Remembering CrossGen's The WarFrom Vu
THE WAR: CALL TO ARMS POSTER (24x36)
(Sep 2003)
CrossGen Comics THE WAR: CALL TO ARMS POSTER (11x17)
(Sep 2003)
CrossGen Comics
Before CrossGen Comics went bankrupted, they teased a CrossGen CrossOver event called "The War".
George Perez was going to be the superstar artist for the event, but couldn't commit to it because he was still working on the much-delayed JLA/Avengers books. Those who waited the first time might remember that issue #4 was nine months behind (originally going to ship June 2003, but did not deliver until March 2004).
CrossGen Comics, which was probably burning through money every month, couldn't wait for George, so they went ahead with The War (now renamed ...
Posted by Vu Nguyen
Excerpt: The superhero chart has had a bit of a shakeout. Infinity
Gauntlet is back on top, and Jim Starlin’s Infinity War returns to the
chart in ninth place.
NPD BookScan Top 20 'Superhero' Graphic Novels – April 2019 (4/7/19 - 5/4/19)
Avengers: Infinity War movie help pushed Infinity Gauntlet TP to become the best-selling graphic novel of 2018, according to distributor previewsworld.com
Jim Starlin, George Perez, and Ron Lim's The Infinity Gauntlet,
collecting Marvel Comics' 1991 cosmic crossover and the basis for Marvel
Studios' Avengers: Infinity War, was the best-selling graphic novel of
2018. The book beat out other popular books, such as Saga, Action Comics 80 Years of Superman, Walking Dead, and Watchmen. It's no surprise, considering that Infinity Gauntlet was constantly #1 on the top 10 books for many months.
As for single issues, Action Comics #1000 is the best-selling comic book of 2018, according to previewsworld.com
Infinity Gauntlet has been #1 or #2 since April 2018. Last month, the book landed at #1, thanks to the Avengers: Infinity War film. Top Ten from icv2.com
NPD BookScan Top 20 'Superhero' Graphic Novels – August 2018 (7/30/18 - 9/2/18)
Exclusive: July's Top 100 Best-Selling Graphic Novels
Aug 12, 2018
Focusing on the aftermath of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle's engagement,
Tom King and Mikel Janin's Batman Volume 6: Bride or Burglar? from DC
Entertainment was July's best-selling graphic novel.
Marvel Comics had seven titles in the top ten, with Jim Starlin, George
Perez, and Ron Lim's The Infinity Gauntlet as their top book at #2. Also
in the top ten were Venomized, a collection of the Cullen Bunn, Iban
Coello, and Kevin Libranda mini-series, at #3; Star Wars: Doctor Aphra
Volume 3: Remastered at #4; Chip Zdarsky, Jim Cheung, and Valerio
Schiti's Marvel Two-in-One Volume 1: The Fate of the Four at #5; Ms.
Marvel Volume 9: Teenage Wasteland at #8; Wolverine: Old Man Logan
Volume 7: Scarlet Samurai at #9; and Rocket Raccoon and Groot: The
Complete Collection at #10.
VIZ Media had two titles in the top ten — One-Punch Man Volume 14 at #6 and Dragon Ball Super Volume 3 at #7.
TOP 100 GRAPHIC NOVELS
Based on Total Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in July 2018
RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE ITEM CODE VENDOR
1 BATMAN TP VOL 06 BRIDE OR BURGLAR $16.99 APR180261 DC ENTERTAINMENT
2 INFINITY GAUNTLET TP $24.99 JUL110745 MARVEL COMICS
3 VENOMIZED TP $17.99 MAY180963 MARVEL COMICS
"Avengers/JLA" #1 - #4 : For
all of Marc Alessi's faults, he loaned out an under-contract George
Perez to draw this one. Thanks, Marc. The crossover
turned out to be everything I was looking for: an excuse to switch up
characters and locations across universes, include some silly fight
scenes, and tie it all together with a plot device that facilitates the
whole shebang.
