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Ray Reads Comics Masterlist
Hello! I have been posting random thoughts from my comic reading for sometime so I thought I would organize them all into one post. I've been following this reading guide, but I didn't start posting about it until recently so it's a ways down. Just thought I'd share if anyone wanted to follow this guide too or easily see the snapshots and thoughts from each issue I've been cataloging. (links under the cut)
Classic Tales with Classic Combinations
Marvel, like other comic book publishing houses, experimented with different combinations of superheroes to offer readership something fresh and exciting to read
The Defenders was the first title that revolved around the concept of superheroes, not necessarily joined as a team but through a cause, briefly. For this reason, its roster was always changing and with the different set of superheroes joining forces in almost every issue or story, it generated a lot of reader interest making it one of Marvel’s finest works that started in the early 70s
But The Defenders was an on-going series whereas this post wants to highlight some comics or storylines that brought together Marvel’s finest together for stories that were unique or groundbreaking or both
The List:
MARVEL TEAM-UP ANNUAL #4
Written by Frank Miller with art by Herb Trimpe, this 1981 Marvel Team-Up Annual issue starred Spider-Man alongside Moon Knight, Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Fist (who knew that the latter three would end up teaming as The Defenders on Marvel Netflix series) going up against Purple Man. What makes this story unique is the fact that its a one-shot (that’s why it was an annual issue) but also because the story revolves around a gang fight between Purple Man and the Kingpin with our beloved heroes caught in between
GHOST RIDER WOLVERINE PUNISHER: HEARTS OF DARKNESS & THE DARK DESIGN
It was 1991 during the illustrious years of the DeFalco era at Marvel Comics when Howard Mackie and John Romita Jr. joined forces for The Hearts of Darkness story. This was all about darkness from every angle with a strong philosophical take on superheroes who belong to the anti-hero sub-category. This story was continued with a sequel in 1994 entitle The Dark Design written by Howard Mackie with art by Ron Garney
Mephisto’s son Blackheart offers the deal of a lifetime to Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch), Wolverine and Punisher (Marvel’s superheroes that are ‘on the edge’) by helping him kill his father. Just what makes them not accept the offer is worth reading
POWERLESS
Imagine if Marvel Universe had existed in our world with all its limitations. Would our beloved heroes still be heroes even though they are not having super-powers? An awesome take by Matt Cherniss and Peter Johnson with cover art by Alex Maleev and inside panels art by Michael Gaydos
Starring Peter Parker, Matt Murdock and James Howlett aka Logan. This is one of the most under-rated stories in Marvel that was published between 2004-05
Priest and The Panther
[Reading list at the bottom of the post]
The Black Panther, Marvel’s 1st superhero of African descent and an instant hit with comic book readers at the time. He is celebrated for breaking racial barrier in the world of fiction as before him, it was inconceivable to have someone other than White male or female. Comic book legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are rightly credited for creating the character at a time when race relations in the US were worse than today
But since its creation, the character’s solo series suffered for many reasons. It wasn’t until the late 90s when the character would be revived by a writer who himself was having a lot of troubles in the world of comics despite bieng the 1st African American editor in the industry. His name is James Christopher Owsley but he is known in the comic book industry as Christopher Priest
If it hadn’t been for Marvel: The Untold Story’s Facebook page, many of us would have forgotten about Priest, especially his contributions that have influenced the upcoming Black Panther movie by Marvel Studios
Without going into too much detail (as it has been covered by Vulture.com), Priest’s struggling career sky-rocketed towards success when the legendary Joe Quesada had approached him to write Black Panther comics as part of the Marvel Knights label. Initially teamed with Mark Texeira, their 18-issue run made the character one of the mainstays who would go on to influence events during Brian Michael Bendis’ 8-year successful run which started with Avengers Disassembled
The character was rejuvenated, its adversaries taken to a new intense level (Erik Killmonger) and introduction of new ones in supporting roles such as Everett Ross; thanks to Priest
“He had the classic run on Black Panther, period, and that’s gonna be true for a long time,”
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Journalist, Author and Comic Book writer
