Infinity Wars: WTF is going on?!

[Obsidian Spider]

Hey, remember how epic getting all the infinity stones can be?!
Remember how much fun it was watching Thanos do crazy cosmic **** with them on his pretty golden glove in the 90s?
Could we have a less interesting predecessor with the antagonist mushing people together for no reason and then wondering why she can’t see something.
Spell your name with some planets or something.
Yawn.

[SquirrelMan]

It's fun. Like Amalgam, just without DC.

Who needs DC, anyway.

[VGCinema]

I don't know... I'm personally having fun with it. It's not amazing or anything, but it's good enough for me to enjoy some of the crazy mashups they've come up with.

[Tycon]

I'm loving how batshit insane everything has gone. It is the first event in such a long time that is completely unpredictable.

[Prof. Warren]

I'm loving how batshit insane everything has gone. It is the first event in such a long time that is completely unpredictable.

That's what I'm enjoying about it. It's completely nuts, totally unpredictable and just fun.

[Tycon]

That's what I'm enjoying about it. It's completely nuts, totally unpredictable and just fun.

Every issue has been a complete 180° from what we thougt was happening. From Countdown setting up everything to the brawl to Gamora "killing" Thanos, Star-Lord, and Adam Warlock to Infinity Warps to Loki's Cosmic Avengers to the Infinity's End Watchers.

[PaulBullion]

I'm loving how batshit insane everything has gone. It is the first event in such a long time that is completely unpredictable.

How can you not love the concept of "Little Monster." Or the name. I wish we'd seen more of him.

[Raye]

I've been largely staying out of the discussion threads for the series, since i didn't want to be a wet blanket for people enjoying it, keeping my bitching to the Loki thread. But... since this thread starts with a bitchfest about it, I'll join in. This is one of those series that I like on a conceptual level, and yeah, on a broad strokes level, it's fun enough, and I like seeing who gets warped with whom, and some of the Infinity Warps spinoffs have been fun, but that's where my enjoyment ends. In terms of execution, I hate it. From the characterizations, to the bizarre logic of the sequence of events filled with lazy handwaves and ass-pulls all over the place to get from point to point, (which as the OP mentions, makes the quest for the gems kind of dull, as they just fall into people's laps) to the art, (I hate Deodato's stupid fake panels that serve no purpose all over the place. Like why?, it just makes things more confusing to read) top to bottom, I hate it. It's like it's collecting all my pet peeves in one place. But my biggest complaint is the ass-pulls and inconsistent characterizations. A fun concept doesn't excuse sloppy execution. My favorite character is Loki, so his portrayal bothers me the most. While, to be fair, it's improved somewhat over time, (no longer just plain out of character, it's now simply not quite getting it) it's still like the cliff notes version of current Loki, gets the basics, sort of, but is lacking the nuance found in other writers portrayals, and he is constantly making leaps in logic that make no logical sense, but are there because it's needed to advance the plot. I also am not fond of the idea that his struggles to avoid becoming a villain again is due to someone 'tricking him' which devalues his struggles on a personal level, and his huge lack of agency primarily at the beginning, (the agency problem is better latest issue, but replaced with ass-pulls and unexplained omniscience) which runs completely counter to his character. But the same can be said for other characters, mainly Gamora, or that librarian Flowa, and Emmaverine was pretty bad on that in front latest issue. I do suspect there will be a twist, likely involving time travel, that will explain some of the early oddities, at least that will be one way I can think of to explain away some of the more bizarre characterizations and events from early on. But a twist ending only works if the story without the twist is enjoyable on it's own merits up until that point, and it fails for me on that front. It's like it's going for the Sixth Sense, but we'll end up with The Village, as far as the twist goes.

TLDR: fun concept, lazy execution with serious structural problems which prevent me from enjoying the conceptually fun ideas.

[U.N. Owen]

Why is Gamora is the best question to ask because we don't know why Gamora is doing what she's doing.

[Obsidian Spider]

Why is Gamora is the best question to ask because we don't know why Gamora is doing what she's doing.

Hilarious and apt.

Raye, I agree with everything you said. Deodato is so dark and unclear and those unnecessary panels drive me crazy too.

I just don’t understand how you can take such an incredible weapon with so much potential and squander it on a character with no discernible motivation. Don’t we all want to see cosmic craziness?! We don’t need tons of twists just have all the marvel heroes and villains ban together in some epic space battles! Where are Galactus, eternity, and all that?

It’s blowing my mind how lame and low stakes this is.

[Obsidian Spider]

More this.

[Raye]

Well, from what i can gather, in Guardians of the Galaxy, she lost a chunk of her soul in the Soul Gem, and that was the catalyst for everything. She wanted her soul back, and that's why she's done everything she has. But now she has her soul back, so I am unclear as to why she's continuing. Why does she need to feed this 'Devondra' the souls of half the universe... well, more like the whole universe, since though she halved the souls going into the gem by merging them together, which, as stated in the book, would have been a clever solution... if merging them was all that was happening. But it's not just merging them, she emptied the entire universe of every single living being except herself and Flowa to accomplish that, because they are trapped in the Soul Gem, not out in the real universe. (though, trapped and warped is better than dead, to be fair) And beyond that, this monster Devondra is eating anything in there, and Gamora knows that, since she said 'Devondra must feed' so she did effectively just sacrifice everyone in the universe to this monster so she could have her soul repaired, it is beyond evil. All this in exchange for letting PART of one soul escape the gem? how is that a fair exchange? Why did a character like Gamora turn heel THAT hard for that? I mean i could buy it for some other characters who were more villainous to start with, maybe, but Gamora? She's usually pragmatic and hard, but not evil, so i'd kind of expect a better motivation for her turning heel this hard. It's these kinds of questions and bizarre logic that bothers me about this series. I'm not even after something more 'classic' here, (though i wouldn't be too adverse to that) I just want what we have here to actually make sense. Right now, if you just relay events in a bare bones fashion, it's not that bad plot wise. It's how all those plot points are strung together within the framework of the story that I have issue with, it's all handwaves and characters just kind knowing what they need to know when it is convenient, and it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. In addition to some strange and in some cases damaging (in the case of Gamora in particular) characterizations.

[ETMike1988]

What if the old lady part of Gamora got infected by Devondra? Maybe after the reunion, Devondra took control over Gamora and now she using her as a way to get herself released from the Soul Gem!?

[ETMike1988]

Is the whole universe or just Earth got relocated to the Soul Gem with it's inhabitants being merged with each other? Because according to the Sleepwalker tie-in, she only done it with Earth!

[bomaya]

I haven't bought any of the Infinity Warps tie-ins as I hate all that Amalgam-type crap and so, despite reading every single Countdown and War issue that's come out, the last issue had me completely and utterly confused.

After a good early start, this is now an awful event book.