The Thanos Imperative #6(of 6)

Overall: And this would be the finale of the Thanos Imperative story. Last issue Thanos surrendered himself to Lord Mar-Vell of the Cancerverse, with Thanos telling Mar-Vell that he'd cease opposing him if Mar-Vell granted Thanos his heart's desire, the cold embrace of death. Mar-Vell is all too happy to oblige, since killing off Thanos, Death's chosen avatar, would bring Mar-Vell one step closer to killing Death herself, allowing the Cancerverse to spread into the mainstream Marvel Universe. Meanwhile, the Guardians of the Galaxy bemoan the fact that they trusted Thanos and he appears to have betrayed them. Before the Guardians are killed by Mar-Vell's chosen warriors, the Revengers, Nova arrives on the scene, frees them from their bonds, and Nova and the Guardians attack the Revengers. However, none of the heroes are able to reach Thanos and Mar-Vell as Mar-Vell completes the ritual killing of Thanos. Unfortunately for Mar-Vell, that was Thanos's plan all along, since Thanos's “death” allowed Death entrance to the Cancerverse where she is able to kill Mar-Vell, ending his threat. With Mar-Vell dead, the forces of the Cancerverse begin to die off one by one, and the entire Cancerverse begins to implode. Thanos expects Death to FINALLY take him into her arms, but once again she spurns Thanos, leaving him behind. This REALLY doesn't sit well with Thanos, who begins to rant and rave, telling Death that he would continue destroying entire universes until she finally accepted him as her mate. Realizing that Thanos was madder than ever and that he'd probably make good on his promise to destroy their own universe to gain Death's affections, Star-Lord teleports the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy back to their own universe and along with Nova, the two heroes make one final stand against Thanos, knowing that they couldn't allow him to return to the Marvel Universe. The two heroes manage to hold Thanos for enough time, and the Cancerverse implodes and seals itself off from the Marvel Universe. A few days later, the remaining heroes gather and mourn Nova and Star-Lord. While the gathered heroes realize that there is always the chance that the two heroes survived the collapse of the Cancerverse, they also know that there is no way to re-open a portal to the Cancerverse, and that even if there was, an angrier and crazier then ever before Thanos might be the one to emerge, meaning that Star-Lord and Nova were lost to them forever.

Well that was a kind of bitter sweet ending, wasn't it? First the story. I liked it a lot. I enjoyed this mini-series, and I get the feeling that I'll enjoy it even more when I read all 6 issues again in a row someday. This seemed like the sort of story that reads even better in a sitting or two. So yeah, I did enjoy the story. There were a lot of little things I enjoyed, like Thanos and Death's interactions, Thanos going crazy as he was disregarded by his Mistress yet again, and evil Lord Mar-Vell getting his comeuppance. I can't say I'm very happy to see Nova and Star-Lord go, since that probably means that there won't be a Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy comic book returning to the stands at the conclusion of this mini-series. I was holding out hope that both Nova and the Guardians comics would return after this mini-series, but that doesn't seem very likely anymore. I mean it would be pretty hard to have a Nova series without Nova in it! But who knows, stranger things have happened, and here's hoping next month's epilogue issue to this mini-series gives us some information as to what will be happening to Marvel's space-faring titles.

Score: 9 out of 10.Now that's one lover's quarrel you don't want to get in the middle of!