THE INFINITY CRUSADE (2000)

 

Technically, in my system the two-volume TPB INFINITY CRUSADE-- made up of a same-titled 6-issue series plus an assortment of crossover-books-- qualifies as a null-myth, a work in which the potential for mythic discourse has totally gone down the tubes. But CRUSADE isn't really worth a detailed discussion. It's just another of a crossover-type that I'm now calling the "clustermuck," designed to bring together twenty or more franchise-characters for the delectation comics-fans who like such assemblages.

Despite the name, there are some good clustermucks in terms of mythic discourse. The 1986 CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, despite some narrative problems, is the best of the bunch. And when Jim Starlin first began to "keep on clustermucking," he executed a decent outing in INFINITY GAUNTLET, which as most fans know was one of the main sources for the two-part conclusion of the MCU AVENGERS film-series of the 2010s. However, the very next clustermuck Starlin executed right after GAUNTLET was so mediocre, I don't even remember what it was called. Thus my working term "clustermuck" doesn't automatically signify that the work MUST be bad. But the more moving parts the author has to operate, the greater the chance that the story-action will devolve into a "muck" of cameos and posturing moments.

CRUSADE is mostly just that. A quickie description: Warlock once separated two of his soul-selves off from him. He fought one of them, The Magus, back in the 1970s. For some reason, the other one, a female entity called The Goddess, held off taking any action until year 2000. She has a complicated plan to remold the cosmos to her liking, and she enlists a few dozen heroes into her service. She's only able to mesmerize heroes who have some religious sensibility, which Starlin never defines. His humor is terrible and the action, supplied by an assortment of other artists, is ordinary except for a few battles, like one involving Thor and Drax the Destroyer.

The only thing that interested me about CRUSADE is that even though Starlin's dealing with several dozen heroes, most of them are subordinate ensemble characters. In GAUNTLET Thanos is the only superordinate character. Here Starlin puts all of his narrative emphasis upon the ensemble of Thanos and his old enemy Warlock, and everyone else is secondary to their machinations to defeat the menace of The Goddess. Some of their dialogue is okay-- certainly better in terms of characterization than all of the other Marvel manikins-- but the upshot is that CRUSADE might even be worse-written than one of my oldest unfavorites, SECRET WARS.