if anybody ever decides that wants a taste of what this run has to offer, but does not want to go through the whole thing, like a situation similar to God loves man kills or the dark phoenix for claremont etc, this is the arc for it.

For starters this is some of the best work for every of the characters in it. Every single one of those characters has role, a specific role complements the others and also relates to them. In a way humanizes the characters, but also it does something way deeper than it. It shows how the brain, even the brain of so called God can't comprehent the death for what it is, even thanos, who has probably the deepest understanding of it.

What i want to say is that we treat those abstract concepts like they have it for us. Like they somehow care or are resposible for us feeling bad, when death is so much above us all. Even Thor incounters the power of the invariable that is death both literally and in that he forgets the people which he wants to remember forever.

What we get here is a proto aaron iteration of thor in a way, a God that feels fully obligated to be there for the people who worship him, which differeciate it from the real Gods like Death, because even when death is worshiped like with walker she does not wink. As thanos noted he operates in fully different ways, in ways that are far more open and close to people. There is also the question if he simply hates death, because he does not want to be alone in his immortality, which again it shows a deeper phicology behind every action of those character, like it is usually with thanos too

Thanos interpretation is also very essential to the story. He has a very poetic way of seeing death. Obviously we talk about a thanos that is way closer to Starlin's than pretty everything ever since. He sees death as pure, as someone that constantly gives meaning to life, gives comfort to suffering and always leads the way of life and at the same time is hated for it. He sees her as a real woman, a woman he appreaciates and loves and what's why he wants her to be more protective of herself, like he is. So again the way he sees the concept is totally in a human form he could understand.

For rick is slightly different, his connection to death is just starting to be explored, he is just a victim in the whole play of Gods and death. Its like the universe is playing a sick joke for him and like always his expecations are subverted to the tragic. He is tired of this role of always suffering for the others. In a way he does not care bout any of this, he just wants his normalcy. he reacts more animinalistically, more instinctively as most people do, he does not want to defeat death forever or to pretends he does. He just will not give up to save his loved one and this is because he is the most human of the bunch. As shows even in the end when he finally was wrong and death actually winked to him. I think this wink is also very imporatant, because it represent those moment when you feel like the missed you for reason, when actually even if you belive the world is based on cold logic, you somehow missed a sure death or incident.

As other things go, the story really carries some meaning in every panel and for most character since they are not really recurring you get a full picture. As expected from david he weaves light unexpected humor, without ever letting it rot the seriousness of the story, it only refreshes it tbh. It helps the story flowing better and omg it flows so good. The light writing of PAD and the dense meaning of the story it connects perfectly. Surely Starlin had an output and that is exactly why it is so good, because this story combines the strongest trait of 2 terrific authors complimenting each other.

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