Infinity #5: Review

Some other issues probably fit earlier in the scheme of things:- Nova fights the assassin Kaldera in #9, with help from Justice and Speedball. In Infinity: The hunt #3 the kids try to help out in Atlantis and Wakanda. Guardians of the Galaxy #8 sees the Guardians without Iron Man called in by Abigail Brand to free the SWORD Peak satellite from Thanos' forces. They rescue her, but all get captured until Angela turns up. Note Black Dwarf isn't seen. This probably precedes Av#22. But it depends on what happens next issue. Av#22 is definitely post-Inf#5. The galactic forces take Titan. Black Dwarf prepares to defend the captured Peak satellite. Avengers and the Council plan to infiltrate the Peak, attack Thanos' spacefleet and liberate Earth.

Several issues feature the results of the Terrigen Bomb in #4:- In Avengers Assemble #20 Scarlet Witch, Wasp and Wonder Man of Uncanny Avengers deal with 1 of the people changed by the Terrigen Bomb. And along the way Wasp gets closure with Lord Gouzar from the end of the last Avengers series. This makes no reference to the current long Apocalypse Twins story in UAv, and offers no clue as to where this issue (and Infinity) fits in UAv's continuity. In Infinity: Heist #2 the villains are still planning the heist, but Blizzard gets gets transformed by the Terrigen Bomb. Thgis actually happened at the end of #1, but we didn't know what it was. So this whole story occurs in the latter stage of the Infinity event. In Secret Avengers #10 SHIELD are fighting the alien invaders when 1 Agent gets Terrigen Bombed. While most of the Thunderbolts team continue their mob-killing mission in #17, Red Hulk continues fighting the aliens. And then the Terrigen Mist hits. The Continuity Project may have trouble fitting this series into Infinity as it began in #15 at the very start of the invasion and has reached the end of the event in a very short time.

Tie-ins since last issue:- Av#21 is the only issue concerning the deep space war against the Builders, as #22 returns to the Solar System. The Galactic Council throw everything at the Builders, including a new Annihilation Wave, but to little avail. Then the Ex Nihili wake Captain Universe from her coma and she kills all the Builders with a wave of her hand. Except the Aleph robots who are left on devastating self-destruct. And 1 Builder escapes to an alternate universe. The rest of the tie-ins are on Earth:- The most significant is New Avengers #11 - it explains what the Builder attack was all about! Thanos leaves the ruins of Attilan and his forces invade Wakanda in search of the Time Gem. The Illuminati meet alternate reality Builders in the universe of the latest incursion, and the escaped Builder from the main Marvel reality is there and he's told them what happened in the main reality. It transpires that Builders occupy all(?) alternate realities but can no longer easily travel between them since the destruction of the Superflow system in Av#7. They know about the incursions destroying universes. (And this may be connected to the demise of the Superflow.) Builders in many universes are destroying their Earths to save theirs and other universes. The alternate Builders destroy *their* earth, and ask the Illuminati to destroy their own, now that the Avengers have prevented the Builders from doing it.

Some of the worlds shown here overlap with those in Avengers #21. Obviously the Kree on Hala, but also the blue-skinned Centaurian bowmen (here supported by Hawkeye rather than Spaceknights Ikon and Starshine), and presumably the Kymellians (though I've never heard of the planet Kymer, and here they're doing it for themselves without the help of Ronan and the Accusers). I've also never heard of Dockrum VII where Captain America, Cannonball, Hulk, Oracle and Starbolt lead the revolt. And I don't recognise the unnamed worlds where Captain Marvel works with Skrulls, and Captain America accompanies Smasher. We also see Falcon, Hyperion, Spider-Woman and Sunspot in the victory celebration. (The cast list says Starbrand is somewhere in the issue, but I don't see him.) There is no mention here of the mixed results of the Galactic Council's war on the Builders in Av#21, including the failure of the Annihilation Wave, which confirmed the Supreme Intelligence's dire prediction. And it doesn't say that it was actually Captain Universe who single-handedly saved the day in the end. There is also no mention of the last Builder setting all the Aleph robots on self-destruct, which was supposedly going to 'destroy everything'. The triggering mechanism for the anti-matter bombs is a device Black Panther confiscated from Black Swan in #1. The death of Thane is the Tribute that Thanos demanded of Black Bolt. I have remarked before that Tributes from other planets have presumably been similar. Thanos killing his many children echoes the events in the Thanos Rising limited series, but they were all supposed to have been killed a long time ago. And then he was killing them for his mistress Death, whereas now he just says he doesn't want kids. The messenger from Titan is reporting events at the beginning of Av#22, and is a guard seen there. Most of Av#22 follows this issue.