Marvel Comics has somewhat quietly built up an epic story featuring the Infinity Stones, and the latest chapter takes place in Infinity Watch. The trade paperback is out this week, featuring a five-issue epic that bends time and space while pushing the comics format. If you account for the Infinity Stones getting human hosts, this story is years in the making. The concept of the stones getting human personas is an intriguing one, and based on this story, a rather compelling new super-team has an epic mission to save the universe.
Infinity Watch #1 is an interesting comic in that most characters will be foreign to general audiences, yet their impact and importance in the Marvel Universe are huge. Overall, this issue does a good job of establishing the characters for new readers while carrying forward the story arcs that have gotten us here.
The team comprises seven members: one for each Infinity Stone and Phil Coulson, who has recently become the Death Stone incarnate. Landy does a good job of giving each character a personality through dialogue while establishing that this isn’t just another Avengers team. Most of these characters are quite human and even immoral, which gives the book a fresher feel compared to other team books.
The art by Ruairi Coleman is good, although it has a simplistic Greg Land sort of feel to it. When the action kicks into gear, Coleman’s pencils, along with Scott Hanna’s inks and Brian Reber and Erick Arciniega’s colors, add a lot of zip. There are energy effects galore and a general cool look to all the varying powers. The design of the villains is also quite good and reminiscent of the Black Order in some ways. They’re formidable and have the look of a supervillain team.
Landy sets up a rather compelling main conflict outside of action and character work. The Infinity Watch is severely weakened early on, and they have quite a high-stakes situation. High stakes is the game’s name in superhero comics, and it’s a slight twist on the “everything will die” concept. There’s also a forefront concept of these characters basically being gods, and while they can fight baddies together, they may also be able to create life. Landy is taking the idea of this team and bringing it to places no other super team could go.
Cool powers these folks have, eh?
Credit: Marvel
As the story opens up, so does the implication of the universe. We’re talking about an entirely new universe where the team is different people with different roles. Oh, and a new take on Spider-Man and Green Goblin shows up. It leads to a conflict that uses caption boxes literally in the story, like characters grabbing them and using them as weapons! It’s a fun treat that breaks the fourth wall a bit.
While it’s fun for a while, it does outlive its welcome. The Green Goblin section ends up running longer than it is welcome, making you wait a bit for the final confrontation. That final confrontation is entertaining, though the heroes end up getting an edge due to somehow gaining an edge through sheer will? It’s a bit of a cliché to say the least, though given they are stone bearers, I suppose they found an extra gear deep down somewhere. It continues the trend of breaking the fourth wall and showing that with the power of the Infinity Stones, anything is possible in comics.
Overall, this is a fun romp with a set of characters that have had a time to shine once or twice a year. It effectively shows how far they can go together, while having fun with the comics format. By the end, they are put back in the drawer for another time, though there’s a big promise that more will come. Infinity Watch is a cosmic ride that takes bold swings, sometimes stumbles on pacing, but ultimately proves the Infinity Stone avatars are more than a gimmick. They’re a fascinating team with untapped potential.
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