Shadow Cabinet
Jock is a man who knows how to draw some damn covers. A million kudos to you, Jock, and many more to come I'm sure. The subte display of the Infinity Gems, the sense of unification, and yet also the secret signals of a secret society. This cover is genius in it's minimalism.
There's not really any action in this issue, but that's not a negative. This is a really intense meeting of the mind, the greatest thinkers of the Marvel Universe in a very serious atmosphere. (Superior Spider-Man would be insanely jealous if he found out he wasn't invited.) The things they're discussing build such massive ramifications for this story on a scale beyond almost any other. All of reality threatens to end in the heat-death of all that is and ever was and ever will be across every reality. Earths are colliding between universes and that's just signs of the oblivion to come.
Black Swan is ahead of our heroes, having surrendered to the devastation, seeking only to help stave off all Earths collapsing be destroying ones before a collision. Something The Illuminati seems to miss is the way she seems to characterize the looming oblivion as if it were a being and not just an idea. It is kind of subtle, but one thing is for sure, she creeps me the hell out. She's done up in full black and white, it's as if she sucks the color out of the panels she's in. It's rather unnerving in an odd way.
The Infinity Gems are a concept I have limited familiarity with, knowing little more than the Infinity Gauntlet is some kind of insanely powerful reality warper or something, and it's been a huge recurring force in the Marvel Universe for decades, not unlike the Anti-Life Equation. Well, a little different but still. The way they work is explained very concisely without using exposition. Seeing the gems used in small ways firsthand lets you observe and deduce some of the rules of how they work collectively.
In Conclusion: 5/5
I am a sucker for Illuminati-type groups, and this one is filled with unique and intriguing personalities with a range across the morality scale. The stakes are as high as possible, and there's no telling who's going to make what hard choices for the survival of all that exists, or perhaps just their own existence.
