Avengers Infinity
Encyclopedia
Avengers: Infinity is a four-issue American comic book
limited series
published from September to December 2000 by Marvel Comics
. The series was written by Roger Stern
and drawn by Sean Chen
, Scott Hanna, Steve Oliff
and Troy Peteri.
and Tom Brevoort
."
The idea or the huge hand "came from the image that Carlos Pacheco
gave us in Avengers Forever
#10. Kurt and I had asked him for a shot of a gigantic hand bigger than the star it was reaching for -- and, boy, did he deliver!"
The story also partly led into the "Maximum Security" storyline.
of the alien Rigellians in deep space. The character arrives to find the colony destroyed and a single survivor - the superhero Jack of Hearts - who is in a coma
. Quasar summons all nearby members of the superhero team the Avengers
, with the Thunder God Thor
, the Titanian Eternal Starfox
, heroines Tigra
and Photon
and outsider Moondragon
responding.
When the heroes arrive on the planet, Moondragon scans Jack's mind and detects a single word: Infinites. The heroes are then attacked by thousands of robot
s, and eventually retreat via ship into space as the artificial life forms seem to be forming from the planet itself. Moondragon continues to scan Jack's mind and learns the robots' purpose is to break down the entire planet into a molten mass. The planet's crust is breached by the robots and as it becomes molten ore, the Jack of Hearts wakes and states that the master of the robot hordes has arrived. A spatial rift opens, and a being the size of a planet emerges.
The Avengers - at microscopic
size compared to the entity - breach its head and attempt to reach the brain
to learn more and possibly neutralize it. As the Avengers battle more of the same robots within the entity, Tigra watches as it shapes the molten ore into a cylinder
. Several more beings, of the same size and scope, also arrive bearing similar cylinders, which Tigra assumes are former planets. The group fuses with the cylinders to form a huge circular ring that clamps the star
close to the original planet the Avengers visited.
Another spatial rift opens and an even larger hand appears and begins to drag away the entire galaxy
.
The characters retreat from the entity - now part of the colossal ring - with Moondragon determining that the entire construct is now called a Walker, with the being dragging the galaxy away called an Infinite. Moondragon suggests summoning the cosmic entity Eternity
to stop this act. Quasar is able to call Eternity, and the entity wrestles with the hand before travelling with the Avengers to the Dimension of Manifestations, where cosmic entities converse. The Infinites claim they are simply rearranging galaxies to improve the flow of energy, and Eternity advises that this act would be fatal to all affected life forms.
The Avengers each make a case for the sanctity of life, and the Infinites advise that they were ignorant of the fact that life can exist on planets. The Infinites abandon their plan and one of their number sacrifices itself to restore all destroyed planets. The Avengers are transported back to the now recreated Rigellian colony, which is a paradise as animal
life has yet to appear.
American comic book
An American comic book is a small magazine originating in the United States and containing a narrative in the form of comics. Since 1975 the dimensions have standardized at 6 5/8" x 10 ¼" , down from 6 ¾" x 10 ¼" in the Silver Age, although larger formats appeared in the past...
limited series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
published from September to December 2000 by Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
. The series was written by Roger Stern
Roger Stern
Roger Stern is an American comic book author and novelist.-Early career:In the early 1970s, Stern and Bob Layton published the fanzine CPL , one of the first platforms for the work of John Byrne...
and drawn by Sean Chen
Sean Chen
Sean Chen is an Asian American comic book artist.-Career:Chen is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University where he received a bachelor's degree in industrial design. He started his career after being discovered by Barry Windsor-Smith...
, Scott Hanna, Steve Oliff
Steve Oliff
Steve Oliff is an American comic book artist who has worked as a colorist in the comics industry since 1978.-Biography:...
and Troy Peteri.
Publication history
Writer Roger Stern has explained a number of the decisions that went into the planning of the series. On the diverse team line-up he said "I just put together a list of Avengers who would be at loose ends, and who would be good choices for a big, cosmic adventure ... with a welcome bit of kibitzing from Kurt BusiekKurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek is an American comic book writer notable for his work on the Marvels limited series, his own title Astro City, and his four-year run on Avengers.-Early life:...
and Tom Brevoort
Tom Brevoort
Tom Brevoort is an American comic book editor, known for his work for Marvel Comics, where he has overseen titles such as New Avengers, Civil War, and Fantastic Four. He became Executive Editor in 2007, and in January 2011 was promoted to Senior Vice President of Publishing...
."
The idea or the huge hand "came from the image that Carlos Pacheco
Carlos Pacheco
Carlos Pacheco is a Spanish comic book artist and penciller. Pacheco was born in San Roque, Cádiz. He is best known in the United States for his work on titles such as Avengers Forever, X-Men and Green Lantern...
gave us in Avengers Forever
Avengers Forever
Avengers Forever is a twelve-issue comic book limited series published from December 1998 to November 1999 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Kurt Busiek and Roger Stern and drawn by Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino.-Publication history:...
