As many readers know, most stories feature at least two plots - A plot follows B plot to break up the first one in order to keep things, at least in theory, lively. Infinity has two plots but one is (pardon the pun) infinitely weaker than the other and doesn't keep the story interesting per se but rather the opposite. The first plot sees Thanos taking his army to Earth to reclaim the Infinity Gems (or so we thought) with the Inhumans ostensibly being his biggest obstacle; the second features Captain America and pretty much all of the Avengers heading out to another galaxy to join with numerous alien forces to defeat Marvel's version of the Borg, known rather blandly as The Builders (who're ironically all about destroying in this series). This second story is by far the least interesting of the two but it's this story that takes up almost all of this issue. It's also narrated in Hickman's passive voice so we see scenes happen almost in retrospect or from an ethereal perspective, intangible to get to grips with and therefore difficult to become involved in. Avengers and Allies fight the Builders - ships blow up, aliens die, Captain America looks stern; and then after a few more explosions, suddenly the Allies are winning and the Builders are on the ropes. Ya...awn. Unfortunately by then the issue is pretty much over by the time we get to the cover scene where Black Bolt confronts Thanos and - speaks. If you're unfamiliar with Black Bolt, he's a silent character because his speech is so devastating, he can never speak. Well, he speaks in this issue - but then the comic's over! I don't know about you but what sold me on Infinity was that we'd see Thanos but so far he's barely featured in any of the comics. He's been hiding in the wings rather than taking a prominent role and this trend continues in Infinity #3 where he peeps out, appears in a few panels, smiles, and then we're done. I felt kind of cheated when I read this issue because it's sold on the idea that we're getting this great scene between Thanos and Black Bolt and what we get instead is a lot of dreary space battles and then the beginning of that scene. I did like seeing the intergalactic council convening with Captain America basically leading the meeting with his strategies. He's like the blue version of Batman in the JLA, a powerless human amongst superpowered beings yet somehow the most dominant figure in the group. Readers of the current Guardians of the Galaxy series will recognise the intergalactic council and see some of those characters like King J'son of Spartax (Star-Lord's dad), which was cool. And once more the art is the best feature of the issue - Jerome Opena and Dustin Weaver producing incredible work, especially Opena who draws the bulk of the issue in space. The space battles, alien worlds, it's all so impressively presented - I'd say this issue is worth it just for the art alone. But the script is what lets down the comic. Hickman's story is only half interesting and unfortunately we got the boring half in this issue. The comic ends on a really excellent high point that sets up a (hopefully) great fourth issue, provided we stay away from space and spend more time on Earth, but I have to say now that we're at the halfway point, Infinity has been a really dull Event. It's lacked a consistent charge of excitement despite it's epic scope. Hickman has some really interesting characters to play with but fails to give them scenes to make them pop. The result is a completely flat story that has barely made any impression at all. Thanos invading Earth while the Avengers are light years away - how could this storyline not be interesting? Hickman has somehow found a way. Maybe the second half of the series will be better - maybe - but readers who chose to give this Event a miss seem vindicated so far.
Infinity #3 by Jonathan Hickman, Jerome Opena and Dustin Weaver is out now