Infinity part 2
Infinity #4-6, Avengers (2012) #21-23, New Avengers (2013) #11-12
Originally released in 2013
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Jerome Opena (Infinity #4-5), Jim Cheung (Infinity #6), Mike Deodato (New Avengers), Leinil Francis Yu (Avengers)
Picking up where the previous issues of the Infinity event left off, the Avengers were planning to surrender to the Builders on the Kree homeworld of Hala. Except not really - the Builders planned to broadcast this surrender to the territories under their control in an attempt to break what little spirit they had left. However, the representative of Earth that they send is Thor.
Needless to say, it does not end well for the Builders. Despite being built up as this terrifying galactic threat that could steamroll through the established galactic superpowers, the Builders come across as paper tigers - terrifying upon first impression, but they go down with surprising ease. Thor's killing of a Builder inspires the rest of the planets under Builder control to rise up, and while a timescale isn't really presented, it feels like the Builders' entire empire was demolished in the span of an afternoon.
While the Avengers were in space, Thanos has made his move on Earth. His son, Thane, looks like an ordinary human who has dedicated himself to medicine and healing the sick. However, Black Bolt's actions at the end of the previous issue scattered the Terrigen Mists across the winds of the world, transforming anyone with Inhuman DNA into full-fledged Inhumans. (this also creates a roaming death cloud that kills and/or sterilizes mutants, something that the Inhumans don't seem too concerned about during later conflicts between the Inhumans and the X-Men)
I suspected it last time, but this is definitely the point where Marvel's big Inhuman push takes hold, as hundreds or thousands of new Inhumans are created. (including, though not shown here, Kamala Khan, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel) Thane is one of the new Inhumans, with his body mutating to closer resemble his father, and his new power is to spread death wherever he goes. (Ebony Maw provides him with a protective suit that confines the effect to the point where Thane has to touch someone with his left hand; Maw has his own reasons for wanting to find Thane, which don't overlap with Thanos's reasons)
Once again, the Incursion that the Illuminati were dealing with is resolved by an outside force - in this case, the Builders from another universe. The Builders believe that, if every Earth in every universe is destroyed when an Incursion isn't happening, then there will be no more Incursions and the rest of the universe will be safe.
Rather disturbingly, it's implied by the end of the event that the Illuminati are becoming like the Builders. The Builders suggest that the Illuminati should blow up their own world and save themselves the trouble, but between Strange delving into demonic power sources to make himself more useful and Wakanda having a large stockpile of anti-matter bombs, they're going to find alternate solutions. (ones which seemingly involve preemptively blowing up every other Earth)
Even without access to the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos is a formidable opponent, beating the Hulk, Hyperion, Thor, and Captain Marvel in quick succession. I'm not sure if this is normal for him in terms of strength or not; I know Thanos is strong, but that seems like a bit much. Presumably, he beats these heroes easily in order to set up Thane's big moment, though between his transformation and Ebony Maw's manipulations, it's unclear where Thane stands when it comes to morality.
Given how much they had been built up, the Builders were down in a disappointing way. The end of the event indicates that there are much bigger threats out there, though as of now, we just have names to go on rather than anything tangible. (aside from the Mapmakers; we briefly saw their minions earlier)
The galactic alliance that helped the Avengers get some good moments, with the arrival of the Annihilation Wave being (briefly) treated as a good thing and Ronan the Accuser bashing in the head of one of Thanos's generals, the ironically-named Black Dwarf. (he's the largest and most physically imposing of Thanos's group) Mind you, the Annihilation Wave goes back to being a threat almost immediately after the event ends, with them getting a foothold in the universe being treated as a sign of the end times, but it was a nice little twist.
There wasn't as much overlap between the plots of the Avengers and New Avengers as what I was expecting. It's unclear if Medusa found out about the Illuminati or not, but Shuri found out that T'Challa was meeting with Namor in secret, even if she didn't know why. Still, cracks seem to be forming in the Illuminati's barrier of secrecy, and it's only a matter of time before others find out what they're doing.
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