Infinity Companion

Infinity

by Brian Michael Bendis, Kelly Sue DeConnick (Text), Charles Soule (Text)

Infinity has arrived on Earth! As the Thunderbolts, S.H.I.E.L.D., Fearless Defenders, Superior Spider-Man, Luke Cage's all-new Mighty Avengers, Wolverine's Jean Grey School and all the Marvel Universe's other super-academies face off against Thanos' invading hordes, the war's second front is fought in deep space, where Spider-Woman and Black Widow plot to rescue Captain Marvel, the Avengers battle the Builders, the new Nova takes on Thanos' forces with help from the New Warriors...and the Guardians of the Galaxy's Star-Lord debates betraying the entire universe!

COLLECTING: Captain Marvel 15-16, Thunderbolts 14-18, Avengers Assemble 18-20, Infinity: The Hunt 1-4, Mighty Avengers 1-3, Nova 8-9, Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 3-4, Infinity: Heist 1-4, Fearless Defenders 10, Secret Avengers 10-11, Guardians Of The Galaxy 8-9, Wolverine & The X-Men Annual 1

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

688 pages, Hardcover

First published April 22, 2014

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those dump truck books that they publish at the end of an Event to make sure we readers get every last scrap of complementary storyline (no matter how trivial the tie-in).

I didn't read this in print - I followed Infinity through my Marvel Unlimited subscription - so I didn't even bother reading the stuff in here that didn't jazz me. Sue me - go read that extra driftwood yourself and tell me what I missed. I think 400-odd pages is plenty enough for my primary stab.

CapMarvel/AvengersAssemble

Contrast Hickman's main event with DeConnick's complementary story in Avengers Assemble. Her mastery of the self-deprecating, snarky inner voice commands my attention every time. Maybe that just means KSDC and I are similarly damaged, and we're alone in a sea of regular people who don't get how we speak in the quiet of introspection.

The single, personal story alongside races joining together to do battle - I like it, a personal struggle and some flawed human reactions. Thank you.

Must be why the Captain Marvel story fell so flat. Without memories, without emotional ties, Carol is flatline from a dramatic point of view. Boring. Monotone voiceover. She's going through the motions, and it feels like we're doing that too in reading her story in CM15.

Seriously - the best part of the Captain Marvel story is every time Jess shows up and spouts her big mouth off. And damn she's fun.

And in the Avengers Assemble story she's downright awesomely human and...spirited. Is "spirited" a word we use in the 21st century? It's the best way I know to describe Jessica Drew. So sue me, OK? I'm getting old and using ancient words. It's an affliction, and the only cure is 100 straight hours of binge-watching MTV or whatever YouTube channel is where the kids secretly speak in code.

Al Ewing's fill-in issue was great. A little adventure with the microverse, a little new Inhuman, and some banter and restatement of purpose between Wonder Man, Wasp and Scarlet Witch. Fun, done-in-one and excellently written (and illustrated by Pepe Larraz).

Thunderbolts

This starts out fine, and no one wants Soule to be the Wunderkind more than me. We need more amazing writers in comics. I *want* more amazing writers in comics.

This small-time, low-key one-mission-at-a-time premise is definitely lowball, and I want it to kick up a few notches but I'll wait to see how Soule handles it.

Decent surface-level use of most characters. Amusing Deadpool moments (mostly). Intriguing Red Leader. Boring Elektra. Way-too-decent Flash Thompson. Punisher is Punisher.

Jefte Palo gives odd art style, and amazingly it sticks around throughout the book - it's not fill-in, it's the real thing. Totally off-center exaggerated mental head trip - Red Hulk has a jaw that Kirk Douglas would kill for and Magic Mike would blow another dude for. It's like Chew on bad Chilean steroids.

Turns out that all told, this book is *fun*. I didn't get it at first, but it's just ridiculous enough, without going over the line into Duggan-level Deadpool garbage puns and stupid one-liners.

I think I'm going to enjoy this one, the more it proceeds. God help us, Soule can use an artist like Palo to keep him from coming off too earnest.

Mighty Avengers

Al Ewing kicks off with fast-paced action, some clever quips & great speeches and moments, and some clear characterizations - Power Man is the trying-too-hard tough guy, White Tiger the honour-bound family woman, Luke is Luke - heartfelt and blue collar - Superior Spidey is arrogant and genius. Even Monica Rambeau is snarky, restrained and a little tough to get to know.

