Infinity #6 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

It's been almost two months since I last read an issue of this mini-series and I'm not sure that the gap hurt, since it wasn't like I really understood the story that Hickman was telling after issue #5 anyway.  I have no idea why Black Bolt magically appeared on Earth after seemingly dying in the destruction of Attilan.  I also don't know why Supergiant seemed to believe that the bomb connected to him was something more than your average bomb (and not just in terms of its ability to destroy a planet).  I forget why Thanos wants all his children dead; I just have a vague recollection that it has something to do with courting Death, though I couldn't help but roll my eyes when he fails to kill Thane because he narrated his desire to do so for too long.  I was also annoyed by Hickman's blatant attempt to tie everything to his ongoing dying-world story.  Basically, Hickman does a poor job making this mini-series into anything more than an elaborate advertisement for the upcoming Inhuman-related titles and a plug for "New Avengers."  Although the issue was better written than Hickman's usual work, I'm giving it two stars for the overwhelming feeling of "meh" that I had at the end of it.  (The less said about the lack of anything in this series to do with the Infinity Gems, the better.)

** (two of five stars)

Infinity #5 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Wait, so everyone could just magically kill the Builders if they believe that they can?  Did Tinkerbell suddenly arrive?  Honestly, I have no idea what happened here.  I thought the Builders were supposed to be unstoppable, but suddenly everyone could stop them simply because they saw Thor stop one.  Then, suddenly, they weren't a threat anymore and everyone just merrily moved onto fighting Thanos on Earth, as if the Builders never happened.  Really?  We never even, I don't know, see them depart the galaxy?  Or, see the last one of them die?  Also, are the Infinity Gems ever going to appear at any point?  Man, I really don't like Hickman.

* (one of five stars)

Infinity #4 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I get the sense that this issue was important in terms of the story that Hickman is telling, but I'm not entirely sure why.  Sure, Thor killed a Builder.  He did so by hurling Mjolnir through a sun and using it to slay the Builder.  Unless Thor is going to have time to do that with every single Builder, I don't see what exactly changed here.  The Builders still have a galactic armada, right?  Isn't that still going to prove to be a problem?  Also, I'm not sure why Black Bolt "activated" all the Inhumans.  What did it have to do with Thanos searching for his son?  Thanos seems to know who his son is, so I don't think the plan was just to create more Inhumans to confuse him, right?  I've been more or less pleasantly surprised by this series, but I feel like Hickman missed a beat here.

** (two of five stars)

New-ish Comics!: The "Infinity" Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Captain Marvel #16:  This issue wraps up our "Infinity" interlude.  I can't say we really gain a better insight into Carol's situation, but I did actually find myself enjoying the focus on the Avengers trying to figure out a way to escape the Builders.  At first, I was surprised by how callously Carol dismissed the moral implications of destroying an entire sector of space to save Earth, but then I remembered that she's not really feeling emotions at this point, so it works in the context of the larger story that DeConnick is telling.  (I was a little more disturbed by Cannonball and Sunspot going with the plan so easily.  I mean, at least Hawkeye raised some opposition.)  The best moment was her banter with Jessica, whose affectionate teasing about them having to start from scratch showed that she's there for Carol for the long haul.  It made me all the more eager for us to return to the regularly scheduled programming.  But, given that these two issues are probably the only ones I'm going to read about the Avengers' battle with the Builders in space, I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with them.

Infinity #3:   My only real problem with this event -- to my surprise -- is that it's still feeling a little schizophrenic.  I get that the whole point is that Thanos is taking advantage of the Avengers being distracted by their off-world fight with the Builders to make his move on Attilan.  Although the idea is clever, it's still leaving me feel like I'm reading two entirely different events -- a cross-over event about the Galactic Council working together to repel the Builders and a miniseries about Thanos' attempts to find and kill his son.  Although I'm intrigued by both, I find myself wishing that Hickman had treated them separately.  For example, he has to rush through the capitulation of the various galactic empires to the Builders, somewhat underselling the awesome moment where the Shi'ar and the Skrulls decide to throw in their lot with Earth.  I mean, the Shi'ars and the Skrulls!  Dogs and cats, living together!  That said, I'm still happy with both stories, as loosely connected as they are.  Cap's gambit was pretty great to watch unfold, though you have to wonder how they're going to defeat the Builders when even this win seemed to have a limited impact on their overall operational capacity.  I guess we'll see!

