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Infinity #3

Sep 2013
Jonathan Hickman, Jerome Opena

Story Name:

Kingdoms fall


Synopsis

Infinity #3 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4.5 stars
The previously page shows the Builders destroying the Galactic Council's Behemoth Ringworld; Black Bolt reporting to the Illuminati that Thanos wants the Inhumans to kill all their children of age 16-22, purely to ensure the death of Thanos' own son; Thanos telling his generals that he's going to extract this Tribute himself.

The comic then starts with effectively another previously page showing 1 bunch of Avengers on Behemoth after the Council's defeat in the Corridor, standing beside Kree, Shi'ar, Skrulls and Spartoi. Then high-speed Builder drone ships smashed into the Ringworld.

The Builders show recordings of the destruction to other races they encounter. Many like the Centaurians, Kree and Kymelians surrender.

Parts of Behemoth survive, and we find recognisable faces Captain America, Ex Nihilo and Thor with Annihilus of the Negative Zone, the Brood queen, Gladiator of Shi'ar, J-son of Spartax, Ronan the Kree Accuser and Super-Skrull. The Supreme Intelligence recalls Ronan and the Kree to their capital Hala. J-son suggests everyone else return home too, to defend their homeworlds. Gladiator and Super-Skrull say their forces will stay and fight.

Before J-son leaves he tells Cap that the missing Avengers (Captain Marvel's crew) are prisoners of the Builders. He won't say how he knows, but Annihilus senses betrayal. (We know that J-son tried to make a deal with the Builders in Avengers #19, and that's how they found the Ringworld.)

Cap says he has a plan that will require some bait.

Next day some Builders are accepting Ronan's surrender in orbit around Hala when they detect a fleet of ships approaching. All the Builder warships except the command ship and the huge planet killers move to oppose them.

But this is a feint as a small group including Mentor, Oracle and Starbolt of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, Smasher the joint Guard/Avenger, and Bruce Banner and Falcon break into 1 of the planet killers. Mentor takes over the ship's controls and starts firing on the other planet killers, destroying 2 of them.

Unfortunately Banner turns into Hulk and accidentally breaks the controls. Fortunately there's a 2nd team invading another planet killer. Super-Skrull and Thor have taken it, and they too fire on other ships.

The Builders have lost 8 planet killers, and their command ship is crippled. They teleport to safety (presumably to another ship) and most of the Builder fleet jumps away, leaving the Gardener Ex Nihila on a suicide mission to scuttle the command ship. Some of the Builder ships stay to continue the battle.

Meanwhile another team of Avengers (Black Widow, Manifold, Shang-Chi and Spider-Woman) have rescued the captured Avengers (Abyss, Cannonball, Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Nightmask, Starbrand, Sunspot and the comatose Captain Universe still in her stasis tube) as seen in CM#16 (and the upcoming Avengers Assemble #19).

Black Widow convinces Starbrand to destroy the remaining Builder warships.

Back on Earth we get a glimpse of Red Hulk facing Supergiant (probably from next month's Thunderbolts #16), Luke Cage leading Spectrum, Spider-Hero, Spider-Man and White Tiger against Proxima Midnight (from Mighty Avengers #1), and the Illuminati investigating another incursion (in New Avengers #10).

Then Thanos personally goes to Attilan where he finds Black Bolt alone in the throne room. Deep in the city the last of the other Inhumans are escaping through the Mouth of Eldrac. Maximus remains behind with Lockjaw the teleporting dog, and the device he built for BB in NAv#7-8. He arms the device.

Thanos has come for the head of his son, or he will destroy Attilan. But BB's answer is a shout which activates Maximus' device (as Lockjaw teleports Maximus to safety), and destroys Attilan anyway.


