Infinity War Gets A Cool Empire Cover For Review of the Year Issue

Screen Rant

Avengers: Infinity War Gets Simple, But Cool Empire Magazine Cover

By Chris Agar

Published Oct 29, 2018

Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War gets a simple, but cool, new Empire magazine cover as the outlet reflects on the past year in films.

The subscriber's cover of Empire's year in review issue commemorates Avengers: Infinity War in a simple, yet effective, manner. As hard as it is to believe, the end of 2018 is right around the corner, which means cinephiles will soon be reflecting on their favorite movies of the past 12 months. A title bound to be on several lists is Infinity War, Marvel Studios' highly-anticipated epic crossover event that tied a decade's worth of storytelling together. Opening to positive reviews, the tentpole was a massive box office hit, shattering the all-time opening weekend record and becoming just the fourth film in history to earn $2 billion worldwide.

One of the primary reasons why Infinity War resonated so strongly with the zeitgeist is the shocking ending, which saw Thanos wipe out half of the universe's population with a snap of his fingers. Audiences watched in horror as some of their favorite heroes turned to dust, wondering how things can be resolved in Avengers 4. The haunting images of Spider-Man, Black Panther, and others disintegrating quickly became ingrained in pop culture. As such, it's hard to recap 2018 in film without bringing up The Snap.

Today, Empire unveiled their latest subscriber's cover for the upcoming "Review of the Year" issue. Against a white backdrop is the Infinity Gauntlet as Thanos snaps his fingers. The Empire logo is turning to dust, a clear homage to how several characters died in Infinity War.

Black Panther outgrossed Infinity War at the domestic box office and is the only Marvel movie getting a proper awards campaign, but it isn't surprising Empire made Infinity War the focus of the cover. That was the movie Marvel had been building up to since the MCU had its humble beginnings in 2008, and going into the year was clearly the biggest cinematic event. The original Avengers, which was revolutionary for its time, seemed quaint by comparison. And while some had issues with certain Infinity War plot points, nearly everyone was in agreement that it was incredible a project of this undertaking was even attempted. In the last handful of years, many other studios have tried to get their own shared universe off the ground, but nobody has found as much success as Marvel.

Infinity War was immensely successful, but it's only half the story. Now, the pressure is on Avengers 4 to culminate this massive 22-movie arc in a manner that's satisfying. Of course, that won't be an easy feat to pull off, but directors Joe and Anthony Russo have delivered hit after hit for Marvel, so there's little reason to doubt they'll stick the landing. Soon, Marvel will commence the marketing campaign for next summer's crossover and the hype machine will go into overdrive yet again.