Tuesday, October 7, 2014

New Avengers, Volume 2: Infinity (Marvel NOW!)


New Avengers (2013-Present) #HC Vol 2
When I read Avengers: Infinity, I thought that was the name of the volume. I didn’t know there was actually a mini-series named Infinity that that Avengers book was tied into. Why, the volume before was titled Prelude to Infinity, so I figured I wasn’t missing anything. Then I found New Avengers: Infinity. I know Marvel is really gung-ho about anything Avengers thanks to the success of the film. So, my new feeling was that Infinity was a cross-over event in all of the Avengers title. But after reading this volume, I now know that I was wrong.

I didn’t know that there was a cross-over event called Infinity- not until last night. But after finishing this volume, I was very confused and decided to research just what the heck’s going on. I got really lucky with Avengers: Infinity. The plot focus was that parallel earths were destroying each other in a sort of multi-verse battle royal. To prevent our earth from being destroyed, the Avengers went into outer space and it looked like the crisis was averted- for now.

Then I finished New Avengers. Here’s what I’m confused about:

Where did Thanos come from all of a sudden and why is he invading earth? Why are the kingdoms of Atlantis and Wakanda at war with each other? Why is the Inhuman king Blackbolt back from the dead? Better yet- why is his brother Maximus helping him rule the Inhuman kingdom? And why is Mr. Fantastic on earth?

Those last two questions are tied in to each other. The last I saw Maximus, he was being held prisoner by the Freedom Foundation and someone remarks to Reed Richards “Aren’t you supposed to be in space?” The answer is yes- Richards and his family are supposed to be lost in space and time right now, so how did he come back? The Marvel Now! books have in the past done a spot-on job of keeping continuity straight across the board from the Avengers titles to X-Men to Daredevil, Thor, and everything in-between. So, either somebody dropped the ball in the continuity department or all of the answers to my questions can be found in the pages of Infinity. I’m leaning towards the latter.

Usually when DC or Marvel has a big sweeping epic like Infinity or Secret Wars, the publisher in an attempt to cash in, will tie-in as many titles as possible to the mini-series event that they are hosting. But the rule has almost always been that you could follow your favorite comics with very little actually having to do with the events transpiring in said mini. It’s supposed to be so seamless that loyal reading would not have to read the mini-series to stay caught up. Well, it that theory worked very well for the Avengers series but it does not comply at all with New Avengers. You have to read Infinity. There’s just too much missing info to skip it.

I got this volume at my library but as far as I can tell not only does the Library not have Infinity in a collected format, I could not find evidence on stashmycomics.com that this series has been reprinted yet.

If you happen to know the answers to any of my questions please feel free to tell me. I won’t call ‘spoiler alert’ this time. I’m lost and I can’t find where I parked my car. Any help would be gladly appreciated.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

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