Warlock & the Infinity Watch 18 pages 21 & 22 by Angel Medina & Bob Almond

A cool double splash from a series I LOVED as a teen. And a fun thematic follow up to last week’s post.

This comes from the later issues that Angel Medina, one of my (numerous) favourite artists drew before exiting the title.

It ties to the Infinity (GASP!) Crusade crossover, the one we all thought/hoped would cap the Infinity trilogy milking and while it did for the 90s, the cycling nature of Comics led to a nauseating and over-milked endless return (GASP!) of Infinity stories and crossovers, for better or worse.

You may not believe it but this was sort of a consolation prize for me like many of the pieces I won during that particular auction. I lost of something I preferred and recouped on several other nice ones of lesser interest (this does NOT mean I’m interested in selling, guys). I’m glad I did.

The obvious attraction is the number of characters, complete in their 90s outfits. I count 26 and it’s literally a who’s who of all the major 90s Heroes teams. You got representatives of Alpha Flight, X-Men, X-Factor, Avengers (both East and West coast), the New Warriors, the Infinity Watch (sans Warlock alas), the FF and even the Hulk (who Angel would later draw for a too short run).

I must say that for me, sexy She Hulk, The Thing (a grotesque character perfect for Angel’s style) and the Beast steal the show. The “uh oh” face on Drax is quite fun in the sense he is one of the biggest characters in the room yet he seems quite worried by his current situation.

You’ll note that the Thing is (thankfully) without his head bucket on the original art. The art correction seems a bit clumsily done on the published page and was probably done in a hurry to accommodate continuity needs. This lets us appreciate the great look on his face.

I must confess that while I really love the piece, I find that this issue and the later part of Angel’s on the title seem a bit rushed as compared with the earlier issues inked by Austin or even the same Bob Almond. Were both artists rushed and deadline pressured by the crossover and tons of characters constraints a big crossover dictates? Were they losing interest? Difficult to know but the art wasn’t as polished. Still very enjoyable considering the talent involved though.