Infinity #2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

This issue is, honestly, a lot better than expected.  I had assumed that Black Bolt's secret was that he was holding onto the remaining Infinity Gem, so I was surprised by the revelation that it is actually the fact that the Inhumans are harboring his son.  Moreover, Hickman actually manages to infuse some emotion into the scenes related to the Battle of the Corrdior.  It's not quite Giffen's amazing portrayal of the trials and tribulations of the United Front in "Annihilation," but it at least manages to show the emotional impact of the Galactic Council's fight against the Builders.  As I said, it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be.

New Comics! (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

By last count, I'm 30 issues in the hole; I'm also expecting another two shipments full of issues this week.  As such, I'm going to do some old-school reviews for a while so I can be a little less untimely than I currently am.

All-New X-Men #15:  I actually love what Bendis does here.  When I first saw the cover, I rolled my eyes.  After all, who wasn't in love with Jean, at this point?  But, Bendis really sells it.  Jean's response to her accidental discovery that Hank was in love with her was to realize that a path was open to her that she previously hadn't considered.  Based on her response to their kiss, she seems to like where it leads.  Bendis turns the entire history of the X-Men on its head here, imaging a future where Scott and Jean never married, where Cable and Rachel were never born, where any number of aspects of our current reality wouldn't look the way that they do.  It's the best type of time-travel story and I applaud Bendis for pulling off something that, quite honestly, he's failed to do in other titles.  Turning to the art, I wouldn't want Lopez to be on this title full-time, but his cartoonish pencils really worked for this issue, playing up the teen angst at the heart of it.  (Speaking of said angst, I loved Bobby being thrilled to discover that he finally gets some and disturbed to learn that it's with his professor.)

Detective Comics #23:  I seriously appreciate that Layman hasn't reduced this Wrath arc to the clichéd mystery over his real identity.  Whenever a new villain appears, authors tend to push our willful suspension of disbelief to the brink, spending an inordinate amount of time trying to pretend that the new supporting character to appear in the main character's life isn't also the new super-villain.  (Paging Lincoln Marsh.)  Layman hasn't gone to that much effort to conceal that Caldwell is Wrath (and drops the ruse entirely here), wisely placing his focus on the more interesting question of why Caldwell became a cop-killer.  Initially, he seemed to be doing it to beef up the sales of his body armor, but, given that he turned said body armor against the cops in this issue, he seems to be playing a much deeper game.  Also, the revelation in the back-up story that Caldwell was responsible for weaponizing the Man-Bat serum was great.  Layman really does an amazing job making connections between plots and sub-plots, even if the events related to each plot didn't happen in his book.  It's what makes reading this title such a rich experience.

