The Earth's mightiest heroes assemble to take on the mad god Thanos. But can Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and others defeat someone who now controls reality itself?
James P. "Jim" Starlin is an American comic book writer and artist. With a career dating back to the early 1970s, he is best known for "cosmic" tales and space opera; for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock; and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters Thanos and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Death and suicide are recurring themes in Starlin's work: Personifications of Death appeared in his Captain Marvel series and in a fill-in story for Ghost Rider; Warlock commits suicide by killing his future self; and suicide is a theme in a story he plotted and drew for The Rampaging Hulk magazine.
In the mid-1970s, Starlin contributed a cache of stories to the independently published science-fiction anthology Star Reach. Here he developed his ideas of God, death, and infinity, free of the restrictions of mainstream comics publishers' self-censorship arm, the Comics Code Authority. Starlin also drew "The Secret of Skull River", inked by frequent collaborator Al Milgrom, for Savage Tales #5 (July 1974).
When Marvel Comics wished to use the name of Captain Marvel for a new, different character,[citation needed] Starlin was given the rare opportunity to produce a one-shot story in which to kill off a main character. The Death of Captain Marvel became the first graphic novel published by the company itself. (
In the late 1980s, Starlin began working more for DC Comics, writing a number of Batman stories, including the four-issue miniseries Batman: The Cult (Aug.-Nov. 1988), and the storyline "Batman: A Death in the Family", in Batman #426-429 (Dec. 1988 – Jan. 1989), in which Jason Todd, the second of Batman's Robin sidekicks, was killed. The death was decided by fans, as DC Comics set up a hotline for readers to vote on as to whether or not Jason Todd should survive a potentially fatal situation. For DC he created Hardcore Station.
Oh snap! The earth has been knocked out of its orbit and is now heading for a “never-ending ice age!”
All of earth’s superheroes are summoned, but that’s not enough; Adam Warlock and Silver Surfer travel to the edge of the universe for the gathering of astral deities, but even some of those guys won’t be very helpful. Kronos, the titan god of time will be useless, since Thanos can control time, and it was already demonstrated in The Thanos Quest that Lord Chaos and Master Order are powerless over Thanos.
Meanwhile, Thanos tries to make Mistress Death jealous by creating a woman who adores him. It doesn’t work.
The good guys teleport to Thanos’ Death Shrine, and Adam Warlock confides in Silver Surfer that they are actually just sacrificial lambs meant to be nothing more than a diversion. I wouldn’t think they’d be able to distract him for very long, though, considering Thanos could just snap them all into non-existence. I guess we’ll just chalk up his willingness to fight them hand-to-hand to hubris. The art is solid though, especially the full page panels!
A plan is hatched. Warlock heads off for the far corner of the universe to meet with the supreme beings. He convinces them to support him in the battle with Thanos since Thanos is trying to disrupt the balance of nature.
Thanos creates a new woman to satisfy him and exiles Death for he needs her no longer, the cold-hearted woman.
Warlock, the leader of the superheros now, gets most of the superheros who remain to begin an attack Silver Surfer and Warlock look on. We learn this attack is diversionary . . . and a sacrifice. Oh, no!
I'm as surprised as anybody that I'm enjoying this. I thought I really didn't like Marvel in outer space or stakes this impossibly high or such a disorienting amalgamation of superheroes (many of which I know well, some of which I'm merely familiar with, some of which I don't know), but the conflicts and characterizations here are outshone only by the art.
This is what I love about comics Space operas! Jim Sterling knows what it takes to make an epic story! No wonder the MCU adopted it Both parties the comics and the movie is top of the line stuff, Its for everybody who craves action and adventure