(excerpt)
"The Infinity Gauntlet" #1 -
#6, "The Infinity War" #1 - #6. I didn't include the third mini-series,
because I thought the idea had played itself out by then and I wasn't
all that interested in it. But those first two mini-series are still
the standard by which many cosmic storylines are judged today, placing
the heroes of the Marvel Universe against the likes of Thanos and
Death, or their own evil duplicates. George Perez started the initial
mini-series, before being dragged away for DC's "War of the Gods"
event, a move that would be judged in the future as "silly." But Lim
shone, drawing dozens of characters per page, with epic storytelling.
There are some other annoying examples,
like Ron Lim replacing George Perez on Infinity Gauntlet, and Tom Raney
replacing Steve McNiven on Ultimate Secret (from which Marvel has
apparently learned its lesson: what Steve starts, he must finish), but
the bottom line remains the same: fill-ins suck.
While waiting for Marvel's Civil War to
slowly unfold, here is a company crossover from the 90's that Marvel
got right. A rather simple plot, Thanos, the madman from Titan, has
taken control of the Infinity gauntlet. It is a glove that holds the
six Infinity Gems that basically can control the universe. They hold
power over reality, time, the soul, etc. As a token of appreciation
towards the one being he has ever loved, Mistress Death, Thanos kills
half the population of the universe with a snap of his finger's. The
remaining superheroes of the Marvel universe band together to stop
Thanos from becoming a god.
INFINITY GAUNTLET TPB - NEW PRINTING!
Written by JIM STARLIN
Pencils by GEORGE PÉREZ & RON LIM
Cover by GEORGE PÉREZ
For the dark Titan, Thanos, the Infinity
Gauntlet was the Holy Grail, the ultimate prize to be coveted above all
else. With it came omnipotence: the absolute control of all aspects of
time, space, power, reality, the mind and the soul. The gaining of
supreme might meant the beginning of a black nightmare for the entire
universe. Now, on the edge of Armageddon and led by the mysterious Adam
Warlock, Earth's super heroes join in a desperate attempt to thwart
this nihilistic god's insane plunge into galactic self-destruction.
Should the heroes fail, the astral gods of the universe wait to step
into the fray. But in such an awesome cosmic conflict will anyone
prevail? Will anyone survive?
256 PGS./ Rated T+ ...$24.99
ISBN: 0-7851-2349-0
“The bad guy won,”
was all I remembered hearing on that day in the comic shop. My
ten-year-old mind thought it impossible. Surely, the two patrons were
joking, right? There was no way the villain could ever win, no matter
what he tried.
Sure enough, they continued rambling on about how Thanos, the Mad
Titan, had defeated everyone in the Marvel Universe. The mere
mentioning of this sent a shiver up my spine.
It was not until many years later that I
grasped the enormity of what they were saying. The series they were
talking about, The Infinity Gauntlet by Jim Starlin and George Perez,
did not pass through my hands until almost a decade later. At first, I
thought it was just a book someone wanted me to read until I recognized
the cover: Thanos, clutching his fist adorned with the Infinity Gems as
the universe surrounded him. That is when it all came back.
What I read was not quite what I
expected. Sure, there was a scene were the bad guy won, but at its
heart, the story was actually a bittersweet love story. Thanos was a
man who loved Death. Not the concept, mind you, but the female
embodiment of the Grim Reaper. Trying to get his lady love to return
the feelings, he set about on the perilous journey of uniting the
Infinity Gems, mystic artifacts that can bend reality. He succeeded and
collecting them, but this still was not good enough for Death.
Determined to just see her smile, he did the one thing he was sure to
make her happy.
So, in an
effort to give myself some just plain fun reading, I was pleased to
find, collected in graphic novel form, The Infinity Gauntlet from
Marvel.
I had read the six-issue series back
when it was originally published from July to December of 1991 and I'd
really enjoyed it. Throughout the years as my piles of collected comics
shrank, The Infinity Gauntlet books always found their way into the
"save" box and back into my attic.
Here's the quick and dirty plot
synopsis: Power-hungry Thanos comes to possess the Infinity Gauntlet (a
big glove with 6 jewels on it) that gives him God-like powers over
everything and everyone. In an effort to impress Mistress Death he
wipes out have of the universe's population prompting our Marvel heroes
to unite behind Adam Warlock to save the day.
