Review: Thanos- The Infinity Finale

Quick Summary

Pros: The main narrative is interesting and is told in an exciting way. The protagonists are all well-written. The conclusion is satisfying in most regards.

Cons: The artwork is lackluster in some places. The conclusion disappoints in a few small ways.

Overall: The final volume in this trilogy of graphic novels sends the series off with a bang. It contains an engaging narrative, a great cast of characters, and a conclusion that delivers on almost all of its promises. There are a few negative features to the book but nothing significant enough to seriously impair the read. Fans of the first two graphic novels should definitely keep reading here as the ride is worth it.

Story

Thanos: The Infinity Finale, by Jim Starlin, brings this trilogy of graphic novels to a satisfactory end. The story tells the tale of an exciting battle over the fate of the universe. The progression of this battle is fun to see and gives Thanos and Pip the Troll opportunities to shine. Then, as the dust settles on the battle, the book’s conclusion ties up the series in a way that fans of cosmic comics will enjoy. There are a few points to this conclusion that are slightly disappointing but there are no major problems. In the end, this comic is a worthwhile end to this graphic novel saga.

(spoilers start here)

The Infinity Finale starts right where The Infinity Relativity (Review) left off. It has Thanos reconstitute in Death’s domain and quickly relaunch his assaults on Annihilus while Pip attempts to free Adam Warlock. This leads to a two-prong war on the comic’s big bad which allows both protagonists to shine; Thanos gets an opportunity to flex his intelligence and prowess in battle and Pip shows off his cunning and dedication to his friend. It also leads to an exciting narrative, where victory seems certain for the villain until it is snatched away at the last second.

Then, The Infinity Finale makes its way to the titular finale. Here, the universe is obliterated and reconstituted, thanks to a strategy from Thanos and a sacrifice from Adam Warlock. It wraps up the entire story nicely and does so with the cosmic flair that defines most of Starlin’s work. It also works well thematically by, once again, having Thanos work against his own nihilistic tendencies and having Adam Warlock take one for the universe as a whole. All in all, this finale works as an end for this volume and an end to this current saga.

However, there are places where the finale does disappoint. Mephisto’s presence in the saga feels random and is less justified than the rest of the narrative. In addition, some more insight into Adam Warlock’s thoughts on his assumption of the Living Tribunal position would have been nice. Luckily, these points of contention are rather small and do not have a large impact on the appeal of the comic as a whole.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The artwork in The Infinity Finale struggles a bit more than its predecessors. This volume sees Ron Lim, a longtime Starlin collaborator, take over on pencils, with Andy Smith on inks and Guru-eFX on colors. The chief positives here come from the well-structured layouts and the creative approaches to cosmic shenanigans, which consistently add to the reading experience. However, when multiple familiar characters all appear on the same page, which happens quite often, the quality level noticeably drops. There are also a number of places where colors come off a little strange, depicting characters or objects in a way that feels flat and does not work well with the grandiose nature of the comic. These flaws do not make this a bad book to look at but do manage to prevent it from being as good as it could have been.

Continuity

Thanos: The Infinity Finale continues the story from Thanos: The Infinity Relativity (Review).

The general story from this series of original graphic novels is continued in the next series of original graphic novels, starting with Thanos: The Infinity Siblings.

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

• References are made to Thanos’ control over all reality, due to his use of the Infinity Gauntlet, from Infinity Gauntlet (Review) (Reading Order).
• References are made to Thanos’ past partnership with Annihilus, which was seen across the Annihilation (Reading Order) event.
• The Living Tribunal was revealed to have died in New Avengers Vol. 3 #8, collected in Infinity (Reading Order). The cause of its death was shown in New Avengers Vol. 3 #30, collected in Avengers: Time Runs Out Vol. 3 (Review) (Reading Order).