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Infinity Countdown
Infinity Countdown: Companion
The events of the Infinity Countdown are felt across the Marvel Universe! Carol Danvers holds the Reality Stone - and with it meets the Captain Marvels of many worlds! Daredevil battles to keep Hell's Kitchen safe from the influence of the Mind Stone! And the Champions fight in deep space for...the Chitauri!? All this plus...Black Widow! Don't miss this blockbuster tie-in to the most explosive Marvel event of 2018!
COLLECTING: INFINITY COUNTDOWN: BLACK WIDOW, INFINITY COUNTDOWN: CAPTAIN MARVEL, INFINITY COUNTDOWN: CHAMPIONS 1-2, INFINITY COUNTDOWN: DAREDEVIL
COLLECTING: INFINITY COUNTDOWN: BLACK WIDOW, INFINITY COUNTDOWN: CAPTAIN MARVEL, INFINITY COUNTDOWN: CHAMPIONS 1-2, INFINITY COUNTDOWN: DAREDEVIL
136 pages, Paperback
First published September 12, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
October 24, 2018
A pretty pointless collection of stories revolving around the Infinity Stones. Nothing really happens and the status quo stays the same, so this is a safe volume to skip unless you want to read everything related to the new infinity war event.
January 15, 2019
You can be pretty confident that any book with the word 'Companion' tacked on the end will not be essential reading... particularly if it's a 'Companion' volume to a countdown to the crossover event and not the event itself.
Plus, there's my allergy to any Marvel book with the word 'Infinity' in the title to take into account.
This book collects the Black Widow, Captain Marvel and Daredevil one-shots, plus the two-part Champions tie-in issues. The first three are pretty fair-to-middling (although the Black Widow issue has some very nice artwork). They're OK but definitely have a feeling of 'surplus-to-requirements' about them.
The Champions issues, contrary to my opening waffle, are pretty essential to the Champions book, as they contain two (semi-)major character changes that will have actual ramifications in the main series.
I'm pretty sure they were entirely unnecessary to the plot of the 'Infinity Dead-Horse Flogging' event, though, so my original statement still stands... from a certain point of view.
Plus, there's my allergy to any Marvel book with the word 'Infinity' in the title to take into account.
This book collects the Black Widow, Captain Marvel and Daredevil one-shots, plus the two-part Champions tie-in issues. The first three are pretty fair-to-middling (although the Black Widow issue has some very nice artwork). They're OK but definitely have a feeling of 'surplus-to-requirements' about them.
The Champions issues, contrary to my opening waffle, are pretty essential to the Champions book, as they contain two (semi-)major character changes that will have actual ramifications in the main series.
I'm pretty sure they were entirely unnecessary to the plot of the 'Infinity Dead-Horse Flogging' event, though, so my original statement still stands... from a certain point of view.
May 24, 2019
This is a bunch of one shots revolving around those holding the infinity stones at the moment Infinity Countdown is occurring. None of the one shots are essential and I would personally wait to read them on Marvel Unlimited like I did. The stories are fine, most of them being written by Gerry Duggan. They just don't really tie in with the overall story. It's just a "meanwhile" look at Captain Marvel, Black Widow, and Turk from Daredevil. The Champions 2-parter is written by Jim Zub and does have ramifications to the ongoing series, but I think those two issues are supposed to be collected in Champions Volume 4 as well.
August 13, 2018
[Read as single issues]
The Infinity Stones are back! The newly returned Wolverine, Captain Marvel of Alpha Flight, the supposedly-dead Black Widow, and more now hold ultimate power – but can they keep it, when literally everyone in the universe wants it for themselves?. Plus, the Champions head into outer space to battle the Chitauri Warbringer, only to run afoul of the Mad Titan, Thanos!
[Disclaimer: Considering Marvel have done a separate Infinity Countdown: Darkhawk trade, I’m assuming that this trade doesn’t include that series at all, despite evidence to the contrary, and I won’t be reviewing it here.]
Another event, another round of tie-ins. This time around, Marvel have opted for a few short mini-series, and a handful of one-shots, to varying degrees of success.
The one-shots are mostly where everything falls apart. The Captain Marvel one’s not bad, but doesn’t particularly go anywhere. This is surprising considering it’s by Gerry Duggan, who wrote the main Infinity Countdown mini-series. The art’s by Diego Olortegui, which is great, although nowhere near as good as his Ms. Marvel work.
Black Widow’s is, frankly, boring. She spends 20 pages running away and yelling at Merlin, and ends up in the same place as when she started – yawn. The art here is by Nik Virella, and I don’t have very much to say about that either.
