"Someone Missed The Pre-Invasion Coordination Meeting," in Avengers and the Infinity Gauntlet #4, by Brian Clevinger and Lee Black (writers), Brian Churilla (penciler/inker), Terry Pallot, Sanov Florea (inkers), Michelle Madsen (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer)
Maybe this should have come before Avengers: Infinity in the alphabet, but oh well. Brian Clevinger (he of Atomic Robo fame) did a few mini-series for Marvel back around 2010, and this was one of them. A much more stripped down, streamlined, comedy version of "Thanos gets the Infinity Gauntlet."
Half the people in the universe vanish, and with the Earth in chaos, only a small team of the remaining heroes can be spared to go find the source of the problem. Carol Danvers (when she was still Ms. Marvel), Hulk, Spider-Man, Wolverine. And Dr. Doom. This story gets bonus points right off the bat for the complete absence of Adam Warlock!
The space trucker character U.S. Ace also gets thrown in, mostly to be one more person to annoy Doom. Doom and Spidey get most of the focus. Spidey as an irritating, smart-aleck kid who is alternately excited and terrified. Doom as the one who either makes insulting commentary, or ends up as the butt of the joke.
Churilla's art is geared more towards the comedy aspects than action. Fight scenes are perfunctory, mostly just going on in the background while people make plans or crack jokes. But given what the heroes are up against when they confront Thanos, the battle really shouldn't be any kind of a fight anyway, so why bother? When Churilla inks himself, he goes heavier on the shadows and the linework, which gives his characters more a rounded look. Whoever inked the last few pages of this issue had a much lighter touch, which makes everyone's heads look more angular and pointy.
Again, a fairly inessential mini-series, but it has some funny bits in there. Doom being repeatedly aghast at Ace and the whole trucker culture, for one.
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