RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Shut the Fuck Up, Fanboy!: Infinity Gauntlet

SHUT THE FUCK UP FANBOY!

This time period's review:

THE INFINITY GAUNTLET,or

THE MOST AWESOME THING I'VE EVER READ

WRITER: Jim Starlin

ART: George Fucking Perez (Issues 1-3 and sorta 4) and Ron "Does this guy even work anymore?" Lim (Issues 5-6 and sorta 4)


I have fond memories of The Infinity Gauntlet. As a lad, a cousin of mine used to have a small comic collection. When I say small, I mean like a few issues. Only two really stood out: that issue of X-MEN during the late Claremont years with the dude who wants to kill Dazzler on the cover "I love you, Dazzler®... TO DEATH!"), and an issue of Silver Surfer. The Silver Surfer issue stood out for one reason: it featured the corpses of all my favorite Marvel characters: Cylcops (who I vividly remember as being decapitated), Captain America, Iron Man, and yes, even Wolverine. I MARVEL®ED at this scene. What had happened to them? And why were Adam Warlock and Silver Surfer just floating above these characters and exchanging cosmic banter?

I finally got the answer a few years later when I read THE INFINITY GAUNTLET. Upon first reading it, as a stupid kid who didn't know any better, I found the whole affair depressing, what with Thanos, who always seemed to me a version of Darkseid without any real authority, kicking the crap out of all the superheroes and the final issues not involving any SKINTing or ZARKing or even any THWIPing that my idiotic younger self so very much craved.

Upon rereading it a couple weeks ago, after years of letting it sit in my semi-organized comic boxes, I have come to appreciate it. It's really a great read.

Thanos is in love with Death. That's right, the skeleton in a robe is a chick. And Thanos envisions her as a hot white woman for some reason. I guess Thanos has a fetish for human beings. Regardless, he has come into the possession of the Infinity

Gem, which, when placed on the Infinity Gauntlet, a big orange glove, gives the wearer godlike powers. I forget the name of
the Gems, but in the SNES video game, I always chose to equip the one that doubles my health.
Too bad that Death won't give Thanos the time of day. To get her attention, he decides to give her more souls to claim. Yes,

that's right, to get someone to like you, just give them more work to do. Watch the cute redhead in the office salivate when you put a stack of reports in her inbox. She can't help but push everything off her desk and fuck you right on top of the TPS Report! Anyway, so Thanos kills half of the population of the universe.

This has some irritating reprocussions on Earth. The Avengers have to save everybody while planes are falling out of the sky
and tsunamis are crashing down upon people. It's quite thrilling to see Namor pull a small child out of a pile of SENTINEL back issues. Remember, it's George Perez drawing Thor saving an airplane. Very cool.

Eventually, one things are under relative control, Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, Adam Warlock, and some other cosmic fellows
assemble a team of superpeople to beat the shit out of Thanos as a part of some plan to defeat him. What's funny is that all of the big Marvel characters are very alive: Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Nova for some odd reason, Hulk, Cyclops, etc. I guess nobody wanted to see Speedball, Daredevil, Moon Knight, Blade, Hawkeye, and Doc Samson get stepped on by Thanos.

This leads to an all-out brawl between the superheroes and Thanos plus his newly-created daughter, whose name might be Nebula. I forgot. Anyway, Thanos slaughters EVERYBODY, and in different and creative ways to boot. What's great about this scene are the unexpected bits of dark humor, like seeing Nebula with Iron Man in a headlock in the background in one panel, then seeing Iron Man's head bounce off the ground in a corner of the following panel.

The issues that follow were the ones I didn't like when I first read it. Now, I enjoy this part even more than the previous one, which is probably due to my recent enjoyment of The Silver Surfer. After the heroes "fail" in defeating Thanos, a bunch of cosmic beings are assembled to take down Thanos, including Galactus and that big cosmic thing that had sex with the DC Universe (I think) in JLA/AVENGERS: COME WHAT SHIT. This part of the series just screams "Holy shit!" as Thanos battles with the forces that control the universe itself. This is what is missing from Marvel Comics nowadays. All that great cosmic stuff. Screw Earth! Ego, the Living Planet is much more interesting! Howzabout Brian Michael Bendis write something about

him? Dammit.

What I like most about this story is what happens with Thanos at the end. I don't want to spoil, but I like that he doesn't meet the end that a villain would typically get. If I had the comics available to me at this point in time, I would elaborate, but alas, they are a couple hundred miles away.

George Perez's art is a highlight, regardless of what you think of the script. He does great creative things with the page layouts instead of a typical story board format all the time. Ron Lim's art... well, to be honest, I find it hard to tell

between the two, until you notice the blank expressions on the characters' faces. That's Ron Lim. That's really my only gripe with the miniseries. George Perez should have done the whole damn thing. Maybe he broke his wrist again.

GRADE: A.

Selling this on ebay at the moment!

Great review. I always liked this book as well. I dropped out of comics a while ago, but I would still like to pick up all the other "Infinity" books..."Infinity War" (wasn't that released last year?) the Adam Warlock series, and some of the other stuff.

