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Avengers: Infinity #4: Review

Dec 2000
Roger Stern, Sean Chen

Story Name:

The hand of the Infinites

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Avengers: Infinity #4 Review by (June 19, 2020)
This series is dedicated to the memory of Mark Gruenwald, Protector Of The Universe.

Troy Peteri is back as Richard Starkings' lettering assistant for this last issue.

We hear no more of the Infinites. Unless they are actually another name for the extra-dimensional Beyonders. In which case they've progressed from hiring Sphinxor to bring them Counter-Earth (Marvel Two-In-One #62-63) to moving whole galaxies on their own, on the way to destroying the whole Multiverse (before Secret Wars III).

Eternity was last in the Avengers: Covenant Of The Shield mini-series and will next appear in X-Men Forever #6 and Fantastic Four Annual 2001 before cropping up in the Av: Celestial Quest mini.

The whole team will be dragged into the Maximum Security event when they follow Eros' advice in Thor #30, and thence to MaxSec#2, Av#35 and the finale MaxSec#3.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers: Infinity #4 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
Reserve Avengers Moondragon, Photon, Quasar, Starfox (Eros of Titan), Thor and Tigra along with never (up to this point) an Avenger Jack Of Hearts witnessed the android Servitors turn a planet into a molten ball, at the cost of their own existence. Then the planet-sized Walker moulded it into a (cooled) metal arc. Then more Walkers arrived with more ex-planet arcs and turned them, connected by their own bodies, into an orbit-sized ring which has the star at 1 point like a diamond. Now the orbit-sized hand of an Infinite reaches from their extra-dimensional home to grab the ring.

Tigra sits in Moondragon's Titanian starship atop the head of the original Walker, and the rest of the team are inside it having rescued Photon from inside its brain. Jack pulled data from that brain which explains the Infinite's plan. When he grabs the ring an energy wave will instantaneously connect the star to all the other stars in the Milky Way. And then the Infinite will use the ring as a handle to pull the Galaxy to a wall of galaxies 4 billion light years away, to add it to that wall. What's more the result of the individual stars moving will play havoc with their planets, making them uninhabitable at the very least.

Luckily the immense Infinite's hand moves slowly and the team have time to board the ship and get away. Quasar tries to quantum-contact his 'god-daughter' Epoch for cosmic assistance but can't get through. But Moondragon suggests they try to get Eternity on the 'phone'. She'll use their collective wills to power the connection through Quasar's quantum wristbands. Thor and Tigra are as usual reluctant to trust their minds to the Titanian priestess but they join in. And the mind-meld succeeds in getting Eternity's attention.

The cosmic personification of the universe immediately realises what is happening and wrestles with the giant hand to halt its progress towards the ring. But then the fight is taken to the realm of abstract entities (that will later be named Overspace), and our team find themselves there inside Eternity. 3 shadowy Infinites declare their kind to be above any single universe, so this universe's Eternity should submit to their will. Eternity protests that they are 'defiling' his universe. The Infinites say they are rearranging the galaxies to 'improve the flow of energies' and 'the balance of the Multiverse'. Eternity counters that the Infinites' actions have already killed many beings and threaten many many more.

Now the team members each take their turn to speak through their host. Thor declares himself a god but says that superiority is proven by actions, which the Infinites' callous disregard for life belies. Moondragon declares herself a mortal raised to the level of the godlings of Titan, and is proof of the potential of mortal lives. Eros of Titan says his people aren't gods but members of the Eternals of Earth, but he agrees that no goal, no matter how worthy, is worth such sacrifice of innocents. The Infinites are astonished at the diversity of beings from Earth. Photon declares herself 1 of a diversity of mere humans, as represented by the Avengers who band together to protect them. Like *this* team of Avengers assembled by Quasar who says he is a small-town boy who grew up to be Protector Of The Universe. Tigra adds that if the Infinites defeat them then the rest of the Avengers will take up the fight. Lastly Jack Of Hearts confirms that they all have ties to Earth and says that the Avengers rescued him after the Servitors left him for dead.

The Infinites confer. They conclude that if 1 world can produce such diverse beings then what else might their plan be endangering. and they decide to abandon it. But Thor demands more, he wants vengeance for the murdered Rigellians. However the Infinites dismiss him, and our heroes are expelled from Eternity back to their bodies in Moondragon's starship..

But Tigra looks out a viewport and sees the ring breaking up and molten worlds reforming. Suddenly a giant 'cosmic manta ray' emerges from the Infinites' domain. It spreads itself over 1 of the molten worlds to cover it. There is a flash of light and then there is a green fertile world. They land their craft and find plants but no animals. A voice tells them that animal life will follow eventually. And they see the image of an Infinite in a nearby pool. He tells them that it was he who destroyed the worlds. He can't bring the Rigellians back but he can sacrifice his life essence to return life to this and the other worlds. Then his essence dissolves away.

Thor still mourns for the Rigellians, but Photon points out that their deaths brought the Avengers here and made the Infinites reconsider their plans. JOH, Quasar and Tigra are just eager to go back to Earth. Eros guesses correctly what Moondragon's thinking, that *she* was the 1 who really saved the Galaxy and the others should all be grateful to her. But Moony continues to believe herself superior, and that what she does is always the right thing. And then she realises that's what the Infinites thought.

As they board the spaceship Eros suggests they stop off on the way home in 1 of the many fine galactic establishments he knows.



Sean Chen
Scott Hanna
Steve Oliff
Sean Chen (Cover Penciler)
Scott Hanna (Cover Inker)
Steve Oliff (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Richard Starkings.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: Bob Harras.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Jack of Hearts
Jack of Hearts

(Jonathan Hart)
Quasar
Quasar

(Wendell Vaughn)
Starfox
Starfox

(Eros)
Thor
Thor

(Odinson)
Tigra
Tigra

(Greer Nelson)

Plus: Eternity, Photon (Monica Rambeau).

> Avengers: Infinity: Book info and issue index

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