Infinity Wars: WTF is going on?!

[lordozone]

Yeah like civil wars 2 made the concept of heroes vs heroes dull and stupid, Infinity wars 2 made the infinity gems boring and confusing (what is Devandra ? why there is a future Phoenix Emmaverine in the soul world who use his power to separate his old self ? why amalgam characters if you don't use them in your story ? why Loki assemble this heroes and not others ? why Gamora is suddenly a super-vilain ?... ) . It's time for Marvel to stop making sequel of their blockbuster, besides Secret Wars it's always a failure.

[CRaymond]

Ms Marvel, reality gem? Wonder if that’s how she’ll be introduced in the MCU

[Raye]

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!

Ah, i never read Sleepwalker, so didn't know that, I guess if it is just the Earth that does explain how Asgardians of the Galaxy can be happening at the same time.... kinda. Though Angela and Loki (who kinda created a copy of himself so he could be with he Asgardians of the Galaxy and in Infinity Wars at the same time... it makes sense if you follow the character, he's done stuff like this before) went to Earth to recruit Valkyrie, and presumably Throg and Thunderstrike, so... maybe that happened before the warp, but they are acting in response to Nebula, who is in turn acting in response to Gamora killing Thanos and doing her heel turn, so that window of time is extremely small, since Gamora killed Thanos and then did the warp in the span of what, a couple days? It also raises questions about space and alien based characters inside the warped universe if that is the case. If only Earth got warped, then space in the warped universe ought to be basically empty, so what does that mean for characters that have alien origins? Hulkling, Broo, hell, does Asgard count as 'Earth'? while we know Thor and Loki were standing right there when the warp happened so there's no issue with them being in there, but if it's just Earth, it messes with their origins if Earth is all there is. And how is it that Hela and Malekith are there? Hela's in Hel at the moment, last I checked, and while Malekith is more nebulous, it isn't on Earth, probably Svartalfheim or Jotunheim. Now, I've enjoyed Asgardians of the Galaxy so far, and the first issue of Iron Hammer seemed cool, but it does illustrate that the planning behind this is very wishy-washy and hand-wavey.

But ignoring me possibly over thinking things, on the mechanics of who gets warped and what that means, even if it's just the Earth, that is still billions of lives traded for half of one soul. It's sill a really really lopsided exchange and very evil.

Yeah like civil wars 2 made the concept of heroes vs heroes dull and stupid, Infinity wars 2 made the infinity gems boring and confusing (what is Devandra ? why there is a future Phoenix Emmaverine in the soul world who use his power to separate his old self ? why amalgam characters if you don't use them in your story ? why Loki assemble this heroes and not others ? why Gamora is suddenly a super-vilain ?... ) . It's time for Marvel to stop making sequel of their blockbuster, besides Secret Wars it's always a failure.

I can answer some of this. Phoenix Wolverine is actually from Thor. In the far flung future, thousands and thousands of years from now, the Phoenix has latched on to Wolverine for lack of basically any other host, since there is basically no life left in the universe. Anyway, Thor and Phoenix Wolverine meet, and then they go to fight Doom who is attacking Earth (and has the title of Sorcerer Supreme, the Iron Fist, the Star Brand and a spirit of vengeance, because, again, almost no one left, so all these things get funneled into the few survivors.) but this doesn't really explain how he and King Thor can appear in this in order to to handwave the plot forward. Because, you see, the time between Thor meeting Phoenixed up Wolverine and then going to defend the Earth from Doom is quite brief... and then Wolverine dies. I suppose it could be possible that they meet, and then in that brief period of time between the meeting and going to Earth they head into the past/soul gem, but... it's a stretch.

Loki seems to understand the circuit thing that's going on with the Infinity Gems, where if you have one attribute, it makes you more powerful with another, hence why he let Emma take the Power Stone (she is a telepath, which makes it more powerful in her hands) and why he is targeting specific people for the others. What isn't explained is HOW he knows this. So far, the only explanation the readers have for this circuit is the diagram prefacing each issue, it's not actually explained inside the series itself, unless it was somewhere in the Guardians of the Galaxy issues I didn't read, (and if it was explained there, it really ought to be explained again in the series proper for people jumping on after the fact) or one of the tie-ins like the Sleepwalker thing. None of the characters within the story have actually been shown to learn this that I've seen, including Loki. He just pulled this knowledge out of thin air because it was convenient to the plot. I mean, look, I like Loki a lot, and I know he's smart, he's good at figuring things out, and he has a tendency to know more than other characters, which includes dropping cryptic clues all over the place. But this is not figuring something out, it's handwavey knowledge gained with no explanation, he didn't know it, then he did, when it was convenient.

Basically, I look at Hickman's Secret Wars and then I look at this, and Secret Wars was intricately crafted and planned, it had maps, it had a well thought out lore to Battleworld, and how it came to be, and when you stood back and looked at all the pieces, they all fit and made sense. this... not so much. and it's not like Secret Wars was any less crazy and out there, you can do big high concept ideas that are completely bonkers and still have it make sense, and not just held together with vague handwaves.

[kevlon]

It doesn't seem very 'epic' to me.

When Thanos had the glove we had aspects queuing up to take a shot at him. In this series we've got what? A dozen? Maybe less earth characters at most trying to get the gems off her.

I also don't like how the gems work now. They seem less god like.

[Obsidian Spider]

It doesn't seem very 'epic' to me.

When Thanos had the glove we had aspects queuing up to take a shot at him. In this series we've got what? A dozen? Maybe less earth characters at most trying to get the gems off her.

I also don't like how the gems work now. They seem less god like.

Exactly.

It’s all so unnecessarily convoluted.

If you want cosmic shenanigans more in the vein of the original Infinity Gauntlet, I highly recommend Al Ewing’s Ultimates run. The 616 version of the team where they fixed Galactus. The art is beautifully unique and the story is some high concept stuff.

Go read it!

[Ultramorph]

I’ve been enjoying it well enough, but it is disappointing that it pivoted to Earth and the Warps. I really have no interest in them, and wanted more of a cosmic Adam Warlock story.

[Baron of Faltine]

I’ve been enjoying it well enough, but it is disappointing that it pivoted to Earth and the Warps. I really have no interest in them, and wanted more of a cosmic Adam Warlock story.

The reall annoying part of it is that is fundamentally just fluff that look cool. They don't really get to do anything with the concept, except being there(so far). Is frustrating.