The major comic companies put out enough comics that sometimes it can leave your head spinning and eyes bleeding as you search the new titles each week for something worth reading. To aid in your Geeky endeavors, Speak Geeky To Me on occasion reviews new titles from the major companies to spotlight the best and worst of what’s available at your local comic shop. So sit back, relax, and enjoy a new Comic Review.

 

The Info Bit

Title: Infinity #1

Genre/s: Scifi/Superhero/Action

Writer: Jonathan Hickman (Avengers, The Manhattan Projects)

Penciler: Jim Cheung (Young Avengers, Scion)

Inker: Mark Morales (X-Men, The Mighty Thor), John Livesay (Catwoman, The Darkness), David Meikis (Avengers Academy, X-Men), & Jim Cheung

Colorist: Justin Ponsor (Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America)

Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos (Franklin Richards, Dark Tower) & Joe Caramagna (Iron Man, Captain America)

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Number of Issues: 1 (of 6)

Page Count: 53

Price: $4.99

 

The Review Bit

Marvel is immediately following up its last major comic event, The Age of Ultron, with a new one scribed by Jonathan Hickman. Infinity, Marvel’s new crossover event, focuses on The Avengers but brings them away from Earth, where they’re the mightiest heroes, and sends them off into space while facing several cosmic threats. The build up has been big and the scale looks even bigger, but will it top the generally lukewarm and relatively dud of an ending brought forth by its predecessor, Age of Ultron? At least Brian Michael Bendis didn’t set the Marvel event bar too high for Hickman with the company’s previous event. Hickman has been writing two amazing Avengers titles, which collide together for the build up of Infinity, so my bet is that Infinity will be a miniseries well worth reading.

The series’ first issue opens up with an almost perfectly redrawn scene from the end of New Avengers #5, where the illuminati characters destroy an alternate Earth just above Doctor Doom’s castle in Latveria. This ominous scene quickly is departed, however, with a transition to Titan, where one of Thanos’ Outriders (a genetically bred alien designed to assassinate and gather info of the Mad Titan’s bidding) returns victorious from a mission only to be sent to Earth for a final job. While we get a brief interlude as to what the Outrider’s previous gig was, it seems to be of no importance yet. Back on Earth, the Outrider is collecting information from the planet’s various protectors, such as the X-men, Avengers, and SHIELD. Meanwhile, from the pages of the main Avengers comic, we see Captain Universe on Galador, home of the Space Knights. The knights save a young couple before going off to fight “The Builders”, an ancient race briefly spoken of in the recent Avengers comics. This race of planet altering aliens quickly brings a tragic end to Galador and the Space Knights, while also sending Captain Universe packing. She returns to Earth’s orbit, reappearing on the SWORD space station, The Peak, while the organization works with the Avengers to raid a Skrull sleeper group hiding out on Earth. Obviously the xenophobia towards Skrulls left over from Secret Invasion still is prevalent. The Avengers return to check on Captain Universe only to find out the threat of The Builders is coming towards Earth. While they plan on how to deal with that, the threat of Thanos’ Outrider is caught on Atilan, home of the Inhumans, when he is found digging through Black Bolt’s unconscious mind for secrets. The alien discovers Black Bolt is keeping secrets from his Inhuman brethren when the Inhuman king awakes and begins a fight that badly wounds the Outrider. Still the Outrider gets away to give information to Thanos that will undoubtedly shape the storyline of this book. The issue ends with the Avengers putting together their plan for The Builders as Thanos reveals his plan for Earth. I can certainly say it looks like a lot of fighting is ahead.

Jonathan Hickman has put together a rather interesting concept so far with Infinity, though it seems to rely a fair bit on the reader having already ready his two current Avengers series…which consist of roughly 25 comics so far. You don’t need to have read all of this material to enjoy Infinity #1, but it certainly helps and explains a lot of moments, like the initial scene and what is going on with the Inhumans and Captain Universe. However, if you’re familiar with these comics or can just push past those confusing moments in hopes that it will all make since later, Hickman has put together a rather large scale cosmic epic. Not only do you have a race of planet altering and destroying aliens as a threat…but the Mad Titan, Thanos, has plans to attack Earth while multiple alternate Earths are threatening the very space our heroes’ Earth exists in. It’s a lot to deal with in just 6 issues, but it is guaranteed to make for some amazing moments and the open issue already has built me up for it. In traditional Hickman fashion, his scripting of the comic also include a fair amount of graphic design, with white pages that feature simple symbols and titling statements, as if they were chapter breaks. These title breaks consist of ominous lines like “constructing apocalypse” and “what was hidden, now uncovered” that also help build the mood like riding up a rollercoaster you know must have a huge drop. Hickman’s graphic design style he always incorporates in his comics even affected Marvel’s checklist for the event at the back of the book! That said, it does make everything look rather nice and more respectable than the traditional superhero comic. But don’t go thinking this is all serious space adventuring and indie comic design taking over Marvel, as Hickman still hides jokes in the script and has some awesome action. Also, despite being utterly unlike Star Wars, Hickman and Cheung seem to have snuck in several Star Wars references (such as a Luke Skywalker looking Galadorian whose father’s father fought in a great war and Sunspot directly referencing the movies).

Speaking of Cheung, the art for the book is amazing. Jim caught my eye first back at Crossgen, and he has amazed me in everything he’s drawn ever since. In Infinity, Jim gets to draw the entire Marvel Universe it seems, with Avengers, X-men, cosmic aliens from across the universe, and even the Inhumans! His Spaceknights looked a little boxy, like their earlier appearances designed for a cheap Hasbro toy, but even then were brilliantly inked by Cheung’s great team of inkers brought on to help on art duties. There just isn’t much that needs to be said about Infinity’s artwork other than check it out. The pencils are great, the ink is stunning and up there with the work of Dexter Vines, and the color Justin Ponsor brings to the pages just looks so beautifully vivid while portraying darkness.

Now the price on Infinity seems a little staggering at first. I hated the idea of spending five dollars on the first issue of a huge comic event. But for $4.99 you do get over 50 pages of comic and a free digital download of the story along with a free digital copy of the Marvel Infinity comic, Infinity: Against the Tide. Against the Tide is a beautifully painted Silver Surfer tale by Agustin Alessio and written by Jason Latour. Latour reminds us just how kick ass the Silver Surfer can be (in case you forgot) while Alessio sets a stunningly dark mood behind some visually intense fight scenes and emotionally deep Skrull expressions. It’s an amazing story you can buy for $1.99, but is even better free with the purchase of a physical copy of Infinity #1. Furthermore you get a decent glossy cover (it’s no high end cardstock, but it does the basic black cover’s color some justice) with a return to nice glossy interior pages. Is it really worth such a steep increase in price? Well…I can at least justify it and say they are trying to make the price point reasonable, as opposed to many of Marvel and DC’s larger and pricier anniversary issues.

 

The Rating Bit

Overall I think Marvel fans will have quite the pleasant experience with Infinity, which looks like it’ll be a great autumn comic event. The opening issue is quite a visual treat and reads like a sophisticated and high end Hickman sci-fi comic. While the price might shock a few, it is a thick story with some nice additional Marvel treats via Marvel Digital, Marvel Infinity, and Marvel AR. Infinity #1 earns an equally nice 8 out of 10, with a glimpse of hope that this series might keep getting better as doom falls upon the Marvel universe.