The Black Order aka Cull Obsidian, aka the Children of Thanos are Thanos' trusted gang
of personal supervillains.
In Avengers: Infinity War, the quartet helps with Thanos' mission to acquire all six stones
of the Infinity Gauntlet.
But in the comics that they come from, the group goes on all sorts of missions for the
Mad Titan some of them downright wacky.
In making the transition to the big screen, the group had their numbers reduced, their
members renamed, and their power sets switched up.
Whether you've already seen Infinity War and have a few lingering questions, or want a
quick primer before you check the movie out, we'll break down everything you need to know
about Thanos' Black Order.
Cull Obsidian
Introduced by writer Jonathan Hickman in the 2013 Thanos centric storyline Infinity, the
group originally consisted of five members.
Thanos' personal starting lineup consists of Corvus Glaive, Black Dwarf, Proxima Midnight,
Ebony Maw, and Supergiant.
In the Infinity storyline, the Black Order serve as Thanos' heralds and tax collectors.
Their purpose is to roam from world to world, extracting tributes from planetary populations
in order to please their master.
The skilled set
Aside from being pure evil, doggedly loyal, and aesthetically edgy, what do the Black
Order have to offer?
Corvus is strong, fast, invulnerable, and thanks to a magical glaive weapon, conditionally
immortal.
His wife, Proxima Midnight, is similarly powerful and loyal to Thanos, with a three pronged
spear that when thrown possesses homing capabilities, fueled by lethal black light.
Black Dwarf was renamed Cull Obsidian for Infinity War.
His power set, however, remains the same, since he's the big bruiser of the Black Order
team.
He's strong, brutish, heavy, and has unbreakable skin.
Ebony Maw is the brains of the operation, a physically unimposing telepath who uses
his sinister wits to divide and conquer.
Manipulative and devious, this scrawny brainiac is typically the member of the team you most
want to see get the Hulk smash treatment.
These four made it to the Infinity War movie more or less intact, but they also subsumed
the abilities of the comics' fifth member, who didn't make the cut.
Supergiant
When the rest of the Black Order made their big promotional debut at Disney's D23 Expo,
Supergiant was conspicuously absent.
In the Infinity storyline, the blue skinned Supergiant is an integral member of the team,
an immensely powerful psychic who is able to control physical matter and also other
superheroes' minds.
Though she dies in the story that introduces her, she's so powerful that she was able to
continue existing later on with no physical body.
According to co director Joe Russo, her absence was mostly necessitated by the movie's already
obscenely large cast, telling Coming Soon,
"We are dealing with so many characters that we made some choices along the way.
[...] And frankly, when you see the movie, you'll understand.
It services the storytelling."
Corvus takes control
The Black Order's comic history isn't confined to the Infinity storyline.
After that Earth invading crossover event ends with Thanos and Proxima Midnight in captivity,
Corvus Glaive decides to keep Thanos' throne warm.
With his wife and his master both out of the picture, Corvus sets up headquarters on a
moon and forms a new version of the Black Order, a massive army with less specialized
superpowers than the previous group.
It's a pretty good situation for the former bootlicker until Thanos comes back, and reintroduces
his boots to Corvus' face.
In taking control of Corvus' Black Order, Thanos decapitates the organization, taking
out his former second in command within the first moments of his return.
Thanos doesn't do him in with his own two hands instead, he forces Corvus to take up
the shattered pieces of his own weapon and take his own life.
Brutal.
Hammer time
After Corvus was dealt with, Thanos formed a new Black Order, this time with ride or
die OG member Proxima Midnight and the multiversal traveler Black Swan.
This stripped down iteration of the Black Order was formed for the sake of committing
a heist.
This story, told in the pages of The Unworthy Thor, followed the group's quest to fetch
an alternate universe version of Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, for Thanos' use.
"Little Mjolnir, here.
Pair of sunglasses in case it gets bright on the rainbow bridge, which often it does.
If you lift up this little thing, what's he holding?
Me."
The team was joined by Hela, god of death, and embarked on a quest to liberate the hammer
from the Collector.
Somehow, they didn't succeed, making this iteration of the Black Order the clearest
sign yet of the team's diminishing returns as it cycles through new rosters.
No Surrender
The 2016 Avengers storyline "No Surrender" reduced the Black Order to their classic roles
as pawns of a much stronger entity.
As part of a contest between the Grandmaster and the Challenger, the Black Order were pitted
against a version of the Lethal Legion to duke it out in a world spanning scavenger
hunt.
By the time this storyline rolled around, many of the Black Order had died, necessitating
a mass scale revival of the dead members.
This iteration of the team brought the whole band back together, with the group forced
to go up against not only the Lethal Legion, but also multiple teams of Avengers.
And they thought working for Thanos was bad.
Blockbuster night
Principally identified as the Children of Thanos, the Black Order showed up in Avengers:
Infinity War to cause trouble for the heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The movie sees Corvus Glaive portrayed by actor Michael Shaw, Proxima Midnight played
by The Leftovers' Carrie Coon, Irish actor Tom Vaughan Lawlor taking on the role of Ebony
Maw, and stunt performer Terry Notary as the renamed Black Dwarf, Cull Obsidian.
It's a good thing Nebula and Gamora's family issues got in the way of their being on Thanos'
team for this fight.
With their help, who knows?
The Black Order might have been pretty much unstoppable.
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