Secret Wars on Infinite Earths: The Comic Book Fight Club

Wednesday, May 02, 2018

NOVA versus THANOS

Cosmic Battle on the Edge of The Universe! (Marvel)
Where: Infinity Gauntlet #4 When: October 1991
Why: Jim Starlin How: Ron Lim & George Perez

The Story So Far...
When the Silver Surfer crash lands to Earth through the roof of Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum -- he brings ominous warning of the greatest threat the universe has ever known! Thanos lives and has taken possession of the Infinity Gems of Soul, Mind, Power, Time, Reality, and Space to form the omnipotent Infinity Gauntlet!

The Mad Titan's mission is to eradicate half of all sentient life in existence! A feat he achieves in an instant with but a mere thought! His quest to court the mistress Death does not end there, though. His dominion is now all that exists in the known universe -- a reality, his to dominate and reshape!

Ripples of Thanos' power echo throughout the universe, causing mayhem and destruction on Earth, where the mightiest heroes assemble in conference to discuss the unknown threat. The unexpected arrival of Adam Warlock provides limited answers as he takes command, selecting a special task force to confront Thanos in a desperate ploy to save the universe from The Infinity Gauntlet!

Tale of the Tape...

Strength: Thanos 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Thanos 5 (Professor)
Speed: Nova 7 (Lightspeed)
Stamina: Thanos 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Nova 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Thanos 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Thanos 6 (Cosmic Power)
Total: Thanos 34 (Super)

Thor's life hangs in the balance after the eighth wave of attack ended with the untimely demise of Spider-man -- and Thor's transmutation into glass!

Coming to fragile Thor's aid is the human rocket: Nova! You may've spotted him flying around the battlefield in a few previous waves of attack, but it's only now the cosmic cruise missile is targeting the all-powerful Thanos!

Richard Rider was a New York high school kid when first given his powers by a dying Centurion of the Nova Corps. Based on the planet Xandar, the Nova Corps are an intergalactic military force empowered to police the universe with the powers of the Nova Force.

The Nova Force grants Richard Rider enhanced strength, endurance, durability, speed, the ability to fly like a human rocket, and channel various forces as energy blasts. At the time of Infinity Gauntlet; Nova uses these powers as a member of the teen superhero group: The New Warriors.

This is the first time we're seeing Nova before his evolution into a mature, battle-hardened intergalactic hero. Annihilation will recast him in the fires of war a decade later. As the last surviving Nova Centurion, he'll lead a United Front against the dreaded Annihilation Wave [see; Annihilation #1].

When the more powerful Nova returned to Earth, he effortlessly decimated old adversary Diamondhead [Nova #2], and fought The Thunderbolts to a relative standstill [Nova #3]! Evidence of the great hero he's destined to become, but inadmissible evidence at the time of The Infinity Gauntlet!

Nova was a compelling heavy-hitter for the New Warriors, but we lack sufficient case to think he can go toe-to-toe with Thanos. Under ordinary circumstances it might be a fair fight, but the way Thanos has wielded the godly powers of the Infinity Gauntlet makes it very difficult to rate Nova as anything more than a fast moving irritation.

He's plucky and powerful, but the odds are increasingly against the heroes. Fast, hard-hitting attacks may've served Hulk and Vision well in earlier strikes, but Thanos' patience is wearing thing. Turning Wolverine to rubber and Thor to glass shows he's losing interest in fighting fair. Bad news for Nova!

The Tape: Thanos Ranking: Thanos (#14)

What Went Down...
Thanos clenches his partly raised fist - gazing with a hint of disdain at the man claiming to be a Norse god. By decree of Odin: the mortal Eric Masterson indeed possesses all the strengths and rights of the one true Thor! He is worthy to raise the mighty hammer Mjolnir against the Mad Titan. If only it would do any good!

Were he able to summon the wind and thunder under his command, he would surely break, for Thor stands frozen on the battlefield, turned to glass! Death is surely imminent, if not for the intervention of a human rocket: Nova!

The young hero streaks across the battlefield to strike at Thanos with the momentum of a ballistic missile! His fist finds its target - daring to turn the Mad Titan's face with extreme prejudice!

The power to distort reality glimmers in Thanos' eyes as he takes the brash hero's words to twist them against him! Nova proclaimed no one would be "busting up Thor while Nova's around!" So Thanos decides to make him square.

Thanos wears a wry smile as he watches Nova transformed into a swarm of coloured blocks. Harmless children's toys, easily crushed beneath his heel as the clatter innocuously against the ground! Death, chillingly obscured.

With far greater spite, Thanos raises his Infinity Gauntlet again - not to summon its limitless power, but to swing his massive fist through the glass statue that is Thor! A spiteful final blow to eliminate one of his greatest threats!

Thor shatters into a million pieces, and with him dies the greatest hope the heroes have had for besting Thanos. Their numbers are fast dwindling, but there are still a few heroes ready to face overwhelming odds. The next will do so alone - a cosmic power to rival even a thunder god!

