Now that the latest huge event of Marvel is finally done, with its 16 parts divided in three series being released and available, it’s time to take a look back at the whole thing. Jonathan Hickman, alongside he army of artists, inkers, colorists, letterers and the whole team, gave us something rather different this time around, with a huge story that did things in a way that diverted from the norm established by previous events. However, what were the strongest and weakest points now that the story is actually complete? Does the story, as a whole, ends up being good or a missed opportunity? Let’s find out with a look at the best and worst that Infinity offered.
The Good Points
1. The scale of things – The story, dealing with a huge war going on in the universe, was nothing short of astounding when it came down to its scope. Not only did it bring out every members of the Avengers alongside other species best known to the Marvel fans, but it also brought out Thanos on Earth, creating something that was impossibly huge, spanning worlds and galaxies.
2. The cosmic stuff – For many fans of the Giffen/DnA era of cosmic stories, this event as a whole was a godsend. With plenty of panel and pages given to the Galactic Council, formed by well-known characters like Annihilus, Gladiator, Kl’rt the Super-Skrull, Ronan the accuser alongside others, it was an all-star cast of cosmic stars. Not only did they shine and participate, but they also evolved in the story, giving old fans plenty to enjoy.
3. Thanos – It would have been easy to actually mess up the Mad Titan in terms of characterization. Plenty have done it, yet Jonathan Hickman went on and gave fans the character as he was meant to be: a cunning, dangerous and nihilistic being with a vision. His presence and dialogue in this was well-handled, never putting him as just a mere nuisance but a powerful menace, one that could have destroyed everything if he had but gotten his way.
4. The concepts – Hickman is a writer that is well-known for having rather grandiose ideas, of being a man with a plan. Despite the slow build to this story in the main Avengers title, he actually made a lot of the seeds he planted bloom in this story, bringing the whole war in the universe idea on its tail, while taking advantage of it to create a double narrative, with a situation in the stars and one on Earth. The way he used terrigenesis, the Inhumans, the son of Thanos, the Galactic Council, the weakened Skrull empire and dozens of other ideas made for a rather interesting read.
5. The opportunities – Many events are done in the prospect to tell more stories, to shake things up in order to sell other titles spinning off of it. It is basic marketing, of course, but Infinity went on and gave quite a lot to the Marvel universe in terms of change. The cosmic landscape is different, inhumans are now blooming everywhere and some characters are definitely not in the same place they were in before the start of this event. There are many stories that could come from this, with a good lot of these with plenty of potential already.
6. The art – The whole artistic team on these books were simply great. Leinil Francis Yu, Jim Cheung, Jerome Opena, Dustin Weaver, Mike Deodato, with colorists like Justin Ponsor, Sunny Gho, Frank Martin and a whole army of inkers. The story looked big thanks to a lot of excellent effort from these skilled artists, which made the books that much more enjoyable thanks to them. Marvel went all the way to make this good and it certainly showed in terms of art.
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Filed under: Marvel Comics, Other | Tagged: Infinity, Jonathan Hickman, Marvel | 4 Comments »
