This Is The Greatest Comic Book Movie Of All Time

Hey there! I’m Sean O’Connell, the Deputy Editor of Comics & Superheroes for CBR. Basically, I live and breathe comic books, and remain gobsmacked by the cinematic universes constructed around superheroes by Marvel, DC and a handful of standalone studios. The last 25 years have reflected the Golden Age of Comic Book cinema, and I believe that Avengers: Infinity War — released in 2018, and directed by Joe and Anthony Russo — is the greatest comic book movie ever made. Feel free to weigh in below in the comments, because if I know anything about the comic book fan community, I’m confident that you think I’m wrong. Tell me why!

Marvel Studios needed a full decade to build up to Avengers: Infinity War. Audiences had to be introduced to billionaire playboy philanthropist Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), the Star-Spangled Avenger that is Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Chris Hemsworth’s God of Thunder, and all of the heroes that occupy the corners of the MCU before this movie could make any sense.

Avengers: Infinity War is the first movie, then, that truly felt like it took place in a fully realized and complete Marvel Cinematic Universe, where so many of the team-ups and crossovers that fans had been reading about in the comics could be realized in live-action. This was the first movie to bring the full scope and totality of a legendary comic book world to life on screen.

Avengers: Infinity War Makes Incredible Use Of Everyone In The MCU

A sH๏τ from Avengers: Infinity War showing, from left to right, Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Captain America, Okoye, and Black Panther running.

Describing the actual plot of Avengers: Infinity War sounds like fan fiction, the kind that a sugar-infused adolescent might act out when playing with their action figures. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes must join forces to defeat Thanos the Mad тιтan (Josh Brolin) from accomplishing his mission of collecting all six Infinity Stones and eliminating half the galaxy’s population.

In the opening 30 minutes of the film, the Hulk fights Thanos (and loses), Thor watches Loki get murdered, Doctor Strange summons Iron Man to the Sanctum Sanctorum, then Tony runs into Spider-Man and drags the kid along on a mission into the depths of outer space. Speaking of space, Thor gets picked up by the Guardians of the Galaxy after Thanos eliminates most of Asgard, and that misfit group embarks on a journey that eventually concludes on Thanos’ home planet.

What’s remarkable about Avengers: Infinity War is that, in the context of the storylines unfolding in the MCU, all of this made narrative sense. Thanos was mostly a background threat in a handful of Marvel movies made during Phases One and Two. But the studio – spearheaded by Kevin Feige – was masterfully laying out seeds that would flourish in Infinity War, as well as its concluding chapter, Avengers: Endgame. It was a combination of planning and luck that allowed Marvel Studios to structurally stick the landing in Avengers: Infinity War. But it was magnificent thread weaving by the Russo Brothers, as well as screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, that bound all this together in a cohesive package.

The degree of difficulty in constructing and executing a blockbuster like Avengers: Infinity War can not be oversold. The fact that this movie exists is a miracle.

It’s Also The Movie Where The Heroes Lose, Big Time

A sH๏τ from Avengers: Infinity War showing Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet to pull down a moon onto the planet тιтan.

I hope you don’t like happy endings in your superhero stories, because Avengers: Infinity War stands apart from its comic book compeтιтion by allowing its villain to triumph. And I guarantee that anyone reading this remembers exactly how they felt as they: watched Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) fail to stop Thanos from obtaining the Mind Stone out of Vision’s skull; saw Thor bury Stormbreaker in Thanos’ chest, instead of going for the head, and then; witnessing half of the MCU turning to dust in front of their loved ones.

The Avengers lost. And the movie-going world was left in the lurch for a full year to find out how the Avengers would avenge this loss in the follow-up story, Avengers: Endgame.

Heroes have lost on screen before. Two years prior to Avengers: Infinity War, Zack Snyder killed off his Superman (Henry Cavill) at the conclusion of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, leaving Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to mourn. But we’d only just met those characters in a hastily ᴀssembled team-up movie, so the emotional weight of any loss was manufactured, instead of earned.

Avengers: Infinity War still hurts, whether we’re watching Peter Parker fade away in Tony Stark’s arms, or seeing the look of anguish on Thanos’ face as he sacrifices the daughter he loves in order to retrieve a stone.

But the movie’s also filled with innumerable triumphant moments of comic book glee that have us pumping our fists and cheering on our heroes. The arrival of Thor into Wakanda during a pivotal moment in battle. The emergence of Steve Rogers from the shadows when Wanda is losing a fight. Tony’s Squidward joke. From the action to the humor, to the heartfelt character moments that pay tribute to the legacy of this universe, these elements all combine to make Avengers: Infinity War the greatest comic book movie of all time.

Disagree? Have another selection for the Comic Book Movie GOAT? Hit the comments and let me hear your opinions.