I will be quick here. First allow me to be clear. I enjoy the direction and ideas introduced in the book so far. Beefing up the roster and allowing the Avengers to expand their universe has been great to see. To me The Avengers were not meant to struggle against the likes of Norman Osborne and a dude in a red Hood and a wife beater lol

All that being said, I find the book enjoyable, and a fun read. Great concepts, sure but not exactly giving you the bang of character devolpment that you like to see in your team books. With such a large roster with such a expansive power set, it is understandable that you can't showcase everyone all the time. You have Captain Universe, and Starbrand on a team with Falcon and Black Widow, so I do respect the juggling act that is needed to pull this off.

But my issue is I just don't see the "epicness" of this run as I am reading in the forums. by most accounts the Avengers have never been better, Hickman is a genius. I don't see these moments that some folks are just hailing as the best thing Marvel has produced in years, how INFINITY was just this awesome storyline that showcased Hyperion's abilities, or how it was a great story with so much action....I just don't see it, believe me..I want to so maybe someone can help me out? I will reread it if need be, I will pick up the tie ins if that helps?

1. I was confused in the first 3 issues as to what INFINITY was really about. Was it about the Avengers bringing the fight to the Builders in space ( cool concept) or was it about the Return of Thanos? And to take it a step further you have the New Avengers/Illuminati with their own agenda. To me, it was a disservice to all the sub plots that were being built up, that got combined into one book and none of them got the full treatment to really explore their tales. They all could have ran for 6 issues on their own, but with this smashed up approach I just felt like it bounced around to much and felt there was alot more meat on the bone when it was all said and done.
2. With so much going on, it was hard to have your favorite characters get their moments. I did not pick up the tie in books, so I am assuming those books were able to get more from certain characters, but guys like Hawkeye, Spider-Woman, Shang Chi and Falcon even Iron Man were just flat out non factors. The only stand outs to me where Black Bolt, and Thanos and his Black Order. Especially The Black Order who were truly fun villains, and would have loved to see them used more in the future. But aside from brief moments such as Starbrand cutting loose, Thor's surrender scene, and Hyperions brief, but desicive battle with Corvus, you did not see much of the Avengers at all.

When it is all said and done, I do respect the work going into building up to INFINITY and enjoyed it. But I can't give this anymore then a solid B effort. There were just too many elements unanswered for me, such as Dr Strange and Ebony Maw, The sub plots with the Illuminate weren't answered at all, if fact 'This is just the beginning'. Thawne was introduced, but still not clear as to what his motivation is going forward. Becoming something worse then his father ever dreamed could mean many things, especially as he seemed reluctant to use his abilities.

There were points that just didn't make sense to me, like how easily the Galactic armies accepted Captain America and the Avengers as these great warriors, when for years they would admire their spirit but always thought of Earth as a annoyance, but suddenly they are waving the Avengers banner because Gladiator was looking 'at the chessboard the wrong way."

And I don't understand how you build up this unity between the empires, only have 5 Avengers make it back to defend Earth. I don't see why you could not have Oracle, or Ronan or even Super Skrull be there to lend their support for all the Avengers have done for them.

So in closing, I enjoyed the book, I did find the concepts introduced outweighed the execution and the introduction and activities of the Black Order and the art especially the books with Jim Cheung were bright points. But maybe there were parts I missed, as I said I did not pick up all the tie-in books, and the ones I did, really didn't make a difference to my overall view of the story. I hear Hyperion was showcased, where? I read this was the best event since Annihilation...really? How?

Not knocking the final result, which was worth the purchase, I have been a Avengers fan since the days of West Coast Avengers, I suffered through the TIMESLIDE, ONSLAUGHT and DISSEMBLED eras. Was letdown immensely by SIEGE and AGE OF ULTRON. Believe me I want nothing more then to enjoy a good Avengers story again, I just don't think INFINITY is that story.

I would love to hear thoughts from folks and what they thought of it. again not bashing just wishing I felt as good about as others seemed to..THANKS!

Go read the tie-in books

I kind of agree. It's been pretty good, but I don't quite get some of the hype.

I stopped reading after you said you didn't pick up the tie-ins and you complain about how you don't understand what's going on.

Shouldn't an event be able to tell you the story in its' own series, with the tie-ins to just expand upon certain parts?

@v_scarlotte_rose: it should but we don't live in a world were marvel and DC do that for us. Trust me I tried to read Inifity without getting the first two tie ins from Avengers and New Avengers and didnt work. I wish I didn't have to spend more on ti ins but in the case of Infinity I was happy with the quality of all of them especially New Avengers.

I've liked what Hickman is doing, but I still don't understand the point of Infinity. I feel that there was too much happening and the overall ending just felt lacking, in my opinion.

I also feel Hickman has made the Avengers to OP. I mean when you have a guy like Star Brand, who can destroy a whole fleet of starships with a flick of his finger, that's too overpowered for me.

No matter how big a event is, you should never be forced to read tie-ins to understand what's going on. Forcing readers to read titles that they otherwise would never read, in my opinion, hurts the story rather than helps and only alienates readers as some may not be able to buy every tie-in. Tie-ins should be used as a way to expand on events happening in a story, but overall should not be required to enjoy it.

I feel that this story was weak. I got Avengers and new Avengers and I still think it was weak the end sucked hard. It was just a bad story and I am glad it is over now maybe we can get some thing better.

Hears hoping the next one dose not sick.

