Infinite Destinies

Infinite Destinies #1-8

by Jed MacKay, Ibraim Roberson (Illustrator), Marvel Various (Writer)

The Infinity Stones have returned to the Marvel Universe! Who will wield their unbelievable cosmic power this time? The answers unite some of Marvel’s biggest names with its newest breakout characters! From iconic figures Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Spider-Man to fan-favorites Miles Morales and the Black Cat to super-teams the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy, they’ll all have their hands full with rising stars including Quantum, Overtime, the White Fox, Taegukgi and more! Meanwhile, Nick Fury undertakes his own quest to track down answers about the Infinity Stones! Collecting IRON MAN ANNUAL (2021) #1, CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNUAL (2021) #1, THOR ANNUAL (2021) #1, BLACK CAT ANNUAL (2021) #1, AVENGERS ANNUAL (2021) #1, MILES SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY ANNUAL (2021) #1 and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL (2018) #2.

Genres: Marvel, Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Spider Man, Collections

264 pages, Paperback

Published November 16, 2021

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marvel supposedly made these annuals about the people who bonded with the Infinity Gems at the end of Infinity Wars. A couple of them do not have anything to do with the Infinity Gems at all.


Iron Man Annual #1 (United States) by Jed MacKay & Ibraim Roberson - ★★★★
Iron Man teams up with Miles Morales and then goes after the person who kidnapped Miles, the Accessor. We found out where the Space Gem went. I liked this quite a bit.

Captain America Annual #1 by Gerry Duggan & Marco Castiello - ★★★★
Cap and Black Widow team up to track down Overtime. He has the Time Gem and can use it to stop time around him. Solid stuff.

Black Cat Annual #1 by Jed MacKay & Joey Vasquez - ★★★
Black Cat gets hijacked by White Fox to go on a mission in South Korea. Not as good as the regular Black Cat series MacKay is writing. No connection to the Infinity Gems in the story but she is involved in an upcoming Black Cat story that I guess spins out of these annuals.

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2 by Karla Pacheco & Eleonora Carlini - ★★★★
Spider-Man comes across Star who is back to her evil, selfish ways from her Captain Marvel days. She gained her powers from the Reality Gem.

Thor Annual #1 by Aaron Kuder - ★★
Some weird new villain shows up from another universe. He explores the darkest path of what could have been and eats chaos. I don't know. No connection to the gems. This wasn't great but looks real purdy.

Guardians of the Galaxy Annual #1 by Al Ewing & Flaviano - ★★
The new Prince of Power gets an origin story. He has the Power Gem and is exhausting. Not a fan at all.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man Annual #1 by Saladin Ahmed & Luca Maresca - ★★★
Miles teams up with a new character Amulet to track down some cursed objects. Again, no connection to the gems.

Avengers Annual #1 by Jed MacKay & Travel Foreman - ★★★
Iron Man and Captain America team up when an android receives the Soul Gem. It was alright.

(United States) by Jed MacKay & Juan Ferreyra - ★★
The back up stories from each annual. Nick Fury meets a character from Heroes Reborn and the story leads into Black Cat. I was disappointed this wasn't better considering I like both of these creators.

[Khurram · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good set of stories. The infinity stones are back and bonded to people. How do you make the most powerful artifacts in the universe more dangerous? How about bonding them with unstable and dangerous people.

Eight annuals of great power in the wrong hands and the heroes on the back foot and overmatched. Then the eight parts of Fury's story against a man just a dangerous as he is with the conviction to change the world.

Good artwork and good stories. I enjoyed all the parts of the book, but really enjoyed it as a whole. This definitely wet my appetite to see what happens next. The books finishes with a thumbnail cover gallery.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Infinity Stones have been reborn in the bodies of six humans. That's going to be a problem.

Or it would be, if half of these issues didn't eskew that premise entirely and just tell some one-off stories. Of the eight issues collected here, only four, maybe four and a half, actually focus on the new Infinity Stone characters. The rest are just generic, if enjoyable one-and-done romps for those characters, so I'm not really sure what the point was?

Of these eight issues, the Spider-Man one featuring Star, the Guardians of the Galaxy one that details the origin of the new Prince Of Power, and the Iron Man one that draws on some Miles Morales continuity are easily the best. The others range from middling to pointless, but that's what you get with a collection involving 8 different creative teams.

Also included are the Infinite Fury back-ups, which see Nick Fury dealing with the aftermath of Heroes Reborn. Even this, which is again touted as Infinity Stone related, doesn't really do as much with that idea as it could.

