November Book Club Review

Infinity Gauntlet

Average rating : 9

Infinity Gauntlet is a six issue collection and the first of the three Infinity titles which revolve around the near universe ending events that follow the uniting of the six Infinity Gems.

Master of Everything

The story revolves around Thanos quest to rebalance the universe for Death. To accomplish his mission Thanos collects the six infinity gems ; Soul, Time, Space, Mind, Reality, Power, and binds them together giving him absolute mastery over them and essentially grants him the power of a God.

Infinity Gauntlet features an extremely wide cast of characters from Marvel mainstays like Wolverine and Spider-man to cosmic entities like Galactus and Eternity banding together to try, and for the most part fail miserably, to save the universe from Thanos.

“ You had all these super heroes banded together that felt extremely helpless and human” - Keenan

The Mad Titan and Mistress Death

With limitless power at his disposal and little to no resistance to hinder him, Thanos embarks on a quest to rule the universe impress a girl. After completing the task Death had set him by killing half the population of the universe Thanos still found himself unable to win Death’s affections.

“I feel his situation with Mistress Death and trying to win a girls heart a bit typical and lame especially compared to his infinite power” - Mario

Having his heart set on an unachievable goal is a reflection of Thanos biggest flaw, the deep seeded sub-conscious desire to lose. As it is pointed out to him during the story the only really reason Thanos is or has ever been defeated is that deep down he wants to fail because he doesn’t feel he deserves ultimate power.

“You really need to read the back story to see why Thanos deserved the Infinity Gauntlet” -Matt

This fatal flaw is one of the reasons Thanos makes a great villain, its not his own arrogance or any great act of heroics that wins the day time after time but the characters own complexity and contradictions.

Artwork

The artwork was very typical of the early 90’s. Although a lot of us really enjoyed the artwork it was hit and miss with some panels being entirely too busy and some of the color work lacking due to the technological limitations at the time.

“Artwork was top notch but I hate that #$&@$@ pink “- Rene

“The frames were very busy” - Rick

“The artwork stood up very well” - James

That being said the cover work and splash pages were excellent, well detailed and a great balance to a very text heavy layout.

Summary

As a whole Infinity Gauntlet is a solid read, it’s a classic piece of Marvel story telling. It was more than just a straight forward heroes vs. villains story which featured the refreshing switch up of watching the heroes lose for a change. The artwork was colourful, detailed, and only a little dated considering its twenty years old. The pairing of George Perez and Ron Lim was both recognizable and well reviewed.

“ I enjoyed the way it was written, it was very contemplative” - Gabriel

“ The artwork was very natural from reading Silver Surfer” - Mathieu

“ The art was great, the pairing of Perez and Lim is some of my favourite art in comics” - Remi

Ratings

Picked the book: Scott - Rating 9.5

“ I learned so much about the Marvel characters”

Harshest critic : Colin - Rating 7

“ It was too much cosmic stuff, too convoluted”

Best rating : Boutet - Rating 10

“Thanos is never really fully the villian, he has a deep pain that humanizes him”

Next months selection : reMIND

Pick up a copy and join us December 28th