The Hammer...
It was over almost as quickly as it began! Nova's attack ultimately amounted to a single page. How could any hero hope to stand a chance when Thanos wields the power to guarantee death with no chance of recourse?

Thor's defeat was registered in the previous tag team contest of the ninth wave, but we record his death here, alongside Nova. He fought valiantly in the first and fourth waves, delivering some of the most potent blows. Had Doctor Doom not interfered for selfish reasons when Thanos was adjusting to his power, who knows what might've been achieved by the thunderer's hammer?

The hero better known as Thunderstrike is ultimately one of the quirks of time captured in The Infinity Gauntlet, and one of the few definite improvements live-action cinema will make in Avengers: Infinity War. Masterson may've served as an adequate stand-in, but there's just no substituting for the genuine article!

It would be terrific to see Nova make an appearance on the big screen, but I don't think anyone is counting on it just yet.

The cinematic battle with Thanos might've been a fun way to get a jumpstart, but Marvel usually like to play it to formula, so those kinds of abrupt surprises just don't happen. Further, Slash Film reports Marvel movie pubah Kevin Feige described Nova as one of the characters with "immediate potential".

There was always a curious appeal to the rocketing buckethead of earlier eras, but the mainstream potential of Nova was never more apparent than in the updates made in Annihilation. Before the world was introduced to the Guardians of the Galaxy, it was easy to presume Nova would be one of Marvel's first space faring heroes. Instead, the groundwork was laid with a slightly less than impressive version of the Nova Corps.

Back on the comic book page: we're drawing close to the end of infinity! There are just a few more heroes remaining on the gauntlet, with one of the more powerful heroes stepping up for tomorrow's penultimate attack!

You can find all our Infinity Gauntlet updates by diving into the Secret Archive where featured fights are indexed via publisher, series, and issue number. You'll find Infinity Gauntlet in the Marvel section, with battles linked sequentially.

You can get the full story for yourself by checking out the collected edition of The Infinity Gauntlet! An Amazon link has been provided for your convenience to the right of this text! By using it to go shopping online, Amazon will do a little something to help the site out. A nice way to show your support!

You can also join the battle by following Secret Wars on Infinite Earths on Twitter and Facebook! There, you'll find daily links to fights inspired by the topics of the day! A like, retweet, or share is another nice way to help keep the wars infinite!

Thanos is marching toward the top of the Comic Book Fight Club rankings! Will he dominate long enough to conquer the Top 10? Or will the next hero bring an end to his lethal warpath? Stay tuned!

Winner: Thanos
#11 (+3) Thanos [+2 kills]
#101 (-24) Nova (Richard Rider)

Infinity Gauntlet #4
Thanos runs the gauntlet of heroes in a special series spotlighting the classic cosmic showdown!
Versus Wave 1, Hulk & Drax, Wave 3, Thor & Dr. Doom, Wolverine, Wave 6, Cloak, Firelord & Drax, Iron Man, Spider-man & Thor, Nova, Quasar, Captain America

Tuesday, May 01, 2018

SPIDER-MAN & THOR versus THANOS & TERRAXIA

Strength: Thanos 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Thanos 5 (Professor)
Speed: Spider-man 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Thanos 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Spider-man 5 (Cat-like)
Fighting: Thanos 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Thanos 6 (Mass Destruction)
Total: Thanos 34 (Super)

After a brief detour we're back running the gauntlet with a tag team tussle of two-on-two! Thanos is joined by his wicked creation Terraxia for the ninth round! She first involved herself in the fracas during the sixth round, deviating to grapple with Iron Man until she literally ripped his head off!

Taking on the terrible twosome is a returning Thor, who lost contact with Mjolnir at the end of the fourth wave, but narrowly avoided suffocating in deep space, as mortal Eric Masterson, when the hammer returned during Drax & Firelord's attack! He only has 60 seconds to be separated from Mjolnir before he reverts to mortal form. As previously noted, the real Thor had been banished.

Swinging onto the battlefield is Spider-man, whose wall-crawling presence may've been noticed in the background of some of the previous battles.

The friendly neighbourhood Spider-man may seem a little out of his depth in deep space, but this is the same hero who famously acquired the Black Symbiote while fighting in the Secret Wars! The cosmic has a way of finding him, like the time the Uni-Power helped him defeat Magneto [Amazing Spider-man #237] and Loki's Tri-Sentinel [Amazing Spider-man #239]!

A combination of smarts, speed, agility, and spider-sense has routinely helped Spidey take down serious heavy-hitters! He famously out-smarted Juggernaut in Amazing Spider-man #230, but also teamed with DC's Wonder Woman to put down Juggernaut, and the New God Mantis, in Unlimited Access #1!

Wonder Woman once wielded Thor's hammer herself [Marvel versus DC #3], which is a very obtuse way of drawing a comparison to the potentially potent team-up between Spidey and Thor!

