Infinity 6

Infinity 6
Hickman (w) and Cheung and Morales w/ Weaver, Ortego, Meikis and Livesay (a) and Ponsor w/ Svorcina (c)

The Avengers have burst through the barricade and arrived on Earth as Widow leads her team through the Peak and directs Starbrand to disperse the rest of the ships in local space. With that part of the war won, we look back on Earth as the Illuminati try to stop Supergiant from activating their world-killing bomb. They're too late to stop her powering it up with the unwilling help of Black Bolt, so all that needs doing is to trigger the device. Unfortunately for Supergiant, Maximus the Mad holds the trigger. He's willing to detonate it if Supergiant will recognize that he's the smartest in the room, which he proves when he reveals that Lockjaw has also found his way into the room and transports Supergiant and the bomb itself to another world, destroying that world and presumably Supergiant while Lockjaw goes back home. The Avengers continue their fight against Thanos, which isn't going particularly well. The tables turn a bit as Cap deflects a couple of deadly shots from Proxima Midnight and they hit Corvus Glaive, killing him and horrifying her. Meanwhile, the Ebony Maw has been talking to the trapped Thane and releases him as the fight reaches its most desperate. Thane reaches out and touches Thanos with his right hand before disappearing into the cosmos with the Maw. When the Illuminati arrive to find the mostly unconscious Avengers, they explain that Thane's left hand brings death, as was the case in the village he destroyed, while his right hand brings a living death, revealing that Thanos and Proxima Midnight are trapped in some form of stasis. The threat has, for the moment, passed, and Thanos is conquered again, though Thane seems more powerful than his father and is currently under the thumb of the dangerous Ebony Maw. The epilogue shows the Skrulls, Kree, Shi'ar, and Annihilation Wave returning to their home planets (the Annihilation Wave left a portal open and now have a planet; scary), Black Bolt and Maximus discussing the future of the Inhumans, and the Illuminati taking control of the Thanos in stasis.

Very big, very epic final issue as the fight comes home on all fronts and the Avengers walk away almost entirely successful. No wonder this will give way to books like AVENGERS WORLD and things like that; the Avengers have never been more impressive than they are now, a team, as Reed Richards points out, assembled to do the impossible and which has now accomplished it. Very surprised that, despite all of my brilliant predictions (I got some bad feelings about Doctor Strange midway through this issue too), no one died in this issue. This must be the first event in a long while where Avengers haven't died or even fake-died. Even now I'm so surprised that I'm worrying I forgot someone. Anyway, really solid ending and more than enough to both show off our team and allow us to celebrate while also planting tons and tons of seeds for the future, including the return of the Skrulls, Kree, and of Annihilus, not to mention the rise of Thane. Plenty happening, great event through and through and worthy of the title "event." AND IT'S NOT QUITE OVER JUST YET, IS IT?



Okay, this is where my review for NEW AVENGERS 12 was supposed to be but I haven't gotten ahold of it yet and I'd like to post SOMETHING now, especially before my second batch (which has been finished for a while, you guys, I swear) posts at 6 EST. So, here's this one. NEW AVENGERS will come at some point. Probably. Geez.