Infinity Gauntlet #6



Creative Team: mostly the same bunch. Anderson gets an assistant, John Lewandowski and Evelyn Stein assists on the colors.

Synopsis: Thanos faces off with Nebula and demands the return of the gauntlet and he will make her his consort (wait, she supposed to be his granddaughter.....ewwwwwwwww.......). She rejects and commands that everything be as it was...



That includes returning her to her tortured form. Thanos reaches for the gauntlet, when Nebula re-emerges in her healthy form and gives him a tsk-tsk moment. Meanwhile, Nebula cannot perceive Warlock, as he is outside Chaos and Order. He moves to take the gauntlet. Nebula tries to blast Thanos and Strange and Warlock deflects it to Surfer. Nebula is confused, then sees that the Cosmic bunch had been freed and they ain't happy. They unleash their power on Nebula, which keeps her from concentrating and thinking beyond this reality, as Thanos could(which he reminds us, constantly). Surfer and Warlock turn up in the Soul Gem World and Warlock moves into the enxt phase of the plan, using Surfer as an anchor, then he unites with the entire Soul World. The revived Gamora meets up with Pip, at Strange's place. He fills her in, then we see Nebula beat the ehavies and get ready for more, when Warlock disrupts the gauntlet and it falls from her hand. Thanos makes his move for it, then gets a surprise...



The heroes play keep away, until Warlock emerges, wearing it. He puts and end to the fighting.



He tells everyone he is in charge and it is bedtime. Thanos says he isn't tired and rebels, only to be attacked by Hulk and Drax, the Green Team. He activates a thermonuclear device and Thor hits him with Mjolnir, sending him hurtling across space, when it explodes. Warlock says his goodbyes and that he is fine, even as the heroes worry about power corrupting them. he sends them home. Then, he, Pip and Gamora go 60 days into the future, on a distant world, where they find a scarecrow, wearing Thanos' uniform. They are soon met by Thanos, who is alive. He bids them farewell, as Warlock takes up his duty, while Thanos says he is done and will spend his time contemplating the lesson he learned, after three attempts at ultimate power...



Thoughts: Well, that was different. Rather than raw power, it was knowledge of the psyche of Thanos that led to the end and restoration of the reality. Thanos is undone by his own self-loathing, and Warlock is now the benevolent ruler of this reality. However, the knowledge he gained in the Soul World seems to be his protection against corruption. This seems to be the final thought Starlin had on Thanos' quest for power, his last chance to get it right. Really, each ending was never about good defeating evil decisively; it was about power creating its own downfall. Thanos, Mentor and Eros were created by Starlin to explore the psyche and cosmic ideas he had from college and from reading Kirby's New Gods. Mich is cribbed from Kirby; but, it evolved with the influence of Starlin's psychology study and the experiences he gained as he aged and came back to the story. I don't know if it is the perfect ending or not. It is bound to disappoint, since it doesn't quite deliver a final statement, as crisis did, with the destruction of the Anti-Monitor, by the original Superman. At the time, I felt it was a bit weak and a let down; but, the older me thinks it is pretty much where the story was headed, when you paid attention. Whether or not the next Avengers movie will carry this take or present some amalgamation of the other Thanos stories remains to be seen (I'm betting more of the latter).

From here, the story that arose as a result of this: Warlock and the Infinity Watch, where Warlock's band of misfits kept watch on reality. I'm not going to go there. It was a series with it's moments; but, ultimately, I wasn't that into it and dropped it, after the first year (maybe a bit sooner; I don't recall). Starlin returned to all of this, with Marvel throwing in more characters, since it turned out to be a bigger hit than the party-poopers expected and everyone wanted in on the success, the next time. That would be the Infinity War, when the magus turns up again and gets the gauntlet. Thanos ends up in the middle of things. That was followed by the Infinity Crusade, when Her turned up (and, yes, that is poor grammar; but, I didn't name Her). Then, there was the Infinity Abyss, with Genis, the new Captain Marvel, and art from Starlin. At least that has more of Starlin's idiosyncratic stamp on things, with less outside input. I'm just not really interested in going into all of that. For my money, the Infinity Gauntlet was where Starlin capped off his earlier work and created his last real classic. After that, he was mostly playing with Thanos, with a lot of supporting characters along for the ride; but, with Thanos as the real mover and shaker. I kind of think it falls into too much of a good thing; but, your mileage may vary.

Anyone who is interested in this can feel free to pick up the Thanos story, here, and add their own thoughts.