You may have noticed that Marvel.com’s content has taken an upswing lately … in addition to their creator blogs and the wikipedia-like character index, they’ve also started posting themed cover galleries. While previous galleries have focused on current comics, like the Marvel Zombies-related books and Civil War, the most recent one goes back into Marvel’s past, as they recap and feature covers related to the return of Thanos and The Infinity Gauntlet:
The actual Infinity Gauntlet story starts with Cloak and Dagger #18, kicking directly into Infinity Gauntlet #1 as Thanos, along with his new consort Mephisto, begins adjusting to godhood. After playing with lives and making small displays of power, the now-omnipotent Thanos makes his grand gesture to Death: He wipes out half the sentient life in the universe.
Of course, with the recent return of one of Thanos’ key enemies and the New Avengers Illuminati book, there’s probably a marketing angle in there somewhere … but it’s also a fun look back for those of us who haven’t read their Infinity Gauntlet comics in awhile.
January 31st, 2007 at 3:26 pm
If anything deserves an Omnibus Edition, it’s the INFINITY series. I’d love to see GAUNTLET, CRUSADE, and WAR in one oversized book. I imagine lots of comic readers from my generation would agree.
January 31st, 2007 at 3:49 pm
This is a great idea. The Infinity Gauntlet is one cool series: the cosmic stuff still feels fresh, the art by George Perez is brilliant (the Surfer racing to catch the Gauntlet from Thanos’ hand is one of the well -crafted comic book sequences EVER!), and the transition to Ron Lim was practically seamless…
And there is something to be said about good old self-contained crossovers which do not require a gazillion tie-ins to be fully appreciated…
January 31st, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Oops…got confused there: it’s “one of the most well-crafted comic book sequences…”
What can I say, I love that moments so much, it just confuses me while I’m writing!
January 31st, 2007 at 4:41 pm
My perception at the time was that the Infinity Gauntlet story was a HUUUGE crossover with an appearance in every book.
Looking back, it was pretty restrained.
January 31st, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Infinity Gauntlet is, bar none, the best event crossover Marvel has published. Of course, its competition is Inferno, Secret Wars I, and Civil War, so…
January 31st, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Gauntlet was relatively tie-in free–it was War and Crusade which got a bit out of hand, and while entertaining, were no match for the magnificence of the Infinity Gauntlet.
I’d love an Omnibus collecting the build-up and Infinity Gauntlet, as pictured in that gallery
January 31st, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Credit where credit is due: Marvel.com has experienced a lot of growth since my friend and former co-worker, one-time Wizard associate editor Ryan Penagos joined their staff.
And Ryan is a big Infinity Gauntlet fan, so I have no doubt this is his doing.
January 31st, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Well, the build-up is collected in the Return of Thanos trade, at least.
IG made a point of crossing over into the books it MADE SENSE to cross over into- Sleepwalker (what happens when Rick Sheridan dies?), The Incredible Hulk (how does Hulk deal with someone as powerful as Thanos?), and big participants like Surfer, Dr. Strange, and Quasar all had tie-ins.
Infinity War is pretty bad, but it was nice of Marvel not just to collect the series but key tie-ins in the back. The crossovers in IW, to say the least, were… strained. What’s bizarre is how some characters not only ran into their evil twins in some books, but other characters ran into not their evil twins, but characters that had NOTHING to do with them! Nomad fought… evil Gambit???
February 1st, 2007 at 9:51 am
Thanks, guys (’specially you, JK). Like Ben said, the Gauntlet’s one of my all-time favorite stories and putting this together was a labor of love. I’m going to add all the War and Crusade stuff and I even have some leads on wacky Gauntlet memorabilia and variants that I’d like to add in.
February 1st, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Ryan bought a giant Thanos statue last year when we were in L.A. for Wizard World and it loomed ominously over our tiny hotel room for the balance of the weekend.