In Rebirth of Thanos Thanos acquired the 6 gems of the infinite. It now has a power that made him a god. Not a god in Marvel sauce, a god who has power over the elements of the universe: time, space, power, mind, and spirit reality. He has both the power to destroy the entire universe than creating everything and anything (even life) at its discretion. He is God in the full acceptance of the term, it is omnipotent in the literal sense. And he is in love with the personification of Death. Somewhere in space, he reflects on his actions. Mephisto (the Satan of the Marvel universe, the one who collects the souls of fishermen) is alongside Thanos. But his early days as a being supreme evil begin: Death pushes for different reasons. He must create an action to the extent of his love. With a simple finger snap it ends the life half of living beings in the universe. The moment before there were 40 people in front of you on the sidewalk, the next moment there are more than 20 (if you are part of survivors). It is the same everywhere in the universe, whatever the considered planet. It also deals creatively Nebula, the one that claims to be his granddaughter. On Earth superheroes can only foolishly see the disappearance of half of the human population. In a seedy hotel room, 3 dead are transformed little by little troll woman with green skin and cocoon.
Jim Starlin back at Marvel, he takes the same and again. This is the first observation of a fan that can only be disappointed with the selected easy solution: bring back to life Thanos, Adam Warlock, Pip and Gamora. But hey, all readers are not necessarily stuck like me on previous work and Starlin place a funny story. With such an enemy, it is obvious that the superheroes of the Earth does not make weight. Thanos is not the first master of the world come. He has already had a taste of this omnipotence by putting a first hand on a cosmic cube, and a second time parasitizing the gem of the soul of Warlock. In addition, it is an exceptional strategist as he proved by getting the 6 gems in spite of the will of their owners. One hope: the inscrutable plan Warlock, unknown earthlings superhero character.
From beginning to end, Warlock manipulates interventions superhero in shadow. From beginning to end superheroes go pipe puzzle without almost no hope. Assault after assault, Thor, Namor, Iron Man, Firelord, Wolverine, Scarlet Witch, Drax, Hulk, Cloak, Captain America and Quasar are massacred. Yet Starlin renews every fight for increasingly colossal stakes, with disheveled tactics. Despite the omnipotence of Thanos, Starlin manages to make the reader believe that superheroes have a very small chance of winning. He slips a wink Secret Wars with the role of Doctor Doom. It varies strategies and varies configuration attackers summoning the most powerful characters in the Marvel universe (yes there Galactus, but not only). We recognize here all the knowledge of Starlin successful once again showing consistency between all these entities born of different designers in different series. In terms of destruction, Starlin does not do things by half since Thanos does not stop to remove half of living beings, it has other actions massive destruction in reserve. Thanos is a pretty nihilistic primary: he loves death so he does not hesitate to destroy life to offer to his sweetheart a lavish gift.
Listed illustrations, designers follow a fashion. George Perez draws three episodes and a half and leaves the ship. He later claimed that he had failed to invest in a script he was too mechanical. This does not prevent him from making a very professional job with always as clear layout regardless of the number of characters. Perez has a really smart vision of staging fights and choice of viewing angles. Everything is readable, the impact of the blows is felt by the player and the feeling of helplessness and despair growing superheroes. Thanos is massive and majestic end to end. Warlock is mysterious and indecipherable. Mephisto is ambiguous and devious. The scenes of mass destruction are very impressive they are in implied (Thor flying over the waves where there was before Japan) or explicit (Black Widow exhausted, witness the death of a woman in the collapse of a building). From the episode 4, Ron Lim comes as reinforcements and he draws himself the last 2 episodes. Illustrations lose detail and realism (especially the faces lack finesse) but they gain in gross visual impact.
The design team offer a late inevitable world in which superheroes are deploying resource treasures and inventiveness wasted. All their courage is useless. But this story leaves a strange taste in mind. Arriving in the second episode, the veteran player knows that the status quo will be restored at the end of history as the disruption is too great. Despite all the relentless mechanics of the screenplay prevents lose interest adventures. But even this structure is really disconcerting, the entire plot is based on the cunning of Thanos and Warlock the unknown variable that represents. He pulls the strings behind the scenes from beginning to end without revealing anything. He leads the dance, he programs the fighting, he plays chess with several shots ahead, against Thanos. The reader is mere spectator and decrypts the strategy to progressively. Warlock finally wrote the story that reads the reader, it is the writer. And this is the more destabilizing position Jim Starlin outlets. Warlock is a deus ex machina from beginning to end, it is the materialization of the writer in history. Finally, the true nihilist Thanos is not blinded by his feelings for death, but rather that Starlin has no illusions about what he can change in this shared universe, no illusions about the impermanence of impact of his story. For Starlin, this fight is devoid of any meaning, any purpose, any comprehensible truth, or all values; it is really just simple entertainment of the moment, an illusion of change, free thrill but also a hymn to creation. Jim Starlin play of the drive, as well as Warlock is played by Thanos. The real unease born of this manipulation performed openly with the complicity of the reader, taking a truly nihilistic position.
Jim Starlin gave 2 suites in this story as crossovers increasingly disproportionate: first The Infinity War and The Infinity Crusade Volume 1 and Volume 2.
