Like me, I bet you’re looking forward to the new Marvel movies coming out this year.
We have Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 releasing very shortly, followed by Spider-Man: Homecoming
and Thor: Ragnarok.
And, no doubt, we can expect the Infinity Stones to feature once again as we begin the
road to the Avengers: Infinity War movie next year, which will pit the Avengers against
their most powerful foe yet: Thanos.
But what exactly are the Infinity Stones?
Welcome to The Final Frontier; here is everything you need to know about Marvel’s Infinity
Stones.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe – it’s all connected
You may have heard of the different phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Phase One introduced the main universe and assembled many of the core members of The
Avengers, as well as introduce organisations such as SHIELD.
Phase Two focused on the exploits of the Avengers and SHIELD following the Battle of New York
and revealed the infiltration of SHIELD by the evil HYDRA group, which ultimately resulted
in the creation of Ultron – an artificial intelligence who wanted to destroy the Earth.
Phase Three occurs in the aftermath of Ultron’s failed attempt to wipe out humanity, when
the Avengers have become divided, and will eventually deal with the threat of Thanos,
an incredibly powerful warlord who rules over a distant region of space.
The Infinity Stones are six stones or gems that were created by the Cosmic Entities:
Death, Entropy, Infinity and Eternity.
It was in Guardians of the Galaxy that The Collector explained the nature of the stones:
“Before creation itself, there were six singularities.
Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged
into concentrated ingots...
Infinity Stones.”
They are the greatest power in the universe: “These stones, it seems, can only be brandished
by beings of extraordinary strength.
These carriers can use the stone to mow down entire civilizations like wheat in a field.
Once, for a moment, a group was able to share the energy amongst themselves, but even they
were quickly destroyed by it.”
There are six stones in total, each representing a different aspect of the universe: Space,
Mind, Reality, Power, Time and Soul.
Of these six, we have now seen five stones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
The Space Stone was contained in the Tesseract, an artefact we first saw stolen from a church
in Tonsberg – the oldest town in Norway – by Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man, Johann
Schmidt (aka The Red Skull) during World War II.
He used it to power an advanced super bomber designed to drop atomic bombs on US cities.
Captain America foiled his plans and, upon touching the Tesseract, the Red Skull disappeared
through a portal across space.
The Tesseract fell into the sea and was later recovered by Howard Stark of Stark Industries
who had it locked away and studied at a top-secret Allied war agency, the Strategic Scientific
Reserve (SSR).
Seventy years later, Loki agreed to retrieve the Tesseract for Thanos, in exchange for
the use of Thanos’ army – the Chitauri.
The Tesseract was used to create a portal above New York City, allowing Loki’s army
to attack earth.
Fortunately, the Avengers managed to close the portal and foil the attack.
The Tesseract was then taken to Asgard where it is now protected by Heimdall.
As well as allowing Loki to use his army in the failed attempt to capture Earth, Thanos
also gave Loki a sceptre containing the Mind Stone.
This sceptre allowed Loki to control any person who came into contact with it.
Following the Battle of New York, the sceptre was stolen from SHIELD by a sleeper HYDRA
agent and used for human experimentation in a secret research base in Sokovia, which resulted
in the creation of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.
The sceptre was recovered by the Avengers and Tony Stark, with the help of Bruce Banner,
used it to bring to life Ultron – an artificial intelligence designed to protect the Earth.
Only, Ultron turned against humanity, and with the help of Loki’s sceptre, created
Vision – a powerful, synthetic being with a Vibranium-laced body – into which he planned
to upload his mind.
However, the Avengers managed to stop Ultron.
Instead, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner uploaded the JARVIS AI into the body.
With help from Thor’s hammer, Vision was born with the Mind Stone embedded at the centre
of his forehead.
Vision used the Mind Stone to destroy Ultron with an energy beam at the Battle of Sokovia,
before formally joining the Avengers.
During the Convergence – a cosmic event occurring approximately every five thousand
years that brings together all of the Nine Realms in alignment – the astrophysicist,
Dr Jane Foster, became infected with the Aether – a dark, red, viscous liquid that contains
the Reality Stone.
Malekith, the leader of the Dark Elves – an ancient race of beings who had previously
tried and failed to use the Aether in a battle against the Asgardians – was alerted to
the presence of the Aether and reclaimed it.
He then took the Aether to Earth in an attempt to infect the Nine Realms with eternal darkness.
Fortunately, Malekith was destroyed by Thor and his team before he could complete his
plans and the Aether was retaken by Asgard.
As it was too dangerous to keep two Infinity Stones so close together, the Aether was handed
over to The Collector for safe-keeping.
On the planet Morag, hidden in an ancient Temple Vault accessible only every 300 years,
was the Orb – an artefact containing the Power Stone.
It was found by the Star-Lord aka Peter Quill, who immediately found himself being hunted
by a number of foes including Gamora and Ronan the Accuser – who were sent by Thanos himself.
Captured by the Nova Corps, Star-Lord and Gamora joined forces and, along with Rocket
Raccoon, Groot and Drax the Destroyer, escaped their prison and recaptured the Orb, which
they planned to sell to The Collector.
Unfortunately, The Collector’s assistant tried to grab the Orb and ended up destroying
the Collector’s Museum.
The Orb was then captured by Ronan the Accuser who decided to keep it for himself and destroy
the planet Xandar.
However, during the Battle of Xandar, Ronan was destroyed and Star-Lord handed over the
Orb to the Nova Corps for safe-keeping.
The Eye of Agamotto, within which resides the Time Stone, is stored in Kamar-Taj, Nepal,
where Doctor Strange began investigating its powers to manipulate time.
He eventually used the Stone to defeat Dormammu – a powerful malevolent primordial entity
who ruled another universe known as the Dark Dimension – and, surprise, surprise, wanted
to take over this universe.
Having used the Stone’s power, Strange left the Eye in Kamar-Taj.
The Soul Stone has yet to be seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But we do have a clue about where and when we may expect to see it…
There are two theories on what the ‘H’ could be.
Some suggest that Heimdall could be the bearer of the Soul Stone as he can see all the souls
in the Nine Realms.
However, it could also be that the Stone resides with Hela – the goddess of the spirits of
the death – who is expected to play a key role in Thor: Ragnarok, which happens to be
the final movie before Avengers: Infinity War.
Only beings of immense power can wield the stones, although it is possible to house them
in containers to avoid direct contact.
The Infinity Gauntlets are used to channel the power of the Infinity Stones.
The right-handed set lies in Odin’s Vault in Asgard, whereas the left-handed one just
happens to be in the possession of…
Thanos himself.
Do you still have questions on the Infinity Stones that you want answered?
Then please ask away in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer each and every
single one.
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