The epic saga continues to spin from Jonathan Hickman’s mind, and Infinity #4 features a clash between Thanos and Black Bolt as well as a turn of the tide in the Avengers’ space war.
Captain America’s gambit to try and find a way to win against the onslaught of the Builders and their impossibly arrogant Creator left in control of the Kree homeworld of Hala moves apace, with an attempt to negotiate an end to hostilities under the pretense of getting some assurances out of the superior fighting force. The resistance is allowed a sole negotiator, and Cap chooses the God of Thunder. Meanwhile, Attilan has exploded over Manhattan, activating the Terrigen Bomb, which instantly activates the Inhumanity of those descendants of the race scattered around the globe – and that transforms a man named Thane, Son of Thanos, from a well-intentioned healer to death incarnate.
Curiously, our first look at Thane is as a normal white guy, without a trace of his purple alien heritage, which is sadly a kind of boring choice, but the idea of a guy who strives to be the opposite of the unrelenting bastard his father is being dragged back against his will into being exactly what his father would like him to be (aside from dead) may make for some interesting drama. Thanos, meanwhile, in his search for Thane, has his hands full with Black Bolt, whose intense sonic scream has bloodied him – no easy feat. However, as we saw once before during World War Hulk, a being of sufficient power can stomp his way through that scream and make relatively short work of the king of the Inhumans. In this case, they may very well have lost their king for good. Thanos is not known for half-measures.
Neither is Thor. Back in space, Thor is forced to disarm himself as supplication to the Creator, whose Builder breathren are omni-casting the Thunder God’s surrender throughout the galaxy to quell all further resistance. the Creator is cruel, demeaning, and offers none of the assurances he was supposed to. A god is made to kneel as the Creator explains that their mission is to eliminate humanity – “a sickness that exists in every universe that has been or ever will be. A festering wound that must be cauterized. A blight on the great canvas that is everything.” Kind of the Bill Hicks philosophy. People suck. We’re a virus with shoes.
However, Thor is not just a man. The Builders seem not to know of his nature, and thus, they don’t realize that when Thor discarded Mjolnir, he sent it through the heart of a star to gain more power, then summoned it back to crush this Creator in front of all… but not before an ominous warning that his defeat means “everything dies.” We’ll have to see about that.
Hickman has constructed a moment of supreme power for Thor, just in time for his movie, and we believe that Captain America has once again found a way to win against impossible odds – although the battle is not yet won. We’ve still got two issues left. Artist Jerome Opeña, as always, makes this moment as epic as it needs to be. Dustin Weaver, in turn, handles the devastation on Earth just as well, although I would rather have seen Thanos a bit more broken up by Black Bolt’s death screams, but that may just me liking the character so much that I don’t want to see him chumped. It’s a fine line here. We’ve seen what happens when he lets loose, but the fact that it’s not even close to enough is a bit sad. Then again, this is Thanos. He only gets beaten when lots and lots of people team up to get it done.
Light broke through Hickman’s heavy darkness in Infinity #4, and a whole new world of Inhumanity has opened up. Enemies are broken but not beaten. Anything remains possible, but for now, the dead are being Avenged.
