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Divide -- and Be ConqueredInfinity Inc #6
Cover Date: September 1984
Released: 21st June 1984
As if my month-long break from the future year of 2022 has somehow settled down a comic from... oh so long ago, Infinity Inc settles down in the style of storytelling I've grown so used to from the All-Star's Comic days. As I pointed out before it's actually not that much different from the Teen Titan stuff I've been covering through February, from the... wow that long ago now! Though the Teen Titans is more in the subplot bubbling under mode rather than the split the team we've gotten here. And to be fair the last few issues have also been doing this, though I sort of missed it due to being swamped with multiple backstories!
We open with Nuklon being in danger from a Green Lantern constructed vice squashing him down and threatening to impale him on its very green spikes. The teamwork together and between Obsidian and Jade's lantern inherited powers they manage to release him from the trap. Through the struggle, which takes a few pages that manages to keep up some tension, those that missed the ending of the last issue learn that the JSA aren't actually dead but corrupted by the magical water.
We then cut to Power Girl, you know the whole reason we're here, who's just arrived in Metropolis. We learn from a live report from the Expositional New Network that the entire city has been covered by an impenetrable force dome. There's some nice bit here's of her interacting with some Soldiers trying to break into the dome, and some back and forward between Kara and that reporter, now TV reporter, that I refuse to remember the name of (oh okay Andrew Vinson). Looking back with hindsight I can't help but read sexual tension into the scene, though I can't be sure if that was what was planned back in the eighties.
Supes they just flies through the barrier into the city and following a hunch Power Girl flies through the barrier after her. Affected by the magic water, as we find out later, Clark seems to be falling back on the superiority complex that most Kryptonians have. He now plans to conqueror the Earth and converts it into a New Krypton, now feeling that humans have never done anything for the two of them. We also get another backstory for Supes here, but it's like a panel and to be honest, few people even then didn't know the story. The two them then fly towards each other, Kara feels that she has no choice but to subdue her cousin until they can sort out what happened to him.
We then cut to Gotham where Helena heads towards the prison island to stop Dick Grayson, a grown-up Robin, who's going to get his revenge on Zucco. AS you may or may not know, and don't worry we get the flashback, at this time Zucco was the man responsible for killing his parents. She tries to stop him from doing something he'll later regret, only for Robin to beat up on her. It's quite a brutal fight with Helena bleeding from the beating she's receiving, it's only the last-minute arrival of some guards and well place knife that stops him from succeeding in his goal.
Finally, we have the confrontation between Ultra-Humanite, Star-Spangled Kid and Brainwave, Jnr. After a summary of the Ultra-Humanite's origin, which includes their time in the body of a woman (something I always find interesting that is never commented upon by the heroes) and a Giant Ant! before settling on the ape body he's wearing now. After explaining that he's basically the mastermind behind the entire plot so far, before attacking the two with a pair of laser-firing drones. They manage to beat the drones, called missiles because it's the eighties, but an avalanche caused by the fight. The heroes are buried and Ultra-Humanite comes from the snowdrift in a tripod device, ready to fight Infinity, Inc, finally...
Whilst my previous frustration with the comic was exaggerated, but it's still nice that the comic settles down for more traditional storytelling. Though I have to give the comic props for having the confidence to spend five issues (almost half a year) setting everything up before finally telling its story.
⋅ Writer: Roy Thomas / Dann Thomas ⋅ Penciler: Jerry Ordway Inker: Al Gordon ⋅
⋅ Colourist: Anthony Tollin ⋅ Letterer: David Cody Weiss ⋅
⋅ Editors: Roy Thomas ⋅
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