Away from any competing comicbook films and Studios (a la SDCC 2017), Marvel thrust themselves to centre stage at D23 to start to build momentum for Avenger: Infinity War. Kevin Feige paraded out almost the entire cast of Infinity War and then dropped the first official Avengers: Infinity War teaser trailer. Shown behind closed doors and not released for public consumption (yet), reports overwhelmingly agree that the trailer stole the show, even with the presence of new The Last Jedi footage.
Outside of the epic trailer (which I have yet to see), the most prominent pieces of public promotional material for Avengers: Infinity War at D23 were based around the villains of the film. It seems that next years Infinity War is really going to be a different film for Marvel, as it looks like the villains are going to be prominently featured.
As the promotional material drops I’m getting a real feeling that this first instalment of the Infinity saga is going to be the story of The Mad Titan THANOS. The films teaser poster given out at D23 homages Infinity Gauntlet #1 and is one of, if not the first teaser to feature only the villain.
Teaser Poster Art by: Ryan Meinerding
Alongside the teaser poster was the showcasing of ‘The Children of Thanos’. This stood out as my favourite tease of the weekend because of my love for the comicbook storyline they were first introduced in (2013's Infinity). The title of ‘Children of Thanos’ was revealed by Marvel president Louis D’Esposito and it likely refers to the group of Thanos’ adoptive children (similar to Nebula and Gamora) that serve as his lieutenants in the film. It could also be a nod to the idea explored in the Thanos Rising comic mini-series (2013, by Jason Aaron) that Thanos spread his seed across the galaxy in pursuit of some kind of normalcy.
Photo Credit: Louis D’Esposito
Photo Credit: Ryan Penagos
The group on display, known as The Black Order in the comics, consist of Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, and Cull Obsidian (Black Dwarf). They made their first appearance in the comics in The New Avengers #8 (Vol. 3) during the 2013 Infinity event. In the Infinity storyline The Black Order are individually charged by Thanos to pursue Infinity Stones held by the Illuminati. This could be closely paralleled in Infinity War with each individual member of the Black Order attacking a different group of heroes who are protecting an Infinity Stone. I have been really hoping that the MCU will be taking cues from Hickman’s Infinity Event and it looks like they are heading that way!
The New Avengers (Vol. 3) #8
The final Infinity Gauntlet design was also revealed at D23. We have seen this in the past (Thor (Odins vault - right hand), AOU - left hand) but the scale and detail shone through in the displayed piece.
Photo Credit: Louis D’Esposito
This easily sits as my most anticipated film of 2018 and I can not wait to see the teaser, hopefully after SDCC 2017.
Let us know what you think of the villains taking the dominant position for the early teases of Avengers: Infinity War. We will be discussing all the details of the Marvel reveales at D23 and SDCC 2017 on Episode #81 Part 1 of The Nerd Room Podcast airing Wednesday July 26th, 2017!
Check out The Nerd Room MCU Retrospective Series, our monthly look back at every MCU film leading into a weekend of release review of Avengers: Infinity War!
Thanks for reading,
Tim