As it is slowly being hinted at as a major plot point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so do fans new and old race back to the Infinity Gauntlet's first major appearance in the 1991 crossover miniseries of the same name. Reaching even larger cosmic heights than the Kree-Skrull War managed, the story opens with galactic baddie Thanos trying to earn the love of Death (literally the personification of death) by gaining control of the gauntlet and erasing half of existence with the click of his meaty fingers. That "half of existence" happens to include the Fantastic Four, Daredevil and most of the X-Men, which leaves the remaining heroes a little miffed. With street-level vigilantes, space-bound adventurers and mystics alike banding together, the stage is set for an epic confrontation amongst the stars against a villain who wields all the power in the universe in a shiny gold glove. That makes it sound kind of stupid, but it's really not. Honest! By that point the king of cosmic comics, Jim Starlin wove his own experience and bibliography into the fabric of the Marvel universe even stronger than before, to the point that most of the company's most well-known heroes are completely out of the picture fairly early on and it's up for the space-faring characters to pick up the slack. Adding to that off-kilter narrative is that George Pérez fella on pencils again, clearly revelling in some more galactic carnage. Big, brash and wonderful, topped only maybe by the all-ages retelling which sees Spider-Man, the Hulk, Ms Marvel, Wolverine, and Doctor Doom going on a roadtrip to defeat Thanos, which is hilarious.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
