Infinity War
is a movie adaptation of an event comic, not exactly the one it's named after but the concept in general. And not a personal, small story like
Heroes in Crisis (come back next week for that) but a grand scale epic saga that brings together
characters from across the universe. And it’s been building for a while, with the
idea of infinity stones introduced properly in Thor: The Dark World (I know the
tesseract predates, but this was the film where they were officially referred
to as infinity stones) referenced in Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange
and expanded on in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Thanos was introduced as early as the Avengers, making his official debut in
Guardians of the Galaxy, where his two ‘daughters’ had become prominent
characters. There’s usually build-up to event comics too. Infinite Crisis built
off Identity Crisis, Day of Vengeance, The Omac Project, Villains United, pages
of Justice League, Superman and Teen Titans and the Rann/Thanagar War. Secret
Empire built off a crossover called Pleasant Hill, and the events of Captain
America
The Infinity
duo of films will draw off just about every film in the MCU but here are some
important things you could do with knowing before jumping in.
The Time
Stone is part of Doctor Strange’s Eye of Agamotto
The Space
Stone/Tesseract was supposedly on Asgard when it was destroyed, we see Loki
gaze upon it briefly when he was enacting the plan, and it's safe to assume he took it.
The Power
Stone is on the Nova Corps home world of Xandar
The reality
stone/Aether is with the Collector on N.O.W.H.E.R.E.
The Mind
stone is currently in the head of the vision, he laments that he still doesn’t
know what that is
During the
events of Civil War, Thor and the Hulk were absent as Tony Stark, Rhodey,
Vision and Spider-man fought against Captain America, the Scarlett Witch, Black
Widow, Ant-man and Hawkeye, the latter half are now wanted fugitives, with Cap
giving up his shield after his fight with Iron Man.
Black
Panther had a role in Civil War but uncovered the manipulations and ultimately
agreed to help Cap with Bucky Barnes. With help from his sister, Shuri, Bucky
has recovered from his mental conditioning and is now living in Wakanda
With the
people of Asgard having escaped the destruction of their home and heading to
Earth, Thanos’ ship shows up right behind them.
With the
departure of Joss Whedon after the hell that was working on Age of Ultron (I
imagine working on Justice League was just as pleasant) the Russo Brothers have
stepped up as director. They directed both Winter Soldier and Civil War,
showing they have a good grasp of believable action and can handle a large cast
with multiple plotlines.
Christopher
Marcus and Stephen McFreely are writing the screenplay. They also have done a number
of Marvel projects including all the Captain America films and Thor: The Dark
World. Some of the best and worst of Marvel then. But here it’s do or die time, so let’s take a
look at Avengers: Infinity War.
