TITLE: The Infinity Gauntlet – vol.1, issue #1
YEAR: July 1991
COMPANY: Marvel Comics
Written by Jim Starlin
Pencils: George Perez
Inkers: Josef Rubinstein with Tom Christopher
Colored by Max Scheele
Lettered by Jack Morelli
Editor: Craig Anderson
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
In 1991, Jim Starlin and artists Geoerge Perez and Ron Lim would collaborate in the six-issue limited series “The Infinity Gauntlet”.
Considered as one of the best Thanos storylines and is a source of inspiration for the upcoming Marvel Comics film “Avengers: Infinity War” and its sequel.
The limited series featured a storyline that was building up in the following series “Silver Surfer (issues #34-38, #40, #44-50), “The Thanos Quest” (issues #1-2), “Quasar” (issues #24) and “Cloak and Dagger” (issues #18).
“The Infinity Request” is a storyline about Thanos being resurrected by Death. As Mistress Death felt there was an irregularity as there are more people alive today than have ever died, that there must be a cosmic imbalance. So, Thanos was resurrected and she gave him great power but he must perform the following: Slaughter half the sentient population of the universe.
And as Silver Surfer tries to plead with Doctor Strange for help, Thanos was using this newfound power to taking control of the six Infinity Gems and acquiring them from their owners through nefarious means.
And now, Thanos has control of all six Infinity Gems which makes him have a power of a god.
But Mistress Death is not happy with him and as Mephisto who is with Thanos (and leaked the info. to the Silver Surfer) tries to help him understand why Death will not respond to him, no matter what he does to please her with his power. And he eventually realizes that it’s because he hasn’t performed the duty he was supposed to do for her.
And so Thanos makes it all happen. And immediately, people start disappearing all over the world. Spider-Man sees how people are just vanishing, Captain America sees Hawkeye and Sersi disappear and even Nick Fury realizes that many from S.H.I.E.L.D are missing and news reports start playing all over the news of how humans, animals and plant life are disappearing.
For the most part, the series is entertaining and the first issue was quite awesome. Considering that Jim Starlin wrote it and that George Perez drew it, the collaboration between these two legends is fantastic. But due to George Perez’ commitment with “Wonder Woman” for DC Comics, to help ease his workload, Ron Lim would be brought in after issue #4.
Nevertheless, “The Infinity Gauntlet” was an awesome first issue and it was a little pricey for its time at $2.50. But this first issue was no doubt a wonderful start to kick off Marvel Comics’ latest miniseries back in 1991.