Secret Wars: The Infinity Gauntlet #1 - Review

Script by Gerry Duggan. Story by Gerry Duggan & Dustin Weaver. Art by Justin Weaver.
Rating: 4/5.
Worth your $3.99?: Maybe. Probably worth waiting for the trade.

I'm honestly not sure what to do with Secret Wars: The Infinity Gauntlet.

The basic story puts us in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The world has been ravaged by "The Bugs" and, as far as we can tell, the Bakians are the only survivors, scavenging off the ruins of the city. Now, the Bakians are what make this a story worth reading. Where the temptation for many of these alternate-Earth's has been the spectacle (new version of this character, this character shockingly friends with this character, etc), Weaver and Duggan have given us a story that focuses in on family drama (set against the aforementioned post-apocalyptic wasteland, of course).

Told more-or-less from the teenage Anwen's point of view, we get a look at a family that has been ripped apart. Although Anwen, her sister, her father, and her grandfather have all survived, her mother left them to fight the bugs as a member of the Nova Corps. They haven't heard from her since.

And this is where it starts to get real... and by real I mean, these start to feel like real people dealing with a relatable, human problem. The question of how to handle losing a loved is tough, but it only gets tougher when you don't know for sure if they're even dead. And they each struggle with this question of 'when to give up' differently. Menzin (Dad) and Fayne (lil sister) live in hope or denial depending on how you see it. Anwen and Gramps assume the worst. This difference manifests in difficult ways for the family. In less than a page, we see Grampa go from calling Menzin "the son I never had" to harshly telling he "Never knew what she saw in you." The stress of this world leaves their bonds immensely fragile and it is only while in danger that the bond's true unbreakability is shown.

***WARNING: SPOILERS FROM HERE DOWN***

Now, they'll be tested once again as Anwen stumble across one of the Infinity Gems and shortly after, finds that her mom, in full Nova battle-armor, has come back to her. Of course, we find out that the person lurking in the shadows is none other than.... Thanos! (Or as I'll call him Alterna-Thanos, since Thanos is one of the few 616 characters we can officially account for thanks to Secret Wars #2).

Now let's take a moment here for an...

EXTREME GEEK QUESTION

Question: How did the blue Infinity Gem bring Mom back?
Issue: In 616, the blue gem is the mind gem. In the MCU, it's the space stone. The book seems to imply that it's the reality gem since she says, "Suddenly everything I ever wish for came true," and wishes is part of how the reality gem works.
Possible Explanation A: If, like many comics choices these days, it's affected by the MCU and this is the space stone, she could have teleported her mom from somewhere in space. It's simple and does the job, although since mom wasn't surprised about being back, this seems unlikely.
Possible Explanation B: Alterna-Thanos has the yellow gem in his glove (the 616 reality gem is yellow) and rather than let Anwen discover the power of the Infinity Gem, he used his own stone to grant her wish.  If it's the space gem, Thanos would be worried that she would teleport away and take the stone with her. Bringing her mother in keeps her here. This theory is very interesting to me since it would imply a slightly more empathetic Thanos if he could understand that. Or, of course, there's....
Possibly Explanation C: It's just the reality gem and this universe just has different colors.

Either way, Mom is back and now it looks like this will likely be a Nova vs Thanos story. I don't know about you, but I got excited about this story after reading, in an interview with Hero Complex, what Dustin Weaver had to say of this version of Thanos:

"This is a more grizzled version of the character; he caries the weight of his experiences. He’s colder, more mysterious, and impenetrable. But you can be certain, some things about Thanos will never change."

Different is good, and I'm looking forward to finding out what this version of Thanos has in store for us.

Now, after all that praise, you're probably wondering why I opened this review saying that I wasn't sure what do with it. Well, the reason is mainly routed as a reader of the wider Secret Wars story. Consider that this destroyed land is part of the greater Battleworld, but unlike some of the other books (A-Force, Planet Hulk, Attilan Rising) there's no clear acknowledgement of the larger world at work.

Though the story, doesn't acknowledge it, I've heard the thought that this is New Xandar (or kingdom 40), which is a land south of the Shield. This makes sense since it's overrun by monsters, but separated by water from The Deadlands (Marvel Zombies-world) and Perfection (i.e. Age of Ultron-land). But this raises the question: do the Bakians know there are other kingdoms out there? Were the bugs before or after Battleworld started? I'm extremely curious, though the book makes no hints either way.

What confuses me more though, is the revelation of the Infinity Gems. These are immensely powerful objects and it seems unlikely that Doom would allow any of them into his carefully constructed world (at least not out of his control). If Alterna-Thanos gathers them all, is there anything to stop him from bending the Battleworld to his will? Or do these gems only work in this zone? Point is, it forces some questions about the structure of Battleworld and I'll be very curious to see how they explain it (or if they just won't).

FINAL THOUGHTS
You've got to hand it to Duggan, Weaver, and Marvel with this one. They have taken full advantage of the chance to just tell a story without being bogged down in too much outside canon. They took the opportunity to get very deep and personal, and still sneak in some crazy universe stuff at the same time, even if it raises some questions to how the rules of Battleworld are laid out.




What'd you think of Infinity Gauntlet #1? Will you be picking up issue #2? Have a Possible Explanation D for my extreme geek question? Sound off in the comments below!