I remember being frustrated when Infinity Inc., first came out. The new characters were introduced in the pages of All-Star Squadron, and I was looking forward to following their adventures in their own title, especially since Jerry Ordway would be handling the art duties. Unfortunately for me, the series was in DC's "New Format" and was only sold at comics shops, not on the newsstand. I didn't live near any such shops at the time, so it would be years before I was able to check out the series. It's too bad that the new characters created for it have all been wiped out with DC's "New 52" reboot.
Although her appearance is very different, Fury (Wonder Woman's daughter) does appear occasionally in the pages of Earth-2. But that DOES seem to be it for the Infinitors.
ReplyDeleteThe original Infinity, Inc. was BRILLIANT!!!
ReplyDeleteRoy Thomas and Jerry Ordway...and some newcomer named Todd McFarlane around issue #14. I had a lot of the pre-Crisis issues, then made the mistake of getting rid of them and All-Star Squadron.
Now, my mission is to build that all back up again.
I would re-read All-Star Squadron and Infinity, Inc. more than anything in The New 52. My favorite was that very first storyline where the JSA turned evil. Good stuff!
I thought it was just me!!! Ross, you and I lived parallel lives, cuz I was also really peeved that Infinity Inc. would only be sold in specialty shops. At the time, my family lived in a bad, inner city neighborhood in East New York/Brooklyn, miles away from any comic book shop in Manhattan or the Suburbs. But one day, my dad & I took the road in search of the comic shop using the Yellow Pages (pre-internet) as our guide. We finally found one in some backwater alley in Queens. There, I purchased as many back issues of deluxe format comics that my hundred dollar bill could afford!! Ahh, childhood memories.
ReplyDelete@Air Dave: You'll have to seek out runs of "Infinity Inc." at stores or online because there was only one volume in trade before the Iron Curtain came down in 2011 and that had only the last few bits of an "All-Star Squadron" story and the first few issues of "Infinity Inc." I would also keep an eye out for the 80's "Secret Origins" series, in which Roy Thomas and others gave post-Crisis origins for Golden Age characters, often to provide background for the legacy characters in II. The Fury origin actually takes place during an issue of II, between panels.
ReplyDeleteThe Direct Sales format eventually helped drive me out of comics. As far as I knew, back in the early 80's, there were no comics shops within 100 miles of me, then all the local stores that carried the regular editions stopped doing so, so my nearest location was about 40 miles away.
ReplyDeleteI was looking forward to getting on board with Infinity, Inc., but it wasn't meant to be. I missed the Crisis on Infinite Earths and all the consolidation, but I think I'm glad that I did.
I enjoy looking at your blog to see the great ideas that could have actually been.
Ordway and then McFarlane made it fun to look at, but honestly, you didn't miss too much with Infinity Inc.
ReplyDeleteMcFarlane's sketchy amateur-hour art ruined the stories for me.
ReplyDelete