[Yet another post in the continuing examination of Him Starlin's cosmic work at Marvel. This time, I'm looking at The Infinity Crusade #3-4, Warlock Chronicles #3-4, and Warlock & the Infinity Watch #20-21. New posts Monday, Wednesday and Friday.]
Well, my latest eBay order arrived yesterday, so I now have the rest of the Starlin comics I need. Yay.
As for these issues, things progress but not really. We do get a lovely bit where Warlock interrupts Eternity and Infinity while they... have sex? They're melded together and in the shape of an infinity sign and seem very put out by Warlock showing up--who is also kind of weirded out by the whole situation. Jim Starlin is one weird guy sometimes.
I'll just stick to the important stuff, because, as I've said many, many times, Starlin tells these stories with around four plots, three of which are meaningless and go nowhere beyond providing readers the thrill of seeing their favourite Marvel heroes not shunted off to the sidelines like the useless bitches they are.
Warlock and Thanos are going to take on the Goddess, and Mephisto shows up, offering help--but only in exchange for one of the Goddess' cosmic cubes. Warlock says no, Thanos agrees. Warlock confronts Eternity and Infinity, learns what the Goddess' plan is, returns, and then slaps his Soul Gem on Thanos and has it absorb him. Thanos is a little freaked, but he quickly learns, through the Soul Gem, what the plan is. In the Soul Gem, Warlock fights the Magus, wanting his help against the Goddess, but the Magus refuses and the issue is pretty pointless beyond giving us a good fight.
Meanwhile, Pip jumps on the Goddess' cosmic egg thing and gains all of her power, so we get an issue of him wondering what he should do with it... again, Starlin just not taking this shit seriously--and it works here. He's eventually knocked off, so it was of no import, but a fun little issue.
Thanos takes charge and leads the unbrainwashed heroes against the Goddess and her religious fanatics. Nothing really happens. We do get a fight between Thor and Drax, which leads into the Blood and Thunder crossover that follows the Infinity Crusade. That issue ends with a sun going nova and... Drax and Thor dying.
Starlin demonstrates that he knows how to do big crossovers, especially running through three books as each advance the story, but different aspects. He also showed some ingenuity with the Goddess--apparently the good side of Adam Warlock, making her a religious zealot makes sense: someone doing "good," but in such an extreme way--too much good as it were.
Next week, I'll conclude my look at the Infinity Crusade and then get into Blood and Thunder, where Starlin is joined by Ron Marz on writing duties.
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