Monica who? Shit, with Greg Land tracing some generic Halle Berry faces, and never varying the angles, I was sure this was some new character I'd never heard of. No way this unrecognizable face was someone I already knew. Christ Greg, if you're going to trace, why don't you just trace some other artist's previous drawings of Rambeau? Is that so hard to imagine?

And when did Monica Rambeau get such cool electromagnetic powers? Last I saw her, she was giving Carol Danvers a real hard time and avoiding trouble in New Orleans vicinity. Now she commands the whole spectrum? Very cool, but where I gotta backtrack to?

That goes double for Blue Marvel. Really? Where'd he come from? I gotta know people. Good non-white-male heroes, especially ones with a little grey and tragedy about them, this I want more of.

Quite an adventure in three issues, and especially when it's a tie-in to an event. How did I not know about Ale Ewing until now? This. This impresses on me we have a new great writer in our midst. Marvel, get your heads out of your asses, fire Greg Land already and find a better penciler for Mr. Ewing to shine.

I'll give Land one thing: his art is clean. I suspect it's because he doesn't know where to put his pencil if he's not ripping off someone or something else, so he doesn't want to add any extra lines in case he fucks up. Plus, with all that photocopy, it's all the inkers and colourists can do just to sharpen up the third-hand images into something recognizable. Which the inker Leisten and colourist D'Armata do admirably.

Infinity: Heist

Great irreverent introduction. Hell of a way to capture my attention, making fun of the obviously ridiculous things like how Thor prefers to fly unprotected in space.

So this is a book with a feel very much like Superior Foes of Spider-man - C-list supervillains with an attitude, moral flexibility and an amusing irreverence to take the piss out of the usual Marvel dealings.

Did Frank Tieri also write Superior Foes? Let me check...nope, that one was Nick Spencer. OK, then we've got two writers with a promising future around here - pull up a chair boys.

Nice little tale of crossed purposes and not everyone playing nice with each other.

Unfortunately, this book is also a classic example of the breakdown in artist output on a monthly (or worse) schedule. Books 1 & 2 have a single pencil/ink artist, then book 3 brings on a helper, and book 4 piles in every free hand they can grab. By the end the look of the book, and the quality of the output, is gone straight to hell - like something out of an early 90's Image title.

Infinity: The Hunt?

OMG it's bad, not even worth reading one issue. The entire first issue is total filler, there to mansplain the premise (which needed maybe two panels) and heavily introduce every single character who's meant to ever appear here.

Here's a typical line:

"Located in Mumbai, the Pan-Asian School is headed by Jimmy Woo and Sanjar Javeed. They are responsible for recruiting the best and brightest students from all of Asia. Funding for the school is rumoured to be with a cursed treasure, but the results of their work are anything but cursed."

DNF. Matt Kindt is a highly overrated...something.


In total? There's a bunch of highs and lows, and I think it's maybe 3.5 in aggregate, and in just can't go four stars so I'm better off with three. Worth reading some of these stories though feel free to skip the dross.

[Mohamed Ahmed · Rating 2 out of 5]

This came as no surprise For me Because this is not the First Marvel "Companion" I Have Read, and as always most of it is not related to the event.
But as i Had Already Purchased it and that's Why i read it.

[Relstuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know when you catch yourself talking out-loud and telling a character in a story to shut-up because they are so unbelievable/unrealistic that you're dealing with bad writing. This book contains two mini-series and some issues in the midst of several characters normal runs. The Infinity Heist mini-series was interesting as a few c level villains try to steal some of Stark's armor while he is off planet. Decent dialog and story. The second mini-series is another box of rocks though. Infinity The Hunt is a good idea done poorly. Students from around the world in super-hero school end up taking part in repelling the alien invasions. Terrible dialog and some substandard art make this one of the worst things I've read in a while.

The issues of Captain Marvel and Guardians of the Galaxy left me wanting more. The Thunderbolts issues were fun as Deadpool, Punisher, Red Hulk, and Electra hunt for some mafia baddies during the invasion. Nova might be good too. Though the protagonist is a little young.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Infinity event was not what it could have been and this companion piece showcases that. These stories are slightly connected and would read much better in their own books. Some pieces seemed vital to the event (Avengers Assemble and Captain Marvel) and some were barely close (Fearless Defenders & Thunderbolts). As expected, the book is all over the place in terms of quality, both in writing and art. The standouts to me were Wolverine & The X-Men, Nova, and Guardians Of The Galaxy. The two standalone limited series' (Heist and Hunt) were beyond bad. Overall, this book is only for completists as it doesn't add to the Infinity story.

