#the infinity effect

[vertigoartgore]

1975's Warlock Vol.1 #9 cover by Jim Starlin and inker Alan Weiss.

[chadnevett]

This coming Wednesday, I have a piece in the new issue of PanelxPanel, a fantastic online comics magazine. You can pre-order the issue or subscribe on their Gumroad site. I am doing this month's "Solo" feature where someone write about some topic that has nothing to do with the monthly theme. I wrote about Jim Starlin and Thanos, and their unique creator-owned-esque relationship that exists within the confines of work-for-hire culminating in The Infinity Ending, ostensibly Starlin's final Thanos (and Marvel) comic.

[chadnevett]

[chadnevett]

Starlin’s cosmic work has been always been at its best when he’s writing sci-fi as fantasy; in Cosmic Odyssey, he wrote fantasy as sci-fi.

I’ve been working on this essay/chapter for years. YEARS. Fuck me.

[chadnevett]

From a certain perspective and the increasing amount to which the Weird and Synnar would dominate his DC work, you could label them to DC’s version Adam Warlock and Thanos, for Starlin and his comics at least. That may seem like a stretch, even to those that have read these comics, but I think it’s an apt one, if only because it highlights the disparate status of Starlin’s Marvel cosmic work to that at DC.

Nothing but hot takes that no one else could possibly care about tonight, folks...

[chadnevett]

The Infinity Gauntlet Box-Set

Some brief words on the recent Infinity Gauntlet box-set that Marvel released and I was one of... dozens(?) to buy it. Actually, I just went and looked up the top 100 graphic novels in March, when this came out, the number two dollar rank isn't on the chart, which I'm betting is this given it's cover price making it much easier for it to make a big dollar splash while not making the chart at all.

Before we get going, here are the contents:

INFINITY GAUNTLET PROLOGUE PREMIERE HC 440 PGS. / COLLECTING SILVER SURFER (1987) 34-38, 40, 44-50; THANOS QUEST 1-2

INFINITY GAUNTLET PREMIERE HC (NEW PRINTING) 256 PGS. / COLLECTING INFINITY GAUNTLET (1991) 1-6

INFINITY GAUNTLET CROSSOVERS PREMIERE HC 504 PGS. / COLLECTING CLOAK AND DAGGER (1988) 18, SPIDER-MAN (1990) 17, INCREDIBLE HULK (1968) 383-385, DOCTOR STRANGE, SORCERER SUPREME 34-35, SILVER SURFER (1987) 51-59, QUASAR 26-27, SLEEPWALKER 7; MATERIAL FROM DOCTOR STRANGE, SORCERER SUPREME 31-33

INFINITY GAUNTLET AFTERMATH PREMIERE HC 344 PGS. / COLLECTING SILVER SURFER (1987) 60-66, DOCTOR STRANGE, SORCERER SUPREME 36, WARLOCK AND THE INFINITY WATCH 1-6; MATERIAL FROM SILVER SURFER ANNUAL 5

INFINITY WAR PREMIERE HC 264 PGS. / COLLECTING INFINITY WAR 1-6

INFINITY WAR CROSSOVERS VOL. 1 PREMIERE HC 552 PGS. / COLLECTING FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) 366-368, SPIDER-MAN (1990) 24, DEATHLOK (1991) 16, DAREDEVIL (1964) 310, WARLOCK AND THE INFINITY WATCH 7, DOCTOR STRANGE, SORCERER SUPREME 42-44, SILVER SURFER (1987) 67-69, WONDER MAN (1991) 13, ALPHA FLIGHT (1983) 110, SILVER SABLE & THE WILD PACK 4, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (1990) 27, QUASAR 37, NEW WARRIORS (1990) 27, MARC SPECTOR: MOON KNIGHT 41-42; MATERIAL FROM CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) 408, ALPHA FLIGHT (1983) 109, MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS (1988) 108-111

INFINITY WAR CROSSOVERS VOL. 2 PREMIERE HC 536 PGS. / COLLECTING WARLOCK AND THE INFINITY WATCH 8-10, QUASAR 38-40, ALPHA FLIGHT (1983) 111-112, DOCTOR STRANGE, SORCERER SUPREME 45-47, NOMAD (1992) 7, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (1990) 28-29, SILVER SABLE & THE WILD PACK 5, WONDER MAN (1991) 14-15, MARC SPECTOR: MOON KNIGHT 43-44, SLEEPWALKER 18, FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) 369-370; MATERIAL FROM MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS (1988) 112