And Daredevil’s one-shot is probably the best of the three, but it focuses more on Turk Barrett than anything else, since he’s the one holding the Mind Stone. If Turk wasn’t in the Netflix series right now, I expect he’d have faded into obscurity – instead, we get a one-shot all about him. It’s a different perspective considering the cosmic level of the rest of the series, and has some decent art by Chris Sprouse.
The Champions get a two issue mini written by series writer Jim Zub, which should tell you that it’s actually pretty important to their series, if not Infinity Countdown as a whole. This brings back Nova’s old foe Warbringer, and has some extremely important developments for both him and Riri Williams which reverberate through into Champions #22. It’s a fun mini, and pitting these characters against Thanos of all people is quite harrowing, but it’s not particularly relevant to the main event. Zub’s been proving that he can nail these characters in their own book, and there’s no surprise that he does the same here, aided on art by Emilio Laiso.
For this one, it’s definitely Champions that’s the main draw. However, that’s also collected in Champions Volume 4, so I’d say go read that instead of this. The one-shots are fine, but nothing particularly special or essential, and you can just read the main Infinity Countdown series and be totally fine.
The Infinity Stones are back! The newly returned Wolverine, Captain Marvel of Alpha Flight, the supposedly-dead Black Widow, and more now hold ultimate power – but can they keep it, when literally everyone in the universe wants it for themselves?. Plus, the Champions head into outer space to battle the Chitauri Warbringer, only to run afoul of the Mad Titan, Thanos!
[Disclaimer: Considering Marvel have done a separate Infinity Countdown: Darkhawk trade, I’m assuming that this trade doesn’t include that series at all, despite evidence to the contrary, and I won’t be reviewing it here.]
Another event, another round of tie-ins. This time around, Marvel have opted for a few short mini-series, and a handful of one-shots, to varying degrees of success.
The one-shots are mostly where everything falls apart. The Captain Marvel one’s not bad, but doesn’t particularly go anywhere. This is surprising considering it’s by Gerry Duggan, who wrote the main Infinity Countdown mini-series. The art’s by Diego Olortegui, which is great, although nowhere near as good as his Ms. Marvel work.
Black Widow’s is, frankly, boring. She spends 20 pages running away and yelling at Merlin, and ends up in the same place as when she started – yawn. The art here is by Nik Virella, and I don’t have very much to say about that either.
And Daredevil’s one-shot is probably the best of the three, but it focuses more on Turk Barrett than anything else, since he’s the one holding the Mind Stone. If Turk wasn’t in the Netflix series right now, I expect he’d have faded into obscurity – instead, we get a one-shot all about him. It’s a different perspective considering the cosmic level of the rest of the series, and has some decent art by Chris Sprouse.
The Champions get a two issue mini written by series writer Jim Zub, which should tell you that it’s actually pretty important to their series, if not Infinity Countdown as a whole. This brings back Nova’s old foe Warbringer, and has some extremely important developments for both him and Riri Williams which reverberate through into Champions #22. It’s a fun mini, and pitting these characters against Thanos of all people is quite harrowing, but it’s not particularly relevant to the main event. Zub’s been proving that he can nail these characters in their own book, and there’s no surprise that he does the same here, aided on art by Emilio Laiso.
For this one, it’s definitely Champions that’s the main draw. However, that’s also collected in Champions Volume 4, so I’d say go read that instead of this. The one-shots are fine, but nothing particularly special or essential, and you can just read the main Infinity Countdown series and be totally fine.
June 30, 2021
The Champions tie-ins are must read.
March 23, 2019
Enjoyable, but superfluous for the most part. I may be overthinking things, but I just have trouble seeing the real point of these issues. I wonder if any of the events will be significant or just serve as backstory we didn't really need. Either way, it's still a fun read.
January 28, 2019
It was ok.
Some of the issues in this one were good and some weren't.
I liked the Black Widow one most of it.. the others weren't interesting or that good.
Some of the issues in this one were good and some weren't.
I liked the Black Widow one most of it.. the others weren't interesting or that good.
October 30, 2018
This collection of shorter tales each deal with the location of one of the Infinity Stones, or with events surrounding them. Connecting directly with the main Infinity Countdown story, I'll only briefly summarize the tales here and leave the bulk of the event explanation for the main title review.
- Captain Marvel has the Reality Stone. Her tale follows the odd rule with the Reality Stone this time around... your universe doesn't contain your Reality Stone, an alternate universe does. She gets to connect with several of the multiverse's Captain Marvels', and it helps her to develop a sense of purpose and control at being a stone-bearer.
- Daredevil's story deals mostly with Turk Barrett, a lower level gangster in Hell's Kitchen who came across the Mind Stone. Matt seeks him out to take it, but the mind control powers are too great and Turk is able to escape. Wanting to start by taking over the city, he recruits Bullseye and begins what will hopefully be a short reign.
