Issue(s): Wonder Man #13
Cover Date: Sep 92
Title: "Into infinity"
Credits:
Gerard Jones - Writer
Jeff Johnson - Penciler
Dan Panosian - Inker
Carlos Lopez - Assistant Editor
Fabian Nicieza - Editor

Review/plot:
If you just read the core Infinity War books, you'd never know that Wonder Man's power levels are now based on his emotions. But in this book, we see that Wonder Man is hiding that fact (from the Infinity War audience, not necessarily his peers, since we've already see him tell the West Coast Avengers that his powers are a problem in this series) by keeping himself in a constant state of rage. Which he does, apparently, by letting loose his anti-mutant feelings.

The Iron Man doppelganger did call Wolverine a mutie in Infinity War #2, so maybe the idea is (or maybe Gerard Jones thought the idea was) that he was inciting the non-mutants in the group to riot. But it sure looks like Wonder Man came up with this brilliant idea all on his own.

This situation is interrupted by the explosion of the gamma bomb. After that, Wonder Man asks the Beast to ask Wolverine to help him find Hawkeye and Spider-Man.

Wolverine is surprisingly cool about the whole "mutie" thing.

But the Beast won't go with Wonder Man, because Beast needs to continue playing peacemaker between the mutants and non-mutants (which does suggest that the Iron Man doppelganger was inciting more than just Wonder Man, but we didn't really see any evidence of that).

So Wonder Man gets more of his "own kind" to go with him. I knew Simon had an ego, but does he think his "own kind" is gods?

After they find Hawkeye and Spider-Man, they encounter Wonder Man's doppelganger, who is dressed in some sexy thigh high boots with plenty of leather and spikes.

Getting enraged about mutants is apparently a lot harder than staying angry while fighting your own sexy self.

It takes Thor and Hercules to break up the fight, and the Wonder Man duplicate just leaves unchallenged. Wonder Man can't figure out why he can't keep his anger up enough to fight him.

The gods get Spider-Man and Hawkeye to the hospital. And then the expeditionary force gets ready, as we saw at the end of Infinity War #3, except there are some surprises here.

Puck isn't really on the expeditionary force, but i guess he's just doing a little photobombing. The real questions are a) who is Iron Alpha in the front supposed to be, and b) how did Warpath get there?

In subplots, we start to see Wonder Man's supporting cast demonstrating powers after their exposure to Wonder Man's ionic energy in the last arc.

And Lotus Newmark is apparently teaming up with, and flashing, the Ringmaster.

Seeing Wonder Man have some downtime with the other Marvel characters, especially the Beast, might have been a fun way to spend this issue, but the series seems to be going in a darker direction, so it's anti-mutant rage and S&M costumes for you.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This begins during the hero vs. hero fight at the end of Infinity War #2 and ends with the expeditionary force getting ready to leave at the end of Infinity War #3. I'm listing Warpath as a character appearing, assuming that X-Force sent him on a scouting mission to find out what this is all about. He's using all of his incredible stealth powers to stand there without anyone noticing, and he sneaks off to report back to the group before anyone here notices him. As for Iron Alpha, i'm assuming that's Vindicator having some fun with a spare Iron Man helmet found laying around the FF's building. As noted in the comments, it was probably meant to be Windshear, but as we'll see in the Alpha Flight tie-ins, he's kind of busy right now, so i can't give a Warpath-like explanation for him. And that isn't really meant to be the Ringmaster.

References:

• Reed Richards seemingly called the heroes to work together in Infinity War #1.
  
• The fight broke out mostly along mutant/non-mutant lines in Infinity War #2.
  
• The heroes continued to work together in Infinity War #3.

Crossover: Infinity War

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

"Iron Alpha" is Windshear...but he shouldn't be in that shot either.

And the guy with Lotus is her aide (Andrew, I believe his name is), who is a recurring character with her in the series. I'm pretty sure we've already seen her talking with him in earlier issues of the series.

I have fond memories of younger me and that last scan...

Puck must be photobombing to show off his miscolored costume. Maybe Windshear flew from Canada to assess Puck's costume needs?

Simon really is acting horribly here, using the "mutie" word in front of Wanda. And no, the fact that he has to remain angry to use his powers doesn't explain it- he could be angry about any number of things. (Although I do have to admit, Simon being anti-mutant is horribly out of character.) Nonetheless, this is yet another reason why he and Wanda should not be together.

Another thing to note- Lotus's servant says "you never seem to need sleep but the rest of us MERE MORTALS do". I wonder if this scene influenced Roger Stern's decision to make Lotus Lady Lotus.

I like Wonder Man in West Coast Avengers, but this series makes me like him a lot less.

It seems very odd that a guy who has a crush on a mutant and who's best friend is a mutant and who's never shown any anti-mutant sentiment whatsoever can suddenly whip up such anger towards "muties". If Simon was just faking it, his powers wouldn't work, would they?

I do like that image of Thor flying carrying Hercules carrying Wonder Man. Shame someone else (i.e. someone better) couldn't've drawn it like Lim in the main Infinity War series.

Andrew definitely appeared before. I just dislike adding characters that only have a first name. But i've added him.

I (now) agree that is supposed to be Windshear but he's busy in the Alpha Flight tie-ins at this point, so i'm sticking with my idea that it's Vindicator in an Iron Man suit.

I dislike Simon's anti-mutant comments here too, since they are definitely out of character...BUT the idea of someone saying things they don't actually mean or believe in a fit of anger is certainly not implausible. I think everyone has at some point or another done it to some extent.

I've known people who are not homophobic at all to accidentally use homophobic insults when they are angry--not because they believe it at all, but because they were so angry, their brain pulled out the worst word they could think of. I'd put Simon's anti-mutant comments here in that type of a category--he doesn't actually believe any of it, but in his anger he was saying thing he doesn't mean.

The concluding splash may be a homage to the cover of JUSTICE LEAGUE (1987 series) #1.

@Dermie- they say everybody's biased to one degree or another, and everybody probably has said something bigoted at some point or another. But this isn't the only example of Simon being cruel to Wanda in this storyline- heck, in issues 16-18 he even hits her.

I found this issue really underwhelming. For me it really sums up the generic quality of many of the Infinity War crossovers. The heroes are written as extra-stupid & short-tempered in order to maneuver them into a big misunderstanding fight, and we have even more goofy doppelgangers.

This issue poses an interesting question: why were X-Force not remotely involved in Infinity War. Like Avengers and X-Men didn't have any tie-ins, but they still had a presence. And X-Force were "hot" at the time. It's not like any of the other teams featured were anything but gratuitous cameos anyway.

X-Force was an outlaw group at the time. I think Mr. Fantastic was not even aware of its existence, and in any case he had no idea how to contact Cable. In X-Cutioner's Song it is clear that the group has no contact with the rest of super-community, including other mutants groups.