The Infinity Gauntlet - Cheap Thoughts

The Infinity Gauntlet is one of the most iconic crossover storylines in all of the Marvel Universe, so big that it's going to eventually be an Avengers film in what will most likely be their biggest outing in 2018 and 2019 with Infinity War Part 1 & 2. Being a big Marvel fan and in the mood to read some classics, i decided to pick it up, so here's how it goes. *Spoilers Ahead* Thanos The Mad Titan has come into possession of the Infinity Gauntlet (Read The Thanos Quest for context) and has now become an Omnipotent being, capable of warping reality to his desire just by thinking about it, all to impress the love of his life, the embodiment of death. After literally wiping out half of the galaxy, Adam Warlock and Silver Surfer recruit the remaining superheroes of Earth to fight Thanos. After they fail and are defeated with ease, Adam reveals that the real fight begins with the cosmic entities of the universe (Basically gods) to fight Thanos together, yet that still fails and in the end, after multiple battles, Adam Warlock becomes the new master of the gauntlet, everything Thanos did is reversed and he is punished by forced to live out a secluded and ordinary life as a farmer...huh.

Now despite the praise for this comic, I still went in with low expectations (Because that's just the smart thing to do) and I was still underwhelmed with the story. It starts off great, showing the power and force of Thanos by wiping out half the universe within the blink of an eye, and once the remaining heroes are called in to fight, it becomes really epic, having members of the Avengers, the X-Men and other heroes teaming up to fight him, even if it all turns out to be inevitable, even Warlock says that it's admirable that even though they know their chances of winning are next to nothing, they never give up, never show cowardice or regret, they will fight to protect until their last breath. Even Thanos's fight with the cosmic entities is still really awesome, though it proves the pointlessness of the heroes showing up, they didn't wear him down at all and the entities were for some reason Plan B even though really they were their only option. And then in the end it really begins to drag along, at one point Nebula gets the gauntlet and reverses all of Thanos's actions, when really Warlock could have done that once he gets the Gauntlet.

Also can I just say I absolutely hate Adam Warlock in this comic? I know very little about this character apart from what i've been told, but i've never actually read a comic with him in it before and he did not leave a very good impression on me. Not only did he pull the whole "ah, but i actually planned for that to happen" way too many times to the point where it becomes incredibly obnoxious, but his plans don't make any sense (refer to sending in the heroes first) and he decides the best punishment for Thanos is to strip him of all power. Even if he deserves the power of the gauntlet (Which later comics will show that he doesn't) why is he the one to decide Thanos's punishment? And maybe it's just me, but i feel the punishment for someone who literally killed half the population of the universe deserves something a little harsher than house arrest!

And multiple characters in this book felt wasted and completely unnecessary, again, while all of the heroes are utterly pointless in the end bar for a few, half of them disappear halfway through and the other half feel like they were picked at random. Spider-Man is in the comic for no other reason than to sell issues, the only thing he does is shoot web in Thanos's eyes them is presumably dead (We never actually see his death on screen) and while Captain America and Wolverine get a cool moment to shine, again, it is utterly pointless in the long run.

As for the artwork, it's pretty fantastic. It was penned by George Perez and Ron Lim (famous for doing cosmic work for Marvel) and it looks pretty amazing how they design the giant fight scenes of this book and give it a grand scale and a sense of epicness. The detail and character models are all consistent and well done, but the real highlight are the covers, especially #1 and #4 for being incredibly stylish and epic, though I do have a softspot for the simplicity yet effectiveness of #3.

In the end, the comic starts off relatively strong and has lovely artwork and great fights, but it all seems to fall apart by the end and suffers from bad pacing, a waste of characters and the general suckiness of Adam Warlock. I'm giving Infinity War a 6/10.

-Danny