I'm more excited about Infinity not just because it's awesome (which you don't seem to dispute so much as HOW awesome it is), but because of what it means for the universe: The Avengers have started an intergalactic empire of their very own. They've created Avengers Worlds. Made alliances and earned the respect of the biggest and baddest of the other intergalactic empires. They've staked a claim to Earth that is unprecedented in any main superhero book: The Justice League is well known to protect Earth, just like the Avengers, but there's a difference between, "We protect this world." and "This is OUR world. It belongs to us. Try and take it, you're not just attacking our planet, you are DIRECTLY ATTACKING US."

It's taking the whole superhero game to a new scale: Before, New York had neighborhoods: Queens is Spider-Man. Hell's Kitchen is Daredevil. Greenwich Village is Doctor Strange, and so on. Now they're moving that up to a planetary scale: Kymer is Starbrand. Centauri Prime is Hawkeye. And Earth is ALL the Avengers.

And now we get to see how the stupid, petty, ignorant jacka**es that call themselves the Marvel United Nations get to react when a group of superpowered individuals say, "This planet is ours." It's exactly what they've been afraid of all this time, why humanity fears mutants, what the point of the Civil War was: The superhumans and mutants have officially made a claim that supersedes the ruling governments. They have said, "If you want Earth, you come talk to the AVENGERS, not these politicians." The Avengers have stepped out of government control by saying that on a galactic scale, THEY are more important than the government.

It's not an 'American World.' Not a 'French', 'Canadian', 'Russian', 'Chinese', or even 'United World.' It's an 'Avengers World.' The Marvel universe is changing. Things are happening, and that's always exciting to see, because things always so quickly return to the status quo.

Also, it's good guys fighting bad guys again, and that's always nice.

@citizenbane: I agree with you and you put it much better than me, good job.

The WATX annual was great, I just felt that that needed to be said again.

@grenadeflow: Yeah, especially in this series! Usually I avoid tie- ins but you'll only get that eoic feeling if you read them. 6 issues isn't enough to judge Infinity. Let Ronan do the Judging.

@oscars94: Plus Hickman let everyone know before the event started that the tie-ins were necessary and people ar still complaining about this. Getting the tie-ins were worth it IMO.

I thought the New Avenger tie-ins were good and worth while. The rest (regular Avengers, Heist, Hunt, ect) I agree were not needed. I really enjoyed the Mighty Avengers, however that's fine on it's own w/o Infinity.

@grenadeflow: Also DEM COVERS!

It was entertaining and 20 times better than BotA.

@papinacho: Nothing happened in the first 4 issues of BOTA! Meanwhile in Infinity, The Avengers join the Galactic Council to fight the Builders. It was so epic!

The Builder weren't needed. If Hickman wanted a distraction for the Avengers he could have easily had another Kree/Skrull War or something.

@humanrocket: Not complaining, just asking for help, but thanks anyway.

Ok, for the most part..I am not going crazy then . It just was a matter of opinion being the minority to a enthusiastic majority. I think it was a story which had alot of great plots that were developed and moving forward. But the overall package suffered from some swing and misses. So I stand by my B rating...And with the recent failures of 'EVENTS' that came down the pipe. I will call this a solid story and call it a day, they don't all have to be Secret Wars right.

( Now if only I can contain my anger towards UA 14...grrrrr)

I wasn't paying attention much to Hickman's Avengers run because I was just not interested and I didn't like what he was delivering us.I was picking up the books and I was reading the issues but I just didn't feel like it because the roster was just too big and like you said there were members of the team which can solo whole starships or armies.But when Infinity came close to us I got really hyped and wanted to read the stuff that was coming but yet again the main Avengers book was the most mediocre and not entertaining thing ever.

The Infinity event at first was disappointing also because of the whole separation it had between the Builders story and the Thanos return quest.But when the story became mainly about Thanos' quest and the Black Order started getting more attention from Hickman I got thrilled.THe plot started to shine and was becoming better and better with every issue and the fact that the New Avengers tie-ins were awesome and were building up the story and the tension even more was hyping me up.
The story was great and the final issue had a great end battle which in the end was a little bit lackluster because it seemed like Thane,the son of Thanos,was stronger than his father and could've stopped this long ago and it just ended in a few panels.Thanos was defeated and Thane disappeared.It seemed like not the the appropriate way to end things.

In conclusion, I understand what you have in mind and what are your problems with the book but with Infinity Hickman's run started finally to shine even though the end was not the thing I had in mind and I definitely wanted something a little bit bigger.

@dondave: But he showed that all of our galaxies races were able to join together to defeat a superior foe.

They could have all come together to defeat an already established threat, the Builders didn't seem like something the Annihilators couldn't have stopped.

@dondave: Gladiator and Ronan were still there. What threat would you have liked? I like Hickman introducing new characters.

And something else that just hit me...I know times have changed, and the threats have been elevated. And you can make an argument for self defense in a time of war...but

WHAT HAPPENED TO AVENGERS DO NOT KILL?!...Welcome to the team Hyperion hahaha

@mrfuzzynutz: No see the dude wanted to die and Huyperion said consider it a gift. So really Hyperion was just being a good guy giving him a gift :)

@mrfuzzynutz: I suspected as much.

I dropped Avengers after issue 13, partially because I was getting bored with it compared to some of the other Avengers books, but also because I'd heard about Infinity coming down the line. I figured that, between those two books, plus tie-ins, it would be largely like what you now seem to be confirming: sprawling and bloated with no clear direction.

So the only parts of infinity that I've read have been the tie-in issues of New Illuminati and the first 3 issue arc of Mighty Avengers, both of which hold up just fine without really knowing what's going on in the rest of the universe.