Infinity 1, Infinity - Against the Tide Infinite Comic 1

Infinity 1
Hickman (w) and Cheung and Morales w/ Livesay and Meikis (a) and Ponsor (c)

Infinity begins and I already get why this had to be an event. Like, more than whether it's good or not (we'll get to that eventually, probably, I mean, I'm reviewing it, right?), I understand why it's a an event instead of just like, an arc of a book or even a crossover between a couple books. This still has nothing to do with whether or not it's going to be worthwhile at the end or even whether it needs as many tie-ins as it'll have. What it means is that this is big. It's really big. Like, this will envelop many superheroes in it and it's even possible it will require all of them. There are two different plots going on, both of which are big for an Avengers world and which seem exclusive of one another. The first is that the Builders, the race that eminently decides what planets and species exist and thrive and that spawned new Avenger recruits Ex Nihilo and Abyss, are destroying planets left and right and their path is headed straight at Earth, urging the Avengers to take action before it reaches them. The entire Avengers team, it seems, is sent out with Steve to track down the Builders and strike first while Tony stays home to prepare Earth's defenses and, perhaps, deal with other problems. That will include, as so much promo art told us, Thanos attacking with his legion. An assassin for Thanos has been scouring the universe looking for something Thanos has lost and he seems to have found it with the Inhumans. There are secrets that Black Bolt is sitting on, ones that could destroy him and ones that Thanos wants, it seems. Worse for Earth, Thanos has a spy in SWORD who knows that the Avengers have just left Earth.

There's a ton happening here, as I said before. This can only be an event both because the challenges stacking against the Earth are too big to handle on a smaller level and because Thanos is smart enough to attack the Earth when the Avengers aren't on it. So this needs to be an event. Like I said, that doesn't mean it's going to be great or anything (though it could be) but at least the scale is suitable. On top of the fact this is simply big enough for an event, there's a lot happening here in terms of story and backstory. We get whole civilizations sort of developed only to show them destroyed by the Builders or by Thanos' squad. Like with the Avengers series particularly (though also like New Avengers which is very slightly more straightforward), Hickman is planting all sorts of seeds and preparing to harvest some he's already planted. Don't expect to get every answer straight away and certainly don't expect that every question has been asked. Oh, and this is a double-size issue (with an Infinite Comic associated, reviewed below in a BONUS REVIEW). It's broken up into more manageable chunks with all manner of subheading and scene breaks and so on. Lots of jumping around but it certainly benefits the book, starting and stopping with new scenes after appropriate breaks. Solid first entry, it'll be interesting to see where it goes.

Infinity - Against the Tide 1
Latour (w) and Alessio (a and c)

I don't typically review Infinite Comics (I don't think? Maybe there haven't been any since I started this blog) but I couldn't help it with this one. For those uninitiated, Infinite Comics are meant to be read digitally. Of course, these books can all be obtained digitally but they remain the same comic, meant to be read any way you choose to read them. Infinite Comics have a fluidity to them that requires you to constantly flip pages, almost like a slower-moving flipbook. They've been pretty cool across the board since their inception but this one was especially neat. It focuses on a Skrull planet which is being attacked by what seems to be the Builders (or at least their robot henchmen). Arriving to try to aid them is the ever-cool Silver Surfer. How much he can actually do is questionable but BOY is he cool in this. The art is incredible and the flipbook nature of the Infinite Comic is impressively handled, allowing for very cool and rapid scenes, including some great action sequences for Silver Surfer. There's not a ton else to talk about here, the writing is pretty solid and Silver Surfer is ever himself, hoping for peace and no longer a servant of Galactus. Again though, this is worth checking out, if you have the ability for the art and the pretty unique design of the book (unique to comics in general, obviously not to Infinite Comics which are wholly based on this design). Pretty swell. Read the comic itself first, then go through it again to see the pictures quickly, more the way they were meant to be seen.