- Black Widow has been given the Space Stone by the now-alive-again Logan (see "Hunt For Wolverine" for that story). Jamie Braddock, low level gangster and brother to Captain Marvel tries to get it, but she is able to keep holding on with the help of Merlin (who is apparently still alive and protecting London!)
- The real great story of this Volume is what happens with The Champions. In the main title, Warbringer of the Chitauri is waging war against the Nova Corps and Sam is called to active duty. He contacts the Champions so he has back up, and they (Wasp, Ms Marvel, Ironheart, Viv Vision, and new member Snowguard) go out with him. Joining the fight, they are able to stem the destruction of the Nova Corps and defend against the genocide of the Chitauri when Warbringer turns on his people. The presence of Thanos is unsettling, but rears his head only when directly confronted by Ironheart, destroying her armor. They are able to escape and go back to Earth, but Sam loses his Nova powers when Commander Adsit takes his helmet away, claiming he hasn't been properly trained. Will Sam be able to become a Nova again?
The overall story is good, but these companion tales are decent as well.
Recommend, especially if you are reading the main Infinity Countdown title.
- Captain Marvel has the Reality Stone. Her tale follows the odd rule with the Reality Stone this time around... your universe doesn't contain your Reality Stone, an alternate universe does. She gets to connect with several of the multiverse's Captain Marvels', and it helps her to develop a sense of purpose and control at being a stone-bearer.
- Daredevil's story deals mostly with Turk Barrett, a lower level gangster in Hell's Kitchen who came across the Mind Stone. Matt seeks him out to take it, but the mind control powers are too great and Turk is able to escape. Wanting to start by taking over the city, he recruits Bullseye and begins what will hopefully be a short reign.
- Black Widow has been given the Space Stone by the now-alive-again Logan (see "Hunt For Wolverine" for that story). Jamie Braddock, low level gangster and brother to Captain Marvel tries to get it, but she is able to keep holding on with the help of Merlin (who is apparently still alive and protecting London!)
- The real great story of this Volume is what happens with The Champions. In the main title, Warbringer of the Chitauri is waging war against the Nova Corps and Sam is called to active duty. He contacts the Champions so he has back up, and they (Wasp, Ms Marvel, Ironheart, Viv Vision, and new member Snowguard) go out with him. Joining the fight, they are able to stem the destruction of the Nova Corps and defend against the genocide of the Chitauri when Warbringer turns on his people. The presence of Thanos is unsettling, but rears his head only when directly confronted by Ironheart, destroying her armor. They are able to escape and go back to Earth, but Sam loses his Nova powers when Commander Adsit takes his helmet away, claiming he hasn't been properly trained. Will Sam be able to become a Nova again?
The overall story is good, but these companion tales are decent as well.
Recommend, especially if you are reading the main Infinity Countdown title.
August 11, 2021
Infinity Countdown was a bummer of an event and this collects all the one-shots. The one-shots are actually pretty good, but they don't do anything. Black Widow features Black Widow on the run and while it's fun it could be skipped entirely. Captain Marvel is a pretty cool character study that has Carol pondering all the mistakes she's made in life and peering into the multiverse to see how it could have gone differently. It's nice, I like the idea behind it, but it doesn't change anything and could be skipped. Champions spins out of some background stuff in Infinity Countdown that's basically plot clean-up for Guardians of the Galaxy while setting up some major status quo shifts for the rest of Jim Zub's Champions run. Important for Champions, not for anything 'Infinity Countdown' related, and comes out of nowhere. Daredevil features Daredevil fighting Turk, who for some reason has the mind stone, and has some fun uses of the mind stone. It's hilarious that this random criminal has one of the strongest artifacts in the universe and uses it to... not be thrown in jail. No conquering planets, no appealing to cosmic deities, just... avoiding jail time. It also has no bearing on the overall plot.
So to sum it up, you can find some fun stories here if you're fans of the characters (Captain Marvel and Daredevil being the stand-outs) but this entire volume could be skipped because nothing feels like it changed throughout the entire thing. Maybe a side character will end up really important but I'm not confident in that.
So to sum it up, you can find some fun stories here if you're fans of the characters (Captain Marvel and Daredevil being the stand-outs) but this entire volume could be skipped because nothing feels like it changed throughout the entire thing. Maybe a side character will end up really important but I'm not confident in that.
May 9, 2025
Before the main event started, the infinity stones were held by individuals all throughout the universe. Coincidentally, 3 of them are on Earth (which is a huge hazard but whatever), and the others all throughout the cosmos. This book details the days shortly before the Infinity Wars event, and how each holder was trying to keep it safe.