Marvel Studios, for its part, has done superb casting but it remains to be seen if the on-screen adaptation of Black Panther comics, from Lee-Kirby to Christopher Priest, Bendis and Coates; will do justice with the character similar to what Gavin Hood and James Mangold did with Wolverine
For now, I leave you with with Priest’s interview to Vulture.com
Classic Marvel Black Panther collections:
Black Panther by Christopher Priest: Vol. 1
Black Panther by Christopher Priest: Vol. 2
Black Panther by Christopher Priest: Vol. 3
Black Panther by Christopher Priest: Vol. 4
Marvel’s Age of Knights
Buy the complete collection here
It is hard to comprehend why the time period between 1998-2011 isn’t recognized as an age on its own in the history of Marvel Comics
In December 1996, Marvel Entertainment Group had filed for bankruptcy due to industry practices at the time of comic book publishers having their own exclusive distributorships. Before that, in 1992-93, Marvel’s Editorial made some blunders in not being able to retain the writers & artists who were instrumental in post-Jim Shooter era of keeping the company at the top of the industry led by Spider-Man and X-Men titles. These two events compounded into industry wide and company wide slowdown that would end in filing for Chapter 11
By 1998, Joe Quesada was an industry veteran, having worked for Valiant, DC and later forming Event Comics in partnership with Jimmy Palmiotti; caught Marvel’s attention. The company approached him to experiment with a new approach to comic book titles under an exclusive imprint starting with Marvel characters such as Daredevil, Punisher, Black Panther and Inhumans
Marvel fortunately learned from its editorial mistake in the early 90s when a giant like Chris Claremont had left due to clashes with Bob Harras. As if this wasn’t enough, Marvel lost aspiring young new writers and artists like Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee who left Marvel and formed Image Comics. This time it was different
Enter Independent Writers & Artists
Marvel Knights imprint was created, in came David W. Mack, Mike Oeming, Brian Michael Bendis, Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon followed by Paul Jenkins, Christopher Priest (a struggling writer from the 80s). The titles published saw enormous success resulting in Joe Quesada being made Marvel’s Editor in Chief in 2000, replacing Bob Harras
A New Age of Comic Book Greatness
By early 2000s, Marvel was a whole different publishing house. Other British indy writers like Mark Millar and Grant Morrison (New X-Men, Planet X) became part of the family. Some clinged on for long, others’ stay remained brief. Old writers and artists made a comeback like Christopher Priest (Black Panther) and Chris Claremont (X-Men - The End). Nevertheless, the amount of awesome work produced during this age cannot be listed in full
Impact
This is the age in which The Winter Soldier, Jessica Jones, The Hood and Sentry were created. It was during this time that Civil War and Old Man Logan were imagined but the Jewel in the Crown was the 8-year story arc that involved the entire Marvel Universe with one ground breaking cross-over after another. This arc, mainly Bendis’ idea, saw Avengers reclaiming their success which was lost in the mid-90s but it doesn’t end there. It’s impact influenced the development of Marvel Ultimate Alliance video game, Marvel Cinematic Universe (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: The Winter Soldier), FOX’ X-Men Cinematic (Logan, Deadpool 2) universe and Netflix’ Marvel series (Jessica Jones)
It is no wonder that Joe Quesada is Marvel’s longest-serving editor-in-chief after Stan Lee, having eclipsed the great Jim Shooter
Marvel’s Age of Knights Essential Readings:
Jack Kirby’s 100 Classic Marvel Artworks
In honor of Jack Kirby’s 100th Birthday, here are my 100 favorite artworks by Kirby from Classic Marvel Era:
RIP Jack “The King” Kirby
Your level of imagination & creativity remains unmatched to this day
Buy these Classic MARVELS:
Marvel Firsts: The 1960s
The MARVEL Legacy of Jack Kirby
Marvel Visionaries: Jack Kirby Vol. 1 & 2
The Jim Shooter Era
(For the ESSENTIAL Reading List, see bottom of the post)
Hired as an Editor-in-Chief by Marvel Comics in 1978 and fired in 1987, the era of Jim Shooter is nothing short of being one of the most memorable in the history of comic books
It is the era in which readers were introduced to MAJOR multi-title cross-overs along with the redefining of struggling characters as well as titles. His reign gave birth to many more eras that continued even after he departed from Marvel, the reason being his strict management approach concerning attention to detail about each character, his/her situation, and the story, and ensuring deadlines were met by editorial
