Thoughts on the “Infinity War” Comic …

Due to various events, I ended up digging up a whole bunch of my TPBs and have started re-reading them. Some of them I don’t actually remember reading, and some of them I end up getting bored of (I had a tendency to grab ones that sounded interesting, and sometimes struck out with that method). One of the ones that I did remember was “Infinity War”. I read it right after “Infinity Gauntlet” around the time the movie came out (or, rather, that I watched the movie) and … was disappointed in it. On re-reading it, though, I like it better than I did then.

I think the initial problem for me was with the beginning. I had remembered the initial battle with the dopplegangers, and have to admit that it’s an interesting introduction to the series. However, from a plot perspective it’s at a minimum underused. We don’t get to see this as an overall long-term strategy — although there is a sequence in the TPB that shows the combats in more detail — and it isn’t all that big a part of the villain’s master plan, other than generating an army for him to use. So that part ends up being a bit disappointing, and so if that was what you were interested in it will colour your impression of the book.

It didn’t help, at least originally, that for me I had no idea who the main villain as. I had never heard if Magus and didn’t even know much about Adam Warlock. That the main plot, then, focuses on the clash between the two of them, and the reintroduction of Thanos (whom I didn’t know much about either) just left me watching characters that I didn’t like all that much. Surely there had to be something more interesting to follow.

On the re-read, I knew more about Thanos, at least, so some of his sequences were more interesting. But the key was that I was able to focus more on the Magus this time, and the idea of him as a Chessmaster who had prepared for and predicted everyone move the heroes would make was actually interesting, if a bit overpowered. I found following along with the plan much more interesting this time around, and so enjoyed it more.

This did lead to a letdown at the end of the TPB, however. Magus is not outfoxed, nor is his plan overturned by something that he couldn’t really have foreseen. So at the end, his nature as a planner is ignored, and it’s mostly due to a failure of will and a purportedly stupid mistake that causes him to lose. That’s a bit disappointing, and undermines the one thing that I was really enjoying this time around.

I still like “Infinity Gauntlet” better, but this one is now more tolerable, enough so that I can see myself re-reading the two of them together now, instead of reading “Infinity Gauntlet” mainly on its own.