[JohnIV · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice wrap-up for the Infinity crossover event.
Just got around to this after buying it in 2015 with some other OHCs. Pretty good collection of stories hanging off the main Infinity conflict when Thanos tries to slide in the back door while the Avengers are in space taking on the Builders. Hadn't seen the Thunderbolts before, so this story was fun though I wasn't sure what to make of Elektra after missing her since the Daredevil / Miller era. Also liked the Infinity Heist series of B-C List villains trying to rip off Tony Stark's armory. Art was an uneven bag, but expected in a large collection like this. Nice wrap-up for the Infinity crossover event. (j4.)

[Edward · Rating 3 out of 5]

A (too?) big supplement to the "Infinity" storyline. Highlights are the beautiful cover, the accidentally giant naked man in "Avengers Assemble", the eerie image of The Watcher, the "Nova" artwork, the concept of "Infinity: the hunt" (superhero schools competing with each other), the art of "Infinity: the Heist", the "Thunderbolts" selections... Another major highlight was the "Superior Spiderman Team-Up" selections: the images were impressive & the story of Superior Spiderman's interactions with the newly empowered Fulmina were affecting.

[Benja Calderon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se preguntaran ¿vale la pena leer todos los tie-ins de este evento?
Usualmente recomendaría que no, pero esta selección de comics da un cuerpo más robusto al evento, viendo como quienes se quedan en la Tierra luchan por defenderla a todo costo o las historias personales de aquellos Avengers batallando en el espacio.
Un pequeño gustito que uno puede darse y no sentirse defraudado

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a lot of stories that overlap. Some are cool and fun while others are simply boring and uninteresting. It’s a mixed bag.

[J'aime · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the Infinity event mainly because it was a refreshing, albeit meaningless, break from the utter boredom of the Incursion storyline in the Avengers/New Avengers series. Thanos attacks Earth while the Avengers are in space trying to stop an alien armada intent on destroying Earth and any civilizations it encounters along the way. Of course, only the main team has left Earth, meaning there are still a host of super-powered people left behind to fight off the Titan.

Though this wasn't the best I've read, I do love Marvel's event "companion" collections. These hardcovers are a beautiful and space-saving way to see the full picture without having to collect single issues from every published series that intersect with the event. It's great to see a large-scale event from the POV of individual characters. The Infinity Companion opens with Captain Marvel's view of the Avengers attack on the Builder fleet, and then jumps to Spider-Woman's viewpoint as part of the Avengers Assemble series. This section was excellent, bringing the reader right into the action. Even Nova's story, which was mostly self-contained, was interesting. What disappointed me about these tie-ins was the Avengers Academy section. This was a significant chunk of the companion, and it wasn't that good. It jumped from one mindless battle between teen heroes fighting Thanos' army to another. None of these "heroes" are particularly memorable and they have little impact on the overall event. The remainder of the book, in particular the Secret Avengers section, expands on the only long-term consequence this event has in the Marvel Universe - the expanded Inhuman population. Black Bolt releases the Terrigen mists on the entire planet after Thanos threatens his people, so not only do the heroes have to fight off Thanos's army, they have to deal with people emerging from cocoons scared and suddenly super-powered. This part has made me eager to read the Inhumanity collection. The book concludes with Kid Gladiator helping defeat the Builder armada. I knew nothing about him before this, but it was so well written I became a fan on the spot. His father rules the Shi'ar empire, which gives him a more specific tie to the event.

Overall, this companion is a mixed bag of issues related to Infinity, but is never-the-less a solid collection and good value for the amount of material it contains. Highly recommended!

[Davy · Rating 1 out of 5]

A lot of readers seem to dislike the Marvel crossovers, but I'm a fan of those "big" events (I even liked Fear Itself). Next to the main storyline there are those tie-ins, always a guess. Sometimes they really add to the main story, sometimes they don't and a lot of times I buy comics where only 2 of the 5 chapters relate to the crossover and you feel you wasted your money because you don't get the clue of the other 3 chapters if you don't start buying those previous issues. A big companion-collection therefore seems a good idea, it's not cheap but if you start buying separate comics and you add everything up single comics can be more expensive. Well, so disappointed I was by this companion. Before reading I reread the main Infinity event (and liked it even more then the first time I read it), but this companion issue, not many chapters really added much to the main storyline. The Guardians of the Galaxy did, but that one I read in the Guardians separate issue. Mighty Avengers did (but a second spider-man, in green and purple outfit, come on be more original please). Miss Marvel and Spider-women told the same story from their perspective. The drawing style of the Thunderbolts was rubbish. The Heist and The Hunt had no content. Wolverine & the X-men was only about Kid Gladiator (but it was a funny story). Other stories (Avengers Assemble, Superior Spider-man, Secret Avengers) are about people turning into an Inhuman, one shots. Felt like I really wasted my money on this one.