Classic Marvel Stories and Art have been the norm for Marvel Comics from the 60s to present day but the abundance thereof is mostly found in this era as it laid the foundation for new rivalries or redefined the foundations to make characters more relevant to comic book readers but the key question remains: How does a character from Jim Shooter era able to differentiate itself from the rest? ‘Depth’ is the word that comes to mind. Stan Lee with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita and Gene Colan ‘introduced’ the characters to the world of comics by addressing their origin and their position in MU
Roy Thomas’ era was more about diversity (nationality, genre and ethnicity of superheroes), Attitude (Anti-Hero, dark) & Retcons (bringing back defunct characters from the 40s) but it was Jim Shooter era that addressed the ‘WHAT MAKES A SUPER-HERO’ question by exploring their inner-most vulnerabilities through hard-hitting, closer to reality events that defined or re-defined them and/or explained their psyche. It wasn’t all about good guys vs bad guys anymore but also about heroes’ inner outer struggles as human beings
Like any individual, Jim is not free from criticism as it is known that his strong management style led to some resigning and continuing their career with Marvel’s competitors but it wouldn’t be controversial to believe that his achievements at Marvel far outweigh his mistakes. To get an idea about what Marvel was all about before Jim’s tenure as EIC, here he explains it in his own words:
“There was chaos, and everything was late. It was very disorganized, and in fairly short order I’d been to Marvel three times, and had seen three different Editors-In-Chief: Roy, Len, and Marv. As editor in chief, Marv presided over all of us–but the things that seemed to occupy most of his time were arguing and mollifying.”
Source: JimShooter.com
From 1978-1987, Marvel turned 180 degrees for the best, giving its readers the most memorable stories/runs whose impact is felt even today on silver-screen & TV. Before Tom Defalco and Joe Quesada, Shooter had the longest tenure as EIC of Marvel Comics and for good reasons of course because the thought process that prevailed in the company back then showed a unique approach (way ahead of its time) for characters, something which is badly missing these days as short-term sales boosting gimmicks are the norm with one cross-over followed by another and each promising that it would change MU forever
Each of Marvel’s 7 decades from 1941-2011 is significant but it would be unfair not to remind the readers that Marvel’s previous decades saw a world reliant on Print Media for escapism. There weren’t illegal torrents available for download, no Comic Book Reading (CBR) apps, no internet, no online subscriptions, no motion comics on YouTube etc. Print Media back then was a necessity despite existence of TV, Radio and Cinema BUT we also need to understand that if the issues weren’t having a good story, they would remain unsold only to be returned back to the publisher leading to losses followed by bankruptcy
To get an idea about highly successful story lines that were published during Shooter era, here are ‘some’ (not all) of his era’s highlights including the men and women, the writers and artists, who made these masterpieces possible:
The Uncanny X-Men: Chris Claremont Era with John Byrne, John Romita Jr. (with spin-offs: X-Factor, New Mutants, Wolverine and Excaliber. Notable mentions: Louise Simonson, Bob McLeod, Bob Wiacek, Bill Sienkiewicz)
Fantastic Four: John Byrne Era
The Amazing Spider-Man: Dennis O’Neil run with John Romita Jr. Roger Stern Era with John Romita Jr.
Avengers: Roger Stern Era with Al Milgrom, George Perez and Terry Austin
Daredevil: Frank Miller Era with Klaus Jansen and Dave Mazzucelli
The Mighty Thor: Walt Simonson Era
Invincible Iron Man: David Michelinie Era with Bob Layton and John Romita Jr. Dennis O’Neal run with Bob Layton
The Incredible Hulk: Bill Mantlo Era with Sal Buscema
Captain America: Mark Gruenwald Era
Limited Series
From 1981 and on wards, there were limited series story lines such as Secret Wars and Contest of Champions that involved almost the entire Marvel Universe or at least most of its 1st & 2nd tier characters/teams
While Secret Wars was connected with MU’s continuity which was followed by a sequel, Contest of Champions was an altogether different story on its own, not connected to MU continuity and a limited series but it too had a major roster of heroes & teams involved
Written by Mark Gruenwald, Art by John Romita Jr. & Bob Layton
Written by Jim Shooter, Art by Mick Zeck & Bob Layton
Cover Art by Mick Zeck
It has to be said that Secret Wars’ success led DC to publish its Infinite Crisis limited series cross-over which endorsed Marvel’s trendsetter status at the time. What’s more interesting to know is that Secret Wars idea came as a result of MATTEL wanting to “hedge in case superheroes became the next big fad”, according to Shooter as MATTEL’s rival at the time [Kenner] had acquired license for DC’ heroes. They [MATTEL] were interested in Marvel characters but to boost MATTEL’s Marvel toys’ sales, a publishing event was needed and Shooter pitched one big story with all the heroes and all the villains in it and the rest was history
