Infinity Wars #6 Review

After a year of build up Infinity Wars has reached its concluding chapter. The lead up to this big finale has not been pretty. Though Infinity Wars had a promising start it quickly got off the rails with a plot that has continuously spinning its wheel. The excitement around how Infinity Wars will end has dwindled, with Infinity Wars #5 being the worst issue of this event. With a lackluster lead up to this final issue can Gerry Duggan end Infinity Wars on a high? Let’s find out with Infinity Wars #6.

Writer: Gerry Duggan

Artist: Mike Deodato Jr.

Colorist: Frank Martin

Story Rating: 1 Night Girl out of 10

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: In the Prime Universe Loki asks a deity to show him his future. The deity is speechless but shows Loki his future. Loki laughs at what he sees. He then asks the deity if he is doing this for them or for it. The deity opens a door for Loki to go through.

At the Quarry of Creation everyone reacts to Loki leaving them useless stones. Loki shows up and gives Emma Frost, Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Kang and Ant-Man the Infinity Stones.

Loki then goes over to Flowa, who is on her viking ship. Loki says that he now realizes this was all fate and that he has been here before to prevent himself from breaching the universe. Flowa responds by saying she owes him a beating of a lifetime. They then take off to Omnipotence City.

In the Soul World while the Warp Avengers and Adam Warlock fight Devondra Soldier Supreme demands the Infinity Stones from Gamora. Gamora says she is going to erase her mistake. Soldier Supreme responds by smashing Gamora’s face with a magical shield and then magically punches Gamora towards Devondra.

The Groot-Star-Lord hybrid and Arthur Douglas (Drax’s human-self) saves Gamora before being eaten by Devondra.

Adam Warlock then says that they need the Infinity Stones to set things back to how they were. At that moment Emma Frost, Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Kang and Ant-Man show up in the Soul World with the Infinity Stones.

Adam Warlock prepares to uses the Stones to restore their universe and escape the Soul World. Soldier Supreme does not respond kindly with the fact Adam Warlock is going to erase his Warp Universe.

Adam Warlock starts thinking of a solution on how the regular Marvel and Warp Universes aren’t erased.

To buy them some time Hulk uses the Space Stone to create a black hole within Devondra so it does not try to eat them.

Adam Warlock first act is to restore the Guardians of the Galaxy to their original forms. They are then all surprised that this caused Drax and Arthur Douglas to split into two.

Adam Warlock then has Ms. Marvel imagine a world that is a blank slate to create a universe from it. Once she does that Adam Warlock has all the Infinity Stone users activate their respective Stones to start the process of restoring their universe. From there Adam Warlock is able to make the Warp Universe its own separate universe.

As the process goes on Drax happily reunites with Moondragon and Phyla-Vell.

The reunion is short as they notice Devondra starting to escape the black hole.

Adam Warlock states that they are still trying to restore both universes. Arthur Douglas and Drax help by grabbing the universes to make them their own separate universe. Adam Warlock completes the process by locking in the universes with the power of the Soul Stone.

While the process is completed Adam Warlock reveals that someone must stay behind to make sure they can all get back before the portals close. Drax and Arthur Douglas volunteer to do so. Adam Warlock thanks them both.

Adam Warlock then has everyone get inside the Soul Stone and goes through the portal back to the Marvel Universe.

They all end up back on their Earth and crash near the pyramids in Egypt.

While they all recover from the landing Moondragon and Phyla-Vell quickly stop Gamora from grabbing the Infinity Stones. Moondragon and Phyla-Vell attempt to kill Gamora but are stopped by Star-Lord. Star-Lord speaks up for Gamora along with saying that they stopped a catastrophe. Moondragon thinks it is possible that with Star-Lord around Gamora can be a good person.

Kang attempts to grab the Infinity Stones but is stopped by Hulk.

Star-Lord tells Adam Warlock not to touch the Soul Stone. Adam Warlock says all he needs is the Time Stone. As soon as he grabs the Time Stone he freezes time around him.

With time frozen Adam Warlock questions how he should resolve everything. He comes to the conclusion that he should let the Infinity Stone decide their outcome. When he does Gamora disappears.