[Jenny Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though this was a massive read (600+ pages of comic book!) it was a fun, massive read (that only sometimes hurt my lap while I read it). I liked that most of the plot was well-contained within all of the stories collected and that it explained some things from other comics I'd read that I had been confused about (so that's where the terrigen mist comes from in Ms. Marvel. makes so much more sense to me now). I also liked expanding my knowledge of some marvel characters (I kinda want to track down more of the Defenders series because it looked fun with it's women superhero group all being awesome and taking names; also that twist at the end of the Heist story? broke my freaking heart and I barely even knew anything about those characters other than their names. but that was just so sad). Anyway it was fun to get to read this thru-story and understand more of what's been going on in the Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel books I've read so far, and it was nice to read about some of my other faves without having to google the extensive backstories that I've missed by not having consistently read every comic about them in the past couple of years or so.
Also, don't listen to Abigail Brand, Rocket; your catchphrase is still my fave and I wish it would've been in the Guardians movie!

[Matt Win · Rating 5 out of 5]

I jumped into this graphic novel for one reason: "to learn about the Infinity Wars". I have only recently been introduced to graphic novels, so I went into this story having little background knowledge to begin with. The experience? It was like being thrown into a battlefield with no prior knowledge, but with only one direction to go: forward.

And right from the get go, I was drawn into a massive universe of grand plots and epic battles. This "Companion" gives us the details of all the subplots happening in the background during the Infinity Wars. While the Avengers are kicking butt, many other super-heroes (including Captain Marvel, Spider-Woman, Nova, Spider-Man, and Dead Pool) all have their parts to play in the bigger picture as well. And that's what this massive collection of side-stories does. It gives us insight into whats going on behind the scenes while also bringing us into the main action of the storyline.

Reading this was a complete blast! And despite the $100 retail price, it does contain 30 issues, so that's only a little over $3 per issue, which isn't bad at all. I highly recommend this to anyone excited about the Marvel Universe on a massive, universal scale!

[CleverBaggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I had an urge one night and grabbed this from work. Its huge and so heavy my arms actually hurt after trying to hold it up to read for a while. But it's also REALLY, REALLY good.

I can't tell you what all is going on exactly. I know the Builders are attacking earth and the Avengers are away to deal with it leaving Earth theoretically defenseless. Also, some smoke or fog is changing normal people into people with powers. These are running themes in the stories.

They start with Captain Marvel, who is a favorite of mine. There's also Guardians of the Galaxy, (who are awesome) and various Avengers, some Infinity titles, a touch of Wolverine and X-men and several characters I've never read before like Superior Spider-man, Nova, Thunderbolts, an Fearless Defenders. I wasn't impressed by Thunderbolts and Superior Spider-man was okay, but man, Nova is hilarious and Fearless Defenders was very promising!

It was great to read some new, various titles and see some sort of side stories that are going on alongside main titles I've been reading. Its really an awesome book and there's just too much to go on (some of it very complicated) on here.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tie-in books looks at how different characters in the Marvel universe are affected by the Infinity event. These are more character based stories, and therefore, a lot more interesting than the main storyline. Captain Marvel, Mighty Avengers, Spiderwoman, all are covered by this volume. And it makes you care for those in the main event. A very good read.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this were retelling the same confusing story from Avengers Vol. 4: Infinity from two additional perspectives. Newsflash: It's still confusing. Not the best way to open.

Some of the snippets from ongoing series that touch on the event more peripherally were pretty good.

Again, I wish someone would get these collections all sorted out.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

For me the bright spots of this collection were the issues of NOVA and the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY which I'd already read in those collected editions. For the quality of the material collected here and the cost, I would suggest you pass on this expensive volume.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories were great and highly character centered, while others were as much a mess with seeming ignorance of characters over the plot that hampered my enjoyment of INFINITY (the core story collection).

[Cerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, half read. Read the one's I wanted (Captain Marvel, The Hunt, The Heist, Avengers Assemble, Mighty Avengers, Wolverine) It's very hard to rate such varied stories. I'm gonna go with more though... wth.