WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Infinity Wars: Sleepwalker #1 by Chris Sims, Chad Bowers and Todd Nauck.
Marvel Comics has been no slouch when it comes to doling out quality Infinity Warps as part of its ongoing Infinity Wars event. Infinity Warps are the product of two superheroes whose realities were smashed together by Gamora tooling around with the Infinity Stones, effectively rendering those who could have fought her irrelevant. So far, we've seen the likes of Arachknight (the combination of Spider-Man and Moon Knight) and Solider Supreme (the combination of Captain America and Doctor Strange), and that's just the heroes who got their own standalone series. Plenty more have popped up in both Infinity Wars and the standalone Infinity Warps titles, but today we're going to talk about Infinity Wars: Sleepwalker #1, which might contain the absolute best Infinity Warp -- Little Monster, the unholy blending of Hulk and Ant-Man.
Now, Sleepwalker isn't exactly a household name. Created by Bob Budiansky and Bret Blevins, the character was introduced in 1991 in his own self-titled solo series. That series didn't light a fire under anyone (nor did the hero's following intermittent appearances), despite the character's novel origin story that acted as a gateway to one of Marvel's most important realms of existence, the Mindscape. As a Mindscape cop, Sleepwalker's entire existence revolved around keeping the nightmares that populate the realm out of the heads of dreaming sentient life. A bad turn of luck with one of his nightmare nemeses, Cobweb, saw the Mindscape protector fused with a human named Rick Sheridan. Together, they became a heroing duo. When Rick falls asleep, Sleepwalker emerges to deliver justice to foes physical and ethereal alike.
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That's exactly what Sleepwalker was trying to do when the tussle from Infinity Wars #3 was going down in Central Park. Unfortunately, the hero had a moment akin to Thor's at the end of Avengers: Infinity War in the sense that his efforts were valiant, but also too little and too late. Gamora snapped her fingers before Sleepwalker could stop her, thus was reality folded over on itself. As Sleepwalker was not necessarily a product of reality, he was booted to the Mindscape where he was dressed down by his superiors and told to either quit messing around on Earth or get banished to the wildlands of the Mindscape. Being an extremely cool dream cop, Sleepwalker naturally chose the latter. He chose this fate, though, not to live out the rest of his life as an exile, but rather to save the lives of his friends, especially Rick, who was missing after he had been warped like everyone else. To do that, though, he would need a champion to help him. A… little champion.
In the wilds of the Mindscape, Sleepwalker searched for a hero whose existence was tied to one of the Soul Stones, specifically Power. He keys in on a very particular Infinity Warp who might be small, but certainly packs a punch.
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Sleepwalker's journey takes him to a familiar scene that has been retooled by Gamora's tampering with reality. Inside Soul World, he finds a massive-headed villain in a jetpack chair threatening a handsome young scientist with a temper. Sound familiar? Well, if you're thinking that sounds like M.O.D.O.K. and Bruce Banner then you would only be half right. Sleepwalker observes perhaps one of the most acronym-heavy exchanges in all of Marvel Comics history, as writers Chris Sims and Chad Bowers go to town with the A.I.M. offshoot and its flunkies. That includes the likes of M.O.N.I.C.A. (who is a warp of M.O.D.O.K. and Monica Rappaccini, the latter being an A.I.M. Scientist Supreme) and Hi.D.R.A (which seems to be a mix of Hydra and A.I.M., the acronym for which pans out to be Highly Destructive Radical Armaments).
Scott Banner quickly decides he has had enough of M.O.N.I.C.A.'s ramblings and instead decides it's time to smash -- "monster smash," that is. Scott transforms into Little Monster, a new breed of hulk whose powers are amplified when he gets mad -- which also causes him to shrink like one half of his namesake, Ant-Man. What ensues is a very tiny Hulk rampaging around the mad scientist facility, tossing around goons left and right, all while he's about the size of a box of crayons. M.O.N.I.C.A. calls for a R.E.T.R.E.A.T. (Remove Every Tactical Reaction and Exit According to Threat), but the damage has already been done. Soon, like a toddler spent after a tantrum, Little Monster gets frustrated with his predicament and plops down on one of the beaten Hi.D.R.A. henchmen for a few winks. Of course, he doesn't get any because Sleepwalker is right there, ready to recruit the itty-bitty hero to his cause.
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Sleepwalker's addition into the Infinity Wars event might seem like an odd choice, but Infinity Wars: Sleepwalker #1 proves that the hero's perspective is a valuable and interesting one. Not only do readers get to see the events of Infinity Wars #3 from another perspective, there is also a surreal element to seeing the aftermath of the universe's reworking from the perspective of a character who can easily phase between realities, revealing just how impossibly weird the fringe Infinity Warps can get. A Ghost Rider and Black Panther warp looks extremely cool, but that's nothing compared to Man-Thing Thang Thoom, the horrifying fusion of Man-Thing and Fin Fang Foom (who Sleepwalker teases will play a pivotal role later in the series).
Originally, it was assumed that Sleepwalker would enter the Infinity Warps event with the sole purpose of using his Warp Gaze to sort out the afflicted heroes, effectively untangling them and releasing them from their fusion prisons. Now, though, it seems like Sleepwalker might have to abide by the rules of Gamora's new universe for the time being. That's dangerous for the character, but great for us because Sleepwalker's innate surrealist nature blends perfectly with the bizarre new world spread out before Marvel readers. The fact that Little Monster may be tagging along for the next three issues of the limited series makes it all the better -- as long as he doesn't get tuckered out too quick.