Ultron has long wished to take over all there is and replace it with only Ultron…but now armed with an Infinity Stone, he has never been closer to his goal. With the Guardians falling apart, who can step forward to stop the singularity from overwhelming everything?

Written by Gerry Duggan with art by Aaron Kuder and Mike Hawthorne, Infinity Countdown is a story I should be enjoying more than I do. I remember reading the classic “Infinity” stories like Gauntlet, War, and Crusade. This was during my prime reading experience so I’ve generally been looking forward to, and enjoying, the emphasis on Marvel’s cosmic corner.

The story is two parts with the Guardians and Nova Corps figuring out what to do with the Infinity Stone in their possession and the other focused on Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock fighting Ultron.

There’s some good aspects here but then things go sideways like Drax playing a sax (previous itterations of the character are much better) or Silver Surfer calling upon Galactus to help defeat Ultron. The Galactus feels like it has the entire job to undo changes to the character (I’m not even going to go in to the choice to give personality to the force of nature). The good aspects are some of the twists. There’s one involving a stone and another involving Silver Surfer. The epic aspect is almost there but the event never quite commits. In short, there’s better been done before and this new chapter falls short of what it’s built off of (give me Annhilation over this).

The art is another issue. The style is reminiscent of Mike Allred which may work for the Silver Surfer series but here it doesn’t quite match the story. These are some serious battles and destruction but the art style along with the coloring and inks gives it a look that doesn’t match the tone. There’s some great page layouts but it doesn’t click. The closest it does is a double page spread involving Galactus but even there the close up of Ultron looks like color pencils with some decent detail.

Something isn’t clicking here for me. Maybe it’s the story. Maybe it’s the art. The combination, absolutely. There’s glimpses of excellence but that’s mired in choices that don’t quite work. The fact we know more is to come this summer makes all of this feel even more like a prequel book, an early chapter that is dragging things out a bit too much.

Story: Gerry Duggan Art: Aaron Kuder, Mike Hawthorne
Ink: Aaron Kunder, Terry Pallot, Jose Marzan, Jr.
Color: Jordie Bellaire Lettering: VC’s Cory Petit
Story: 6.75 Art: 6.5 Overall: 6.65 Recommendation: Pass

Marvel provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review