The plot behind "Marvel Super Heroes" was based around this game, as you mentioned. I never played it on the SNES, but I did at the arcade. You can also get the game from: www.playagain.net

Finally, here is a good site about Thanos, and the Infinity Gauntlet.

http://thanos.crowfans.com/

I agree that this is a great read. Jim Starlin has always been one of my favorite writers.

The SNES game was "Marvel Superheroes: War of the Gems" or something. It was an OK side-scroller where you went through levels and fought dopplegangers of a bunch of Marvel characters. Adam Warlock was strangely missing from the game, from what I remember. And Shuma-Gorath.

Hey, Scott. I've seen you around the Millar Boards. I just registered there a couple days ago as Danny Djeljosevic.

Link?

To Millar's Board, Scott....

http://www.millarworld.net/

I like it there. It it's not a cult of masturbatory praise (like Geoff Johns' place) nor is it a playground for arseholes (like the old Wizard World Boards). People seem friendly.

Well, they seem anal-retentive. But, what the hell? I'll give it a shot....

Yeah, a little, but the rules are just to prevent upstarts from causing trouble. They think that having to reveal your real name will make you less likely to piss people off.

And, yet, I registered under Prometheus anyway....

Heh. The very first post you make someone will say something like "You need to register under your real name. Go to [LINK] to get it changed."

Well, then, I'll simply refuse and quit posting if I have to. If I wanted them to know me personally, and call me by my name, I'd go to their fucking house....

Heh. Or say that Prometheus is your real name.

"Prome Theus. What? It's Greek-Czech-Polish-Canadian. Are you saying something about my family?"

Or something like "My parents are hippies! Why else would I register as 'Prometheus!'"

"I stole your fire, man. Your fire! You can never take that away from me!"

how dare you promote other forums!

disco, in your own thread, no less

that aside...

another fun review. i have clearly been shutted the fuck up.

Quote:

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Disco Steve said:
This part of the series just screams "Holy shit!" as Thanos battles with the forces that control the universe itself. This is what is missing from Marvel Comics nowadays. All that great cosmic stuff.

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i agree on both accounts.

for me, now, the marvel universe is one overy continuitied mass of confusion. but not all that long ago, it was fun and inviting and had these great match ups which, despite its total amalgamation of the universe, was relatively simple and easy to enjoy!

seeing all the heroes battle one guy, then fail, just helped to emphasize how friggin powerful he was -- later confronting the beings of pure power.... too cool.

comparatively, when the more recent marvel universe faught onslaught, i found the entire event utterly confusing and simply uninviting to someone who wasn't fully in-the-know of every book.

I had trouble wrapping my head around the concept of a very powerful telepath and one who has power over metals melding together to become a creature who is powerful enough to mess with reality...

Onslaught isn't a cosmic entity, right?

I'm a moderate X-Men fan (I won't buy it if it sucks), and I don't even get it. My guess is that Professor X was just making everyone think he looked like a huge fucking monster and their ultimate foe is really just a guy in a floating wheelchair.

There's a difference between Onslaught and Infinity Gauntlet, though. Infinity Gauntlet was a nice self-contained miniseries that doesn't require any previous reading to get.

Onlsaught, however, does not get that luxury. It all takes place within issues of a bunch of ongoing series, resulting in a crossover that is essentially all tie-in books with no actual crossover miniseries to tie into, except for two bookends. And it was probably tailored to make way for "Heroes Reborn." It's all just so poorly concieved.

Heh, yeah. Origin fits that tagline well.

I have heard of this series of course, but I never bothered to get it.

It seems to me to be quintessentially Marvel - the big world-shattering fights between cosmic beings. Slim on characterisation, big on kicks and splode.

The idea of someone tearing off Iron Man's head is amusing though.

The way heroes died was amusing. Cyclops suffocating, Spiderman getting his head bashed in with rock, Wolvie getting turned into rubber, Wanda disintegrated...

I'd say there was decent characterization.

For example, there's a great scene with Hulk/Wolverine just sitting on top of a building and talking, pre Thanos arse kicking, instead of duking it out like they usually do.

Yeah, I was thinking abut the exact same scene when Dave mentioned the lack of characterization.
Also it has Pip the troll, and his characterization is spot on as always!

Pip the Troll deserves his own title.

I knew it would come to this sooner or later...

I dunno. It doesn't seem so bad.

Tell Millar I said hello, and that he still sucks(and is a wee cunt).

You just want to get me banned.

I recently joined. I quite like it.

People are openly critical of Millar. I don't find it cliquey at all.

your jobs should clearly be to invite people here.

...

how much can "ininity gauntlet" be purchased for now? in its collected form.

Surely you jest.

Good ol' Thanos.

Wasn't there a spin-off? "Adam Warlock and the Infinity Watch" or something?

Don't tell me those jewels went from a glove to a Swatch or a Rolex...

Quote:

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Rob Kamphausen said:
your jobs should clearly be to invite people here.

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But I was leeching them to my board!

I can of course be easily bribed with free comics....