There are a few story arcs in the comics that the Infinity War film primarily pulls from
- The Infinity Gauntlet written by Jim Starlin in 1992, and Infinity, a 2013 crossover storyline
that was spearheaded by Jonathan Hickman. The latter has the most obvious ties - it
occurs after Age of Ultron and it features Thanos’ Black Order. On the other hand,
The Infinity Gauntlet depicts the rise of Thanos and his collection of Infinity Gems.
The way the film ends matches up with what happens in the comics, and the overall plot
matches up more so with the events we’re seeing in the film. But today, we’re taking
a look at the differences rather than the similarities, with our list of the top 10
differences between the Avengers Infinity War movie and the comics!
Oh, and before we begin - SPOILER ALERT. We talk about some pretty major plot points.
That being said, let’s jump in!
10 Adam Warlock The speculation online about when Adam Warlock
will make his debut in the MCU only continues to grow - the character’s cocoon was seen
in the post credits scene of Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2, but director James Gunn
has been pretty tight lipped about when he’ll make his grand reveal. Adam is pretty crucial
to the 1991 Infinity Gauntlet storyline - he was the owner of the Soul Gem, his character
is the one who first learns of Thanos’ threat, and he’s the one who leads Earth’s remaining
heroes against Thanos after the mad titan wipes out half of the living beings in the
universe. In addition to that, in the two follow up series to Infinity Gauntlet - 1992’s
Infinity War and 1993’s Infinity Crusade, Adam is a central character, with the war
between Thanos continuing to wage in Infinity War after Adam gets his hands on the gauntlet.
The character’s absence so far in the MCU may just be a cleaner way to tie in the events
of the Infinity War comic in later films.
9 Terraxia Terraxia is a character that appears in Infinity
Gauntlet that Thanos created solely for the purpose of making his true love, Death, jealous.
Terraxia is meant to be the perfect companion, and pretty much looks like a female version
of Thanos. She fights alongside him and against all of the heroes that Adam Warlock leads
into battle. She also kills off quite a few of our favourite heroes. When Thanos is temporarily
defeated and launched into interstellar space - more on that later - Terraxia is also sent
with him, and ends up dying, unable to survive as Thanos can. She never appears in the MCU,
and it seems likely she won’t, unless she’s somehow integrated into the upcoming films
in order to give Thanos someone to talk to perhaps. But it seems unlikely.
8 Missing Heroes Infinity Gauntlet features many memorable
Marvel heroes that haven’t made it into the MCU yet. And a lot of them die. Namor
and She-Hulk, who were part of the first wave of attacks against the mad titan, were a big
part of the onslaught against Thanos led by Adam Warlock. They both succumbed to a space
fungus that overtook their bodies after Thanos touched them. Wolverine, despite jabbing his
claws into Thanos’s shoulder, is thrown to the ground and has his adamatium bones
turned into rubber. He’s not the only X-Men to suffer fatally in the fight - Scott Summers
aka Cyclops is suffocated in a clear block that imprisons his head. Nova also makes an
appearance and is turned into what appears to look like Lego.
7 Soul Stone In the comics, Vormir is home to the Vorms
- lizard worm like creatures, and is part of the Free empire. And not the home of the
soul gem. By the time that Thanos goes after the soul gem in Infinity Gauntlet, it’s
in the possession of the In-Betweener, who, at the time of Thanos’ possession of it,
was imprisoned in the Nexus of All Realities. In addition to that, Red Skull’s appearance
on Vormir is also a creative liberty of the MCU’s - the character’s resurfacing as
a spirit protecting the Soul Stone is brand new territory.
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/nexus-of-all-realities/4020-41510/
6 Silver Surfer In the lead up to Infinity Gauntlet, the Silver
Surfer plays a pretty huge role. You know that scene where The Hulk crash lands into
Doctor Strange’s Sanctum? In the comics, the Silver Surfer is the one who does that.
