In recent years, Marvel's trend has been to have events be chain reactions of one another. "Civil War among heroes caused the world to infiltrated by aliens which allowed Green Goblin to rise to power which brought Captain America back to kick his ass which blah blah blah blah....." Infinity comes across feeling like it has a completely different identity than that. This is largely thanks to Jonathan Hickman's style of crafting stories on an epic sci-fi scale. His work on The Avengers and New Avengers (which have been the primary books building toward Infinity, by the way) are a perfect indication of why his writing is what it is. Every moment in a Hickman book feels like whatever's happening is for all the marbles which is what the Avengers always be about anyway. Even the little things like the ominous fly pages in between beats give you the distinct feeling that you're about to have your mind blown. Infinity is no different in this regard.
This book touches on pretty much all of the important points from Hickman's Avenger stories. The "Illuminati" has been doing top secret, fucked up things for the good of all (again), the "Builders" have been going from world to world doing quite the opposite of building things and....oh, yeah, Thanos is ready to start some shit with Earth again. It's going to interesting to see what a pure science fiction voice such as Hickman's can do with the concept of an ascended beings whose business is "evolving" sentient races. It's not the first time we've seen this kind of thing, but he gives us enough to lead us to believe it's headed somewhere awesome. Jim Cheung's pencils are absolutely gorgeous. This is evident because of a particular page detailing a world being razed that is just one of the best "we've come to destroy all" scenes I've ever looked at.
One drawback that presents itself here is that, being the result of things that happened in at least three different books, Infinity isn't the easiest to jump into. However, if you like grand events and have grown tired of DC's Trinity War (which I'm almost certain is being written with the help of 12 sided dice and a Mad Libs book), this is certainly something to pick up.
Bottom Line: You may have to do a little homework to catch up, but this event is superhero shit done well. 9 out of 10.
Thor: God of Thunder #11: This is a book that flew below my radar for far too long. Thor's stories in the past have, for a long time, been a bit ambiguous with their handling of the character, not really giving him an identity aside from him being the Avenger who talks in "thee" and "thou." But I dare to say that Jason Aaron's run so far is going to end up being one of the essential runs they talk about in ten years when someone wants to get into Thor but doesn't know where to start.
In this issue, we get a fitting ending to the "Godbomb" and with that, an end to the saga of Gorr, the God Butcher. The Son of Odin was given a time bending, universe spanning problem to deal with, challenged just like a god should be and that challenged answered in epic turn. One theme that presented itself quite often in this story questions the existence of gods, whether or not they do more harm than good and whether they truly deserve to preside over man. Eventually, Aaron's villain, Gorr has a god slaughtering good times making the characters wonder if perhaps his quest is somehow, in a macabre way, justified. Now, it could be argued (and has been by the idiots at IGN) that what we're given is something of a cop out in favor of giving the Thunder God a happy ending. One thing to keep in mind...and this is something IGN couldn't be bothered to remember...is that Thor, despite being noble, determined and a decent judge of character, has NEVER been a philosopher in any sense of the word. Asking comic book character, especially one like Thor, for an insightful answer to a question that real life civilizations have pondered, fought and died trying to answer since forever....that's like asking Ted Nugent, well, anything. The only thing that would have made me happier is if he looked Gorr directly in the face and said, "Because I'm Thor, bitch."
Esad Ribic spared no creative expense while wrapping this arc up in style. The pencils here lend the sort of jaw dropping gravitas a story of this magnitude deserves. There are more than a few moments in this book that look like they should have come out of a mythic tome somewhere. Every time Thor used his hammer, your reaction should be nothing less than "Oh, shit! Are you serious?"
Bottom Line: An awesome, gorgeous ending to the kind of legendary arc that Thor deserves. This is a frontrunner for "Best Goddamned Comic Out This Week" and considering Saga came back this week, that's saying something.
9 out of 10.
Bottom Line: You may have to do a little homework to catch up, but this event is superhero shit done well. 9 out of 10.
Thor: God of Thunder #11: This is a book that flew below my radar for far too long. Thor's stories in the past have, for a long time, been a bit ambiguous with their handling of the character, not really giving him an identity aside from him being the Avenger who talks in "thee" and "thou." But I dare to say that Jason Aaron's run so far is going to end up being one of the essential runs they talk about in ten years when someone wants to get into Thor but doesn't know where to start.
In this issue, we get a fitting ending to the "Godbomb" and with that, an end to the saga of Gorr, the God Butcher. The Son of Odin was given a time bending, universe spanning problem to deal with, challenged just like a god should be and that challenged answered in epic turn. One theme that presented itself quite often in this story questions the existence of gods, whether or not they do more harm than good and whether they truly deserve to preside over man. Eventually, Aaron's villain, Gorr has a god slaughtering good times making the characters wonder if perhaps his quest is somehow, in a macabre way, justified. Now, it could be argued (and has been by the idiots at IGN) that what we're given is something of a cop out in favor of giving the Thunder God a happy ending. One thing to keep in mind...and this is something IGN couldn't be bothered to remember...is that Thor, despite being noble, determined and a decent judge of character, has NEVER been a philosopher in any sense of the word. Asking comic book character, especially one like Thor, for an insightful answer to a question that real life civilizations have pondered, fought and died trying to answer since forever....that's like asking Ted Nugent, well, anything. The only thing that would have made me happier is if he looked Gorr directly in the face and said, "Because I'm Thor, bitch."
Esad Ribic spared no creative expense while wrapping this arc up in style. The pencils here lend the sort of jaw dropping gravitas a story of this magnitude deserves. There are more than a few moments in this book that look like they should have come out of a mythic tome somewhere. Every time Thor used his hammer, your reaction should be nothing less than "Oh, shit! Are you serious?"
Bottom Line: An awesome, gorgeous ending to the kind of legendary arc that Thor deserves. This is a frontrunner for "Best Goddamned Comic Out This Week" and considering Saga came back this week, that's saying something.
9 out of 10.
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