Spidey's ability to successfully impact or restrain Thanos and Terraxia is clearly where he falls down. He may have the proportionate strength of a spider, but that's not much more than an actual spider to these cosmic heavyweights! He can clearly out-maneuver and irritate, but Spider-man's greatest asset in a cosmic showdown may ultimately be his humanity! He showed that when facing Thanos' chosen advisor, Mephisto, in a forgotten '93 Marvel Holiday Special!

Terraxia's exact abilities are slightly unknown. She clearly shares a certain physiological similarity with Thanos, but there's insufficient evidence to presume equivalence. She clearly possess phenomenal strength and durability, but the stat most lacking in our Tape is energy projection. Which tips the predictive stats narrowly in favoure of the Thor & Spider-man combination!

As far as the record is concerned; Spider-man is the #2 hero for a reason. He can almost always overcome overwhelming odds! Time to put the speculation to rest and find out if he managed to make the difference against Thanos!

The Tape: Thor & Spider-man Ranking: Spider-man (#2)

What Went Down...
Thanos revels in gratitude for his perfect woman's role in ridding him of the annoyance of Iron Man. The armored Avenger's helmet supplies a bloody tribute to the Mad Titan -- and a sufficient distraction for a certain web-slinger!

A face full of webbing provides fresh irritation for the would-be god! He never even sees the web-swinging Spider-man coming to follow it up with two well placed feet to the webbed-up face!

Terraxia growls as Spidey tags out to an incoming Thor, rushing in to pin the web-slinging to the ground!

The airborne thunder god launches his hammer at Thanos hard and fast in a perfectly coordinated attack! Thor quickly reunites with his hammer, raining it down upon Thanos with the fury of a true god!

Lightning crackles as Thor raises Mjolnir above his head for a finishing blow! It's time for Thanos to pay for his murderous crimes! Even the observing Starfox wills his brother's death! Yet -- victory and hope are so easily thwarted!

In an instant the vengeful Thor stands still and silent. A merest thought all that's required for Thanos to turn him into a statue of glass!

Across the battlefield, Terraxia wields a broken chunk of the stony platform. She uses it to brutally bludgeon Spider-man into submission! Thanos smiles wickedly as he gazes at the blood-stained rock rising above Terraxia's head. More death.

The glass visage of Thor stands motionless and prone opposite Thanos. It is fragile and defenseless against the simplest threat to shatter it. Yet, there are still heroes who would give everything to see that such a fate was not met...

The Hammer...
Another hero falls, with yet another life hanging precariously in the balance. Thanos & Terraxia are a perfect match in their mutual lust for death!

It seems inconceivable that Thor will escape his glassy peril. The heroic forces become ever fewer as each wave of attack robs them of more soldiers. The loss of Thor in this ninth wave may be their dearest casualty yet, but there are still some heavy-hitters lurking the board -- with one about to swoop in next!

With Spider-man's death, the fatalities are stacking up: Iron Man, Sub-Mariner, She-Hulk, Cyclops, Scarlet Witch, Vision, and Cloak all lost their lives. Firelord and Drax are lost in time. Wolverine is unable to move. Doctor Doom isn't much better. Hulk is presumably still shrunken. Thor turned to glass.

In yesterday's Hero of the Week, we talked about the isolated consequences of the Infinity Gauntlet story.

Superheroes don't rely on finite contracts, so it's unlikely Marvel would ever need to wipe away so many icons in a single swoop. To put it in further context, this was a year before Death of Superman, and a decade before the circus of death that characterizes modern Marvel events. When you kill Spider-man and his amazing friends, you tell the audience it's all going to be fixed tomorrow.

In theory, the stakes of The Infinity Gauntlet and its deaths lack dramatic weight. Which always made it a little easy to push the story aside, even in 1991. In returning to each battle and covering the deaths as they unfold, it's been nice to appreciate the dramatic strain that exists within the story.

We may know that Spider-man will still be slinging webs in his various monthly titles, but being a year before Death of Superman comes with benefits, too. Bludgeoning your beloved icons to death with a rock wasn't quite the cliché in '91 that it might be now. Spidey was still the hero you might expect to overcome the odds and bring the story to close. Even if they're all coming back by story's end -- there's still some power in seeing the heroes fall.

Except maybe Thor. Hey, he may look the part, but it's still Thunderstrike, and nobody really likes him. Sorry, dude. It's a cruel world. Godspeed.

How many more heroes will fall? When will Adam Warlock finally launch his grand plan? Will Thanos complete a march into the Top 10 of our Fight Club Rankings? These are questions that will fuel us in our final week!

Those who've read The Infinity Gauntlet won't be too surprised by any answers that come their way. If you'd like to join that elite club, check out the collected edition via the Amazon link provided! Doing so not only harnesses the full story in a single volume -- but also helps support the site at no extra cost!

