So, I got "Thanos Annual" the other day as planned, and here's the review. In a word: Woohoo!
In addition to setting up some very interesting(-looking) things to come, the whole thing reads like a love letter to fans of Jim Starlin and the 90s cosmic stories.
For starters, there's the fact that it's Ron Lim drawing the cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe again, with Thanos, Mephisto and all the other memorable faces. And, really, no one has or does draw them better. This is just the truth. Love it or hate it, but you can't deny it.
Lim's pencils paradoxically demand the fewest comments in this review because he does visual storytelling so well, as you would expect based on past work. One action flows into the next fluidly, and in panels with spoken dialogue, you can often tell which moment in the word bubble belongs to the accompanying image, at times going so far as to influence how the words sound in your head as you read them (perfect example of Lim's ability for this off the top of my head: when Thanos says "Noble sentiments from one who is about to die" to Captain America in "The Infinity Gauntlet" #4).
He's just that good.
Moving now to the script, wow. Starlin never fails to impress for his ability to set the stage in these kind of stories. You could probably pick this thing up with no knowledge of past Thanos stories and walk away from it with a perfect grasp of who he is. For those who do know and love the Mad Titan's proper history, this book feels like lunch with an old friend.
For someone like me who absolutely hated last Fall's "Infinity" event for seemingly overlooking that Thanos hadn't been a villain since 1991, it's even more of a treat than that. It's somewhere on the scale of how Bryan Singer fixed the X-Men film series with "Days of Future Past."
Starlin walks us -- and Thanos himself -- through the major cosmic conflicts in the character's history, showing us that at least someone remembers that he became an anti-hero who struggled to stop other cosmic despots from succeeding in the sort of conquests he once attempted, and has even been outright noble at times.
Perhaps Starlin remembers because he wrote most of those stories, but he still manages to give lip service to Marvel's "Annihilation" event of several years ago. When a temporally omniscient future version of Thanos wielding the Infinity Gauntlet informs his younger self that his death during that story is one of his favorites, one suspects that Starlin may actually be letting Thanos speak for Starlin himself.
Why, then, did no one seem to remember Starlin's own writings about Thanos when creating "Infinity"? It's pretty difficult to forget "The Infinity Gauntlet" of all stories, to say nothing of "The Infinity War," "The Infinity Crusade," "The Infinity Watch" ongoing series, "The Infinity Abyss," Thanos's eponymous 12-issue series and "Marvel: The End" -- all of which see reference here in this single issue written by Starlin.
It is, of course, obvious why Marvel chose to depict Thanos as a villain once more. Comics publishers are always trying to lure in new readers. The Avengers movies' unparalleled success meant that a new fanbase was waiting to be tapped -- one that would wonder who the mysterious purple villain is who made his ominous debut during the end credits of the first self-titled Avengers movie.
Being that this new source of fans would be seeing a malevolent Thanos in the films, they would expect a malevolent Thanos in the comics. Good writing and characterization be damned.
It makes sense financially, but that doesn't excuse it artistically. The films are their own continuity, separate from the comics, so you can have a villainous Thanos there and not step on anyone's toes. That punk in "Infinity," though? That is not Marvel's most complex and self-reflective character.
We're talking about an anti-hero who, when he was a villain, overcame unfathomable obstacles more than once to acquire omnipotent power, only to quickly lose it because he knew he didn't actually deserve to lord over anyone, and, thus, subconsciously provided the heroes out to stop him with opportunities to do so. Later, he would set out to make amends for his past misdeeds and safeguard the universe against those like him.
You don't do much more complex and intriguing than Thanos, so while Marvel's need to pay the electric bill is a noble cause, it made "Infinity" feel no less like a piss in the face.
With Starlin's return to the character, we begin to see him set back on the right track. This voice matches the real Thanos. The motivations match. The cunning mind matches. The clever sense of humor matches. And all the continuity references are simply awesome.
While this story is set in Thanos's past, one expects the same justice will be done to the character in Starlin's upcoming original graphic novel, "Thanos: The Infinity Revelation," to be released in August. Both written and penciled by Starlin, the next story will be set in the present day and, according to Starlin, see Thanos reunited with a resurrected Adam Warlock -- the closest person Thanos has to a friend in all the Marvel Universe.
Sadly, Starlin's planned concluding chapter to what
was intended to be a trilogy visiting Thanos in his past, present and future has been placed on hold indefinitely, despite Starlin turning in a completed script. "The Infinity Duel" as the title would have been known, was again to feature Adam Warlock alongside Thanos, but
Marvel editorial have put a hold on use of the former beyond his resurrection in "The Infinity Revelation."
This is presumably because Marvel is awaiting the box office results of August's release of "The Guardians of the Galaxy" film, which may inspire later inclusion of Adam Warlock in the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- and would, presumably, then entail industry-related strategic use of the character in the comics.
With any luck, we'll get to see Starlin's planned conclusion for this set of stories, which are all related to some upcoming "universal transmutation" coming to the Marvel Universe, as mentioned at the end of "Thanos Annual." Undoubtedly a factor in Marvel's upcoming "Time Runs Out" event, we may finally be seeing the stage set
for a universal reboot of the Marvel Universe after 75 years.
If Marvel's own version of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" is on the way, then I eagerly await it. In all honesty, despite Marvel's comics being with me since before I could read, as well as inspiring my childhood and young adult imagination more than any other source, it might be time for some of us to be able to say "This is where it ended."
In so many ways, it has run its course. The very existence of the "Ultimates" line points to a need for more freedom with stories and characters. Paradigms where death in comics not only has gravity, but where it isn't a revolving door for some A-list characters while the fans of C- and D-listers can expect to never see their favorites again.
Also, honestly? Ever since the "One More Day" Spider-Man story, there hasn't been a lot of reason to care about what happens in the Marvel Universe. The message to fans with that debacle was that if editorial wants something, they'll shit all over decades of character development and continuity to get it.
And speaking of continuity, what are we supposed to make of the current landscape where the Beyonder was inexplicably retconned into being an Inhuman or where Galactus is currently starving to death in the Negative Zone after being shuffled out of the mainstream universe into the Ultimates universe -- despite it being long established that Galactus is an integral part of the Marvel Universe's eco-system?
Time itself has been everyone's bitch lately between back-to-back major events like "Age of Ultron" (not to be confused with the Avengers film sequel of the same name) and the story currently unfolding in the pages of "Uncanny Avengers," as well as wacky hijinks like Legion, the son of Professor Xavier, apparently altering reality such that he was never born. Who even knows what the proper course of history is in the Marvel Universe right now or whether events like "The Age of Apocalypse" (caused by Legion) are still canon, even as alternate timelines?
Time needs a fresh start. The Marvel Universe needs a fresh start. Is Thanos going to deliver it?
I for one sure hope so. May universal transmutation commence.