In the the lead up to the Infinity Gauntlet, when Silver surfer finds out about Thanos
collecting the infinity gems, Thanos takes his soul and locks it into the Soul Gem. In
this ‘soul world’, the silver surfer meets Adam Warlock, who releases his soul. The Silver
surfer heads to earth to warn the Avengers about Thanos. He also plays a large role in
taking Thanos down at the end of the series, along with Doctor Strange and Warlock. The
character may appear in the MCU somewhere down the line - hopefully introduced alongside
Galactus - but prior to now, the rights for his character were tied up in that whole Fox
Marvel debacle that was recently resolved with Disney’s purchase of the rights.
5 Vision’s Death In the comics, Vision doesn’t have the mind
stone on his forehead. But let’s jump back for a sec. Vision is a part of the onslaught
of heroes who go after Thanos when Adam Warlock leads them into battle. And he’s among the
many heroes who dies brutally. Similar to the film, Thanos rips out a handful of his
wired insides, but rather than it being his head (along with the mind stone), Thanos goes
straight for his chest.
4 Ebony Maw’s death In the film, Ebony Maw is thrown into space
to freeze to death b y some quick thinking on spider-Man’s part. Who also rids us of
the villain in a very Alien inspired easter egg. But, in the Infinity story line, Ebony
Maw isn’t killed. In fact, he’s the only member of Thanos’ Black Order that actually
survives in the comics, and goes on to train the character whose the subject of our next
number-
3 Thane storyline In the Infinity story arc, one of Thanos’
biggest goals is to seek out his son - a child who could be a major threat for him. When
he and the Black Order invade Earth, the members are also tasked in looking for Thanos’ kid
- and Ebony Maw manages to find him. He’s an Inhuman named Thane, whose powers are fully
exposed after he’s effected - and revealed - by the Terrigen Mists. Thane is the character
who is responsible for defeating Thanos, and putting him along with other members of the
Black Order into a state of living death, frozen in amber. Needless to say, this isn’t
how events pan out in the film - Infinity doesn’t involve the gems or the gauntlet.
Rather, the film borrows certain characters from the story arc, but that doesn’t include
Thane.
2 Iron Man’s Death Despite fears from fans and speculation concerning
Robert Downey Jr’s return to the MCU, Iron Man lived to see another day at the end of
Infinity War, but is trapped on Titan with Nebula. Things go down a little differently
in the comics though. In the Infinity Gauntlet series, Tony Stark is beheaded by Terraxia.
While we don’t see his death in the panels, Terraxia shows up presenting his head to her
master, announcing that she has “dispatched the metal-clad nuisance”. He’s not the
only Avengers character who suffers a severe death in the comics by Thanos that didn’t
make it to the big screen adaptation - Captain America has his neck snapped, Spider-Man is
beaten to a pulp, and Thor is turned to glass and shattered.
1 The Ending The ending to Infinity Gauntlet in the comics
doesn’t end with Thanos snapping his fingers and proclaiming victory. Rather, it starts
with the snap. This is what prompts many of the heroes - and cosmic entities - to rally
against him under the leadership of Adam Warlock. During their attack on Thanos, Thanos enters
his astral form after he traps all of the attackers - including Mistress Death - in
stasis, believing he has won. Nebula uses this opportunity to steal the gauntlet from
him, and sends him into interstellar space, although Doctor Strange and Adam Warlock pull
him back . This is when we get that famous scene in the comics between Warlock and Thanos
where Warlock tells the mad titan he looked into his soul, and saw that Thanos believed
he wasn’t worthy of the power all along. He then works with Warlock, Strange and Silver
Surfer to trick Nebula into returning everything back to normal, as well as trick her into
removing the gauntlet. All that being said, who knows how much of this will make it’s
way into the MCU, and if the post credit scene hinting to Captain Marvel’s introduction
is telling of anything, it’s that the MCU will likely be using some creative liberty
in how things pan out in upcoming films.
There we have it friends! That was one hell of a long list. And there’s plenty of other
differences that we didn’t touch on either. So let us know if you guys want us to do a
part 2 in the comments below. As always, if you dug this video, please show us some love
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In the meantime, thanks for watching everybody! Catch you all in the next video.