 

Review / Commentaries


Infinity #3 Review by (September 22, 2013)
The other tie-ins are Earth-based:- In Mighty Avengers #1 Luke Cage has revived Heroes For Hire with the latest Power Man and White Tiger (both from Avengers Academy, but PM made some other apps beforehand). When Thanos' troops attack they team up with the Doc Ock Spider-Man, Monica Rambeau (now calling herself Spectrum) and someone temporarily going by the name Spider-Hero. In Infinity: The Hunt #1 the schools for gifted youngsters (Avengers Academy, Braddock Institute, Future Foundation, Jean Grey School, and some new ones in Asia, Atlantis, Latveria and Wakanda) are going to hold a Contest of Champions olympics for their students (those that aren't missing in the Avengers Arena series). But the Atlantis school is having problems due to the war with Wakanda. And then Thanos' forces strike there and at the Avengers Academy where some of the contestants have already assembled. As well as some existing characters like Bentley 23 and Molly Hayes we meet new ones such as Asha and Blocks. Thunderbolts #15 continues their latest mission, as they try to ignore Thanos' invasion going on around them. New Avengers #10 as usual has the most important events. Black Bolt sends the other Illuminati to search for Thanos' son among the lost tribes of the Inhumans. Dr Strange finds him. But Ebony Maw has been hiding in his shadow, and makes Strange forget all about it. Then an incursion begins. (We were supposed to also see Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #3, but it's been delayed.)

We've had several tie-ins since #2:- Avengers #19 continues the space adventures. Captain Marvel and her crew are captured by the Builders, who are astonished to find among them their creations Abyss, Nightmask and Starbrand, and their goddess Captain Universe. The Builders believe they have to destroy Earth to save the universe. Captain America hatches a plan for the Galactic Council. J-son of Spartax secretly tries to bargain with the Builders to save his own empire. But this only allows the Builders find the Council's ringworld base and destroy it. Captain Marvel #16 again expands on events in the Avengers issue from CM's point of view. It shows more of CM's fight as Binary. It ends with the rescue mission seen in this issue. (I believe the upcoming Avengers Assemble #19 will again show these things from Spider-Woman's perspective.)

Cap already announced his plan (without going into details) in Avengers #19. Then Ronan's Accuser Corps were going to be the bait, but they've gone home now. I was wrong with my guess that Cap's plan was to smuggle Ex Nihilo in to contact his fellow Gardeners. The Mouth of Eldrac was introduced by Hickman in Fantastic Four #577. Apparently it was once an Inhuman. According to F(uture) F(oundation) #9 it takes each person where they *need* to be. Thus the Inhumans are being scattered here. I believe Maximus has built a Terrigen Bomb which will transform much of humanity into Inhumans in the next Event, Inhumanity. An earlier Terrigen Bomb featured in the War of Kings limited series, which was intended to turn the whole galaxy onto Inhumans!


> Infinity comic book info and issue index

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Preview Pages




Jerome Opena
Dustin Weaver
Justin Ponsor
Adam Kubert (Cover Penciler)
Adam Kubert (Cover Inker)
Laura Martin (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos.
Editor: Lauren Sankovitch.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Adam
Adam

(Nightmask)
Annihilus
Annihilus

(The Living Death That Walks)
Black Widow
Black Widow

(Natasha Romanoff)
Captain America
Captain America

(Steven Rogers)
Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel

(Carol Danvers)
Falcon
Falcon

(Sam Wilson)
Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Clinton Barton)
Hulk
Hulk

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Maximus
Maximus

(Maximus Boltagon)
Red Hulk
Red Hulk

(Thunderbolt Ross)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)
Spider-Woman
Spider-Woman

(Jessica Drew)
Thor
Thor

(Odinson)

Plus: Brood, Builders, Captain Universe (Tamara Devoux), Ex Nihila, Gladiator (Kallark), Jason of Spartax (J'son), Manifold (Eden Fesi), Mentor (A'Lars), Oracle, Ronan (Ronan the Accuser), Smasher (Isabel Kane), Star Brand (Kevin Conner), Starbolt, White Tiger (Ava Ayala).