Infinity 3, Infinity: Against the Tide 2, New Avengers 10

Infinity 3
Hickman (w) and Opeña and Weaver (a) and Ponsor (c)

The Builders have destroyed, almost entirely, the world the resistance was recovering on. That leaves said resistance with very few places to turn. However, the Builders now offer leniency, saying any world that surrenders completely will be spared. One by one civilizations give in, including, eventually, the Kree and Spartax. The Skrulls, Shi'ar, Brood, and humans refuse. Cap develops a plan which involves distracting the Builders with a forward assault while teams teleport into one of the world destroyer ships and turn the weapons on the other world destroyer ships. It's a fairly successful attack, causing lots of damage to the fleet and forcing the Builders to flee with what they have left. The resistance is still up against the wall but they made a nice impact and rescued the captured Avengers in the process. The Builders who had been left behind to finish off what remained of the resistance fleet find themselves suddenly outgunned as Starbrand steps forward and uses his power at last, destroying the ships entirely. Meanwhile, at home, Thanos has left his pirates attacking Earth while he goes to Attilan, only to find that the empire has been emptied out, leaving only Black Bolt behind. He yells at Thanos, refusing to give up Thanos' son and, with the help of the machine Maximus built, destroying Attilan in the process.

Tons and tons going on here. A really nice victory for the Avengers off-planet, even if it's only a temporary one. It's a nice look at the ingenuity of Cap and the humans (even if it's essentially a Trojan horse), showing them as capable of standing beside the other worlds. Again it's an extra long issue but this one floats back and forth a little less than other issues have so far, preferring to focus on one story at a time from one angle at a time. There are still act breaks that continue to serve the story pretty well but we stay with the off-world Avengers first (with a slight recap of what happened in Avengers 19), staying with them and flipping a little back and forth between the Avengers and the Builders, then we move to Thanos as the story concerning the Builders ends for the issue. There are big plans in the works for the Inhumans (including an Inhumans event, it seems, and new book, written by Fraction, coming out soon, neither of which I've really talked about here) and this is certainly the spawning point of all that. They're a very interesting group and should be worth watching. Still pleasantly surprised by this event.

Infinity: Against the Tide
Latour (w) and R. Kim (a and c)

Continuing the Infinite Comic from Infinity 1, we see what's happening on one of the Skrull home worlds as Silver Surfer continues to try to save them from the onslaught. We get a bit of Surfer's history as he explains that he became the herald of Galactus in the worry that others would be less rightful than him and would allow the very worst of Galactus. He sees a little of that in the Builders as he defends the Skrulls, realizing their power is too great and their destruction too impossible to stop. He questions what the worth of fighting back is but steadies himself enough to save a young Skrull science officer (who we saw in the first issue) from a Skrull warrior's last act of war. He delivers the Skrull to SWORD and that Skrull, though similarly conflicted by the might of the Builders, offers himself as help for SWORD to prepare for the coming fight.

The Infinite Comic continues to be a really interesting medium; it's simultaneously hard to read because you don't want to break the flow of the rapid pictures by stopping for all the text but you also don't want to ignore the plot to solely focus on the pictures. The art is still pretty outstanding and, despite the difficulties inherent in reading the story, it's still a cool book with plenty going for it. Worth checking out if you have the means.

New Avengers 10
Hickman (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c)

The Illuminati have been set on a quest to find Thanos' son among the six hidden tribes of the Inhumans, who are spread out among the world. Tensions are high, considering the troubles off and on world and the secret war between Wakanda and Atlantis (those not directly involved don't know it's happening), but they split up to investigate the lands, with each member taking one Inhuman site (Black Bolt has returned to Attilan to face Thanos, as seen in Infinity 3). It's, of course, Stephen Strange who finds the son of Thanos. Strange is, unbeknownst to the rest of his team, compromised: the Ebony Maw is tagging along with him and eventually allows Stephen to leave with his life, not knowing what he's done in giving up the son of Thanos but aware that he's done something wrong. As he's released, though, he gets the call from his team about another incursion, happening just over Australia. Atlantis has fallen, Wakanda is about to be besieged by Thanos' full army, Attilan is falling, and now there's another incursion on its way. Plenty to deal with here.

Another solid issue of the book as we get back a little to the characterization of these characters and everything they currently have to contend with. The weight of it all is incredible, as hopefully the last sentence in that summary showed, and the tension between the characters is palpable. They have to discuss, in this issue, whether they can afford to help Black Bolt at this time and what it means to be who they are. Hank, for his part, refocuses the team a bit, insisting they help Black Bolt if they can. It is, of course, the tension between Black Panther and Namor as both keep their secrets from the others and as each plots the downfall of the other. A lot of really good stuff in here. This whole event, in tandem with everything that's happened already in Avengers and New Avengers, says an awful lot about Marvel architect Jonathan Hickman. The pieces are falling nicely into place and it all works. Groundwork, you guys, not just a time machine.

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.