IG
The Infinity Gauntlet – Yet another cosmic Jim Starlin tale of a near-god gaining omnipotence through some gadget (if it’s not the “cosmic cube”, then it’s the “infinity gauntlet”), battling the strongest beings in the universe (Galactus, the Celestials, the Silver Surfer, Thor, Cloak… wait – Cloak?!?), ultimately coming to some conclusion (and several other Gauntlet-sequels).
The tale starts off with Thanos and Mephisto hanging out on some galactic plane, Mephisto is kissing up to him. Great. Thanos has reached omnipotence and he’s still out to charm Death, and builds several tactics for flirting with his cold, cold beloved. There’s some crazy explanation that this is all at Death’s bidding, but that explanation is abandoned in the first chapter. Great. So all of the heroes in the universe unite against Thanos, but led by Doctor Strange, the Silver Surfer, and Warlock.
Wait, Warlock? Isn’t he trapped inside a soul gem, one of the six that form the Infinity Gauntlet itself? Well… no, not exactly; sensing a date with destiny, Warlock engineers that he, Pip and Gamora come into the picture at one point, being weirdly reborn from the reanimated corpses of some hick New Jersey lowlifes. Strange. But it’s nice to see the golden god returned to the land of the living, weird incubator and all. Doctor Doom shows up, but he doesn’t do much (ditto for Drax the Destroyer, who sort of swarms about before being instantly defeated, more than once); Quasar (whoever he is), does even less. Yes, it’s a very strange throw-everything-into-the-mix-and-see-what-works sort of approach. We even get to see Terraxis the Terrible, a sort of female Thanos, who doesn’t do much (except for beheading Iron Man) until she, too, is expended. She really only came into the picture to make Death jealous (as if that was ever going to happen). Great.
There are some strange plot twists – Mephisto convinces Thanos that he can win greater favor with Death by giving himself a handicap, before he realises how stupid that is and gets rid of Mephisto. He takes on all of the cosmit entities (the Living Tribunal, the useless Stranger, Eternity), and is put in his place by Warlock’s crazy hissy fit (“A man always seeking ultitmate power and losing it as soon as he attains it! why? Because deep in his soul he knows he is not worthy of it”). Great!
From his galactic fascist throne, Thanos plots the destruction of the universe (or at least several thousand sun systems), while also tormenting his granddaughter Nebula, who he’s turned into a putrid living corpse (not sure who Nebula is, but she’s later to develop a grand role in all of this). Eros (Starfox – Thanos’ brother) is also horribly tortured, but he’s seemingly less important – I know, it’s all crazy. Of course, there’s also the thing that Starlin does where he kills everybody off, only to bring them all back again (it was an alternate reality folded backwards into itself, then zapped with a ray that makes everything go back to the pre-destruction time – NOOOOO!!!!!). It’s great action, and the turn-about at the end is really great, as is the slieght-of-hand that stops it from going all wrong yet again. Nice plot twists, great storytelling, and fantastic and freaky misadventures. Love it!!
Warlock and the Silver Surfer chill out inside a soul gem and meld souls, Nebula attains cosmic power, all of the heroes get amnesia, and Thanos goes into a freaky, ironic semi-retirement. Awww…
While the plotting by Jim Starlin leaves much to be desired at times, the art by George Perez is flawless. Love it all!!