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2nd May 2018
06:32pm BST

Characters constantly arrive and the stakes just get higher and higher, and you just have to embrace it. There’s not a hint of irony or knowingness about it. It is completely straight. You have to be completely on board with this world. It is just about giving yourself over to this world of imagination. It’s about the sheer joy of seeing these characters meet and fight and team up. Of seeing the Hulk wear the Hulkbuster armour, or Black Widow fighting alongside the Wakandan warriors, or Groot using his arm to form the handle of Thor’s hammer.
And of course, the film doesn’t have an ending. Thanos wins, and much like when I was reading a random decade of issue of West Coast Avengers or whatever, we don’t find out if the heroes will save the day. But that is part of the experience.
One comic that always stuck with me was Uncanny X-Men #348. In it, Gambit and Rogue have been captured by the psychotic robot named ‘Nanny’, with a device that robs them of their mutant powers. The issue ends with them seemingly having no chance of ever escaping. Of course, I knew they would – I’d read X-Men comics that came after – but I didn’t have the next issue so I would never know. The final full page illustration by Joe Madureria, of the Rogue and Gambit embracing hopelessly in their cell, always stuck with me – much like the brilliant ending of Infinity War, where half the universe disintegrates, it was an incredibly power, haunting image.
We’ll find out what happens next year in Avengers 4 – but that will kind of ruin it in a way. Many years later, I was able to read Uncanny X-Men #349 and #350. They didn’t live up to what was in my head. They never do. The blanks I filled in in my head where always more exciting. Infinity War gave me that feeling again.
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