Follow links to jump back to the eighth wave, or our Iron Man/Terraxia tangent if you're following along at home. You can also find all the Infinity Gauntlet updates in the Secret Archive, where battles are indexed via publisher, series, and issue number. Just look for the Is in the Marvel section!

You can also follow all the action as it unfolds by following Secret Wars on Infinite Earths via Twitter and Facebook. You'll get daily links to fights inspired by the topics of the day. A like, share, retweet, or comment is another nice way to join the fight and keep our corner of the web infinite!

Winners: Thanos & Terraxia
#14 (+1) Thanos
#85 (+61) Terraxia [+1 kill]
#2 (--) Spider-man
#848 (-316) Thor (Eric Masterson)

Monday, April 30, 2018

It was a close race for this week's Hero of the Week! The globally trending CinemaCon first-look at the symbiote very nearly made Venom the easy pick! We'll probably be talking more about him later in the year, which meant there was really only one way to go. Thanos has conquered vast portions of the globe (and HOTW) with the international theatrical release of Avengers: Infinity War!

The clichés are all in tact as Disney trots out their long awaited franchise megamix. The Thanos of the big screen isn't your father's Death-loving maniac, but the close approximation is being called by some Marvel's best villain yet. Yes, an accolade previously awarded to the last few baddies. This is, of course, also being heralded as the best movie evar. About standard for the post-sugar rush hysteria.

Here on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths we've had our own four-colour rush of glorious Ron Lim and George Perez art, with a grand designs by The Maddest Titan of them all: Jim Starlin!

The tour of heroic sacrifice has occupied the last couple of weeks, delivering thrills you won't see on the big screen. Firelord, Cloak, Wolverine, Cyclops - just a few of the heroes the movies can't and won't deliver on! The Infinity Gauntlet was never the deepest event series, but what it lacks in deep and meaningful storytelling, it makes up for in sheer superhero excess.

The movie version may not be able to compete with comics, but it does offer up two particularly Marvel Universe morsels that genuinely scratch an informer fans' itch, at least for a minute or two. One picks up the tab on a long dangling thread from a previous Marvel film. The other weaves a strand that could lead to something very exciting further down the line! If there aren't any big topics, we might explore these genuinely exciting elements in the next couple of weeks.

I'm a little dubious about praise for the film's ending. It's been called 'surprising', 'shocking', and a 'daring risk' for Disney and the filmmakers. I tend to disagree. It strikes me as a very safe, very franchise oriented use of one of The Infinity Gauntlet's first-half premises. As was noted in our first featured fight; Thanos uses the gauntlet to eradicate half of all life in the universe in an instant. Heroes missing, presumed casualties of this purge, were: Archangel, Beast, Black Cat, Black Panther, Box, Dagger, Daredevil, Diamond Lil, Firestar, Guardian, Hawkeye, Hercules, Human Torch, Iceman, Invisible Woman, Makkari, Marvel Boy, Marvel Girl, Mister Fantastic, Night Thrasher, Northstar, Power Man, Puck, Quicksilver, Sasquatch, Sersi, Shaman, Thing, USAgent, Vindicator, Wasp, Windshear.

Even in '91, the danger of the mass execution took the teeth out of The Infinity Gauntlet. It was always a comic with an isolated sense of consequence. Which was somewhere the movies could improve, but they chose to finish Infinity War with deaths that very clearly tell the story not to worry. Of course, that just means their undone fates may come at the cost of the heroes actually on the dead pool. Not that I'm necessarily counting on death being the means to removing players from the board. Most of Marvel's trajectory seems to point to the stars, and that's as fine a reason as any to put the likes of Iron Man and Captain America to the side.

Of course, here on The Comic Book Fight Club, we've got our own system of consequence - namely the Fight Club Rankings! As we begin this week's final running of the gauntlet, the big question will be - can Thanos break into the Top 10?! At the time of this writing he's just outside at #15!

Check out the links at the top to see the Infinity Gauntlet battles we've covered so far. Keep your eyes peeled to Twitter, Facebook, and the Secret Archive Index to catch-up on subsequent updates. You should also find lots of links littered throughout each featured battle. Yay!

<< Hero of the Week 05/07: Red Skull [Home] Hero of the Week 04/23: Rogol Zaar >>

Sunday, April 29, 2018

TERRAXIA versus IRON MAN

Cosmic Battle on the Edge of The Universe! (Marvel)
Where: Infinity Gauntlet #4 When: October 1991
Why: Jim Starlin How: Ron Lim & George Perez

The Story So Far...
By the blessing of Death herself -- Thanos has returned to the realm of the living with a mission to eradicate half of all of existence! To achieve this, he has scoured the universe in search of the Infinity Gems!

By assembling these cosmic stones of governance over the Soul, Mind, Power, Time, Reality, and Space, he has attained ultimate god-like powers as the wielder of The Infinity Gauntlet! His every whim is now a cosmic reality, and with the instantaneous deletion of half of all sentient beings, he is free to determine fate as he designs it!

