Comic Review: Infinity Countdown #4

Infinity Countdown #4

Marvel Comics

Writer: Gerry Duggan

Artist: Mike Deodato Jr

The countdown to Infinity Wars continues with chapter four of Infinity Countdown. For anyone that has not been reading the series, there are a lot of subplots happening. The Guardians of the Galaxy joined forces with the Nova Corps to gather Infinity Stones, Adam Warlock was reborn prevent the stones from being a problem, and a mysterious villain has been using a troll to create a weapon of some kind. The story all spills out from the events that were happening within the pages of the Guardians title before being re-branded to this five-part miniseries.

The last issue featured a massive battle for two of the stones so it makes sense that this issue takes a breather. The Guardians and the Nova Corps fight over who will be protecting the stones, while, Adam Warlock teams up with Silver Surfer to take back an Infinity Stone. Ultron bonded with Hank Pym holds the stone. The duo is joined by Galactus who has given up his devourer ways to become the life bringer.

A fight involving Galactus and Ultron has some great thrilling moments to it. The problem I had throughout it was the dialog. Writer Gerry Duggan’s attempts to make Warlock and Surfer’s dialog sound philosophical feel stiff and unnatural. This issue also had too much exposition, which slowed the pacing a bit. The plot would benefit from relying a bit more on art to tell some of the stories.

The interactions of the Guardians and the Nova Corps felt much better, and Duggan’s time writing the characters shows. He has the voice and quips of the characters at the right moments to make it feel smoother. Duggan even has more fun getting wacky with the Guardian characters. Cosmo the telepathic dog comes into play as well as an alternative to Captain Marvel. I enjoyed the second half of the book when these characters were involved more. Richard Rider, Nova, tries to take a stone to help find his brother. The Collector and the Grand Master reappear to gather the Infinity Stones. It is all a lot of fun.

The art is hard to judge. The lines have a good amount of detail and tell the story well. Aaron Kuder and Mike Hawthorne share line duties for this book. It mostly just lacked in backgrounds here and there. The colors by Jordie Bellaire look good throughout. There were times that the characters were very one dimensional. Sometimes there is fine shading, but they also overdo it. Other times there might not be any shade. I think it was part of the problem of having three inkers on the book.

Infinity Countdown #4 is a solid book overall. If you have been reading the series this far then you will enjoy where this is going. If you have not then I would suggest going back and looking at the first issue to see if this is for you.