Earth 2 #15:  [Sigh.]  This series used to be so damn good, but Robinson is clearly just running out the clock here.  He jumps from group to group so quickly that you hardly have time to try to remember where the character was the last time you left him/her.  Moreover, when you do remember, you're confused.  For example, last we left Kendra, she was fighting Apokorats at Sam's grave site.  Suddenly, in this issue, she's in Morocco chasing down a casino owner, Darcy Twain.  Does he have some connection to Kanto, the "Assassin of Apokolips," who Batman told her to find in her last appearance?  Who knows?  (Also, I'm increasingly convinced that Batman is Sam, though why he needs Kendra to fight his fights for him is beyond me.)  I get that events can happen off-panel, but this revelation just feel random, like I missed an issue.  If the Kendra sub-plot was the only one that left me feeling that way, I could handle it.  But, given that the whole issue did, it also left me waiting for Robinson to leave, something I never thought I'd find myself saying.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man #2:  Spencer continues to display his amazing sense of dialogue here.  Beyond just the witty banter (the team's Sinister Six conversation was hilarious), he really manages to give everyone a distinct voice, something that comes from a firm grasp of their motivations.  Beetle is biding her time until she’s made enough of a name for herself that she can set up her own shop, Speed Demon just enjoys the super-villain life, Overdrive is still a bit overwhelmed, and, as we see here, Shocker is aloof after he discovers the secret behind the Superior Foes.  (Of course, Boomerang’s lawyer, Partridge, takes the cake in this category, with every word that he utters conveying his sleaziness.)  My only complaint, at this point, is that I have trouble believing that Boomerang would get paroled, particularly after violating his parole in the first place.  After all, as he acknowledges here, he is a murderer.  (At the very least, he killed Jackpot’s husband in “Amazing Spider-Man Presents:  Jackpot” #2, though a Google search implies that he might've been exonerated of that crime.)  It’s not like we’re supposed to believe that Partridge is that good of a lawyer that he could make the board forget about all that.  But, I feel like Spencer is doing here what Fraction is doing with Barney Barton in "Hawkeye," taking years of conflicting depictions of Boomerang and trying to present a more coherent portrait.  (Remember when he told Shocker that he had a responsibility to vote in “Amazing Spider-Man” #584?  Not exactly the type of guy who’d kill someone’s husband in cold blood, is it?)  As such, I’m willing to cut Spencer a break, particularly in these first few issues, as he sets about the process of establishing that portrait, particularly since it's such an enjoyable one.  Moreover, it’s a pretty small complaint, given how tightly scripted and generally fun this issue is.  After all, the fact that we're going on a "Goonies"-esque journey for the mythical head of Silvio Silvermane makes me almost giggle with glee.

Superior Spider-Man #15:  OK, Slott anticipated the complaint that we haven’t seen hide nor hair of Spidey’s supporting cast in the last few issues, given the tour of said cast that we got in this issue.  However, instead of remedying my concerns, he just made them worse.  It’s becoming obvious that Slott has written himself into the same corner that the “Clone Saga” writers did, struggling to find a way to maintain the involvement of Spidey’s strong supporting cast without stretching the readers’ willful suspension of disbelief by denying them the realization that something is amiss. Although those writers were able to keep Ben Reilly under wraps through an assumed identity and a dye job, Slott isn’t so lucky, since Peter is, in theory, still Peter.  He’s forced to insert an arbitrary distance between Spidey and his supporting cast, left only with the one character that he invented for this larger story (Anna Maria) to use to show Peter outside his costume.  Unfortunately, it also denies this title what makes Spider-Man special, namely, Peter Parker’s struggle to balance his private life with his greater responsibility.  (I’m in the process of reading issue #200-#300 of “Amazing Spider-Man” and those stories are all about Peter Parker, not Spider-Man.)  By ignoring that aspect of Peter’s life completely, Slott has turned this book into the worst aspects of “Batman.”  I’m not saying it’s not well written, but I am saying that, increasing, it’s a travesty to call it “Spider-Man.”  I guess Otto isn't so superior after all.

X-Factor #260:  Man, this issue is grim.  David keeps it light, mostly thanks to Lorna's pretty funny drunken banter.  But, when you take a moment, you realize that you're actually witnessing Lorna hitting rock bottom.  She has no idea where the other members of X-Factor are and she's indulging impulses best left to super-villains, like destroying private property and risking innocent lives.  The fact that it's Pietro, of all people, who tries to stop her from doing herself and other people harm shows just how far she's fallen.

Infinity #1:  Meh.  Under different circumstances, I could write paragraphs and paragraphs about this one.  But, at the end of the day, it was a slightly more coherent version of Hickman's usually boring and obscure stories.  Thanos gets a tribute from one planet that he previously destroyed, though we have yet to learn its significance, and wants something that Black Bolt currently possesses.  Hickman seems to be setting up some big revelation about the secret history of the Inhumans, but I can't say that I care all that much.