Infinity Gauntlet has a certain reputation among Marvel fans. Marvel has some amazing events comics under its belt, but Infinity Gauntlet is often considered the best. While the MCU plays a huge part in this, Infinity Gauntlet has always had a sterling reputation. It’s the story that made Thanos into one of Marvel’s greatest villains, and it changed cosmic Marvel for years to come with its reintroduction of Adam Warlock. Infinity Gauntlet is a gem. However, there’s a much better Marvel event comic. As a matter of fact, it’s the sequel to Infinity Gauntlet, is from most of the same creative team, came out a year later, and has a title that MCU fans will recognize — Infinity War, by writer Jim Starlin and artist Ron Lim.
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Jim Starlin is something of a legend and his work on cosmic Marvel in the 1970s gave Marvel some brilliant, hallucinogenic cosmic epics. Starlin’s return to Marvel led to some great stories, but Infinity War is easily the best. Most Marvel fans in 1992 thought they’d never get a story like Infinity Gauntlet, but Starlin and Lim served them something special with Infinity War: one of the greatest Marvel event comics of all time.
Infinity War Redefined What an Epic Could Be
So, let’s start with the plot. For those who haven’t read Infinity Gauntlet, here’s a quick summary — Thanos becomes God because of the Infinity Gauntlet and Adam Warlock, Gamora, and Pip the Troll escape the Soul Gem to rally the universe against him. Thanos beats everyone, heroes and cosmic beings alike, takes Eternity’s place, and has the Gauntlet stolen from him by Nebula. Nebula is easier to beat, with Thanos joining the most powerful survivors of the battle against him — Adam Warlock, Doctor Doom, Silver Surfer, Hulk, Thor, Doctor Strange, and Drax the Destroyer — and Warlock is able to get the Gauntlet. Thanos fakes his death, but goes off to the farm planet (that’s where Avengers: Infinity War got this idea), later telling new God Adam Warlock that he found enlightenment in divinity and has decided to serve life rather than Death. In the Starlin written Adam Warlock and the Infinity Watch, the Living Tribunal, the judge for the One Above All, decries that the Gauntlet is too powerful to be exist as a whole after Eternity brings the matter before him, so Warlock is forced to give out the Infinity Gems to his friends, forming the Infinity Watch — Gamora, Pip, Drax, and Moondragon, with a secret fifth member (it’s Thanos, but we don’t find that out until later and not in Infinity War). That’s all you need to know to understand Infinity War.
Infinity War is an Adam Warlock story at its heart. It brings back the Magus, the evil version of Warlock from another an alternate universe who decided to conquer the universe, and then come back in time and make sure that Warlock became him. The Magus, working with a Thanos duplicate he’s created, has a plan, one that involves sending monstrous versions of Earth’s heroes to replace them. Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic are both replaced, but Wolverine and Spider-Man are able to defeat their doppelgangers. From there, things get complex as the Magus’s plan becomes less opaque, readers learn more and more about its complexities as the series goes on. Infinity War takes readers to Death’s realm, gives them several beautifully rendered battles from Lim, contains the best Doctor Doom/Kang team-up ever, and a semi-heroic Thanos talking down Adam Warlock. Infinity Gauntlet was a Thanos story; it dug deep into his character, revealing his greatest flaw (it’s not his love of his Death, by the way, it’s the lack of self-esteem that has driven him to nihilism and constantly defeating himself because he doesn’t feel worthy of power), and ended with him realizing his problems. While Infinity War is partly a Thanos story, it does for Adam Warlock what Infinity Gauntlet did for Thanos. It digs deep into who Adam Warlock is, giving readers who weren’t around during his ’70s heyday a primer on who the character is and why he’s such a great character.
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Infinity War is an amazing ride. It has a complexity that Infinity Gauntlet doesn’t. Infinity Gauntlet is a great story, but anyone who’s read it knows that the first three issues aren’t exactly the best. They’re set-up for the big battles of the last three issues (and have brilliant George Perez art, who left the book because he wasn’t allowed to co-plot it with Starlin, which he thought was part of the deal, which is why Lim took over), and crucial to the story, but they aren’t as amazing as the end of the story. Infinity War is great all the way through. Readers are given great action from the beginning, all the while Starlin builds the story. The twists and turns the book takes are so much fun, and first time readers are going to find surprise after surprise. Starlin is a writer who understands how to build an epic, and Infinity War is Starlin at his finest. The list of characters with important roles in the story is massive compared to Infinity Gauntlet — Warlock, Thanos, Magus, Doom, Kang, Galactus, Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Eternity, the Living Tribunal, and the four members of the Infinity Watch — all while also fleshing out Warlock, Thanos, and the Magus. Starlin has a lot of balls in the air throughout the book, and he never fumbles a single one.
The art is sensational. Ron Lim is very much an underrated artist in the pantheon of Marvel artists; his early ’90s heyday came at the same time as Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, and Whilce Potracio were the big names of the day, so he never got the credit he deserved. However, Lim’s work on Captain America, Silver Surfer, Thanos Quest, and the last three issues of Infinity Gauntlet shows an artist in the George Perez mold. Lim has a distinct style — he has a way of drawing faces that is instantly recognizable — but his detail, character acting and rendering, and action scenes are second to none. The twisted doppelgangers are perfect, and the Magus’s manbun was cool at a time when such things just weren’t done (the Magus has always had… interesting hair choices.) There are so many sensational pages in the book, chocked to the page borders with excellently rendered characters. Infinity War is exactly what an event comic should be — a brilliantly constructed story with near-flawless art, full of compelling characters and a plot with more surprises than you can shake a stick at.
Infinity War Deserves to be Thought of Among the Best Events of All Time
Infinity War had some big shows to fill, and it definitely does so. Infinity Gauntlet was something of a revolution — it was the first time in years that Marvel had done an event book like this — and Infinity War continued the story. However, just saying that it continued the story is underselling it. It’s a story all its own and can be read by someone who only knows the barest basics of Infinity Gauntlet. It’s the kind of book you could only get from the Marvel Universe. If you’ve read Infinity Gauntlet, but never read Infinity War, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. Infinity War may not have the cultural cache that Infinity Gauntlet does — Adam Warlock was only semi-popular, and that semi-popularity faded quickly, so most people don’t know anything about Infinity War. However, it’s better than anything you’ll read this week that wasn’t written by Morrison or Moore. Infinity War truly lives up to its name, and easily surpasses its predecessor.
