Infinity #6

Writer - Jonathan Hickman
Art - Jim Cheung, Dustin Weaver, Mark Morales, Guillermo Ortega, Dave Meikis, John Livesay, Justin Ponsor, Ive Svorcina


Another Marvel event has come and gone.  Well we look back on Infinity in a favorable light in years to come, or will we lump it in with Age of Ultron and call 2013 a bust?

This final installment finds our heroes returning home from galactic war to handle the business of Thanos striking against their homeworld.  The first thing I need to address here is the art design.  It is wonderful.  The characters are all presented as barely surviving the hardest fight of their lives, and it shows.  Destroyed costumes, blood and bruises.  Beaten, yet victorious, they return.  The rest of the art doesn't really live up to the design of everything, though.  I think there are too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak.  While the styles everyone use aren't dramatically different, it is enough to feel disjointed.  I'd rather have had Jim Cheung handle the reigns of the whole series, honestly.  His work has been solid, if a little rushed in places.

This was a packed issue, but I found it lacking.  I was really hoping for a Captain America/Thanos showdown to echo their meeting from Infinity Gauntlet.  Instead, we get Thor/Thanos which, while entertaining, didn't pack the emotional heft it could have.  The color scheme of the issues of the cure limited series tied directly into the Infinity Gems, yet they weren't really part off the story being an offhand reference here or there.  Between that and they title of the event, it was somewhat misleading.  What I really wanted out of this event was a story with heart.  There were numerous beats here and there that showed the story was capable of delivering on those desires, but as a whole they did not provide me with what I was hoping for.  Other than that, I'm happy with what I got.

One of the biggest takeaways from this event is the introduction of Thanos' son, Thane.  I'm looking forward to seeing his his newfound partnership with the Ebony Maw will be expanded upon in future stories.  His inclusion and Thanos' overall story are probably my favorite part of this story.  It was the most dramatic, possibly because of the scale.  The battle with the Builders may have been too big to process.  

This was a fun read.  Solid art and an interesting premise give us a story that's worth reading.  However, the absence of clear consequences and the vague story set-ups take away from the heart of the story.