Infinity Wars #2 Review/SPOILERS

[PhoenixThanos]

Well she definitely lives up to the tittle of deadliest woman in the universe

It is about time she started to, for years I've been thinking "what is so bad ass about Gamora".
She hasn't really been written with respect since the Warlock and the Infinity Watch series.

[vitruvian]

Isn't Devondra the crazy squid creature from inside the Soul Gem? Or is it something else?

I liked this issue better than the last, if only because the ending carried the promise of something slightly more interesting than hero vs. hero fights down the line. And I'm curious how we get from here to the "Infinity Warping" that'll be happening, especially since Gamora seems to have resolved her main problem.

Yes, Devondra in the Soul Gem. Perhaps she's Shuma-Gorath's sister? As far as the warping goes, I believe we see her initiate the warp between Cap and Dr. Strange to create Soldier Supreme in this issue, it's just it hasn't completed yet. Possibly the Soul Gem being corrupted will lead to the entire Gauntlet acting in strange ways we haven't seen before.

Pity that Strange needs to get merged just as we get one of the most awesome lines of all time from Turk, calling Strange a Freddie Mercury wannabe... I would have liked to see Deodato really lean into that... ;-)

[XPac]

Well she definitely lives up to the tittle of deadliest woman in the universe

Yeah, I'm not sure we've ever seen Gamora this boss even under Starlin.

Pity most character only show there extreme uberness during heel turns.

[Angrel-San]

It is about time she started to, for years I've been thinking "what is so bad ass about Gamora".
She hasn't really been written with respect since the Warlock and the Infinity Watch series.

Her matchup with Ronan and 2000 GOTG were good moments for her.

[Angrel-San]

Yeah, I'm not sure we've ever seen Gamora this boss even under Starlin.

Pity most character only show there extreme uberness during heel turns.

Too early to call her a heel.

She was overdue to reclaim her piece that has been stuck there since the 90s.

[Angrel-San]

And yes, this is Gamora's best moment.

This surpasses her duel with Ronan and when she stopped a sun to save the universe.

[GrandEleven]

So much for the Thanos origin mini where it established that he made it a practice to seek out and kill any progeny he might have. After all, if he believed that the only path to immortality was through children as presented here, that would be self-defeating.... oh.

1. Thanos has always been a character dealing with his own contradiction of interests.
2. We don't even know if that's Thanos talking to her or if Gamora has lost it and is just manifesting the only parent she's known.

[MadFacedKid]

I was honestly hoping that Infinity Watch team would get more pagetime together. But the first two issues certainly generate alot of hype.

[GrandEleven]

I was honestly hoping that Infinity Watch team would get more pagetime together. But the first two issues certainly generate alot of hype.

I agree. Although really gathering infinity stones is pretty much a snowball effect. You have 1 there are 5 others who match you .... you have 2 .... well it's all downhill from there.

[JKtheMac]

I can’t quite shake off the notion that the universe of Infinity Wars is not actually the prime Marvel universe.

For example, I can’t quite believe that Loki would be grasping his archetypal position in his stories, complete with metatextual reading of his own comics, within the main universe. Add to that the earlier suggestion that this universe is a simulation.

[vitruvian]

I can’t quite shake off the notion that the universe of Infinity Wars is not actually the prime Marvel universe.

For example, I can’t quite believe that Loki would be grasping his archetypal position in his stories, complete with metatextual reading of his own comics, within the main universe. Add to that the earlier suggestion that this universe is a simulation.

I thought he did exactly that (came to understand his own position as god of stories, not just lies) in his own series, and that that was in fact the prime MU. Not so? Was it some point established that he had forgotten this knowledge, perhaps in the recreation of things after Secret Wars? Speaking of which, if the current universe is in some sense a simulation, and if there's something off about how the Infinity Stones work now, I suppose all of that qualifies as criticism of Reed Richards and family's craftsmanship, doesn't it? Either that, or Brashear and the rest of the Ultimates not quite getting it right in dealing with the First Firmament...

[vitruvian]

1. Thanos has always been a character dealing with his own contradiction of interests.
2. We don't even know if that's Thanos talking to her or if Gamora has lost it and is just manifesting the only parent she's known.

That bit was supposed to be a flashback/memory, I thought, so it wouldn't be a manifestation so much as confabulated memories.... which is certainly conceivable, nothing says Gamora has to be a reliable narrator in this story. Are you also proposing, though, that the Thanos whose head she cut off is basically a figment of her imagination?

[JKtheMac]

I thought he did exactly that (came to understand his own position as god of stories, not just lies) in his own series, and that that was in fact the prime MU. Not so? Was it some point established that he had forgotten this knowledge, perhaps in the recreation of things after Secret Wars? Speaking of which, if the current universe is in some sense a simulation, and if there's something off about how the Infinity Stones work now, I suppose all of that qualifies as criticism of Reed Richards and family's craftsmanship, doesn't it? Either that, or Brashear and the rest of the Ultimates not quite getting it right in dealing with the First Firmament...

I don’t think the god of stories thing has stuck. It has been slowly de-emphasised ever since as just another way of saying ‘god of lies’. However in this story he isn’t relearning anything he is learning something new. He is learning that his destiny is governed by his place in stories. He has discovered that he can never win, and that he will always end up on the negative side of any trick he plays. He literally read his own comics to discover this. That last part for me is an alarm bell akin to a beloved character dying in the middle of a TV episode when you know he will be back next week. Loki can’t learn this and keep that knowledge.

[vitruvian]

I don’t think the god of stories thing has stuck. It has been slowly de-emphasised ever since as just another way of saying ‘god of lies’. However in this story he isn’t relearning anything he is learning something new. He is learning that his destiny is governed by his place in stories. He has discovered that he can never win, and that he will always end up on the negative side of any trick he plays. He literally read his own comics to discover this. That last part for me is an alarm bell akin to a beloved character dying in the middle of a TV episode when you know he will be back next week. Loki can’t learn this and keep that knowledge.

On what basis would you say the god of stories as a potentially good thing has been undone? Did they ever do that explicitly? Because, for me, until they say something about it no longer being true straight out, those stories still apply and he still has those features.

[JKtheMac]

On what basis would you say the god of stories as a potentially good thing has been undone? Did they ever do that explicitly? Because, for me, until they say something about it no longer being true straight out, those stories still apply and he still has those features.

On a very basic level, the whole idea was the vision of a single writer, Ewing. In itself it is not directly compatible with Loki’s traditional role, but it has a certain elegance and appeal to the modern self-referential style we often see in comics these days. Much like any expansion of a character it will sit in the canon and can potentially be picked up and expanded upon by future writers. However, writers don’t tend to retread other people’s ideas.

Ewing explored that aspect, he did what he wanted to do with it and the story is finished. Since then Arron has done his own thing. He acknowledged it in his story but importantly he didn’t give especial emphasis to the idea and Loki in his stories has been much more traditionally focused on Loki’s role as an inscrutable antagonist.

Of course that emphasis in Aaron’s story is no surprise. In Ewing, Loki was the protagonist. His character and motives could be explored more throughly. Essentially Ewing was seeking to put Loki back together and hand him on to future writers in a more usable and nuanced form. I don’t believe his contribution was specifically about making Loki the god of stories. Rather he used that conceit to allow him to achieve his desired outcomes. Aaron has no need to do any of these things. Loki is fit for his purpose without any self authorship aspect.

No writer would decide to undo Ewing’s story, so it is a fair comment to say until that happens this aspect will remain available to future writers. I just don’t imagine any writers will pick it up in the same way in the foreseeable future.