Driven to greater madness by Death's cold indifference, Thanos impetuously creates a new perfect woman in his own image! Terraxia The Terrible lives only to serve, and when Adam Warlock leads an army of Earth's mightiest heroes to oppose him, it isn't long before Thanos' love attacks!

Tale of the Tape...

Strength: Terraxia 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Iron Man 5 (Professor)
Speed: Iron Man 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Terraxia 6 (Generator)
Agility: Draw 2 (Average)
Fighting: Iron Man 4 (Trained)
Energy: Iron Man 5 (Lasers)
Total: Iron Man 31 (Super)

We're taking a special detour in today's featured Infinity Gauntlet fight for a skirmish that actually began back during the sixth wave assault! There we saw the grim fates of Scarlet Witch, Cyclops, and Vision -- but what of Iron Man?

It was Terraxia The Terrible who leapt into battle to challenge Iron Man in the midst of his attack on Thanos. She'd been present throughout the entire onslaught, but her was a presence unfelt in battle until now!

She was created in the prior issue to spite the cold reserve of Thanos' true love - Death. She was conjured into being with the awesome power of The Infinity Gauntlet, which can even create life! Thus, she was made to be Thanos' perfect woman. She is therefore everything Death is not: warm, and totally devoted!

Despite her name, Terraxia bares no relation to the space-villain Terrax. In truth, she more closely resembles a feminine counterpart to Thanos himself. She bears a similar dress, and the same purple skin that distinguished the Mad Titan from the rest of his kin. She also clearly shares some of his natural power!

We've seen Iron Man test his armor against physically dominating opponents with varying results. His long standing rivalry with Hulk was successfully revisited in Iron Man (Vol. 2) #2. He stood toe-to-toe with the Destroyer Armor in Thor (Vol. 2) #1, and bested a diminished Juggernaut in Thunderbolts #150.

It was right around the time of this battle that James Rhodes donned this Iron Man armor in Iron Man #271, taking on the awesome Fin Fang Foom in an impressive display of strength and durability! A compelling enough result to say Iron Man should at least be able to hold his own against Terraxia.

As we saw in the sixth wave, however, she does have the element of surprise, both as a complete unknown, and by tackling him when he didn't expect it. We could sit around speculating, but it's probably best we just get to it!

The Tape: Iron Man Ranking: Iron Man (#3)

What Went Down...
Iron Man is busy pouring on the power when Terraxia's rage reaches boiling point. The armored Avenger capitalizes on the efforts of Cyclops, launching his assault as Thanos finds himself caught off balance!

Having watched the battle frustrated from the sidelines until now - Terraxia takes the opportunity to surprise Iron Man, as well! She launches herself into the air, catching Iron Man with a side-on tackle!

While Thanos escapes from the confines of Cloak and prepares for the attack of more heroes -- Terraxia grapples with the grounded Iron Man!

Her hulking frame pins Iron Man face-down to the space platform, while she wrenches at the electronically sealed armor with super-human strength!

Terraxia's determination will not go unrewarded. Her powerful twisting and wrenching at the armored Avenger's helmet eventually yields grim results. The helmet clatters innocuously across the battlefield, while Thanos faces ambush.

As Thanos rids himself of the unwanted influence of Drax and Firelord; Terraxia returns baring a macabre trophy as gift to her creator and lover: the helmet of Iron Man!

Thanos praises his creation for her assistance, as the blood of Tony Stark drips from the helmet's neck. Grim confirmation of his untimely decapitation!

The Hammer...

As noted from the outset: The titular Infinity Gauntlet not only denotes the powerful glove warn by Thanos -- but also the gauntlet of heroes he must run throughout the pages of Infinity Gauntlet #4!

Most of the waves of attack making up the gauntlet are easily distinguished, but today's fight is a tangent that takes place in the background of other battles.

You may notice some repeated images from earlier entries [above]. This fight began with the sixth wave led by Cyclops and Scarlet Witch, unfolding behind the destruction of Cloak in Round 7, and culminating with the gifting of Iron Man's head, after Firelord and Drax were sent through time, in Wave 8!

Terraxia first appeared in Infinity Gauntlet #3, but was slow to intervene in the fight between her beloved Thanos, and the attacking heroes. I think part of this speaks to the speed with which everything is unfolding. By dissecting each wave of attack, we've diminished the frenetic pace of each overlapping wave.

The naming of Terraxia is intriguing. I'm not aware of a deeper meaning, or applicable portmanteau. There doesn't seem to be anything particularly 'of the land' about her, which makes the similarity to Terrax interesting.

I have to imagine Jim Starlin, or editor Craig Anderson, would've been well aware of the similarity. Should we presume that Thanos harbors hidden, or subconscious romantic feelings for the one-time herald of Galactus? He didn't reveal any such affections when Terrax was his manipulated pawn of choice, targeting Green Lantern in the cosmic crossover: Green Lantern/Silver Surfer.

