The Infinity Gauntlet #1
First, a summary of some Silver Surfer issues I don't have, as told in flashback in this issue. (Heh!) Silver Surfer and Drax the Destroyer confront Thanos and are easily toyed with using his new reality-altering powers, sucking them into the Soul Gem. He departs to consider what to do next. Inside the Soul Gem, Silver Surfer meets the others who are held prisoner inside: Adam Warlock, Gamora, and Pip, among others. Adam Warlock releases them from the gem. Silver Surfer is met by Mephisto, who warns him that the universe should be fortified against Thanos's return. I need to read these issues one of these days.
As the story begins, Mephisto is sucking up to Thanos. We cut to the home of Doctor Strange, who has Silver Surfer crash through his roof, warning him of what has happened. Elsewhere, Thanos brags about his power, saying that he is "incapable of error. Any result that displeases me I can simply reverse!" Unseen by him, three bits of light come from the Soul Gem and depart. We get an apparent non-sequitor of three incompetent criminals crashing their car off a cliff and dying.
Thanos and Mephisto return to the Hall of Death (somewhere even Mephisto says he's never dared to go) and Thanos asks Death if she's forgiven him for getting the Infinity Gems. She turns her back on him. The three bits of light we saw earlier enter the bodies of the dead criminals on Earth, and they animate. The woman begins to turn green. (The three bits of light are the aforementioned Adam Warlock, Gamora, and Pip. Adam Warlock I've already described. Pip is a short, sarcastic alien (troll) whose significance I'm not sure of. Gamora was trained by Thanos since she was a child to be his personal assassin. Eventually she turned on him.)
Thanos begs for Death to see his point of view, but her remaining servant -- the zombie-like one -- speaks on her behalf, saying that she is nothing more than his slave. Thanos believes she should be worshipped and creates a space shrine to her. She looks pleased for a moment, then turns her back on Thanos again. Mephisto suggests how Thanos might impress her: "Mistress Death is a dark spirit, ebon in her ways. Her mate must be of a like bent." So Thanos brings forth Nebula, his supposed granddaughter. He has made her into the living dead, her body twisted and her mind nearly gone. Only his power keeps her alive, and she can never hope for death or unconsciousness, only neverending agony. Death turns her back on him and her minion basically tells Thanos he sucks, so Thanos blows him up. He tells Death, "Mistress, you will address me directly, or not at all!" So she stops addressing him altogether. Mephisto says that "Perhaps it's what you haven't done that riles the maiden." Thanos realizes he hasn't wiped out half the universe yet. For the first time, Death actually looks pleased. Thanos raises his arm and snaps his fingers. (Jeez, women! Am I right? High five!)
On Earth, Spider-Man is hit with the most intense spider-sense tingling he's ever experienced. He sees half the crowd on the street below vanish. He suddenly swings for home, fearing for Mary Jane. In the Avengers HQ, Captain America is speaking with Sersi and Hawkeye, when they vanish. He has a bad feeling it's only the beginning. On the SHIELD heli-carrier, Nick Fury wonders what to do. At a bar, the Hulk is pissed because Rick Jones is gone, and he suspects the Abomination is behind it, for some reason. In Skrull space, they are quick to blame the Kree for the disappearance of half their people and prepare for war. At Doctor Strange's mansion, Wong (his servant) vanishes, and Silver Surfer can feel the people across the universe blinking out of existence. On Titan, Starfox has brought Firelord, one of Galactus's former heralds, to aid in future struggles against Thanos. Mentor vanishes. On Earth, the dead people who were becoming Gamora and Pip are hanging out in a hotel, slowly healing and mutating into their new selves. Gamora vanishes and Pip runs into the next room, only to find that Adam Warlock is in a healing cocoon.
Overview: This series is head and shoulers better than Secret Wars and Secret Wars II. For starters, Jim Starlin is a far better writer than Jim Shooter, and we get George Perez on pencils, one of my favorite pencilers. When I did my silly fanfic wannabe thing, I used the same basic framework (Adam Warlock and Doctor Strange summoning the heroes of Earth!). I remember when my brother brought home this issue. I had more or less dialed out of comics, but he was still reading them in the supermarket. It was all unprecedented for me, not being a fan of Silver Surfer (I think my brother had been following that comic as well) and many of the characters were from the 70's. It really impacted me.
The crossover bits aren't too intrusive, and the mini-series can be read alone without feeling like you've missed anything. But what this overview is going to regard is the stuff that doesn't quite fit. I don't know how Spider-Man and the Avengers crossed over, but the Hulk crossover doesn't follow at all. He has an encounter with the Abomination, not on purpose, after battling Thanos and still bearing the effects of that fight, while this implies that he will go looking for the Abomination. I get the feeling that matching up the stories was only done in the most casual sense. Oh well.
For some reason the Fantastic Four are completely absent. Alpha Flight is absent as well, but that's no surprise, as it was pretty bottom of the barrel after John Byrne left, over five years before. You can tell Jim Starlin is pretty apathetic toward Alpha Flight and the various X-Books, as they only get the most peripheral of mentions. Wolverine and Cyclops appear amongst the heroes, but everyone else appears to be gone. I believe the X-Men were in Shi'ar space fighting the War Skrulls in the last months of Chris Claremont's run, and Excalibur was in the Cross-Time Caper. No idea what X-Factor was up to. It's just as well, since the sequel series, The Infinity War used everybody in the Marvel Universe and it was a big, fat, hairy mess. If Phoenix (Rachel) was there, it's hard to say what would have happened. If anyone was capable of doing anything, it was her.
