As the universe exploded into being, six singularities of immense power were forged into concentrated
ingots by the Cosmic Entities Infinity, Entropy, Eternity and Death.
Over time, the infinity stones representing Space, Mind, Reality, Power, Soul and Time
became scattered across the universe, with only those of great strength able to wield
them.
Having ruled unchallenged during an age of darkness, the Dark Elves felt threatened by
the rise new civilizations across the Nine Realms, a community of planets located in
distant galaxies, but connected through a cosmic force known as ygdrassil.
Determined to return the Nine Realms to a state of Darkness, the Dark Elf ruler Malekith
tried to unleash the power of the Reality stone during the time of the convergence,
an event every 5000 years in which all nine planets aligned.
However he was defeated by King Bor of Asgard, who ordered the reality stone hidden away
in a secret location.
Though Malkith survived and attempted to enact his plan again 5000 years later, he failed
once more due to the intervention of Bor’s grandson Thor and his companions.
As the early civilizations of Earth developed, the time stone came to be held by Agamotto
a student of the mystic arts and the first Sorcerer Supreme, who housed stone in the
Eye, so users could safely channel it’s power.
The Eye was then kept safe by his followers for thousands of years, until coming into
the possession of Dr. Strange, who took over leadership after the death of the Ancient
One.
Having been hidden on Earth by the Asgardians the space stone held within the tesseract
was found by Johann Schmidt, a member of Hydra and Nazi officer during the Second World War,
who planned to use his discovery to power an advanced weapons program.
Experimenting with an early version of Abraham Erskine’s super soldier serum , Schmidt
became faster, stronger and more resilient, but also turned red and was disfigured, becoming
known as Red Skull.
Once the serum was improved, it was used by the allies to transform Steve Rogers into
Captain America leading the effort to defeat Red Skull, who in his final desperate moments
attempted to hold the Tesseract in his hand, which transported him to the planet of Vormir
where he became the guardian of the Soul Stone.
Though Captain America was victorious, he was forced to sacrifice himself to prevent
an attack against America, crashing a plane off the coast of Greenland.
Despite an extensive search, Steve Rogers was not found, but they did manage to recover
the tesseract which went into the custody of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement
and Logistics Division.
Although Captain America was presumed dead, he survived frozen in ice until his body was
recovered in the 21st century when he went to work for SHIELD, alongside other super
beings and expert assassins on special missions to protect humanity from global threats.
Known as the Avenger’s Initiative, the project was named after Carol Avenger Danvers, a kree-human
hybrid who absorbed the power of the tesseract in 1989, allowing her to summoned vast amounts
of cosmic energy, fly through air and space at super speeds, launch powerful energy blasts
and made her invulnerable to most forms of attack.
Though she protected the Earth and a population of Skrull refugees from the Kree in 1995,
she then departed for many years, leaving her friend Nick Fury with a modified pager
to contact her in case of emergency.
Among the many who came to join the Avengers, the original members were Captain America,
Thor the Asgardian son of King Odin, the billionaire tech genius Tony Stark who became Iron Man
by wearing an advanced battle suit powered by a miniaturized ark reactor, Dr. Bruce Banner,
a renowned scientist able to transform into an indestructible creature known as the Hulk,
the expert assassins Natasha Romonov called Black Widow and Clint Barton, called Hawkeye
and the Shield Agent Phil Coulson, who was critical in bringing the team together.
As the Avengers began to take form, the first global threat emerged when Thor’s brother
Loki invaded Earth on half of the warlord Thanos who wanted the space stone.
Born on the once beautiful planet of Titan, his homeworld eventually became overpopulated,
straining their finite resources until a great cataclysm wiped out most of the population.
Forever scarred by this event, Thanos was convinced the only way to prevent this from
happening again was to collect all 6 infinity stones and harness there power through the
infinity gauntlet, giving him the power to eliminate half the population of the universe
with a snap of his fingers, thereby leaving the survivors with an abundance of resources
to lives long and happy lives.
Ruling over the Chitauri, Outriders, and the Black Order, Thanos came into the possession
of the Mind Stone and made a deal with Loki of Asgard to secure the space stone.