With time unfrozen Star-Lord notices Gamora is gone. Adam Warlock reveals that he used the Infinity Stones to send Gamora to a place she can do the most good. He goes on to state that he has also given each of the Infinity Stones a soul so that they can decide their own fate.

As soon as he says that the Infinity Stones leave on their own, including the Soul Stone. Star-Lord jokes on how the Soul Stone reject Adam Warlock. Adam Warlock reminds Star-Lord he saved Gamora’s life.

Star-Lord asks Moondragon and Phyla-Vell if they need anything. They both say they are okay and take off. At the same time Adam Warlock walks away on his own.

In the Warp Universe Arthur Douglas is having fun with his girlfriend.

Elsewhere Sorcerer Supreme reveals his identity to the world at a press conference. He then goes on to state that the Defenders will continue to protect the world from all threats.

Back in the Marvel Universe, on an unknown planet, Gamora finds Magnus sleeping in a desert. Gamora tells Magnus to follow her. Magnus questions why she is there. Gamora says she was sent there by a friend.

In the library at the Omnipotence City Flowa finishes writing her book. Loki then asks Flowa if she wants to help him pay Adam Warlock back for what he did. Flow turns Loki down.

Elsewhere Adam Warlock draws the infinity symbol in the sand. As he does that Adam Warlock realizes that there is a piece of him that is missing. End of issue.

The Good: Infinity Wars #6 delivers exactly the lackluster ending that this event was building towards. After all the noise that it makes about a universe changing event that is all Infinity Wars #6 is. It is just noise. Nothing was accomplished to create excitement for what comes next or shows why everything that happened needed to take place.

Before going further into it there was one positive thing about Infinity Wars #6 story, which was Adam Warlock’s involvement. For far too long Adam Warlock has been an underused character by Marvel. It was good to see Duggan recognize this and have Adam Warlock play a major role in resetting the Marvel Universe. The ending also helps bring hope that we will see more of Adam Warlock in the future as there is a major storyline set-up for him to grab people’s attention.

The other positive of Infinity Wars #6 was was Mike Deodato’s artwork. Even though Infinity Wars #6 was an incredibly dialogue heavy issue Deodato was able to shine with how he delivered on the various expressions of each characters faces. Even as the story was lackluster there was life brought to what was going on with how Deodato drew every character involved in this issue.

The Bad: Disappointing is the kindest word I can use to describe how Infinity Wars #6 turned out. Much like the majority of this event, Gerry Duggan relied heavily on characters going back and forth on what they should do before actually doing anything. It would have been much more impactful if the previous five issues of this event didn’t do the same thing that Infinity Wars #6. But since talking is all this event has been about it is touch to get invested in content that has been recycled over the course of the six issues of Infinity Wars.

That sensation of recycled content made Infinity Wars feel incredibly stagnant. It’s to the point that Duggan makes you as a reader feel like the outcome made the entire journey worth it. Because we went around circles for so long that this event did not feel like it needed six issues to tell the story. It almost felt like it could’ve been over in three or four issue but stretched out due to the introduction of the Warp Universe.

At this point we should have been done with so much exposition. Unfortunately we weren’t and Duggan just kept throwing more and more exposition at the reader. This may have been more effective if the previous five issues of Infinity War weren’t already heavily reliant on providing readers with a ton of exposition. Giving us more of the same just further pushed the fact that Infinity Wars kept spinning its wheels without moving very far since it started.

This especially made Gamora look worse than when she came into this event. Because while there were a lot of characters involved in Infinity Wars this was Gamora’s event. Everything that happened was caused by the decisions Gamora made throughout Infinity Wars. Unfortunately Duggan stripped much of what made Gamora a compelling character. There was no layers to what Gamora was doing to make the reader or other characters understand her decisions being nothing but selfish.

With how selfish Gamora kept coming across the fact that she was not given some form of growth even more disappointing. There wasn’t an indication that she understood what she was doing was not right or that she was hurting everyone around her. That lack of self-reflection made how she ended up finding Magnus at the end of Infinity Wars not the impactful as it should have been.