#10. Kurt and I had asked him for a shot of a gigantic hand bigger than the star it was reaching for -- and, boy, did he deliver!"
The story also partly led into the "Maximum Security" storyline.
Plot summary
The cosmic hero Quasar receives a distress call from a colonyColony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
of the alien Rigellians in deep space. The character arrives to find the colony destroyed and a single survivor - the superhero Jack of Hearts - who is in a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
. Quasar summons all nearby members of the superhero team the Avengers
Avengers (comics)
The Avengers is a fictional team of superheroes, appearing in magazines published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1 The Avengers is a fictional team of superheroes, appearing in magazines published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1 The Avengers...
, with the Thunder God Thor
Thor (Marvel Comics)
Thor is a fictional superhero who appears in publications published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Journey into Mystery #83 and was created by editor-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, and penciller Jack Kirby....
, the Titanian Eternal Starfox
Starfox
Starfox is a fictional superhero in Marvel Comics' shared universe, the Marvel Universe. He has operated as a member of the Avengers and is one of the Eternals of Titan...
, heroines Tigra
Tigra
Tigra is a fictional American comic book superheroine in the Marvel Comics universe. Introduced as the non-superpowered crime fighter The Cat in Claws of the Cat #1 , she was co-created by writer-editor Roy Thomas, writer Linda Fite, and penciller Marie Severin...
and Photon
Monica Rambeau
Monica Rambeau is a fictional character, a comic book superheroine in the Marvel Comics universe. Initially known as Captain Marvel, the character became a leader of the Avengers...
and outsider Moondragon
Moondragon
Moondragon is a fictional character in Marvel Comics Universe. A vastly powerful telepath, master martial artist, minor telekinetic, and highly skilled geneticist, Moondragon's most notable characteristics are her shaved head, superiority complex, and gruelling elite excellence in virtually every...
responding.
When the heroes arrive on the planet, Moondragon scans Jack's mind and detects a single word: Infinites. The heroes are then attacked by thousands of robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
s, and eventually retreat via ship into space as the artificial life forms seem to be forming from the planet itself. Moondragon continues to scan Jack's mind and learns the robots' purpose is to break down the entire planet into a molten mass. The planet's crust is breached by the robots and as it becomes molten ore, the Jack of Hearts wakes and states that the master of the robot hordes has arrived. A spatial rift opens, and a being the size of a planet emerges.
The Avengers - at microscopic
Microscopic
The microscopic scale is the scale of size or length used to describe objects smaller than those that can easily be seen by the naked eye and which require a lens or microscope to see them clearly.-History:...
size compared to the entity - breach its head and attempt to reach the brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
to learn more and possibly neutralize it. As the Avengers battle more of the same robots within the entity, Tigra watches as it shapes the molten ore into a cylinder
Cylinder (geometry)
A cylinder is one of the most basic curvilinear geometric shapes, the surface formed by the points at a fixed distance from a given line segment, the axis of the cylinder. The solid enclosed by this surface and by two planes perpendicular to the axis is also called a cylinder...
. Several more beings, of the same size and scope, also arrive bearing similar cylinders, which Tigra assumes are former planets. The group fuses with the cylinders to form a huge circular ring that clamps the star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
close to the original planet the Avengers visited.
Another spatial rift opens and an even larger hand appears and begins to drag away the entire galaxy
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
.
The characters retreat from the entity - now part of the colossal ring - with Moondragon determining that the entire construct is now called a Walker, with the being dragging the galaxy away called an Infinite. Moondragon suggests summoning the cosmic entity Eternity
Eternity (comics)
Eternity is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by scripter-editor Stan Lee and artist-plotter Steve Ditko, the character is first mentioned in Strange Tales #134 and first appears in Strange Tales #138 Eternity is a fictional character that...
to stop this act. Quasar is able to call Eternity, and the entity wrestles with the hand before travelling with the Avengers to the Dimension of Manifestations, where cosmic entities converse. The Infinites claim they are simply rearranging galaxies to improve the flow of energy, and Eternity advises that this act would be fatal to all affected life forms.
The Avengers each make a case for the sanctity of life, and the Infinites advise that they were ignorant of the fact that life can exist on planets. The Infinites abandon their plan and one of their number sacrifices itself to restore all destroyed planets. The Avengers are transported back to the now recreated Rigellian colony, which is a paradise as animal
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
life has yet to appear.
External links
- Avengers Infinity at the Marvel Database Project
- Avengers Infinity #1 Review, Comics BulletinComics BulletinComics Bulletin is a website with an emphasis on the American comic book industry, updated daily with news, reviews, interviews, and editorial content. Coverage ranges from mainstream to independent/small press comic book and graphic novel publishers.-History:...