Do you guys remember what I said about reviewing single issues in my Uncanny review a while back? Yea well screw that policy because this is an issue that I need to talk about and review for you guys because it’s really something special. I have to say, despite my love for what Hickman’s been doing in Avengers and especially New Avengers, Infinity wasn’t something I was really interested in. It just seemed like another one of “those” events where they hype it up as something that’ll change the Marvel universe until the next status quo changing event comes a year later. After reading Infinity #1 I can tell you this is not one of “those” events, it’s just a big fun story that spans the entire Marvel universe.
One thing I need to get out of the way immediately is that you cannot read this book without picking up Hickman’s Avengers and New Avengers, those books served to set this story up and you need to have read those before buying this or at the very least know most of the things that happened in those books.
It begins with the FCBD prologue issue which setups what Thanos has been up to and what his objective is during Infinity, this caught me by surprise and I’m glad it was included here because if it wasn’t it would have made the Mad Titans goal and plan seem way too vague, and its also there to show the scope of his influence across the galaxy. The story then jumps to different point like the world of Galador being obliterated by the Builders, Thanos sending one of his assassins to steal the secrets from Black Bolts mind and the Avengers dealing with alien activity on Earth.
Its when Captain Universe appears on board the flying headquarters of S.W.O.R.D. things really get interesting as the Avengers and Ex Nihilo realize that the Builders are pretty much fucking shit up across the entire galaxy, they are wiping out planets, empires, species left and right, the most powerful ones like the Kree, the Skrulls, the Shi’ar are all scrambling and preparing their forces for the impending slaughter and the Builders will cut through them all just to get to Earth forcing the Avengers to join the fight.
What’s great about this particular issue is how it manages to setup so many things to come and how it shows the full scope of this story, it truly spans the entire galaxy because we see glimpses of so many different worlds and species all of which are being affected by this crisis with the opening part centering around Space Knights of Galador easily being my favorite part of the issue.
With a story line that spans most if not the entire Marvel galaxy, you’d think the character stuff would probably suffer because of it but that’s not the case here, Hickman still manages to give every single character involved in this story his/her own voice and still manages to have great character moments or banter sprinkled throughout. When you write a story this big I imagine doing that can’t be easy put Hickman pulls it off like a pro here.
It also has our heroes do something they’ve never really done before and that’s interact with the other species in a way they really haven’t before, they know these species are all scrambling and preparing for the Apocalypse in their own way and the Avengers know they have a snow balls chance in hell of winning if they take on the Builders by themselves, so they go out to the endless void of space to rally these separate species together so they can defeat the Builder threat. I love this; finally we can see the Marvel heroes actually ally with these alien species instead of them just being used as punching bags for the heroes like they usually are… And they kind of are here too with the Builders and Thanos.
Cheung’s art work is nothing short of amazing, there were a few panels where my eyes went wide and I was actually pretty damn impressed by how well it was drawn but this IS Cheung were talking about so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.
The only real story problem I have is that I don’t know how the Builders are back and why are they killing everyone? I’m guessing its why Thanos and his guys are going after Earth, the planet and its people have been responsible for so many galaxy shattering, time line destroying and universe breaking occurrences and its already been firmly established they’ve really fucked all three of those up beyond repair, its probably safe to assume the Builders are just wiping away what’s old and broken so they can replace it with something new and better.
Now this is just me speculating (the reasoning for Thanos doing this has been confirmed) but I wish the book actually gave us more insight into the Builders. Another thing that will probably piss people off is that you need to read Avengers and New Avengers along with Infinity to get the full story. Usually I hate buying tie ins but since these are books I’m already reading it doesn’t bother me but for those who aren’t it’ll bother them.
I will say the story structure between these 3 books is pretty interesting. In between each issue of Infinity an issue or two of Avengers and New Avengers will be released, Avengers deals with the heroes rallying the different species into a joint army, New Avengers deals with the remaining heroes fighting Thanos as he and his own army attack the planet and Infinity deals with the main Builder threat and they’re all written by Hickman. I would have preferred all of this stuff was covered in the main book and that they just made it like 12 issue instead of 6, but I can see why they didn’t do it. The story would jump around every issue and it would most likely make it a pain in the ass to read issue to issue.
All in all Infinity #1 was a blast, it setup up so many things and gave them all just enough attention to make you want too see more, the characters all had their own distinct voice and personality, it actually has the Marvel heroes do something new for a change which makes logical sense given the nature of the threat here and it was just a blast to read, I highly recommend that you guys pick this bad boy up.
FINAL VERDICT: A-
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