INFINITY WAR AFTERMATH PREMIERE HC 352 PGS. / COLLECTING WARLOCK AND THE INFINITY WATCH 11-17, SILVER SURFER/WARLOCK: RESURRECTION 1-4, QUASAR 41-43; MATERIAL FROM MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS (1988) 112, MARVEL HOLIDAY SPECIAL 2

INFINITY CRUSADE PREMIERE HC 488 PGS. / COLLECTING INFINITY CRUSADE 1-6, WARLOCK CHRONICLES 1-5, WARLOCK AND THE INFINITY WATCH 18-22

INFINITY CRUSADE CROSSOVERS VOL. 1 PREMIERE HC 344 PGS. / COLLECTING THOR (1966) 463-464, IRON MAN (1968) 294-295, AVENGERS WEST COAST 96-97, DARKHAWK 30, CAGE (1992) 17, ALPHA FLIGHT (1983) 124, MARC SPECTOR: MOON KNIGHT 57; MATERIAL FROM DOCTOR STRANGE, SORCERER SUPREME 54-55, ALPHA FLIGHT (1983) 122-123, WEB OF SPIDER-MAN (1985) 104-105

INFINITY CRUSADE CROSSOVERS VOL. 2 PREMIERE HC 352 PGS. / COLLECTING ALPHA FLIGHT (1983) 125, 127; THOR (1966) 465-467; DARKHAWK 31; SILVER SURFER (1987) 83-85; DEATHLOK (1991) 28; MATERIAL FROM DOCTOR STRANGE, SORCERER SUPREME 56, ALPHA FLIGHT (1983) 126, SILVER SABLE & THE WILD PACK 16-17, WEB OF SPIDER-MAN (1985) 106, DEATHLOK (1991) 29

INFINITY GAUNTLET COMPANION PREMIERE HC 528 PGS. / COLLECTING THANOS ANNUAL 1; WHAT IF? (1989) 49, 104; WHAT THE-?! 20; AVENGERS & THE INFINITY GAUNTLET 1-4; INFINITY GAUNTLET (2015) 1-5; MATERIAL FROM WHAT IF: NEWER FANTASTIC FOUR, WHAT THE-?! 24; BONUS MATERIAL

Oh, and it came with one of those posters made of the same material as flags of the cover of The Infinity Gauntlet #1. I haven't hung it up, because I have no idea where I would.

But, really, as you can see, it is basically everything Jim Starlin did with the cosmic characters from his Silver Surfer run through The Infinity Crusade with pretty much every possible tie-in included, including many that aren't explicit tie-ins (like in the various Aftermath volumes). Looking at the contents of this set, you can tell that talking about the actual quality of the comics would be futile. You're only buying this sort of set if it's already your thing. For me, it was a chance to read all of the tie-ins and comics surrounding the Starlin stuff. From that perspective, let's run down some good and bad things:

* The biggest negative that I have is that the Infinity War tie-ins by Starlin aren't presented in that collection, they're shunted off to the Infinity War Crossovers volumes. This is especially frustrating given how the first voume is so large that the first couple of issues collected are bound to the front cover rather than the spine. Taking the few issues of Warlock & the Infinity Watch along with that Thanos four-parter from Marvel Comics Presents would have slimmed down that volume to not make that necessary, and would have made for a better reading experience for Infinity War (especially since the trade of that event includes those issues -- though, maybe not in between issues as I place them, but at the end -- I'd have to check out a copy of the paperback to see...). After all, the rule of thumb that I follow (and, really, makes the most sense) is that any comics written by the writer of the main event series are essential to understanding the event. But, that's the only real negative that I have. The only other thing that would have been a benefit would have been including the Silver Surfer graphic novel Homecoming that Starlin wrote as it ties into his run on that title to a small degree and is more explicitly reference in the Silver Surfer/Warlock: Resurrection mini. Maybe adding in another volume with the rest of the Infinity Watch run? That's probably pushing it, but, while we're nitpicking.

* Honestly, there isn't much else that I can criticise. The packaging is great. Solid box. Heavy. HEAVY HEAVY HEAVY. It came in a box from Amazon that then contained another box and it was packaged to avoid damage. The look of the set is good. I like that, for the spines of the books, they used the heroes lined up on the cover of The Infinity War #1. The cover art on each of the volumes (front and back) is a cover from the issues inside with the backgrounds stripped away. In some cases, it works better than others, but, really, who cares. No printing errors that I found or poor quality scans or anything. Good paper stock. The binding is, mostly, good, aside from the beginning of the first crossovers volumes for The Infinity War, as I stated above.

