Well, maybe I do. I know that I am going to rile up some feathers with this opinion but I am just not that big a fan of Jim Starlin. Starlin is known for his cosmic odysseys and let's face it when it comes to some of his favorite characters, in this case Adam Warlock and Thanos, I am just not that interested in either.
When I was very young, Thanos was a second rate villain who flew a yellow helicopter and once was arrested by Spidey and the NYPD. As for Adam Warlock, his origin was so mired in confusion; all in thanks to writers not really caring much about the character in the first place. There was so many contradictions in how Warlock came to be and what his purpose was that I gave up caring.
That all being said, I will commend what Jim Starlin attempted (and pretty much succeeded in) to make this pair of cosmic foes relevant for the Marvel Universe.
Many consider Secret Wars to be Marvel's answer to Crisis on Infinite Earths. After reading this, I would have to disagree. I think Secret Wars I and II were the mini-crises that the Justice League and Justice Society would have annually in the pages of Justice League of America. It's actually The Infinity Gauntlet that would be Marvel's CRISIS.
Infinity Gauntlet starts out beautifully. George Perez, one of my favorite artists and an all-around hell of a nice guy, covered the artwork for the first 3 and a half issues. But the pressures of completing this mega crossover along with DC's War of the Amazons at the very same time kinda burned Perez out. So much, that he quit the big-two for lower level penciling duties for many years in order to recover.
What Starlin and Perez do in those few issues is mind boggling. The level of destruction and chaos brought about by Thanos' snap are some of the most impressive pages of destruction and choas I have ever seen in comics. But Starlin does not do enough.
In this book, he's got both the Kree and Skrull ready to go to war. But he never follows through. Instead, Jim Starlin's sweeping focus on the entire Marvel Universe gets narrowed down to maybe a dozen players by the last 2 issues.
Another thing that Starlin doesn't do right is properly set-up Adam Warlock's rebirth on Earth. It took me several re-reads before I figured out that he doesn't kill a liquor store clerk. But instead, Adam Warlock uses the recently dead body of the murderer to return to life. That just seemed so out of character for the generally peace loving Warlock and it was. But Jim Starlin didn't do a good enough job making that notion clear.
I did love the final 5 or so pages of Infinity Gauntlet. It was rather perfect and ties into 2018's Avengers: Inifinity War quite well. (Actually, I am amazed at a lot of similarities between this miniseries and that film. It's a same that Marvel Studios weren't able to get the rights to Adam Warlock or the Silver Surfer hashed out in order to be in the movie.)
Infinity Gauntlet is one of the best Marvel epic crossovers. But it could have been the greatest if not for the writer losing focus. The main artist leaving didn't help matters either. Ron Lim is a talented artist. But he's no George Perez.
A good read. But it didn't do enough for me to feel like I've got to rush out and procure the second and third acts of The Infinity Trilogy. (Not like I can just rush out right now thanks to COVID. But I think you get what I mean.)
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
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