Trial of Yellowjacket (Review).