Infinity Wars #3 Review

Infinity Wars #3 Review

Infinity Wars #3 Review

Gamora has made her presence known as she took out the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and other heroes that confronted her. Those are big names that put Gamora over as the most dangerous character in the Marvel Universe. That is especially the case now that she has all of the Infinity Stones at her disposal. With these actions it’ll hopefully mean that Infinity Wars will move to its next phase as this event needs to get into gear after sticking to only one location for the majority of the story. Given that Loki and Flowa appeared before Gamora at the end of Infinity Wars #2 that should be the case. Let’s find out with Infinity Wars #3.

Writer: Gerry Duggan

Artist: Mike Deodato Jr.

Colorist: Frank Martin

Story Rating: 2 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 4.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: Gamora quickly has Loki groveling and talking about he has a secret after seeing other realities that Gamora would be interested in. Gamora already can tell that from what he said Loki has been to the Quarry of Creation.

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Ghost Thanos compliments Gamora on figuring out what Loki is talking about. Gamora swings her sword at ghost Thanos. When she does Gamora opens a portal to another world where  another world’s Gamora, Requiem (separate character), Iron Fist, Quasar and Thanos are fighting.

Even with seeing another world Gamora is not worried about losing control. She then states that she’ll investigate why she can’t see beyond this location. Loki offers to take Gamora to where she needs to be. Gamora rejects the offer and uses the Time Stone to unfreeze time.

Thor is surprised to see his brother while other heroes are confused at what is happening.

Gamora uses the Soul Stone to pass judgement on everyone assembled. She then uses the power she wields to merge the strongest among them so they don’t interfere with her mission.

Ghost Thanos continues to taunt Gamora leaving Loki and Flowa confused at who she is talking to.

Gamora finally finishes the process of merging several heroes and creating a new warp world.

In this new warp world several government officials speak about how the Super Soldier Serum failed. One of the men says that after Dr. Erskine was killed they found out she wasn’t a person of science.

He shows the other military official Dr. Erskine’s lab that actually houses various magic items. There they meet Stephen Rogers, who has become the Soldier Supreme (merger of Captain America and Doctor Strange).

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Somewhere in space Gamora mentions that the warp world didn’t go as it was created. Ghost Thanos says he has some advice for Gamora. Gamora says she does not hear him anymore.

Loki compliments Gamora on creating a new universe that will make it difficult for her enemies to pull themselves apart in order to stop her. Loki says he would like to go with Gamora on her mission. Gamora says Loki can’t stay with her. Flowa asks Gamora not to lump her with Loki, much to Loki’s ire.

Gamora finishes creating the warp characters that include: Soldier Supreme (Captain America/Doctor Strange), Iron Hammer (Thor/Iron Man), Weapon Hex (Scarlet Witch/X-23), Patch (Wolverine/Emma Frost), Arachknight (Spider-Man/Moon Knight) and Ghost Panther (Black Panther/Ghost Rider).

Loki states that while her method was different Gamora has done the same thing Thanos did when he cut the universe’s population in half. Gamora grabs Loki by the neck and says she is not her father. Loki asks Gamora if she knows why the Infinity Stones are different now, wondering if someone didn’t want them to wield them. Loki then mentions seeing another version of himself that wielded Mjolnir and wants to know why his life is miserable.

Gamora does not believe what Loki’s motives are at all. Flowa mentions she is chronicling these events because she has never written a book before. Gamora accepts Flowa to accompany her. As for Loki, Gamora sends him through a portal to new warp Earth.

Laughing at his circumstances he asks random people where the X-Men are.

At the same time a man is mysteriously webbed to newspaper dispenser and is suddenly teleported away.

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At the God Quarry Flowa wonders what will happen to everyone in the Soul world. Gamora states that once Devondra fills her belly she will create a new branch of reality after she learns the secrets of the God Quarry.

Gamora uses the Infinity Stones to start digging to see what is underneath God Quarry. She starts pulling out the bodies of the dead Gods underneath God Quarry.

Back at the warped Earth Loki arrives at the Xavier Mansion to find Patch. When he does Loki states he is there to help. Patch stabs Loki with his claw to read his mind. After understanding Loki’s intentions Patch closes the door on him. End of issue.

The Good: With everything set up for Infinity Wars finally ready to kick it to the next gear it was disappointing that we are still moving at a snail-like pace for Marvel’s latest event. The clear lack of an actual endgame makes everything that happens in Infinity Wars #3 empty. The only thing this issue seems to accomplish is promoting the new amalgamation characters for readers interested in checking out those mini-series’.