If Thanos derives his name from the Greek god of death, Thanatos, then I might've expected his conjured "perfect woman" to draw from a similar source. Baring obvious similarity to her creator, I might've expected the Roman counterpart Letum, or Mors, to provide inspiration. Something involving Mortis might've been a little on the nose, but it's not like she's sticking around.

Without giving too much away, Terraxia won't make any further appearances beyond the Infinity Gauntlet series. Not at the time of this writing, at least. I am somewhat surprised she never found her way into later use, even if a revamp to differentiate her further from She-Thanos would be warranted.

According to Thanos, Terraxia is everything Death herself is not: warm, loyal, devoted. Her creation comes from spite and self-absorption. It's an impetuous, narcissistic act by a would-be god behaving like a jilted teen. She clearly isn't a direct opposite to Death. Her existence is to indulge and flatter Thanos.

Terraxia serves her purpose to reveal more about the psyche of The Mad Titan she reflects. She isn't really a character that needed to be brought back. I do wonder what traits her personality could've revealed, had she existed beyond the mini-series, though. Cast aside, it would be easy to envision Terraxia as every bit as spiteful and jealous as Thanos was when he created her. A powerful "frenemy" in reserve. Something like Mal in Inception, perhaps.

You can read the entire Terraxia story by checking out the collected edition of The Infinity Gauntlet! By shopping via the Amazon link provided, you'll get a good deal and support the site at no extra cost!

Follow Secret Wars on Infinite Earths on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with daily Infinity Gauntlet updates, or dive into the Secret Archive to find every featured fight indexed by publisher, series, and issue number! Sharing and liking links is another great way to keep the wars infinite!

Next: The ninth wave of attack!

Winner: Terraxia
#146 (+384) Terraxia [+1 kill]
#3 (--) Iron Man

Saturday, April 28, 2018

FIRELORD & DRAX versus THANOS

Strength: Thanos 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Thanos 5 (Professor)
Speed: Firelord 5 (Super-Speed)
Stamina: Thanos 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Firelord 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Drax 7 (Living Weapon)
Energy: Thanos 6 (Mass Destruction)
Total: Thanos 34 (Super)

The failed ambush attempt by Cloak has Thanos all riled up, but the eighth wave of attack sees two repeat customers rushing bravely into the line of fire!

Firelord was part of the opening salvo that had no real effect, but got back into the action during the fourth wave as Thor was flung into space. He got put down pretty hard with a backhand from Thanos, but the ill fated intervention of Wolverine likely kept him from a finishing blow. It's tough to say for sure.

The flaming former herald to Galactus is imbued with the Power Cosmic, which makes a guy pretty tough to put down! Cosmic flames probably won't cause Thanos too much concern, but Firelord is fighting with tremendous will, and can provide support to a tag team partner with a real shot at ending this!

Drax The Destroyer was essentially created for the purpose of destroying Thanos! He teamed with Hulk as a second wave able to capitalize on Thanos' adjusting to his altered powers. They were able to knock the Mad Titan on his back and do some real damage, before he sent Drax flying with energy blasts, and Hulk running with a bizarre shrinking offense!

Round 2 for Drax is a chance at redemption! We know from future encounters [Annihilation #4] that Drax can put Thanos down, even if death has a way of being a temporary predicament [see; Guardians of the Galaxy #25].

It shouldn't be forgotten that this era of Drax is hugely bulked up, but incredibly dim witted. We saw the power of this version on display in Warlock and The Infinity Watch #21 when he went the distance with a mad Thor. We also saw his susceptibility to distraction.

Drax should be nice and focused after his earlier skirmish with Thanos. Teamed with Firelord, they should be another formidable duo! Let's see how it went...

The Tape: Firelord & Drax Ranking: Thanos (#18)

What Went Down...
No sooner than Thanos returns from Cloak's dark dimension -- Firelord and Drax are upon him! Declarations of divinity are quickly forgotten as the fiery former herald pulls his burning staff to Thanos' throat, exposing him to The Destroyer!

Drax takes full advantage of the vulnerable positioning - blasting pure energy at the heart of the Mad Titan! It crackles spectacularly against his powerful chest!

As he has many times before - Thanos laughs gleefully in the face of opposition!

Perhaps The Destroyer would live up to his mantle in a physical confrontation, but Thanos feels no need to indulge such a chance. With a mere thought, he opens a portal through time that irresistibly pulls his foes through!

Space-faring Firelord never has a chance to resist as the portal hurls he and Drax back through time! In an instant they're dumped somewhere in Earth's prehistoric past! Out of mind, out of sight -- out of time!

The Hammer...
Their lives may have been spared, but the indomitable cosmic wills of Drax and Firelord are now lost to the heroes! Some may debate the particulars, but the unconventional method still constitutes another victory for the all-powerful Thanos, whose control of time and space knows no bounds!

