Thanos Rules!
Recommendation: Yes! Yes! Yes!
I was very much looking forward to this issue. It was advertised in many marvel books, with my online namesake (read blog post here), as “Thanos Rules!”. I couldn’t have been more excited. lol.
The cover is a bit misleading, as if you have been reading this book, it is not about the Infinity Gauntlet, and more about a Cosmic Cube, of sorts. But hey, it catches the eye and gets you in the Thanos reading mood. FWIW, I also picked up the full size poster of this cover which came out this week. I have no where to put it, but I wanted it just the same. :)
On to the book - Art - Good. Consistent. As I have stated in each of my reviews for this series, it fits the book. I do like that it is different than the other Avengers books that I read on a monthly basis - it is always great to see the same characters represented in different ways. I love the “flowing” and non-standard panel structure. It works perfectly for a cosmic book - you need more full page art as the scope of the story grows. We are in space here, dealing with HUGE characters - a 9 panel page just isn’t going to cut it…
The story - It has been a little while since I read the last issue, so I was a little confused why Thor was out of commission… I realize they were all thrown out into space, but Thor doesn’t need “air”. Before I passed official judgement, I kept reading. It appears that he was just briefly knocked out. Wheew. In fact, the way they dealt with the space strandedhumans was well done too. Nice job.
Lets back up - the story doesn’t actually start with the breathless Avengers. As the cover indicates, this book is Thanos-centric - and boy does it open with an amazing sequence! Before I turned to see page 3 of the story, I was expecting something completely different than what was delivered. Wow. They decided to go big. REAL BIG. Nice.
Take a breath.
Now, enter the Avengers, quickly fading into the vacuum of space. An interesting place to put an interlude - but hey, the title of the book does say “Avengers”… From here we get quite a few pages of wonderful battle and survival panels. The pure number of Badoon is astonishing - will they overrun both Earth’s Mightiest Heroes AND the Guardians of the Galaxy?
Okay, upon second glance, I have to give the art WAY MORE praise that I did above… These battle sequences and big COSMIC explosions are really impressive. You actually feel that this is a cosmic book. Bravo.
The issue ends on a major cliffhanger. It is reminiscent of past Thanos stories. It will be interesting where this goes. Very interested. Very. Very Interested.
Here is a little personal tribute to this issue:
Bowen Thanos Museum Statue (with Cosmic Cube)
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Remembering Casey Blick
I want to extend my condolences to the Blick family. It was a very heartfelt and personal story to share with everyone. I have to admit, it made me tear up. I wish all the best to the family in this difficult time.
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For my reviews of the entire series so far, click here!
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