All of this is just a prelude to the final arc of Black Cat, Infinity Score, so I'm hoping that that lands a little better than this did.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Infinite Destinies has the appearance of a Major Marvel Event due to the special publication and inclusion of the Infinity Stones. But it's not that. It's basically an extra large denouement from the Infinity Wars event as we see where some of the Infinity Stones ended up. By the end of Infinite Destinies, we're primed for...something. Another big event? Occasional glimpses of Infinity Stones in a few ongoing series? It's not clear and maybe we'll actually just get nothing.

That wouldn't be so bad: the crux of Infinite Destinies is that the Infinity Stones have become embedded in a bunch of D-list or lower characters. These characters (largely villain-adjacent) are not interesting people. Slightly more interesting: the Annual issues in which we meet them and the actual Marvel heroes therein. Because Infinite Destinies is composed entirely of these Annuals, it feels like a weird grab-bag of stories with little-to-no throughline. Thor's Annual: weird and good! Mile Morales Annual: Boring with zero hints of an Infinity Stone! The ebb and flow can be startling from issue to issue.

Ultimately, Infinite Destinies is fine, but entirely skippable. Not a bad product, per se, but certainly not an event - or even a precursor to an event.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Destinos Infinitos é uma coletânea de quase 300 páginas com vários anuais relacionados com o retorno das Joias do Infinto ao Universo Marvel, desta vez se incorporando a seres sapientes. Bem, quer dizer, nem todos os anuais estão exatamente relacionados a essas constatações. Na verdade, os melhores roteiros deste encadernado não estão ligados a saga, pelo menos aparentemente. É o caso das histórias de Felícia Hardy, a Gata Negra e de Miles Morales, o Homem-Aranha, que apresentam heróis de outras origens, como o árabe Amuleto e a equipe coreana Divisão Tigre, da heroína Raposa Branca. Outra boa história é a que conta a origem do (outro) Príncipe do Poder, fazendo uma divertida paródia do He-Man, no anual dos Guardiões da Galáxia. Os outros anuais que compreendem o encadernado, do Homem de Ferro, do Homem-Aranha Peter Parker, dos Vingadores, do Capitão América e do Thor são de medianos para bastante ruins. Completa ainda uma história de Nick Fury Jr. contra o Falcão Noturno, que tem como mérito a bela arte de Juan Ferreyra. Então, se quiserem a minha sincera opinião sobre essa publicação é que ela não vale o investimento do leitor, principalmente por ser onerosa e ter sido publicada em capa dura pela Panini Comics Brasil.

[Eye-ra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously some of the annuals were better than others. However having them all intertwine and build up to something even bigger on the horizon I highly enjoyed. Now to track down some issues I haven’t read yet..

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of 2021 Marvel annuals, mostly centered around the Infinity Stones:
- Iron Man: Starts off suggesting a team-up with Miles Morales, but mainly turns into Tony Stark no-selling a bad guy's maze of tests. Not too bad.
- Captain America: Pits Cap and Black Widow against the wielder of the Time Stone. Feels more like a prologue to a more substantive story.
- Black Cat: Black Cat is drafted to help Korean superheroes defeat one of their own, who's gone rogue. Neat read, I'd like to see more of Tiger Division.
- Amazing Spider-Man: Peter deals with the wielder of the Reality Stone. Who's too unlikable and petty to be as sympathetic as she could be.
- Thor: A weird tale of clashing alternate realities. Something about it didn't quite click despite the interesting premise and setting.
- Guardians of the Galaxy: The origin story of the wielder of the Power Stone. A fun pastiche of a major 80s fantasy toy franchise, and probably the best in the collection.
- Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Miles teams up with a new hero, Amulet. Who has a cool backstory and premise, but the story is basically just about that. Would have liked more.
- Avengers: Cap and Tony face the wielder of the Soul Stone. Mostly from the wielder's POV, which is an interesting angle.
- Infinite Fury: A series of backup stories dealing with Nick Fury's hunt for the Stones. The opponent he faces is an interesting choice, as is his method of attack...