* The reading order is solid. That's an area where I could probably nitpick for days if I really wanted, but what's the point. The only spot where I was concerned was with the Starlin stuff and they put all of that in the same order that I have my copies of the comics in, so... I mean, when it comes to the various crossover issues, I thought that they did a really good job of balancing the various concerns of the spot in the main event that the tie-in issues connected with (which was, sometimes, several issues of the main series) along with the need to present cliffhanger issues right before the followup for better reading. There's no perfect solution and I think that everyone involved here did a good job of finding that balance.

* Despite my complain about not including the Homecoming OGN, I can't fault them for missing anything. In a few cases, they presented excerpts from issues where the event in question was briefly referenced just to be as complete as possible. When it came to the Infinity Gauntlet Companion collection, that's where the bonus material really explodes. Variations on The Infinity Gauntlet are included, like the all-ages retelling and the Secret Wars Battleworld mini, What If? issues, What The--?! issues, even the Starlin-penned Lim-drawn Thanos annual #1 that features an avatar of the Gauntlet-wielding Thanos are all included. From there, the material digs down even deeper with material from a swimsuit special, reproductions of various trading cards, tons of variant covers from different projects that relate, a lot of Marvel Age material, and then panels of scans of original art from anything that they could find that was collected in the set it seems. I would never say that the set is worth it just for this volume because look at the price tag, but I will say that this volume was my favourite of the bunch because of the breadth of material.

As I said, this isn't a set that you worry about the quality of the content too much ahead of time, but I would like to take a brief wander through some of what stood out on that front:

* Not since Avengers vs. X-Men have I had a chance to see such a large sampling of event series tie-in books. This set has three events in their entirety and it provides a cool window into how tie-ins can be approached. Now, of course, events done in the early to mid '90s are different than events done at Marvel over the past decade. There were no creative retreats where Starlin talked about his ideas and other people chimed in and, thus, writers were able to tailor their tie-ins a bit better to the main series and their own. Most of the tie-ins usually expanded on scenes their characters appeared in and used them to further whatever story was already being told in the book. Even for characters that played larger roles in Starlin's stories, there wasn't much room to add meaningfully to the main series, so series like Silver Surfer and Dr. Strange wound up taking a small piece and then going off on their own tangent. The former used a lot of hallucinations or interior exploration; the latter was big on Astral Projection. Lip-service was the name of the game.

* This set did give me a further appreciation for Ron Marz's work on Silver Surfer and Thor where you could definitely see the effect of coming up under Starlin had on his work. His Surfer stuff is the closest I've seen anyone not named Starlin doing comics that I'd put in with Starlin stuff.

* One of my favourite tie-ins was Wonder Man #15, which tied into The Infinity War. I'd read a few issues of the title to that point and it was... fine. But, this issue really took the subplot of Wonder Man questioning his humanity and existence, the idea that he needed anger to get his powers going, and tied it into the doppelganger stuff from the event, and really delivered a strong issue. I was really blown away with the work done to integrate the two.

* Silver Surfer and Dr. Strange were the only comics to tie into all three events.

* You could tell how desperate a title was for sales by how many tie-ins it had... by the end, Alpha Flight and Thor both had six tie-ins to The Infinity Crusade. Ouch.

* Honestly, most of the tie-in comics are... not good. Take a look at the comics that were participating in those events and you're not exactly seeing the cream of Marvel's crop. But, they weren't as bad usually as I would have expected. A lot were serviceable. Some were fun. Only a few were outright terrible. It was a fun window into that period of Marvel.

If there is anyone out there afflicted with the same interest in this material, then this box-set is worth it. I really can't imagine that there are many of you. I wouldn't have thought it would be more than just me, honestly.

[chadnevett]

Facing the Magus, Warlock has a unique firm of temptation, akin to Satan tempting Christ. Warlock had already faced a similar situation with the Man-Beast, but, here, it was not just words promising him power and a godlike position. He was face to face with himself realised as god. This was reality and it was there for him to embrace or fight against. Obviously, he chose to fight, the Magus positioned as a typical villain rather than a legitimate option for Warlock to embrace. The one glaring weakness of Starlin's story is that Warlock has little internal struggle regarding the Magus. He is always something to fight against, a horrific future existence to run from, rather than a true temptation. The closest the Magus gets to being an option that Warlock considers is when it seems inevitable that Warlock will become the Magus, that the events that brought the Magus into existence are preordained and cannot be changed. However, even then, Warlock despairs at the thought, succumbing to self-pity and -loathing. Starlin seems less interested in exploring the possible temptation facing Warlock of being a god than in the idea that Warlock and the Magus are the same person/god at odds with one another/himself. The 'schizophrenic Jesus' concept played out in literal, nonmetaphoric terms.