As examples of its lasting impact, this limited series cross-over event introduced the Black Symbiote which would later find a host in Eddie Brock and briefly replaced Ben Grimm with She-Hulk as member of the Fantastic Four. The stories that emerged from these two sub-events alone just show how important Secret Wars is in MU history, so much so that in 2015, Marvel decided to have another Secret War event to reclaim past glory
Wolverine Limited Series
The Canadian mutant aka Weapon X, made his 1st appearance in The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1, no. 181 (1974). Created by Len Wein and John Romita Sr. due to popularity of anti-heroes in a post Vietnam War America. The character made his presence felt in his fight against Wendigo and the Hulk. Even better was the decision to include him in X-Men’s new roster of mutants with diverse backgrounds in Giant Size X-Men no. 1 (1975). However, if Wolverine today is as much loved and recognized by fans across the world (as much as Spidey, Captain America, Hulk and Iron Man) then the character owes a great deal to the Editorial policy during the Jim Shooter era along with credit to longtime X-Men scribe Chris Claremont and artist/writer John Byrne who didn’t want to have the character dropped from Uncanny X-Men title
Even the demeaning name used by Sabretooth against Wolverine i.e. runt, was actually coined or 1st used by Shooter himself. According to Marvel’s former assistant editor Scott Edelman who shared the following scan of response which apparently appeared in an answer to a reader’s letter about Wolverine’s height, and was published in X-Men #103 (cover dated February 1977):
We need to remember that James Mangold’s The Wolverine wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s limited series published during Shooter era. The mini series was a huge critical and commercial success and was followed by Claremont and Milgrom’s Kitty Pryde and Wolverine mini series
Cross-overs
Before Jim Shooter’s time at Marvel, major crossovers were extremely rare and not grand at all in terms of impact, commercial and critical success in any comic book company. That changed with Secret Wars & Secret Wars II as both were limited series cross-overs
However there is another important aspect about them which is that most if not all had X-Men involved with main-stream Marvel characters. The Uncanny X-Men was a struggling title whose reigns were given to Chris Claremont by Len Wein to bring the house in order. Claremont on his own was delivering one phenomenal story after another but more was needed to get X-Men recognized as one of Marvel’s flagship titles; part of the mainstream and not a niche
Newly created characters such as Kitty Pryde, Rogue, Emma Frost and Dazzler proved very popular with the fans and in order to make room for them came spin-off titles such as the New Mutants (X-Force’s predecessor), the Excalibur, X-Factor and Wolverine (ongoing series). The creation of X-Factor allowed for a cross-over which included the original X-Men (led by Cyclops), the New X-Men (led by Storm), Thor, Power Pack and Daredevil in the Mutant Massacre
These cross-over stories built connections between key Mutant super-heroes with their Meta-human and/or Alien counterparts in teams such as Avengers, Fantastic Four or standalone flagship characters like the Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor etc. Had it not been for Shooter’s successful cross-over strategy, the X-Men franchise would not have expanded to such an extent and it would had been inconceivable for Brian Michael Bendis to include Wolverine and Spider-Man in Secret War (2004) or to have them as teammates in New Avengers alongside Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Woman and Luke Cage
If Marvel Team-Up (1976) set the premise of super-hero alliances or camaraderie then Shooter era’s cross-overs gave them depth
In an environment that thrives on creativity, free thinking and imagination, bringing together people around a strategy & discipline is the most difficult thing to do especially when the business is growing at a much faster pace. Jim Shooter had joined Marvel as a writer and asst. editor in 1976 but before becoming the EIC of Marvel Comics, he saw high rate of turnover at the top as one EIC replaced another due to being unable to focus on management, editing and writing in an ever expanding line-up. According to Shooter:
“Mort Weisinger trained me about more than just writing. He taught me about running a creative organization, and professionalism, and making order out of chaos. It seemed like there was tremendous talent and energy at Marvel, and no organization. I was the line editor, going over 45 books a month. I had this little crew of guys, but the way it was organized was pretty idiotic. When Stan and Sol were this little two-man tag team, and the company was eight books, it worked. When it was 45 books, it didn’t work.”