There is, of course, plenty of fighting,
lots of dialogue like "it matters not" and "prepare thyselves for
battle most fierce" and by the end it's pretty goofy, but it's also a
fun read.
80. CRISIS ON INFINITIE EARTHS (DC Softcover)
The most ambitious comic project ever could fill another volume with its body count. Marv Wolfman and George Perez's Crisis
aimed to clean up DC's cluttered 50-year-old continuity by merging the
handful of its parallel Earths into one, but not before a being called
the Anti-Monitor destroys an infinite amount of worlds in the process.
This cover, penciled by Pérez and painted by Alex Ross, is easily one
of the most beautiful ever produced and worth the purchase alone. "It
was actually the first series I ever followed," says JSA writer Geoff
Johns who was 12 at the time. "For me, it really shaped the DCU. I
doubt I would've read many DC comics before Crisis."
79. AVENGERS: ULTRON UNLIMITED (Marvel softcover)
The perfect killing machine has just received an upgrade, courtesy of
Kurt Busiek and George Pérez. Ultron, one of the Avengers most powerful
foes, returns with an appetite for destruction and holds the fate of
mankind in his adamantium grip. After Ultron slaughters the small
European country of Slorenia in under three hours, Earth's Mightiest
Heroes must rally like never before in order to put a stop to this
reawakened threat. But do they have what it takes to send this maniacal
killing machine to the scrap heap once and for all ?
60. INFINITY GAUNTLET (Marvel softcover)
Even when he's a god, Thanos still can't get lucky with the ladies.
Possessing the six Infinity Gems, Thanos gain omnipotence and kills
half the universe's population with the snap of his finger in an
attempt to earn the affection of the mistress Death. A plethora of
Marvel heroes mount a defensive to thwart the mad Titan, but how can
you beat a god? Only writer Jim Starlin knew the answer. "It had a
hundred characters and mindless destruction, but for all the bombast,
it was really about a guy trying to impress a girl," say Sojourn writer Ron Marz. "Thanos' failure is ultimately one of unrequited love. Who can't relate to that?"
15. THE NEW TEEN TITANS: THE JUDAS CONTRACT (DC softcover)
The Titans have a traitor in their midst. This spy knows their secrets
and hands them over to the deadliest mercenary alive: Deathstroke the
Terminator, who systematically takes out the team. Only Nightwing
escapes… but even he needs help in order to rescue them before it's too
late. In this storyarc, Marv Wolfman and George Pérez pull off a lot in
six issues: Dick Grayson becomes Nightwing for the first time, Kid
Flash quits, Jericho (the son of Deathstroke) joins up… and a tragic
blow hits the team. "Judas Contract is a perfect template for powerful, dramatic storytelling," lauds Steve Kurth, penciler for G.I.Joe. "This story was pure magic."
9. SUPERMAN: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MAN OF TOMORROW? (DC softcover)
It was time for the Man of Tomorrow to become the Man of Yesterday.
As DC prepared to start Superman from scratch in 1986, the publisher
watned to send off the "old" Man of Steel that had been around since
1938. writer Alan Moore had Supes face off with Lex Luthor and Braniac
in the Fortress of Solitude a final time, leaving every reader with a
tear in their eye. "A bittersweet goodbye to Superman continuity in
order to pave way for a revamped Man of Steel, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow worked as both a nostalgic nod to a simpler past, and alook forward to all that comics could be," says Sojourn scribe Ron Marz. "This 'last' Superman story is also one of the best."
GREATEST STORIES NOT IN TPBS
JOHN BYRNE'S NEW SUPERMAN Ain't it
amazing that with everything DC collects, it hasn't collected Byrne's
headline-making 1986 revamp of the regular series? Especially the
three-part story where Supes must help save Earth once inhabited by the
"pre-Byrne" Superman where the Man of Steel must take the role of
judge, jury and executioner.
GEORGE PEREZ'S NEW WONDER WOMAN Ditto
for Pérez's 1987 revamp of everyone's favorite Amazon princess. With
stunning art and stronger ties to Greek mythology, Diana enters man's
world for the first time, learning lessons the hard way.
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