Things are clearly looking dire for Warlock and his heroes, but there's a grand plan waiting to be enacted, and several high-powered players waiting to play their part! Before we get to them; we're going to take a brief detour in tomorrow's featured fight to take a closer look at the fate of Iron Man!

We last saw Iron Man participating in the sixth round of offense, where he was caught by surprise by a tackling from Terraxia. We'll talk more about who she is, and what her ties to Thanos are, in tomorrow's feature fight.

Today was the third time we've seen Firelord in action during Infinity Gauntlet. The first was the opening salvo - his first entry into the Secret Wars on Infinite Earths record, as well.

He's one of those second-tier favourites I've been hoping to get around to for quite a while, but never found the time. That's one of the great things about a big superhero event like this one. It's a chance to revisit old favourites, and meet new characters if you're new to the corner.

Much like Cloak; Firelord'll be one of those Infinity Gauntlet characters I'll miss in whatever live-action approximation is assembled for the big screen.

It's clear Avengers: Infinity War won't be a direct adaptation of The Infinity Gauntlet, but its apocalyptic ensemble owes enough inspiration to regret the Hollywood tendency to simplify, and play it safe.

The simple things have been enough to make Marvel's Avengers films beloved by the masses, and massively successful at the global box office. Some still consider the first Avengers film one of Marvel's best -- possibly because it was the first time they saw the marquee heroes fighting side by side. Under scrutiny, it's a middling effort with weak villains, and not much more than the team-up going for it. Fifty years of seeing the characters together in print probably took the novelty out of it for me, and other seasoned comics readers.

Most multimedia adaptations of comics will strip out the nuances and the excesses. What you're inevitably left with is a straight forward, conventional piece of storytelling. Nothing too complicated, but not so simplistic that there isn't at least something new and shiny to attract the masses.

Firelord strikes me as a character who could've scratched the nagging itch of obscurity, whilst fitting in to a bigger puzzle. After all, he's a native of Xandar, which was under assault from Ronan The Accuser -- a minion of Thanos in the movies, for no expressed reason -- in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film.

He also has ties with the Nova Corps, who were also present in the Guardians movie(s), albeit in a less than iconic incarnation. Recent rumblings from Marvel allude to plans for a Richard Rider movie, which Firelord could play a neat role in, either as a fellow trainee or mentor, with or without an arc that turns him into a herald to Galactus. If Novas are inevitably compared to Green Lanterns, then it's easy to see Firelord playing a role similar to Sinestro.

Space certainly seems to be becoming the hot new ticket. There's also a Captain Marvel movie already in the works, building up towards the threat of hostilities between the Kree and the Skrulls. That could build to the next big threat to the Marvel cinematic universe, but I have to think a sub-plot involving the coming of Galactus could function similarly - if not better - to the arrival of Thanos.

All of this is to say -- Firelord probably won't be in Avengers: Infinity War, but it'd be a tremendous joy if the films found it within themselves to venture wider, for broader gains. Formulaic safety has meant Marvel movies can tend to feel a lot like the same thing repeated with different paint. Building up a third stringer like Firelord, off the back of inexplicably arriving to help humanity fight the threat of Thanos, would finally be approaching the joys of cosmic comic books!

I've clearly gotten completely distracted by fantasy booking third tier characters into Marvel films, though. We've got an Infinity Gauntlet to run!

Be here for our tangent into the combat of Terraxia! Or, get familiar with Firelord and the other heroes involved in The Infinity Gauntlet by picking up the collected edition via Amazon! Using the link provided helps support the site!

You can find all the Infinity Gauntlet updates, as well as past featured fights with entire universes of characters, but diving into the Secret Index! Every battle is indexed via publisher, series, and issue number!

Winner: Thanos
#15 (+3) Thanos
#118 (-17) Drax
#849 (-316) Firelord

Friday, April 27, 2018

CLOAK versus THANOS

Strength: Thanos 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Thanos 5 (Professor)
Speed: Cloak 2 (Average)
Stamina: Thanos 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Cloak 7 (Intangible)
Fighting: Thanos 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Thanos 6 (Mass Destruction)
Total: Thanos 34 (Super)

Most of the heroes attacks have depended on the physical plane, attacking Thanos with enchanted weapons, energy blasts, and brute strength. The hex magic of Scarlet Witch was cut short during the sixth wave, but has allowed for another esoteric hero to attempt a subversion of their cosmic foe!

Cloak was stuttering teen Tyrone Johnson until he turned runaway after witnessing a robbery-homicide, and the mistaken police shooting of his best friend. Leaving Boston for New York City; Johnson found a friend in Tandy Bowen, who was with him when they were taken in by Maggia drug scientists.

Experiments radically altered Johnson and Bowen, connecting them to realms of Darkforce and Lightforce. As a conduit for the Darkfroce, Johnson can create a dark expanse within the body of his cloak, where forces compel him to entrap victims whose lifeforce will be drained. These dark forces can be sated by the opposite light wielded by Bowen, aka; Dagger.

