Comic Info
Comic Name: Inferno
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Dennis Hopeless
Artist: Javier Garron
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2015
Inferno #1 Variant
Reprints Inferno #1-5 (July 2015-November 2015). For years Illyana has been trapped in Limbo, and Colossus has fought a valiant fight to retrieve her. Against the wishes of Cyclops, Colossus, Boom Boom, Domino, and Nightcrawler are staging one last attempt to rescue Illyana…but the Darkchild has her own plans. With the rescue in jeopardy, Colossus finds himself teamed with the Goblin Queen and her consort Havok in an attempt to wrestle his sister from the demonic forces possessing her.
Written by Dennis Hopeless, Warzones!: Inferno is a tie-in to the Marvel Comics event series Secret Wars. The series features art by Javier Garron.
Inferno was happening when I was really getting into comics. The X-Men (of course) were arguably at their peak at this point and deep into Claremont’s run on Uncanny X-Men and X-Factor was just starting to get going. For the most part, Secret Wars spin-off series were hit-or-miss, but I enjoyed this entry.
With five issues, the series has a bit more time to explore the world and the set-up in this collection than some of the four issue Warzone! collections. It helps to be somewhat versed in Inferno before tackling the story, and if you aren’t up to speed with most of the events in the original series, the collection won’t have much meaning.
Inferno #5
The kind of odd thing about this story is that pretty much everything goes to hell…literally and figuratively. The rescue is a bust, Sinister’s attempt to save the world is a bust, Colossus is overcome by darkness, and he’s forced to make the ultimate sacrifice…and the Goblin Queen wins. It is like a massive What If? (and they did do a What If? Inferno issue in the 1990s).
The story gets a bit messy at points and the Secret Wars aspect can be kind of confusing if you are not up to date on how the whole Battleworld is set-up. It is forgivable because overall, I enjoyed the original Inferno, and it does feel and read similar to that comic (at points).
I repeatedly have found that I have more interest in the Warzones! and Battleworld titles than the actual Secret Wars series. The little glimpses into the world of some of Marvel’s iconic stories is fun even if the whole “God Doom” aspect is hanging over everything (for the most part, most of the titles stand alone). If you missed out on Secret Wars, you might want to look at some of the spin-off titles like Inferno for a quick (and sometimes fun) read of characters you might be interested in.