For all the things that don’t happen in Infinity Wars #3 the one thing that Gerry Duggan does a good job in showcasing Gamora as a no-nonsense character. As with previous issues of Infinity Wars, Gamora does come across as someone that will do whatever it takes to get her unknown mission done. That is best shown with how she does not put up Loki’s crap. She knows Loki is always in on it for himself and promises to do comes with an ulterior motive.

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Mike Deodato Jr. artwork was as solid as it has always been. Without any action scenes Deodato isn’t able to show off everything his artwork can do. But with how much is done with Gamora wielding the Infinity Stones, in particular the Soul Stone, Deodato is able to create some flashy images that standout, including the visual of the merged characters.

The Bad: When it comes to story progression all we really get in Infinity Wars #3 is Gamora going from Earth to the God Quarry. That change in setting at the end of the issue is all that really happens to progress the story. Other than that Infinity Wars #3  is mostly a set up for the Warped Character mini-series’ comics that Marvel is releasing after this issue. From a visual standpoint it is cool to see the merged forms of Iron Man and Thor as Iron Hammer and Spider-Man and Moon Knight as Arachknight. But once you get passed those visuals you are left questions what they actually add to the story.

This is unfortunate because we once again get presented with the idea that Infinity Wars is just another Avengers event rather than something that involves the entire universe. With characters like Adam Warlock and Guardians of the Galaxy this was a good chance to spotlight the cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe. Unfortunately outside of Gamora this event is not that, instead only spotlighting the Avengers and Wolverine.

This once again brings up one of the bigger problems with Infinity Wars as Duggan has yet to move the event off Earth. Even when he gets the chance to do so Duggan finds a way to keep the attention on Earth with the new Warped Marvel Universe. What makes this worse is that we are still stuck in New York City. Not even moving away from the same location on Earth makes Infinity Wars feel like a small event even with what the stakes are after Gamora gained all the Infinity Stones.

Infinity Wars #3 Review
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Adding to the problems that Infinity Wars is facing is the fact we don’t know what the endgame for this event is. The only thing we learn is that it has something to do with Devondra. Even with Gamora mentioning Devondra needing to feed the way Duggan had Gamora say that felt like a throwaway line. There was no emphasis on what exactly is going on with the Soul Stone that makes you feel that this is all happening for a purpose.

That brings an even bigger spotlight on how it has not been made clear what Gamora wants to do after killing Thanos and merging back with the missing part of her soul. There is no mission statement that is said. The only thing that we know is that Gamora suddenly has an interest in the Quarry of Creation just because she can’t see past the God Quarry. And even that mission has thin reasoning since Gamora just suddenly gained interest to see the Quarry of Creation just because she can’t see it.

This all falls back on the fact we don’t have an actual villain to be the antagonist for Infinity Wars. While Gamora has filled that role of antagonist it is tough to want to see the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and other heroes to defeat her since she is still technically considered a good person. After three issues to not have that villain-esque character to absolutely hate or at least want to see the heroes of the Marvel Universe defeat is disappoint. It is just another point that makes you wonder how far we have actually moved with this story since Infinity Wars Prime.

This lack of story development also hurts the bigger roles that Duggan has Loki and Flowa try to play in the story. In Infinity Wars #3 especially all Loki ends up doing is being the plot device to move Gamora’s sight to the Quarry of Creation. Other than that Loki just comes off as the annoying little brother that Gamora just ends up ditching before going to the party she was invited to. Being tossed away in that fashion steals Loki’s credibility as the supposed God of Mischief.

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Hurting Infinity Wars #3 even more is the weak way this issue ended. Having this entire issue end on the Wolverine and Emma Frost hybrid slam the door on Loki’s face felt like an abrut ending. The way it was executed was more of a scene transition rather than an way to end. There was zero excitement or build from this ending since there is no sense of where the story will go from here. All we know is that Loki will likely go try to annoy the other Warped heroes until one of them actually listens to his words that should sound like an insane conspiracy theory guy holding up a sign about lizard people.

Overall: Infinity Wars #3 was a major disappointment. After showing signs of potential the story in Infinity Wars has failed to move forward with a compelling plot. There is no clear direction for what the endgame of Infinity Wars will turn out to be. Instead this issue just serves as a way to market the tie-in comics featuring Warped Marvel Universe characters. For a major Marvel event to fail to build anticipation for what happens next is just unacceptable.