Infinity HC Omnibus Thor vs Thanos Hulk Jonathan Hickman 1st print

Description

INFINITY HC (MARVEL COMICS) The year’s most anticipated blockbuster cosmic event arrives as the Marvel Universe marches into INFINITY! Thanos makes his world-shattering return, and his armies fire the opening shots of a galactic war that will be fought both on Earth and in deep space – with our heroes caught between both battles! As the mad Titan’s secrets are revealed, the Inhumans’ city of Attilan falls, and the members of the Illuminati find themselves on the front line! And as every Origin Site on Earth goes active, the Builders enter the Marvel Universe. But can the Avengers return to Earth in time to save it, when betrayal in the Galactic Council has left them prisoners of war? Galactic empires will fall as Thanos’ crazed plans come to fruition! Collecting Infinity #1-6, New Avengers (2013) #7-12, Avengers (2012) #12-23 and Infinity Infinite Comic #1-2. [(W/A) Various (CA) Adam Kubert]

Hardcover: 632 pages

Collects Infinity issues #1-6, New Avengers issues #7-12, Avengers issues 14-23, and Infinity: Against the Tide Infinite Comics issues #1-2

There is a cosmic threat so big, that all of the Avengers are forced to leave Earth to address it. While in space, a Galactic Council made up of humans, Kree, Skrull, the Brood, the Shi’ar, Annihilus, and other aliens team up to address this seemingly unstoppable enemy. Meanwhile, with the Earth’s mightiest heroes away, Thanos launches a full-scale attack on Earth. He is acting with a purpose, however his goal is a mystery for the first half of the book.

Infinity: Against the Tide Infinite Comics issues #1-2 are starring the Silver Surfer, and the story acts as a prelude the Infinity storyline. Strangely, Silver Surfer doesn’t appear anywhere else in this entire collection.

Spoilers:

-New Avengers #7: This issue is setting the stage for future stories. Doom asked Richards and Strange about the battle with the people from the other world, but they denied knowledge of this. Wakanda decided to go to war with Atlantis even though Namor offered a truce. Meanwhile, Reed has built a lot of Antimatter Bombs for future Incursions, although none have happened for 28 days.

-T’Challa’s sister is Queen of Wakanda, and she is the one that declared war.

– Avengers #14: Issue opens with mayhem around the world and every single Avenger is trying to help stop the madness. All these events are due to the changing evolution of Earth because of Ex Nihilo’s origin bombs.

Avengers #15: More fighting. And something is happening in space. S.W.O.R.D. detects something menacing. Captain Universe speaks in more riddles about the beginning of the end as someone big heads towards the Avengers.

-Captain Universe tells Manifold to warn the Avengers that they haven’t finished the machine in time and that they need the power to destroy a world in order to protect their world.

Avengers #16: I was happy to see Starbrand and Nightmask back in the story in this issue. Nightmask tells Starbrand that they could have left their cell in the Dyson Sphere (see New Avengers vol. 1) anytime, but Kevin is still learning to be a Starbrand. He is no longer a man. Men have many limits, and Kevin now has very few.

In other news, that thing that was heading towards the Avengers (a robot or something) completely took them out. A.I.M. is trying to get it back because they were previously in possession of it even though Ex Nihilo is to blame for its existence.

Avengers #17: A.I.M. caught the machine/entity and trapped it using the same strategy they trapped Hyperion with. They put it between two dead universes, inside the infinite whiteness.

This issue gets pretty good when Manifold brings back a message from Captain Universe. She has warned them of a great danger that is coming, and has instructed them that the Avengers need to get bigger. She specifically indicated that four new members needed to join the team, and Cap and the others heed her advice. By the end of this issue, not only are Starbrand and Nightmask made members of the team, but Ex Nihilo and Abyss are asked to become Avengers. They accept, and the narrator (who I believe to be Starbrand) foreshadows that these were the last great days of the Avengers before a season of death. The book then tells us that this is the end of the prelude, and because I know what big storyline happens next, I realize that all of the series thus far has been set up for “Infinity.”

-Infinity #1: I thought that Thanos was the main villain, but it looks like the Builders (ancient species shapers and system builders, the oldest civilization in the universe, creators and engineers) may also play a villainous role.

-New Avengers #8: Black Bolt is working on something with Maximus, and it is confusing. I’m not sure what is happening, but Medusa doesn’t seem to like it because she slaps Black Bolt. Meanwhile, T’Challa tricks Namor into thinking that peace is an option, while elsewhere Atlantis is attacked. The issue ends with a worldwide invasion by creatures I don’t recognize. Not sure what is happening here. This volume is harder to follow than the last. I wonder if reading Avengers Volume 2 will help some of this to make sense, because I may be experiencing an Infinity tie-in story since that is the name of this volume. I was hoping that it could stand on its own two legs, but it appears that New Avengers is being sucked into the crossover.

-New Avengers #9: Thanos reviews a stolen memory from Black Bolt’s brain. It is of the Illuminati losing the Infinity Gems. Thanos noticed that all were destroyed except one, which disappeared. He wants that one, and when asked why, he replies that even one Infinity Gem can make you a god. Thanos’ army attacks all the places where the different members of the Illumniati are, and Namor pretends to surrender in order to “admit” where the final Gem is. He then tricks Proxima to send all the armies of Thanos to Wakanda (you know, because he is at war with them). When it seems like things can’t get any worse, the Illuminati’s early warning system in their hands go off. An Incursion is about to take place! Meanwhile, Black Bolt’s mean bother, Maximus, is talking about things like he knows more than he should. Does he know why the Incursions are happening?