Source: JimShooter.com
Roy Thomas had saved Marvel by being instrumental in launching comic-book adaptation of Star Wars but Marvel couldn’t rely on one title alone to keep itself afloat which is why Marvel’s flagship titles had to sell more and more. The right people were in place, order was to be restored. Jim defined the Content Strategy and made sure that writers and artists adhered to it along with material delivery deadline at all cost. He revitalized Marvel Comics from 4 fronts:
So, today, if you’re excited to see Elektra, Daredevil, Cloak & Dagger on Netflix or if X-2, X-Men: Days of the Future Past & James Mangold’s The Wolverine happen to be your favorite movies or you were awestruck to see Iron Monger and Iron Man slugging it out on the silver-screen, just remember Jim Shooter and thank him if you find him at a Comic-Con near you because what his story tells us is that leadership is the most important in any organization and without a strong leadership, even in a free-thinking environment with phenomenal writers and artists, companies still end up struggling to the point of bankruptcy
Classic Marvel Era comprises of 7 decades, Jim Shooter’s decade is truly one of its finest
. . . When I evaluate a story, should one of the essential elements listed above be missing – say, the characters are not introduced properly when they are brought onstage – I immediately suspect that the author of the "story" knoweth not what he ith [sic] doing.
Second, I look for how well the story is told. Is the conflict worthwhile? Is the climax exciting? Is the resolution satisfying? Is the plot good? Are there interesting twists and turns? Is there a theme? Is there character development? Is it dramatic? Is it entertaining? This is the really important stuff. It should go without saying that a writer or a prospective writer should know enough to meet the fundamental requirements of a story. It's the power and the passion and drama and characterization that I really look for
Excerpts from Bullpen Bulletin Special (all Marvel Comics titles, August 1982) and Jim Shooter: Conversations (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2017; ISBN: 1496811801, 9781496811806)
End note
He continued the policy of comic-book adaptations of key movie and toy franchises (James Bond 007, ROM The Space Knight, Micronauts, G.I.Joe, Transformers etc.)
His policy of maintaining discipline from Editorial to Distribution ensured that comic book readers didn’t lose interest in their favorite Marvel characters He reduced dependency of Marvel on news-stand distribution channel by using comic-book specialty stores which reduced returns
Formulating his 6-point Content Strategy and ensuring that it serves as the guiding principle for all writers at Marvel proved worthwhile as it resulted in stories, cross-overs and new or redefined characters that clicked with comic book readership
Shooter’s Content Strategy
The characters must be introduced.
Their situation must be established.
The conflict must be introduced.
Suspense must be built.
A climax must be reached.
A resolution must be achieved.
Buy the Jim Shooter era highlights here or click on the links below:
X-Men by Chris Claremont
Fantastic Four by John Byrne
Avengers by Roger Stern
Captain America by Mark Gruenwald
Hulk by Bill Mantlo
Daredevil by Frank Miller
Iron Man by David Michelinie
Spider-Man by Roger Stern
Wolverine by Chris Claremont
Thor by Walt Simonson
Frank Miller & The Defenders TV series
Today’s comic book readers need to understand the impact of Miller’s writing which still influences Marvel’s properties on TV. It was Miller who saw in Daredevil the potential to be a Catholic superhero, it was he who pitted the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen against the Kingpin in comics (otherwise Wilson Fisk would had remained stuck in Spider-verse), he created Elektra and The Hand and it was he who basically defined the street level super-heroes or the urban legends of MU, establishing a relationship between them by exploring common threads & opposing attitudes and tendencies (especially with respect to The Punisher) that made these characters mainstream favorites
This doesn’t mean that there weren’t other writers whose work on these characters is not important. We can’t forget Len Wein for opting to include Luke Cage as part of The Defenders. The 3-issue story in which The Hulk, Dr. Strange, Luke Cage and Nighthawk go against The Wrecking Crew remains one the classics to this day (read Defenders Vol. 1 no. 17-19) but Miller’s impact is felt more than anyone when it comes to the said Netflix series for it was Daredevil Vol. 1 no. 178, in 1982 in which Miller wrote a story that paired Luke Cage & Iron Fist with the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen for the very first time