Next: From bad to worse! Adam Warlock makes his entrance! Doctor Doom joins in! Starfox gets into trouble! Odin and the other pantheon heads decide to take action!
As the story begins, Mephisto is sucking up to Thanos. We cut to the home of Doctor Strange, who has Silver Surfer crash through his roof, warning him of what has happened. Elsewhere, Thanos brags about his power, saying that he is "incapable of error. Any result that displeases me I can simply reverse!" Unseen by him, three bits of light come from the Soul Gem and depart. We get an apparent non-sequitor of three incompetent criminals crashing their car off a cliff and dying.
Thanos and Mephisto return to the Hall of Death (somewhere even Mephisto says he's never dared to go) and Thanos asks Death if she's forgiven him for getting the Infinity Gems. She turns her back on him. The three bits of light we saw earlier enter the bodies of the dead criminals on Earth, and they animate. The woman begins to turn green. (The three bits of light are the aforementioned Adam Warlock, Gamora, and Pip. Adam Warlock I've already described. Pip is a short, sarcastic alien (troll) whose significance I'm not sure of. Gamora was trained by Thanos since she was a child to be his personal assassin. Eventually she turned on him.)
Thanos begs for Death to see his point of view, but her remaining servant -- the zombie-like one -- speaks on her behalf, saying that she is nothing more than his slave. Thanos believes she should be worshipped and creates a space shrine to her. She looks pleased for a moment, then turns her back on Thanos again. Mephisto suggests how Thanos might impress her: "Mistress Death is a dark spirit, ebon in her ways. Her mate must be of a like bent." So Thanos brings forth Nebula, his supposed granddaughter. He has made her into the living dead, her body twisted and her mind nearly gone. Only his power keeps her alive, and she can never hope for death or unconsciousness, only neverending agony. Death turns her back on him and her minion basically tells Thanos he sucks, so Thanos blows him up. He tells Death, "Mistress, you will address me directly, or not at all!" So she stops addressing him altogether. Mephisto says that "Perhaps it's what you haven't done that riles the maiden." Thanos realizes he hasn't wiped out half the universe yet. For the first time, Death actually looks pleased. Thanos raises his arm and snaps his fingers. (Jeez, women! Am I right? High five!)
On Earth, Spider-Man is hit with the most intense spider-sense tingling he's ever experienced. He sees half the crowd on the street below vanish. He suddenly swings for home, fearing for Mary Jane. In the Avengers HQ, Captain America is speaking with Sersi and Hawkeye, when they vanish. He has a bad feeling it's only the beginning. On the SHIELD heli-carrier, Nick Fury wonders what to do. At a bar, the Hulk is pissed because Rick Jones is gone, and he suspects the Abomination is behind it, for some reason. In Skrull space, they are quick to blame the Kree for the disappearance of half their people and prepare for war. At Doctor Strange's mansion, Wong (his servant) vanishes, and Silver Surfer can feel the people across the universe blinking out of existence. On Titan, Starfox has brought Firelord, one of Galactus's former heralds, to aid in future struggles against Thanos. Mentor vanishes. On Earth, the dead people who were becoming Gamora and Pip are hanging out in a hotel, slowly healing and mutating into their new selves. Gamora vanishes and Pip runs into the next room, only to find that Adam Warlock is in a healing cocoon.
Overview: This series is head and shoulers better than Secret Wars and Secret Wars II. For starters, Jim Starlin is a far better writer than Jim Shooter, and we get George Perez on pencils, one of my favorite pencilers. When I did my silly fanfic wannabe thing, I used the same basic framework (Adam Warlock and Doctor Strange summoning the heroes of Earth!). I remember when my brother brought home this issue. I had more or less dialed out of comics, but he was still reading them in the supermarket. It was all unprecedented for me, not being a fan of Silver Surfer (I think my brother had been following that comic as well) and many of the characters were from the 70's. It really impacted me.
The crossover bits aren't too intrusive, and the mini-series can be read alone without feeling like you've missed anything. But what this overview is going to regard is the stuff that doesn't quite fit. I don't know how Spider-Man and the Avengers crossed over, but the Hulk crossover doesn't follow at all. He has an encounter with the Abomination, not on purpose, after battling Thanos and still bearing the effects of that fight, while this implies that he will go looking for the Abomination. I get the feeling that matching up the stories was only done in the most casual sense. Oh well.
For some reason the Fantastic Four are completely absent. Alpha Flight is absent as well, but that's no surprise, as it was pretty bottom of the barrel after John Byrne left, over five years before. You can tell Jim Starlin is pretty apathetic toward Alpha Flight and the various X-Books, as they only get the most peripheral of mentions. Wolverine and Cyclops appear amongst the heroes, but everyone else appears to be gone. I believe the X-Men were in Shi'ar space fighting the War Skrulls in the last months of Chris Claremont's run, and Excalibur was in the Cross-Time Caper. No idea what X-Factor was up to. It's just as well, since the sequel series, The Infinity War used everybody in the Marvel Universe and it was a big, fat, hairy mess. If Phoenix (Rachel) was there, it's hard to say what would have happened. If anyone was capable of doing anything, it was her.
Next: From bad to worse! Adam Warlock makes his entrance! Doctor Doom joins in! Starfox gets into trouble! Odin and the other pantheon heads decide to take action!