Infinity Wars Prime #1 Review

Writer: Gerry Duggan

Artist: Mike Deodato Jr

Colourist: Frank Martin

Letterer: Cory Petit

Gerry Duggan has been building to this story for quite a while now, since Marvel relaunched Guardians of the Galaxy early last year. And it’s been building up to Infinity Wars, which I’ve been mildly excited for since I’ve been loving Duggan’s cosmic stories recently.

This is a very big story with clearly big ramifications and it throws you right into the mix. Duggan clearly wants readers to feel comfortable going into this event but I have to say… I don’t think this issue is entirely necessary save for a really big moment at the end that will prime (no pun intended) readers for who the big bad of this story might be. It’s oversized yet we spend an extraordinary amount of time with Loki at the beginning of the issue, so much time that I’d go so far as to call it boring and filler. His motivations are muddled and I’m not entirely sure what his role in the story exactly is at this point. We also spent time with Dr. Strange and Adam Warlock, and I don’t even really understand what happened in their scenes. And then we get the final section of the book which I absolutely will not tease whatsoever.

The choice of Mike Deodato for artist of this story left me confused. He handles gritty stories better than he does cosmic ones, and while there are some mostly pretty images in this issue, I felt unsatisfied with his artwork and I wish Marvel would have gone with a brighter artist.

Aside from the final few pages, there isn’t much going on in this issue. Most of it is confusingly plotted and the art as a whole isn’t very good. I didn’t have high hopes for this event but now I’m walking into it even more weary.