Dagger's influence is a calming one for the tortured Cloak, but she was among the heroes erased from existence by Thanos' purge of half of all sentient life in the universe! That means Cloak is prone to his darkest urges and plenty motivated to direct them at The Mad Titan!

Cloak is largely rendered intangible by the dimension of Darkforce, which also allows him to teleport over vast distances. His greatest offensive ability will be entrapping Thanos within the dark dimension of his cloak's folds. A fate deemed to torture the soul, and drain a life!

As we saw at the end of the last round in the gauntlet: Thanos is sufficiently distracted to fail to notice Cloak looming behind him. He's still fighting without his vast cosmic awareness, as well. Which makes Cloak's unique abilities an intriguing alternative to the other methods tried so far!

Will it be enough to defeat Thanos? Holding one who controls the Infinity Stones of Time, Reality, and Space could be difficult!

Our only record for Cloak is a moment of vulnerability under fire from the pro-registration Avengers and SHIELD during Civil War #3. They took him down before he could fight. Let's see if he can turn the tide for the heroes this time!

The Tape: Thanos Ranking: Thanos (#20)

What Went Down...
Thanos mocks the impassioned rage of a Captain America who calls him murderer, whilst kneeling over the body of Cyclops! The X-Man is but one of the inevitable many to lay broken and battered across the battlefield!

In his gloating, Thanos fails to notice the eerie folds of cloth belonging to the dark hero Cloak! He glides silently behind The Mad Titan -- engulfing him!

Thanos falls desperately into the void within the cloak! Its black nothingness: a portal to the Darkforce Dimension that punishes the wicked and consumes their life force! As the hero draws his eerie shawl closed, it seems as if Thanos' stay within the darkness is assured.

Captain America celebrates Cloak's efforts, but beads of sweat show the hero's uncertainty. For a moment, he has the luxury of not knowing if Thanos will hold.

With wide eyes and a cry of "NO!" Cloak soon realizes his power is too great!

There's nothing to be done. Thanos returns to his platform with a devastating explosion that obliterates the man Tyrone Johnson and his mystical cape!

Cap's shield protects him from the blast that throws him to the floor! This time it's Thanos who bellows furiously over the hero, declaring his supremacy! Cap defiantly rejects his claims of divinity, calling him a false god as a renewed effort descends to continue their assault!

The Hammer...
Another hero pays the ultimate price in the fight to stop Thanos. Whatever evil may lurk in the darkness of Cloak's otherworldly folds, it clearly cannot compare to the omnipotence supplied by The Infinity Gauntlet!

Thanos' acquisition of the Infinity Gems has the universe's astral deities on notice. These are beings who represent, or challenge, the very make-up of all existence! It was probably a fool's game to wager a sub-dimension of darkness against that influence, but Thanos did pledge to give the heroes a chance.

We're a week into running the gauntlet with Thanos and an assembly of the greatest heroes in the universe. It'ss kinda fun that we get to pause on Cloak, who's a character we haven't seen a whole lot of on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths, but did touch upon in Hero of the Week, this time last year.

He probably isn't one of the heroes storming the big screen in Avengers: Infinity War because you'll find live-action Cloak & Dagger starring on TV's Freeform.

Which is probably one of the charms that will be most lacking from the long awaited big screen arrival of Thanos. Don't get me wrong. They've done a fine job amassing a couple dozen heroes to splash across the big screen -- but their IP management and planning just can't rival the excesses of classic comics!

Cloak is one of those fringe characters I always got a kick out of seeing in a big crossover event. He was a little more at home a few years after Infinity Gauntlet, loosely affiliated with Captain America again, in Maximum Carnage.

Most of the characters involved had a link to Spider-man, but the collective that teamed to fight Carnage were a pretty irregular bunch! Interesting that Maximum Carnage was another crossover event predicated on the (apparent) loss of Dagger as motivation for Cloak. A little Women in Refrigerators, but her light has a way of shining brightest in the end.

We shouldn't dwell too long on tangents. Cloak's death brings Adam Warlock's heroes another step towards oblivion! Their stand is roaring towards its carefully plotted climax! The eighth round of attack is coming up tomorrow!

You can get a complete perspective on the hero's gauntlet, and the entire cosmic happening, by checking out the collected edition of The Infinity Gauntlet! By shopping via the Amazon link provided you help support the Comic Book Fight Club at no extra cost to you! Good deal!

If you're looking to get a glimpse of more of the fourth issue running of the gauntlet, you can keep an eye out for links throughout these posts, or via social media links on Twitter and Facebook. A like a share is a great way to join the fight with more friends!

You can also find all of the Infinity Gauntlet links in the Secret Issue Archive in the Marvel section. The archive includes over ten years of featured fights indexed via publisher, series, and issue number!

Winner: Thanos
#18 (+2) Thanos [+1 kill]
#859 (-277) Cloak

Wednesday, May 02, 2018

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Friday, April 27, 2018

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