While there are quite a few heroes whose adventures I'll follow into different titles, there are very few villains that generate the same kind of reader loyalty.In fact, Thanos is one of the few that I can think of. That's why I followed this mini-series, even though I managed to miss almost all the previous "cosmic" mini-series Marvel has been publishing in recent years, starting with Annihilation.
Now I regret missing them, because this has been a heck of a series, loaded with cosmic-level menaces (and then some) and lots of twists and surprises along the way.
The basic story has the heroes - the Guardians of the Galaxy (which includes Nova, Starlord, Mantis, Gamora and Quasar) - bringing Thanos back from the dead to help stop the invasion from the Cancerverse, an evil alternate reality where Death was eliminated. Now the twisted denizens from that universe are trying to invade our reality.
Thanos is a great character because he's the smartest being in the room (with only rare exceptions), he's incredibly powerful and he's absolutely ruthless - as he demonstrates on the first page of this issue by swearing his allegiance to the masters of the Cancerverse.
What happens next... well, the word "cataclysmic" doesn't seem strong enough. Let's just say that big, cosmic events happen, there's lots of death to go around and it's going to take some wiggling to get around the final page.
Not many writers have the ability to write a character like Thanos - his creator, Jim Starlin, is one of the few - but I think writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning have done a terrific job here.
Kudos also to artist Micheal Sepulveda who does heroic work tackling some mind-boggling events.
So an outstanding series, well worth checking out (and one I had no trouble following, even though I hadn't read the earlier mini-series).
More like this would be fine.
Grade: A
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