Infinity part 1

Infinity part 1

Infinity #1-3, Avengers (2012) #18-20, New Avengers (2013) #9-10

Originally released in 2013

Written by Jonathan Hickman

Art by Jim Cheung (Infinity #1), Mike Deodato (New Avengers), Leinil Francis Yu (Avengers), Jerome Opena (Infinity #2-3)

Despite the Infinity event serving as a crossover between Hickman's runs on Avengers and New Avengers, the teams go their separate ways in the first half of this story.  The Builders (one of the oldest forms of life in the universe) are headed directly towards Earth, smashing through every interstellar empire that's in their way.  As the Avengers set off to take on this threat, Iron Man stays behind to hold down the fort.  It's a good thing that he does, because Thanos chose this specific moment to invade Earth.

I'm not sure if Thanos was chosen for this event because of his dramatic cameo at the end of the first Avengers movie, which set the stage for the next seven years of Marvel movies, but he's after two things: the Time Gem, which vanished in the aftermath of the Illuminati using the Infinity Gauntlet to stop an Incursion, and his son, who is part Inhuman.

I'm not sure if this event is what kickstarted Marvel's big Inhumans push (where they tried to make the Inhumans the next big thing while downplaying the X-Men for no reason beyond petty spite over Fox having the X-Men movie rights), but they seem to play a major role in both the New Avengers storyline and the main mini-series.

Thanos sends the Black Order to the members of the Illuminati, as he learned that they were the last ones to have the Infinity Gems.  None of them have any idea where the Time Gem is, though Namor falls into the same category as Guy Gardner where you seriously have to question why anyone would want him on their team by claiming that he knows exactly where it is:

I'm not sure of the history behind the rivalry between Namor and T'Challa - I know Namor flooded Wakanda during the Avengers vs. X-Men event, when Namor had the power of the Phoenix Force, but I'm not sure if he was just drunk with power or if there was some inciting incident that caused him to do that.  Regardless, given that his actions here risk the Illuminati as a group, the entire planet, and/or the entire universe, it makes Namor seem so petty and spiteful that Doctor Doom seems forgiving by comparison.

On top of all of this, another Incursion takes place on Earth while Thanos is invading.  One of the Black Order, Ebony Maw, is manipulating Doctor Strange's mind for his own ends.  Maximus the Mad is sending Black Bolt's wives to different locations for their safety, with it being implied that Medusa is being sent to where the Illuminati are. (I'm not sure if she's being set up to take Black Bolt's place, like how Beast is filling in for Professor Xavier, or if Maximus is trying to help Black Bolt's marriage to Medusa in his twisted way by showing her what he's been hiding from her)

In the depths of space, the Builders are smashing through most of the resistance against them.  They can be killed, but for the Skrulls, it took detonating a star to accomplish that.  Still, they can be beaten, and outsmarted, and it seems like the Avengers are doing both, despite the ruler of the Spartax empire, J'son (father of Star-Lord from the Guardians of the Galaxy), accidentally leading the Builders to their location while secretly calling them to beg for his empire's safety in exchange for giving Earth to the Builders.

I found the plot in Infinity and New Avengers more interesting than the plot in the Avengers, though the sheer number of characters in the latter likely didn't help; it made it harder to keep track of who's who and how they're connected.  Plus, I don't find the Builders to be an interesting threat.  At least with Thanos and the Black Order, they all have different personalities and motivations.  The Builders, and their various creations, tend to blend together and lack any kind of noteworthy figure within the group.

The first half ends with Black Bolt's response to Thanos's demand for the head of every Inhuman child between the ages of 16 and 22 in exchange for sparing the rest of the Inhumans:

On one hand, this event feels like something that Hickman's Avengers comics have been building up to for a while, but on the other hand, I'm not sure how impactful it will be in the long run if the Builders are going to be defeated sooner than I expected.  I'm wondering if Thanos is going to learn anything about Incursions here - so far, the Incursion is taking place far away from his forces, but given how erratic they can be, I could see a second Incursion happening shortly after the one that the Illuminati are dealing with.  Alternatively, Namor could simply tell Thanos and company about the Incursions, since that seems like the sort of thing that he would do if it meant that Atlantis would be spared.