Speaking of the ending, while it was a good ending to build interest for Adam Warlock it is the type of conclusion that won’t work for everyone. Unless you know the connection between Adam Warlock, Magnus and Gamora than this ending will fall flat. It is completely a fanservice moment that only hardcore fans of the Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel cosmic corner will recognize the significance of.

On a similar note, the return of Arthur Douglas’ side of Drax’s character. Unless you know what Drax’s background is within the comics this revelation will be a major head scratcher that is out of left field. The surprise return just does not hit how Duggan intended. This in turn hurts the how big of a decision it was for both sides of Drax decided to sacrifice themselves.

The ending with Drax was also oddly handled. While we are told that Drax would have to stay behind to keep the portal open we don’t know what happened to him after it closed. Did he die? Was he left within the Soul Stone world? And how did Arthur Douglas end up back in the Warp Universe? All these are questions that for a final issue should not have and Duggan should have made things clearer to make the impact of Drax’s decision have weight to it.

While Drax and Adam Warlock developments were not handled in a clear way Star-Lord’s character arc is far worse. At no point does Star-Lord come across as a hero. Instead all Duggan does is make Star-Lord look like a guy thinking with his midsection. Nothing Star-Lord says to defend Gamora makes sense with all that happened. He didn’t even try to mention how often Gamora has helped save the universe. His entire defense was that because she is Gamora that Adam Warlock and the others should not punish her. Its the type of dialogue that is so cringe-inducing that makes Star-Lord come across as a character no one wants to listen or read about.

Everyone deciding that Gamora shouldn’t be punished because of what Star-Lord said makes them all look worse. With what Gamora did there should have been some prison time at the very least. If not that then it should have been that Moondragon and Phyla-Vell kept watch over her in a witness protection type way. Without any true repercussions it all puts into question if the events of Infinity Wars was worth it.

With all of these problems with Infinity Wars story it all hurt what should have been a compelling character arc for Loki. Seeing your own future should have some impact on what Loki’s character will be moving forward. Duggan hints at that very fact when Loki views his own future. Unfortunately Duggan quickly forgets that and has Loki return to his villainous ways by the end as he is now thinking of his next big plot against everyone. For this development to be dropped in such a way further showed that Infinity Wars did not need to happen since it is not leaving an impact on anyone but the Guardians of the Galaxy.    

As problematic as Loki’s development is it does not beat what was done with Devondra. Or should I say what wasn’t done with Devondra. This monster that is supposed to be a world eater had zero development. All Devondra gets that hints at development is everyone talking about how there is no stopping it. Outside of that Devondra is just a bland monster that comes across as something from the reject pile of the Godzilla franchise. There was just no reason for the monster other than having the heroes have something that wasn’t Gamora to punch.

The Warp Universe itself never came across as something Marvel fans should be invested in. There was never a reason given as to why we should care about these characters. The only Warp character that gets some sort of development is Soldier Supreme and that only turns out to be about him punching Gamora in the fact. Because of that Duggan never gets past presenting the Warp Universe as another way for Marvel to get a cash grab out of a concept.

Speaking of concepts, it was highly disappointing that Duggan never came back around to the Infinity Watch. This was a concept that Duggan spent the first two issues of Infinity Wars establishing. But now as Duggan wraps up the conclusion of Infinity Wars that concept is nowhere to be found. Making things worse is that outside of Adam Warlock and Guardians of the Galaxy none of the Infinity Watch characters Doctor Strange assemble are involved in the outcome of this event. It just one of those things that Duggan introduces and throws away even though the Infinity Watch is an interesting concept to connect what is going on in Earth and the rest of the Marvel Universe.

Overall: Infinity Wars #6 concludes Marvel’s latest event in the most disappointing way it could. Gerry Duggan never made this event come across as something worth reading. The heavy reliance on exposition and question character choices made the entirety of Infinity Wars feel like a chore to read. Which is sad because comics are supposed to be fun but that is not the experience delivered by Marvel’s latest cosmic event.