I wrote that in a doctor's office waiting room. Something I've always struggled with is the idea that I write too succinctly. I'm sure it's my own issue. There's a lot in this short paragraph that I should draw out and expand upon. Yet, it also seems like a waste to do so. Everything I really want to say is there. Then again, I have to ask myself "What would Starlin do?" and I look at the Infinity Trilogy and the amount of needless filler in there and I know what to do. But, I've always had this issue, which is why I hated word count demands on essays in school. I'd usually find myself struggling to fill the count, because I would say what I wanted to say in a direct, clean way. Or at least that's what it seemed like to me. Maybe I'm just making broad generalisations and glossing over things that should be expanded upon. Either way, this is not at all how this will appear in its final form. It was just putting down some ideas while waiting for the doctor to see my son.

[chadnevett]

Some Differences Between Two Captain Marvel Collections

Yesterday, I got the recently released Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin: The Complete Collection as a birthday gift. It's meant to replace The Life and Death of Captain Marvel trade that I have, because I am a weird completist and that trade is missing bits and pieces. I never knew how much/little until now. I quickly compared the two and the biggest differences seem to be the efforts to make The Life and Death of Captain Marvel read as one story with no issue breaks/interruptions. Instead, issues are listed as 'chapters' with title graphics and credits removed, chapter headings regulated to new caption boxes, and as much recap material excised. There's even a few spots where panels are eliminated from pages and the remaining art resized/placed differently on the page or captions are removed (I didn't note those differences as it was usually just a single caption missing(. Here are the most glaring differences:

* Captain Marvel #26 - page two is missing * Captain Marvel #28 - page one is missing * Captain Marvel #29 - the first five panels on page two are missing with panel six enlarged to fill the entire space taken up by the first six panels * Captain Marvel #31 - page six is missing * Captain Marvel #32 - pages one is missing * Captain Marvel #33 - pages one through three are missing along with the large montage panel on page four, causing the small final three panels to be englarged and arranged awkwardly on the page * The Death of Captain Marvel - the title/credits page, the short introduction by Al MIlgrom, and the back cover are all missing

The new collection also adds a bunch of material not found in The Life and Death of Captain Marvel, including a few pages from Daredevil #105 featuring Moondragon's origin along with a ton of bonus material like a three-page framing sequence Starlin did for Captain Marvel #36, new art done for reprints, the map of Titan from Captain Marvel #27, the original cover art for Captain Marvel #29 with Starlin's original rendering of the hero's face...

The other big change is the placement of Marvel Feature #12, the brief interlude where Iron Man and the Thing battle the Brother Blood. The Life and Death of Captain Marvel places it after issue 30, while the new collection places it before (with the Moondragon pages following the Marvel Feature story). Given that Marvel Feature #12 was released the same month as issue 29, it makes sense to place it before issue 30. While the beginning of issue 30 takes place before the Marvel Feature issue, including a scene where Iron Man heads off to that particular confrontation with the Brothers Blood, there is an editor note in the original issue basically saying "If you've read the issue, you know what he finds; if you haven't, then you should go buy it!" which seems good enough to firmly place the reading order as Captain Marvel 29, Marvel Feature #12, Captain Marvel #30 for me. Actually, I'm surprised that, with the way The Life and Death of Captain Marvel was done, that it wasn't actually inserted into the middle of issue 30 given that there are two chapters in the issue and it would probably BEST fit between them. With the amounts of edits that collection had, placing the sidestory in the middle of an issue doesn't seem out of line... Weird.

The colouring restoration is also slightly different in the two collections. The Life and Death of Captain Marvel is much clunkier in its restoration. Not as nuanced or subtle. It's not a major thing, but the new collection seems a bit truer to the originals -- particularly The Death of Captain Marvel.

The only thing both collections are missing are the parts of that original Mar-Vell/Thanos story that Starlin had no involvement with like Avengers #125. Or even the 'wanting too much' bonus of the three issues of the 1999 Captain Marvel series that Starlin drew (and Peter David wrote). Neither are essential, but would have been nice touches in what looks to be an attempt at the definitive collection of Starlin's work on the character/this story.

But, that's just nitpicking. Maybe it all is, actually...