Since then, successive writers have written stories that were built upon this alliance. Brian Bendis’ Secret War is one of many examples
along with stories such as 2010 Shadowland whose tagline was borrowed for the TV series or the time when Danny Rand briefly became Daredevil to help establish the notion that Matt Murdock and Daredevil are two different individuals, all of this along with Miller’s contributions have made The Defenders TV series exciting to watch especially the last scene of the last episode (SPOILER ALERT)
Frank Miller, the writer and artist, known for his work on Daredevil, Batman, Sin City, Wolverine and to a lesser extent Spiderman; is a man who was way ahead of his time when he took over the reigns for Daredevil in late 70s. Who knew that Netflix would use his idea to produce TV series which would team up Daredevil with Luke Cage and Iron Fist to form the The Defenders
Thank You Frank Miller
Buy Frank Miller's Marvel run from here
Infinity War - Comics vs Movie
In Marvel Universe, the Infinity saga is the quintessential Space Opera from the 90s. Written by Jim Starlin (creator or co-creator of Thanos, Drax, Gamora and Shang-Chi) and drawn by Ron Lim
Starlin is recognized for revamping Marvel’s space characters namely Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) and Adam Warlock. He is part of the Marvel’s writers’ club from the 70s who came up with characters that defied the norms established in the Golden Age of comics, yet his most notable achievement happens to be the Infinity Saga miniseries from the 90s. Amassing a bigger line-up of heroes than Secret Wars, the Infinity saga takes a lot of inferences from philosophical, historical, metaphysical and theological aspects such as Alpharabius/Al Farabi’s philosopher king (when Adam Warlock releases Good and Evil from his soul in order to rule with Infinity Gauntlet through rationalism), Jesus Christ and his challenge to the temple establishment (positioned as a messianic figure of Marvel’s cosmos & mostly in dispute with the Church of Truth), the philosophy of moral dualism (Goddess and Magus) and Thanos’ fascination with nihilism and death
The saga is quite deep and might not be appreciated by those who find such concepts difficult to comprehend. Nevertheless, to the credit of Jim Starlin, his take on Marvel’s cosmos is one of the main reasons why it enjoys a cult following and it is one of his mini-series which is known as Infinity War with Adam Warlock as its central character
MCU’s Infinity War
However, D23 Expo (2017) has revealed that Thanos & his Black Order/Cull Obsidian will be the main antagonists of the movie which makes it certain that the movie Infinity War will be loosely based on Jonathan Hickman, Jim Cheung, Jerome Opeña, and Dustin Weaver’s Infinity (2013) cross-over
Thankfully, the cast of characters is nearly the same (if only Inhumans are part of this movie) as the comic book story line involves Avengers, Inhumans, Illuminati (whose 3 members Iron Man, Dr. Strange and Black Panther are part of MCU) and Guardians of the Galaxy. Making a movie with such a huge cast of characters is a huge challenge in itself and the way comic book readers have been disappointed by adaptations of successful story lines such as Civil War (Captain America), Age of Ultron (Avengers), Extremis (Iron Man 3) etc., it has only alienated die-hard fans of Marvel comics who appreciate a real mature, relatable portrayal of their favorite super-heroes and villains, too. For example, FOX’s blunder with Apocalypse remains a painful memory
Because a movie is only as good as its' 'villains', it remains to be seen if Thanos & his Black Order will establish themselves much like Darth Vader & his Grand Army of the Republic. Quite a high level of expectation but nevertheless, the opportunity is there for MCU to capitalize
Reading Advice
Infinity (2013) is not as landmark of an even as Jim Starlin’s Infinity Saga from the early 90s. The story quality is incomparable between the two cross-overs and ever since Axel Alonso has been at the helm, there is a repetition strategy being employed i.e. Secret Wars (1984) and then there’s Secret Wars (2015), Civil War and now we have Civil War II. Similar to these two examples, Infinity (2013) was also a repetition of sorts of Starlin’s Infinity saga. The stories differ in terms of characters involved and their costumes and the art work but the fundamental premise of a successful story is used in a gimmicky fashion for the sake of short-term sales
Read Infinity (2013) for the sake of the movie BUT for your reading pleasure, you’re better off with Starlin & Lim’s Infinity Trilogy, namely Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War and Infinity Crusade
Buy Infinity Saga from here:
Rebirth of Thanos
Infinity Gauntlet
Infinity War
Infinity Crusade
Infinity War: The Aftermath
Infinity by Jonathan Hickman
