The Black Order, also known as the Cull Obsidian, are a group of ruthless villains that act
as Thanos’ generals in the Infinity War.
They were formed to help Thanos conquer worlds, and their first iteration consisted of six
members - Black Dwarf, Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, Supergiant and Thanos
himself.
We’ll be seeing them in the upcoming Avengers film, so today we put together a list filling
you in on some details from the comics about the Order that you should know, with our list
of the top 10 Black Order Surprising Facts.
10 Four Versions There are four versions of the Black Order
that have amassed over the years in the comics.
The first was a group rallied together by Thanos, razing worlds and demanding tributes.
When they set their sights on Earth in search of the infinity gems - which are under the
control of the Illuminati (aka the secret group of superheroes who work behind the scenes,
initially consisting of Namor, Iron Man, Charles Xavier, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt and Reed
Richards.)
The group meets their end after a battle with the Avengers and the betrayal of one member
of the order, leading Thanos’ son Thane to entrap him and some of the others in a
state of living death.
The second version was led by Corvus Glaive, the third again by Thanos, and a forth by
the Challenger during the No Surrender story arc.
9 Adaptations With the exception of Thanos, this is the
first time we’ll be seeing the members of the Black Order on the big screen.
But the Order has appeared in other Marvel properties, specifically animated shows, including
Avengers Assemble and the Guardians of the Galaxy animated tv show.
There’s also been two smaller Marvel games they’ve made appearances in - Marvel: Avengers
Alliance and Marvel: Future Fight.
8 Ebony Maw Let’s take a look at the members of the
Order now, starting off with Ebony Maw.
Maw is a character of many words – and words are his true strength; he’s a master manipulator
who has been known to psychologically invade people’s minds in order to control them.
When the character first made his debut in the comics, he was assigned to take on Doctor
Strange, who he manipulated into summoning an incredibly powerful demon.
His ambitions have always exceeded his loyalty to Thanos – he betrayed Thanos and sided
with his son Thane; an event that largely caused the Avengers to win against the Mad
Titan.
7 Black Dwarf If Ebony is the brains, Black Dwarf is definitely
the muscle.
Considered to be the powerhouse of the Mad Titan’s army, Black Dwarf not only has superhuman
strength, he also has superhuman density and durability – he’s known for his unbreakable
skin.
During Infinity War, Black Dwarf was assigned to Wakanda upon the invasion of Earth.
But Wakanda had the upper hand and proved to be more difficult than anticipated.
Black Dwarf was forced to retreat, causing Thanos to expel him from the Black Order.
But not all was lost – Thanos did come around.
He gave Black Dwarf another opportunity to prove himself, with him being sent to protect
The Peak, but that didn’t go as planned either.
He was killed by Ronan the Accuser in battle.
How unfortunate.
Black Dwarf will be operating under a different name in the film, but more on that in a minute.
6 Proxima Midnight (prox-e-ma) Carrying a spear forged by the energy of both
a black hole and a supernova, Proxima is the most skilled fighter in the order.
She never misses.
Proxima was sent to Atlantis to retrieve Namor’s Infinity Gem, but prior to that, she decided
to lay waste to New York City, where she battles The Mighty Avengers, who stood in for the
Avengers after they left Earth to fight off the alien race the Builders.
The Mighty Avengers consisted of Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Spectrum and Blade, who was operating
as a mysterious hero named Spider Hero.
She battled them until she was called back by Thanos, and headed to Atlantis to discover
that it was already in shambles, with no infinity gem in sight.
Namor surrendered to her, and told her that the gem was in Wakanda, where she went alongside
Thanos and our next number-
5 Corvus Glaive Cruel and arrogant, Corvus is Thanos’ favourite
member of the Order - his best lieutenant and his right hand man.
How did he get such an honour?
It was due to his betrayal of his own homeworld, and his feverous loyalty to Thanos.
Corvus owns a Glaive that is capable of splitting atoms, and as long as the blade is unbroken,
he can resurrect himself from any sort of damage.
He’s also a master strategist and tactician – he studied Earth’s history of warfare
meticulously when the Order targeted the planet.
He was assigned to search the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, but no gem was to be
found there.
He’s also got some familial ties to other members of the Order in the comics – Black
Dwarf is his brother, and he’s married to Proxima Midnight.
He’s destroyed – minus his glaive – by Hyperion during the battle in Orollan, but
more on that in our next number.
4 Thanos’ Son Thane is Thanos’ Inhuman child.
Finding Thane and killing him was one of Thanos’ motives during the Infinity story arc, and
one of the reasons why Thanos was on his mission of galactic conquest in the first place.
He was conceived after Thanos hooked up with a woman from a descendant Inhuman tribe, and
Thanos had been razing planets and demanding tributes of youngins aged 16-22.
Thane was found in Orollan, Greenland, and after Black Bolt – the king of the Inhumans
– detonated a terrigen bomb, his identity was revealed.
The bomb would force any Inhumans to go through Terrigenesis.
Thane was affected, and not having control of his powers, he killed everyone in his town.
Ebony Maw came to his aid, helped him control those powers of his, and Thane fought Thanos
and Proxima, who were frozen in an amber construct that put them in a state of ‘living death’.
3 The Cabal After the Infinity story arc ended, it was
eventually proceeded with Secret Wars in 2015, which followed the story of parallel universes
colliding with one another, this wiping each other out of existence.
The Illuminati couldn’t figure out how to save earth, so instead, one of their members,
Namor, enlisted the help of old foes - The Black Order.
Or, at least the members that Thane had frozen in that living death amber prison of his.
They formed a group called the Cabal, and with a few other villains, they travelled
to other dimensions and destroyed parallel worlds that threatened Earth.
Many of the members of the Cabal died during Secret Wars.
2 Rebellion Against Thanos In the second culmination of the Order, after
the Secret Wars event, Corvus Glaive orchestrates the group after Thanos has been missing for
some time.
He gathered the worst criminals in the universe together in hopes of creating his own empire,
and used a moon that belonged to Thanos as his base.
He begins conquering planets until Thanos returns and breaks the blade of his glaive.
Rather than die at the hands of Thanos, Corvus commits suicide.
1 The Infinity War Film The order we’ve been describing so far in
this video is definitely going to differ from the order that we’ll see up on the big screen.
Infinity War directors Anthony and Joe Russo have taken some creative liberties with the
Order, including their exclusion of one of the group members - Supergiant, a member with
parasitic mind control abilities who was in the original version of the order, and was
killed by Lockjaw.
She has been excluded due to “consolidation” according to the directors.
Black Dwarf has also been changed - the characters name will be Cull Obsidian, which is another
name for the Black Order in the comics.
As for the rest of the order, they’re some massive star power voicing their CGI characters
- Mark Hamill voices Corvus Glaive, Whoopi Goldberg voices Proxima Midnight, Bill Nighy
voices Ebony Maw and Vin Diesel voices Cull Obsidian.
They’ve also been introduced as “children of Thanos”.
There we have it friends!
Which member of the Black Order is your favourite?
Would you want to see lists on individual members?
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