Issue(s): Infinity Crusade #6
Cover Date: Nov 93
Title: "Rapture"
Credits:
Jim Starlin - Writer
Ron Lim - Penciler
Al Milgrom - Inker
Craig Anderson - Editor

Review/plot:
We start with various characters getting caught in the explosion caused by the Goddess. This includes characters involved in the hero vs. hero fights from last issue as well as the others that had tie-ins that were basically unrelated to the main series. This may have been many people's only exposure to Terror.

Deathlok apparently ran all the way from the mountain that he was on with Siege in his book to appear in this city, and then ran back in time to appear in the next issue of his book.

Even we got blown up.

We also see explosions among the Shi'ar and Skrulls.

After thinking that she's destroyed all life, the Goddess starts to say "Let all that is holy once again..." but then cuts herself off when she realizes that she hasn't really destroyed anything.

Everybody's really fine, including us.

It turns out that Adam Warlock, taking advantage of the fact that he was in the Goddess' psyche, caused an illusion that made it seem like the Goddess' plan was successful. But that was just to give him time to stop her.

And since Warlock is in an astral form, the Goddess can't affect him with her Cosmic Containment Units, since (as we learned in Warlock Chronicles #3) they are unable (or really unwilling) to affect souls.

So she leaves her corporeal form to battle him.

This might be a good time to mention this: when i first read this series, i was only vaguely aware of Her (later Kismet), who was a female version of Adam Warlock. I always assumed that Her was somehow related to the Goddess - in her astral form here where she loses the Joan of Arc look, she could be a ringer for Her. Of course she also looks like Nova. Anyway, the Goddess has nothing to do with Her, and even though Kismet resurfaced recently in Quasar, Starlin never does anything with the character.

The battle is further joined by Thanos and Professor X, the latter of whom is still comatose and under Thanos' control.

They manage to blast her into submission and she makes a run back for her corporeal form. But it turns out that while she was projecting, Warlock was able to take control of the Cosmic Egg.

Note Xavier finally coming to. Poor guy.

Thanos then blasts the Goddess, sucking her into the Soul World.

It turns out that was a post-hypnotic suggestion on Warlock's part.

Warlock returns to his physical body. Thanos then sets the Cosmic Egg to break itself down. Warlock returns and retrieves his Soul Gem, and Thanos doesn't put up a fight. We later see that Thanos has kept his bargain with Mephisto and provides him with a Cosmic Cube, but it turns out to be depowered.

Meanwhile, the gathered heroes part ways.

Note Thor's "strange look" and the mention of Gamora's healing factor.

Warlock then shows up, and the Hulk starts complaining that the whole episode was Warlock's fault, since the Goddess came from him. The Infinity Watch jumps to Warlock's defense, but Warlock just has Pip teleport them out of there.

Since i've looked at Storm's semi-resistance of the Goddess, here's the final word on that.

As for the Goddess herself, she's like Magus on the Soul World, unable to interact with the other denizens. Magus and Goddess can talk to each other, but they can't touch.

In terms of what should be the tragic return of crime and war to Earth, it's covered in a few brief panels.

So just a very by-the-numbers ending to a very by-the-numbers crossover.

As i've been reviewing this series, i've seen some interesting and elaborate ideas from commenters here on what the crossover was about, often as criticism. It's actually kind of surprising to me, because personally it feels like this crossover is basically about nothing. I've already talked about how any interpretation of the Goddess was made moot by just declaring her insane in Warlock Chronicles #5. In terms of how she's defeated - both in how the explosion was thwarted and how she's physically beaten - it's just some basic clever maneuvering from Warlock, nothing majorly symbolic or meaningful. There's nothing here like the philosophical musings of Starlin's 70s Warlock work or the character driven Thanos Quest series. So this is just the third telling of a group going up against a seemingly unbeatable villain, but as i've said before, the unstoppableness of the villain was taken for granted this time. All of the talk of the Goddess being Warlock's good side and feminine side and the trappings of religion amount to nothing. This book has Ron Lim's art to recommend it, and i like Starlin's scripting (of "his" characters, at least). But it's just a not very compelling adventure story bogged down by irrelevant tie-ins and the "massive logistical nightmares" that Iron Man warned us about in the beginning.

Starlin will remain on Warlock and the Infinity Watch for a while longer, until the Aug 94 cover date. But i wanted to call out now something mentioned in Sean Howe's Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. When Starlin does leave Marvel, it's for Malibu's creator-owned Bravura line. Announcing his departure, Starlin said, "Marvel is not paying rates or royalties that are competitive with what Malibu and Dark Horse are offering". Considering that Starlin was responsible for Marvel's big line wide crossover three years in a row, it's weird that they couldn't keep him happy financially. But it's very likely that a lot of creators were misled by the ephemeral profits of Image and the like. Indeed, Malibu's finances dried up soon after Starlin went there, and really the entire market was crashing at that time. I bring this up now just to suggest where Starlin's head may have been at. If he was already thinking about going creator-owned, he probably was saving his best ideas for that, and was more than happy to just paint by numbers for this. It's also worth realizing that bloated crossovers like this were a part of why the market crashed.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: My normal procedure is to put the books that take place during the core issues of a crossover after the relevant core issue. But in this case i've chosen to put the Deathlok tie-in and the final Thor tie-in, both of which conclude after the nova explosion and therefore during this issue, prior to it. I think it just reads a little better with this issue serving as a conclusion.

References: N/A

Crossover: Infinity Crusade

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

It's a shockingly bad crossover: Secret Wars 2 was lousy, but at least had some ambition. At this point, marketing was driving editorial decisions, and I assume the rational was that a.) Infinity War was profitable, and b.) even a lousy crossover boosts sales on failing titles like Deathlok, and at this point much of Marvel's line is failing. But it's terrible to think of the damage this did to viable books like Silver Surfer, which was a hot title when Starlin joined, and which still had the somewhat hot Ron Lim, but has been turned by the crossovers into a complete waste of paper for months on end.

Poor Jim Starlin. This will be the second time he's left Marvel for greener pastures. The last time was for Ralph Bakshi's studio. That didn't work out either.

@ Walter- I think that it's an overstatement to say that much of Marvel's line was failing at this point- Infinity Crusade 1 came out just before the market started to collapse- but it's amazing how many of the books Infinity Crusade crossed over with were cancelled within 6 months (Deathlok, Alpha Flight, Moon Knight, Cage- heck, Terror was cancelled the very ISSUE it crossed over!)

I reckon the panels of "Deathlock" there are actually at a comic convention and that's a cosplayer.

Much of Marvel's line was failing in quality at this point in time, is how I read that, not necessarily financially. Although the bankruptcy isn't that far in the future.

I love Lim's art but I did not even remember the universe fake-blowing up and I scanned the dang issues! So Crusade was definitely a failure for me 😊

Boy, the Prince of Lies sure comes across as a sucker here.

(Speaking about Mephisto, not what the Goddess calls the Magus.)

This entire series is simply horrible in every sense of the word. I strongly suspect Starlin just wanted to write long, drawn-out boring sagas about the cosmic and new-age philosophy which appealed to him, but had to shoehorn in the Marvel Universe to justify getting paid and published to do it. These really are meaningless, pointless, maddening wastes of time and paper and again, I've just never gotten the high view of Starlin that other people have.

I agree with you fnord after seeing your coverage of the tie-ins that the whole series was a sloppy rushed waste of time. Move on, very little to see here.

fnord, thank you so much for doing this project, even when you end up having to go up against less-than-wonderful material. I appreciate your work immensely, and I hope your vacation is a great one.

Agreed with Douglas. Great work, fnord. Enjoy your vacation.