So we get a good look around the Marvel Universe in this one. Black Widow (who's supposed to be dead) is running throughout her whole story, Wolverine (who's supposed to be dead) is even in it, and Merlin helps out. This one was wild, and probably one of the highlights for me. We also have a villain from Daredevil, Turk, who somehow has a stone and is commiting a lot of crimes with it. The ending of this one is a bit interesting, as he sacrifices himself surprisingly. I think the highlight of the book is the Champions story. They accidentally transport themselves to space and meet face to face with none other than Thanos. We know how this ends up (if you read the main series), but it was cool using this as a prologue of sorts.
Overall, these were entertaining and a good buildup to the main event.
So we get a good look around the Marvel Universe in this one. Black Widow (who's supposed to be dead) is running throughout her whole story, Wolverine (who's supposed to be dead) is even in it, and Merlin helps out. This one was wild, and probably one of the highlights for me. We also have a villain from Daredevil, Turk, who somehow has a stone and is commiting a lot of crimes with it. The ending of this one is a bit interesting, as he sacrifices himself surprisingly. I think the highlight of the book is the Champions story. They accidentally transport themselves to space and meet face to face with none other than Thanos. We know how this ends up (if you read the main series), but it was cool using this as a prologue of sorts.
Overall, these were entertaining and a good buildup to the main event.
October 31, 2018
Collects Infinity Countdown: Black Widow #1, Infinity Countdown: Captain Marvel #1, Infinity Countdown: Daredevil #1, and Infinity Countdown: Champions issues #1-2
This was a much better collection than I expected it to be. Other than the Champions story, each of the stories were intriguing and made me more interesting in the upcoming "Infinity Wars."
So, in conclusion, the Captain Marvel, Black Widow, and Daredevil issues were all winners, and the Champions stories was just a little worse than OK.
This was a much better collection than I expected it to be. Other than the Champions story, each of the stories were intriguing and made me more interesting in the upcoming "Infinity Wars."
So, in conclusion, the Captain Marvel, Black Widow, and Daredevil issues were all winners, and the Champions stories was just a little worse than OK.
May 22, 2019
I wish these one-shots had been better. They didn’t really offer too much in the way of answers (or even questions, really) in terms of the stones or any of the major players. All these stories were just sort of treading water until various people and stones can do what they’re supposed to. With the exception of the kids in the Champions, nothing changed for anybody, making every story kind of boring (though props to Natasha for how she handled Jaime Braddock; that was savage).
October 22, 2018
If you are looking for a story this is not the book that you are looking for. With that being said I enjoyed myself reading this. This has a collection of stories that have to do with the infinity stones after they have been rebirthed. I do not know the story behind that but I found this very interesting and I would read more.
February 3, 2019
Now people should probably take my review with a grain of salt; it was four stars for me because it was exactly what I needed/expected. I am not caught up with a lot of the newer Marvel items and wanted to get an idea for what the Infinity Countdown/Infinity War/ Infinity Warp whatever was happening.
August 4, 2019
This book helps one make sense of the main Infinity Countdown series to some degree with a bunch of the different crossover titles. Ms. Marvel having the reality stone was a pretty interesting title while the whole Stilt-Man with the Mind Gem is just so left field. But hey, we always need these sort of lead-up books to better explain things.
December 9, 2022
Pretty pointless on the whole. I like some of the concepts around the rejigged Infinity Gems - especially the Reality stone - but the stories are generally the usual kind of event fillet ranging from pointless but fine (Daredevil, Black Widow) to terrible (Captain Marvel, which is just a garbled mess).
Some nice art in places though.
Some nice art in places though.
February 4, 2019
Some of this was interesting. There were some verrrrry weird choices as to who got the gems. It's also an interesting idea to have the gems linked to each other directly, even if I can't figure out why.
September 9, 2020
These companion books to already bloated crossovers always amaze me. Why? The Champions story was the only one that seemed to have any actual substance but should have been part of that series. The art was good throughout. Overall, mostly a bunch of unnecessary stories.
November 24, 2018
Wonderfully done tie-ins to the event.
March 14, 2019
Mixed quality stories getting ready for a big event.
Preferred the Daredevil and Black Widow stories.
Preferred the Daredevil and Black Widow stories.
August 30, 2020
Marvel can do better
January 30, 2020
This has a two issue Champions miniseries, plus one shot comics for Captain Marvel, Daredevil, and Black Widow. The Champions issues are the strongest of the lot, but they're also collected in the regular Champions trades. The three one shots are ok, but nothing special, and I'm not sure that they really do anything, so to speak. Skippable, because the best part is better read in context.
April 17, 2023
The Great Marvel Readthrough, pt 175
May 14, 2019
Some good stories but mostly just some filler for the Infinity Countdown Story Arc. I liked the Champions 2 parter.
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