Providing him with a Sceptor powered by the mind stone, and an army of Chitauri, Loki
planned to make himself king of Earth, but was foiled by the Avengers in the battle of
New York.
Both Loki and the Tesseract were then taken to Asgard by Thor, and so when Malekith’s
was defeated in the Second Dark Elf conflict, the reality stone was given to the Collector,
Taneleer Tivan, for safe keeping, as they did not want to keep 2 infinity stones in
one place.
Meanwhile, the Scepter containing the mind stone was left on Earth with SHIELD, and as
a result fell into the hand of Hydra which heavily infiltrated the organization.
Conducting experiments to give ordinary people super human powers, Wanda Maximoff became
Scarlett Witch, able to manipulate energy with her mind, while her twin brother Pietro
became Quicksilver, gaining super speed.
Undettered by Loki’s failure, Thanos next made a deal with Ronan the Accuser, a radical
Kree terrorist who promised to bring him the power stone.
However once in his possession, Ronan betrayed Thanos and kept it for himself.
Having opposed his peoples peace treaty with the Nova Empire, he set out for vengeance
but in the end was defeated in the Battle of Xander by the Guardians of the Galaxy,
a ragtag group of mercenaries including the half human-half celestial Peter Quil, called
Star lord, Rocket a genetically enhanced Racoon, Groot a sentient tree like being, Drax the
Destroyer a renowned warrior, and Gamora, the favourite daughter of Thanos who opposed
his plans for genocide.
Although Groot sacrificed himself to save the others, his son baby groot soon joined
the team and so the guardians took off, leaving the power stone to be kept safe by the Nova
Empire.
After Hydra made their move against SHIELD, splitting the agency into two warring halves,
the Avengers were called together to recapture the Scepter which gave Scarlett Witch the
opportunity to use her mental powers on Tony Stark, giving him a vision of his greatest
fear, a future in which humanity was destroyed by an alien invasion.
Haunted by the vision, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner used the sceptre to create Ultron,
an artificial intelligence program which malfunctioned and came to believe peace could only be achieved
if most humans were eliminated so the species could begin again.
Stark and Banner then combined the JARVIS AI program with an android body made by Ultronm
which was then powered by the Mind Stone to create Vision, an new superhero with enhanced
strength and resilience, who could fly, shoot energy blasts and walk through solid objects.
With the help of Vision, Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver, they defeated Ultron and saved
humanity.
However Quicksilver died in the Battle of Sokovia as did many others leading the nations
of the world to write the Sokovia Accords, a document creating a set of rules and regulations
for enhanced individuals, creating a split in the Avengers, with some accepting and other
rejecting the agreement.
By this time, the team grew to include Vision, Scarlett Witch, James Rhodes, called War Machine,
a longtime friend of Tony Stark with his own Battle Suit, and Sam Wilson, called Falcon,
a soldier and friend of Captain America, with goggles that enhanced his vision and a flight
suit to fly at incredible speeds.
Unfortunately, the team soon broke apart, when Bucky Barnes, called the Winter Soldier,
was accused of bombing a United Nations ceremony in Austria.
The childhood friend of Captain America, Bucky Barnes was captured by Hydra during the second
world war, who enhanced his capabilities and conducted mind control experiments, turning
him into a weapon for their use.
However having been free of Hydra’s control for some time, Captain America believed his
friend innocent, and gathered allies to help learn the truth, including Falcon, Hawkeye,
Scarlet Witch and Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, a contact of Falcon who wore a suit that allowed
him to shrink to the size of an Ant or grow to the size of a giant.
However those who signed the Sokovia Accords could not to allow them to subvert the system,
and so Iron Man led his own team to capture them, joined by Vision, War Machine, Black
Widow and King T’Challa of Wakanda, who wore the Mantle of Black Panther and wanted
vengeance for the death of his father during the UN bombing.
Stark also brought in young Peter Parker, aka Spider Man, a boy who was bitten by a
spider and developed great strength, speed and resilience, able to climb walls and swing
from buildings.
Though they succeeded in exposing the truth and clearing his friend, the Avengers remained
divided, with Captain America his allies forced to go into hiding, while Hawkeye and Ant Man
cut deals with the government and retired.
