Infinity War (Marvel Masterworks Library) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Don't get me wrong. I love the stories of Warlock written by Jim Starlin, illustrated by Ron Lim, Angel Medina et al; and I'm happy Marvel has collected these books under one cover. That's the good. The bad?

You sure do have to flip around a lot, back and forth, in the book, if you want to read the stories in chronological order! Marvel has grouped the "Infinity War" miniseries together, followed by the 4 tied-in issues of "Warlock and the Infinity Watch", followed by the Thanos back up features that ran in Marvel Comics Presents. BUT the issues of "Warlock..." occur concurrently with "Infinity War", chronologically "Infinity War" #1 should be followed by "Warlock..." #7, followed by IW #2, followed by W #8,and then IW #3, then the Marvel Comics Presents (Thanos Backup feature), the IW #4, W #9 and so on. The "I Thanos" feature from "Marvel Comics Presents" is problematic, as takes place within the time span of IW #3 (within a panel of that issue, even) and overlaps with W #8. The Thanos Christmas story at the TPB's end? I'm not even sure when or where that is.

Marvel has released their X-Men "Age of Apocalypse" Trade Paperbacks in chronological order. It's a shame they couldn't do the same for "Infinity War".

Marvel has a poor QC record on its collections, due to easily avoidable things such as bad resolution, faulty coloring, and missing pages or text. After finishing the INFINITY WAR trade, I can say that improper story order can be added to the list. The trade collects Infinity War #1 - 6, Warlock and the Infinity Watch (WATIW) #7 - 10, and Marvel Comics Presents #108 - 111, in that specific order. The only problem is, that's not the order in which the comics were released, and it's certainly not the order in which the story moves. The Infinity War issues comprise the main story, and they can be read on their own, for the most part; however, the WATIW issues provide many important plot points that are essential for understanding why events proceed as they do in Infinity War. To print these stories out of their chronological order, as if WATIW serves as an appendix, is just plain stupid (they even reference which Infinity War issues they come between, so why have them out of order?).

Unfortunately, this organization problem brings Jim Starlin's excellent storyline down quite a few notches. While I have maintained that Starlin's INFINITY GAUNTLET should have been "the last Thanos story", INFINITY WAR provides a good follow-up, focusing on a changed Thanos as he joins forces with Adam Warlock and the Infinity Watch (Gamorra, Pip the Troll, Drax the Destroyer, and Moondragon) to battle Warlock's evil double, the Magus, who is now in search of the Infinity Gauntlet. In addition, Eternity has been removed from the playing field, and Galactus must find out how and why, with the help of the Living Tribunal. The story provides many excellent perspectives on Thanos' personality, showing how his brush with omnipotence in INFINITY GAUNTLET affected his views on life, loyalty, and his purpose. The only problem I have with the core story itself is the fact that this had to be a company-wide crossover to boost sales, so of course the heroes of the Marvel Universe, who are largely ineffectual in a cosmic event such as this, only serve to provide big two-page spreads of fight scenes, while the aforementioned cosmic types do their thing. But then maybe it wouldn't be so bad if we weren't stuck with having to look at the `90s versions of these heroes. This decade was certainly the dark age of Marvel costume revamps!

As for the art, Ron Lim's work on the Infinity War issues really bugs me. It's too stiff - characters are drawn in a limited range of poses, and they frequently look as if they're uncomfortable with those poses that they're in. He also has no understanding of shadow, so everything looks flat and boring. Contrast this with the work of Tom Raney, who provides the art for WATIW: it's absolutely beautiful. Very detailed work, reminiscent of Art Adams, and Raney is defninitely a guy who understands how to use shadows. It's a shame he didn't do the whole book!

In short, if you're really looking to save some money, you may want to just buy the INFINITY GAUNTLET trade and leave it at that. That book has a great story, and much better art by Perez & Lim. I would suggest INFINITY WAR only for someone who is a completist, or a big fan of Marvel's cosmic storylines.

The limited series had a six-issue run from June to November 1992, which is bolstered in this volume by Warlock and the Infinity Watch #'s 7-10 and Marvel Comics Presents #'s 108-111.

Written by Jim Starlin and illustrated by Ron Lim, the story line focuses on the ultimate villain Magus and the plot to gain power in the Marvel Universe. The first to fall are Reed Richards and Iron Man, while the battles build on Earth and in outer space. Magus seems to have the perfect plot, as evil doubles appear to doom the heroes to a bitter defeat.

The plot is deftly composed and Lim's art is impressive. The series is an inventive means to have an all-star cast presented in a very unique scenario.