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.
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