Comic Info
Comic Name: The Infinity Gauntlet
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Jim Starlin
Artist: George Perez/Ron Lim
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2006
The Infinity Gauntlet #3
Reprints The Infinity Gauntlet #1-6 (July 1991-December 1991). The entire universe is threatened! Thanos, the Mad Titan, has collected the Infinity Gems and which can control life, death, and reality itself. In his desperate attempt to impress and woo Mistress Death, Thanos has vowed to kill half the population of the universe…but the heroes of Earth have something to say about it. With the return of Warlock, the heroes are facing the greatest battle of all time…and the stakes have never been higher!
Written by Jim Starlin and illustrated by George Perez and Ron Lim, The Infinity Gauntlet (recently released as Thanos: The Infinity Gauntlet) was a big Marvel event when it was released. The critically acclaimed series tapped into almost all the Marvel titles and set the stage for other big events years down the line.
The events of The Infinity Gauntlet spun out of the strong run of Silver Surfer and the two issue mini-series The Thanos Quest. The comic instantly made back issues of both Thanos and Warlock’s earlier appearances spike (including the first appearance of Thanos in Iron Man (1) #55 (February 1973)…which I still kick myself for not buying for $9), and most of the titles never returned to their pre-Infinity Gauntlet prices.
The Infinity Gauntlet #4
The reason that The Infinity Gauntlet created such a spike is that it was good. Thanos was an interesting character and totally ruthless. The Infinity Gauntlet #4 (October 1991) had him single handedly take down Earth’s mightiest heroes without even breaking a sweat. The next issue had him doing the same thing to the gods of reality. It was just fun to see a bad guy being a bad guy. This wasn’t as common as it was today.
The strong story was backed up by strong art. Perez is good with lots of character, and The Infinity Gauntlet sets up a great cast for him to illustrate. Ron Lim isn’t up to the same level of Perez and it is too bad that he finished out the series. Perez was suffering stress from his work at DC and had to drop out in issue #4.
Starlin always was great with space operas, The Infinity Gauntlet was another great entry. With the appearance of Thanos at the end of The Avengers and references to the Infinity Gems in Thor: The Dark World, Marvel movies headed toward their own version The Infinity Gauntlet, but instead it essentially took the title of The Infinity War (and veered greatly from the plot of this series). If you liked Avengers: Infinity War, check out the original series for a fun read. The Infinity Gauntlet was followed by the less stellar The Infinity War.
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