Trade Of The Month: Infinity War

Infinity War

Writer: Jim Starlin

I picked up the trade of The Infinity War a while back before the movie came out when I actually use to give a crap about reading books before the movies came out so I could ruin the movie for myself. Turns out I actually should have finished reading this graphic novel before the movie. The event book is nothing like the movie but then I would have at least known the movie is leagues better than the book. Honestly they shouldn't be compared. I won't be doing that here aside from the very obvious.

The Infinity War movie is based off of the Infinity Gauntlet comic not the Infinity War event. The Infinity War comics are just a forced Marvel comics event cash grab attempt at recreating the success of the Infinity Gauntlet series. Regardless, the art is amazing and the story isn't bad. Sure there are some writing flaws. Despite those flaws there are a few issues included in this trade that make up for it. 

As far as the story is considered it's lackluster but decent. Really this book is just Infinity Gauntlet fallout. At the end of Infinity Gauntlet Adam Warlock dispelled the good and evil from his body with the power of the Infinity Gauntlet. In Infinity War the embodiment of Adam Warlocks evil, Magus, has created evil versions of everyone to replace them and the 616 with his own dimension. Thanos joins up with Adam Warlock and his Infinity Watch. The heroes of Earth face off against their evil doppelgangers. After that tussle they send their heavy hitters to recruit Adam Warlock. Doctor Doom and Kang partner up to get the switch on Magus. Galactus makes a plea to return the power to the Infinity Gauntlet. This all culminates at the climax. It was a pretty solid build. The conclusion was really stupid though. Oddly enough the tie in issues were at the end of the book instead of weaved throughout where they could have been perfectly place at the points where the story felt weak and needed more insight. It was quite difficult to continue to read those issues after that crappy ending but I am glad I did. Those issues gave the story exactly what it needed that insight and depth into pivotal characters, primarily Thanos, which is why Infinity Gauntlet worked so well. Even though those issues lacked in art quality the writing did such a superb job of driving the story it didn't matter in the least. This still didn't make up for the crappy ending of the main event. The Infinity Watch issues were kind of a drag as the characters were weak and annoying, same as in the main story.

The other part of storytelling, the art, was not crappy. This is supremely surprising considering how many different penicilers, inkers, colorists, and letterers there are on the book. Usually a lot of artists results in a lot of inconsistencies. In actuality the art was seamless, impressive, mind blowing. The tie in issues were not as impressive. In fact the I, Thanos comics were lacking artistically a tad but the writing made up for it.

Overall, The Infinity War had more pros than cons but it left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. A bad ending can ruin a solid story and event. The tie-ins they included helped a lot but didn't completely make up for the awful ending. Even if they were weaved throughout the book as they should have been it would have helped even more but there's no recourse for a sorry excuse for an easy solution. It did intrigue me as to what could possibly have come next. It left me wanting more for good and bad reasons. That's why I have to give Infinity War a weak Buy.

Verdict: weak BUY