While the rest of the Avengers were occupied with events on Earth, Thor, Loki, a Valkyrie
and the Hulk joined forces to defeat Odin’s eldest child Hela, the goddess of death by
evacuating Asgard and allowing their world to be destroyed.
Yet before departing, Loki secured the tesseract from odin’s vault.
After suffering a number of setbacks, including the failure of Loki, the betrayal of Ronan
the Accuser and his daughter Nebula who joined him, the departure of his daughter Gamora
and the destruction of a large part of his Chitauri army, Thanos put on the Infinity
Gauntlet and set out to capture the infinity stones himself.
Gathering his armies, he first captured the power stone from the Nova Empire, and then
tracked down and killed Loki to take the Space Stone.
Sending the Black Order to Earth, Dr. Strange was captured by Ebony Maw, who wanted the
Time Stone within the eye of agamotto, but found it protected by a powerful spell he
could not break.
However the dr was soon rescued by Tony Stark and Peter Parker in his new Iron Spider suit,
who managed to sneak aboard the ship before it left Earth.
Thanos next went after the Reality Stone, held by the Collector on Knowhere, but was
confronted by the guardians of the galaxy Star Lord, Gamora, Drax and their newest member
mantis.
However Thanos easily defeated them and left with the reality stone as well as his daughter
Gamora, who was forced to watch her sister Nebula tortured until she finally up the Soul
Stone’s location.
Travelling to the planet of Vormir, Thanos then had to sacrifice that which he cared
for most, trading Gamora’s life for the Soul Stone.
As all this occurred, the other guardians, Rocket and Groot, having befriended Thor,
helped him replace his hammer Mjolnir, by convincing the Dwarf Eitri to craft a new
weapon called stormbreaker, forged in the heart of dying star.
While exploring Titan, Iron Man, Spider Man and Dr. Strange, encountered Star Lord, Drax
and Mantis, combining their forces to stop Thanos while learning that Dr. Strange used
the time stone to see 14 million possible futures, concluding that in only 1 scenario
was he defeated.
When the Mad Titan arrived to take the Time Stone, they engaged him in battle, and with
the help of Mantis came close to victory, only for Star Lord to lose control when he
learned of Gamora’s death, breaking the hold over his mind.
Regaining his strength, Thanos quickly defeated them and threatening to kill Iron man, until
Dr Strange agreed to give up the time stone in exchange for his life.
With 5 stones now in his possession, Thanos departed to find the last one.
Back on Earth, the divided Avenger factions joined together once more, including captain
America, Black Widow, Falcon, Scarlett Witch, Vision, War Machine, Bruce Banner wearing
hulkbuster armor as he was unable to transform, Black Panther and The Winter Soldier, now
known as the White Wolf.
Fighting the final battle for the mind stone in Wakanda, the Avengers joined the armies
of King T’challa to engage the Black order and Outriders.
Rocket, groot and Thor armed with stormbreaker then joined the fight, but they were ultimately
defeated, when Thanos killed Vision, took the Mind stone and snapped his fingers, eliminating
half the population of the Universe, which suddenly vanished into black ash.
Those who were culled included, Winter Soldier, Falcon, Black Panther, Scarlett Witch, Groot,
Star Lord, Drax, Mantis, Dr. Strange and Spider Man While Iron Man survived, alongside Captain
America, Bruce Banner, Thor, Rocket, War Machine, Black Widow, Nebula, Hawk Eye and Ant Man,
who was trapped within the quantum realm, when his girlfriend The Wasp and her family
disappeared.
Back in New York, Nick Fury soon joined many others by disappearing into black ash, however
moments before vanishing he used his special pager to send an emergency message to Captain
Marvel.
After the battle, an injured Thanos was transported to an unknown location, possibly within the
soul stone, where he met his daughter Gamora as a child to discuss everything he sacrificed
for his mission.
Yet despite the pain he felt inside, he found comfort in his belief that he secured a future
of peace and prosperity for those who remained, and so with life’s work complete, he sat
in silence and watched the sun rise over a grateful universe.