-Thanos’ team of generals is called the Cull Obsidian (which means Midnight Slaughter). They also go by the Black Order. The members are Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Black Dwarf, Supergiant, and the Ebony Maw.

-New Avengers #10: The Illuminati was scattered, but they come together in Black Bolt’s secret hiding place (a pocket dimension, maybe?). It turns out that Black Bolt has discovered Thanos’ true goal for attacking Earth. He is looking for his son, and he plans to kill him. Apparently, the son he wants dead is living amongst the Inhumans, and is between the ages of 16 and 22. All of the members of the Illuminati, except Black Bolt, spread out to find the kid, but Doctor Strange is under the influence of the Ebony Maw. By the end of the book, the Maw has released Strange, but not before finding Thanos’ offspring.

-In one of the Infinity issues, not sure which one, Black Bolt ignites a Terrigen bomb that spreads the Terrigen mist across the whole Earth, activating anyone with Inhuman genes.

-In this same issue, shortly after the bomb goes off, Black Bolt faces Thanos. Black Bolt uses his super strong voice powers, but it looks like Thanos killed him. This is all over Thanos finding his hidden, Inhuman son. When the mists reached Thanos’ son, Thane, his new power killed tons of people around him.

-I don’t know why it never occurred to me, but now I know why the Builders are attacking. Captain Universe confronts them and asks when death became their way, and they tell her that all the universes are dying and that Earth is the axis point. Their plan is to obliterate Earth to destroy the axis point for all of the multiverse-collapsing Incursions. Everything I’ve read so far in New Avengers has led up to this event.

-New Avengers #11: The issue opens in the wake of the fall of Attilan after the explosion of the Terrigen bomb. Meanwhile, the Illuminati members are preparing to act in light of the latest Incursion, when an Aleph robot from the other universe approaches them. The robot brings them to two beings from the other side, a Builder and an Engineer. These two are joined by beings that look like Ex Nihilo, however they are the color red instead of yellow. Also, instead of an omega sign on their torsos, they have two circles. One of the Ex Nihili notice that something is wrong with Dr. Strange’s mind, and literally shoves his arm into Strange’s head to pull out the outside presence. While attacking Wakanda, and taking over Necropolis, Thanos’ army finds the Illuminati’s antimatter weapons cache. They also find the prison with the alternate Terrax and the Black Swan.

-The alternate Builder explains that their kind used to be able to travel all through the multiverse until the destruction of their Superflow machine. They then explain that not just one Earth, but all the Earths of the multiverse must be destroyed because Earth is the axis point for the Incursions. The hope is that once all of the Earths are destroyed, the rest of the multiverse will be safe. Reed seems to agree with the idea, so they Illuminati are tasked with destroying their own Earth.

-Side Note: The cover of New Avengers Issue #11 is my favorite in the series so far!

-After Thor killed one of the Builders, the rest of the species fighting back against the Builders gained confidence. They fought back, under the banner of the Avengers, and won the war against the Builders. Before Cap and the team could enjoy the taste of victory, they got word that Earth had been taken over by Thanos.

-The Maw starts manipulating Thane, and eventually gets him to use his power to defeat Thanos. Thane wins the war for the Avengers. Apparently, his new Inhuman power is that his left hand brings death, and his right hand encases people in an amber cube. The Maw gave Thane a containment suit so that he would have control over his new power. Later, they leave Earth together.

-Maximus and Lockjaw start spending a lot of time with the Illuminati.

-The Kree, Skrull, and Shi’ar agree to fight alongside the Avengers to retake Earth.

-Cannonball and Smasher are beginning a relationship.

-Ronan kills Black Dwarf with his awesome hammer. He then re-enters the good graces of the Supreme Intelligence.

-I think Maximus kills Supergiant, but I’m not exactly sure what happens in the scene where he triggers the antimatter bomb. I think it somehow teleported away with Supergiant. I’m not positive if Lockjaw teleported too, or stayed behind with Maximus.

-Cap and Hyperion team up and kill Corvus. Proxima is mad, but gets trapped in the amber with Thanos.

-Before being trapped, Thanos easily takes out the Hulk, and even puts up a fight against Thor.

-Proxima had the power to change Hulk back to Bruce.

-Black Bolt reveals to Maximus that he always planned to detonate the Terrigen bomb to start a new age of Inhumans. This would have happened even if Thanos hadn’t attacked.

-Ex Nihilo and all his people start a new society on some world.

-There is some foreshadowing that the Skrull were born for conquest and expansion and will be a menace to the Avengers again (even though they helped them during this war).

-Annihilus and his drones from the Negative Zone gain access to the planet, Praxis-2. They take it over and rename it Annihilation World.

-“Under the discipleship of the Ebony Maw, Thane, son of Thanos, would grow to become something worse than his father could have ever dreamed. A fitting match for what we learned was a dying universe. A fitting match for the end of everything.”

-The Illuminati kept the imprisoned Thanos in case they need him during the fight against the collapsing multiverse.

-New Avengers #12: This issue appears in the collection for Infinity, but it comes after the Epilogue. The story starts with T’Challa getting shunned by his Wakandan family and friends because he has been secretly working with their great enemy, Namor. Meanwhile, something mysterious is going on with Black Bolt and Maximus. It sounds like Black Bolt intends to lie about some things. Elsewhere, Dr. Strange plans to use the Blood Bible to stop the Incursions, but it is very dangerous. Back at Necropolis, Beast, Reed, and Tony are meeting with Black Swan about how they should proceed with trying to save the multiverse. She starts naming off all these people and, although we have never heard of them before, it is implied that they are extremely powerful. Comparing Thanos’ might to theirs would be like comparing a dog to a demon.