Most of these are good, but not quite great, but it's a satisfying read overall. (B+)

[Tyler Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m gonna call it more so 3.5/5 stars rounded down. How do you have seven stories centered on the most dangerous stones in the universe and come out this boring. Not to mention, I have no idea how a couple of these stories factor into telling us who has Infinity Stones. By the end we know who five of the new hosts are leaving one still a mystery but there’s hardly any action. What I found more fun was the interactions between characters that’s don’t interact very often. At the end of the day these are annual stories of specific comic runs and that’s more so what this felt like. The annual story with a pinch of crossover. It’s a lot of reading and if you care a hit the future of the Marvel comics this will probably be an important read. But otherwise I might just skip it.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess the next time out, the Infinity Stones will have bonded with people, so getting those people together in one place will probably spark the next crisis or whatever. Actually, this collection of unconnected annuals from a variety of titles isn't bad at all. Each one focuses on a different recipient of an Infinity Stone and they're not all bad people. Also, I've found that annuals tend to be pretty bad, but none of these is that terrible, surprisingly. Only time will tell what's next...

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taking place after Infinity Wars, this story continues by showing us where the Infinity Gems have ended up after Adam Warlock bonding them to people. Overall, the story feels kind of unnecessary and open ended. Wish I knew where Marvel was taking this...
Highlights:
- While helping Miles Morales, Iron Man learns of a new technological villain named "The Assessor" (Guess what he does? LOL) After overcoming many trials, Iron Man meets an associate of The Assessor called Quantum, who is the new holder of the Space Stone. Quantum escapes.
- Hector Bautista (from Infinity Wars) is the bearer of the Time Stone, and now calls himself Overtime. Not quite villainous yet, he is able to evade Cap and Black Widow.
- Black Cat has a Korean adventure when she is recruited by White Fox to help stop Taegugki, a kind of Superman, who is being mind controlled by Mongdal to destroy his team, Tiger Division. (The art is the best in the Volume here) Excited to see where "Infinity Heist" goes, back in Cat's main title.
- Star (introduced previously) has the Reality Stone, but even an encounter, some encouragement, and a discussion with Spider-Man gets her to change her ways.
- The Light Elves of Alfheim are having a celebration and All-Father Thor is invited. A new villain named Valg shows up and causes trouble. (No Stones in this tale.)
- Prince of Power (very blatantly a ripoff of He-Man, even down to his villains) has newly swallowed the Power Stone and seeks Hercules for help. Very funny backstories here.
- Miles Morales goes patrolling in a different part of town than the usual and meets Amulet, a mystical new hero. Together, they defeat a cyclops and end the night as friends.
- Iron Man and Cap track the next event where a synthezoid named Ward has gotten the Soul Stone and changed his name to Multitude. Will he be as much hassle?

But that's where it ends. Nothing else to the story. What is next?
Recommend, but at your own risk.

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a weird read because I remember reading some of these stories when they were coming out in single issues and now reading them all together, you can see some are good and while others not good because so many writers were writing it but I still liked the parts written by Mackay and overall it introduces some fascinating concepts related to hosts of different Infinity stones and it will be fun to see how they pan out!

The Iron man vs Quantum story was really good and he was a formidable threat and it brings the miles story resolution in a really good manner, the Cap story vs Overtime was meh but really if you have read the Wolverine stuff it plays out in a really fascinating way and then the Black cat story which if you read the arc accompanying it makes more sense and shows Felicia being a con artist really well lol, the Spidey vs Star story was really bad and the writing wasn't that good but it does have a good emotional resolution showing Spidey in a heroic role.

The thor one was meh and doesn't really add much, the Prince of Power story pretty much is like a riff-off He-man and yeah tries to poke fun at it and becomes non sensical though and breaks the flow of the story as a whole though, as its like clash of tones but introduces a fun host for the power stone and then Iron man/Cap team up vs some soul stone host which is an android and the story was meh. So yeah again its like we meet all the hosts and lets see how they all meet or rather get together.

So its just like introducing different hosts of this stone and how the different marvel heroes tie into it and hence the name and it will be interesting to see if this is leading to some big story and will Thanos tie into it and whenever Infinity stones are behind it, you know he has something to do with it. Plus I like some of the things introduced here and I wonder if Mackay will play with them in his Avengers and X-Men runs!

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collects Iron Man Annual (2021) #1, Captain America Annual (2021) #1, Thor Annual (2021) #1, Black Cat Annual (2021) #1, Avengers Annual (2021) #1, Miles Morales: Spider-Man Annual (2021) #1, Guardians of the Galaxy Annual (2021) #1, and Amazing Spider-Man Annual (2018) #2

Because I tend to enjoy Infinity Gem-related stories, I had semi-high hopes for this collection. Unfortunately, while there were some good aspects, and while I could see some of the seeds of these stories being important in the future, I found myself wanting to skim much of this collection.

[Ashley Wijangco · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75