Infinity Gauntlet
Infinity Gauntlet is a comic book story arc that appeared first in Infinity Gauntlet #1Death resurrects Thanos who acquires the six infinity gems and kills half the life in the universe in her honor with the Infinity Gauntlet. Adam Warlock leads Earth's greatest heroes against Thanos. Edit
The Infinity Gauntlet is a six issue miniseries written by Jim Starlin, pencilled by George Perez and inked by Ron Lim published in 1991.
Mistress Death is upset that the balance between life and death has recently not been in her favor. Her solution is to give her ardent follower, Thanos, a chance at rebirth setting him forth with a mission of killing half the life in the universe. Despite his powers, Thanos realizes his mission is near impossible. Remembering the Infinity Gems that were instrumental in his death, he peered into the Infinity Well to discover their secrets. He divines the true nature of the gems, and their current owners.
The Thanos Quest
Thanos discovers that the Infinity Gems are currently in possession of the Elders of the Universe with the Soul Gem in possession of the In-Betweener. With cunning, Thanos is able to obtain possession of the gems. He then places the gems on the Infinity Gauntlet, and becomes the most powerful being in the universe.
The Infinity Gauntlet
Thanos immediately fulfills his objective and kills half of all life in the universe. He also brings a tortured Nebula (who alleges to be his granddaughter) as a sacrifice to Death. But because Thanos is so powerful, becoming superior to Death in every facet, Thanos' hope of being treated as an equal escapes his grasp. He gleans from Death that they are not equal, and Death becomes subservient to him. This infuriates Thanos who doesn't want Death as a slave but as a lover. In an attempt to make Death jealous, he creates a mate, Terraxia.
On earth, the heroes are informed by the Silver Surfer as to the reason for the monumental genocide. All of Marvel's mightiest heroes band together to try to defeat Thanos and save the universe. Despite previous conflicts with the Mad Titan, Thanos still remains a mystery. Adam Warlock, one of Thanos' most persistent foes, is asked to lead the forces.
Knowing full well the impossible odds, Adam Warlock and Silver Surfer attempt cosmic diplomacy in the hopes of thwarting Thanos. The two heroes meet up with Epoch and her cosmic champion Quasar and a cosmic summit of the great cosmic powers begins. It includes Eternity, the Watcher Uatu, Kronos, Lord Chaos, Master Order, the Celestials, Galactus, Stranger, Love and Hate and the Living Tribunal. In the summit Eternity tries to convince the Living Tribunal to intervene. The Living Tribunal refuses, in since he believes that if Thanos were to replace Eternity it would still be within the process in natural selection. After seeing this, Adam Warlock persuades the Cosmic powers to aid them in stopping Thanos.
Thanos is fully aware of the coming conflict. Mephisto arrives and advises Thanos to remove his omniscience to make the fight somewhat fair in the hopes of impressing Death. Despite the machinations of Mephisto, the battle is grueling and over quickly for the heroes. Thanos dispatched the heroes with ease. Some examples of the carnage include Terraxia murdering Spider-Man and decapitating Iron Man. The X-men fared no better, as Wolverine had his adamantium skeleton turned to spongy rubber andCyclops had his head trapped in a cube, stopping his optic blasts and suffocating him. Cosmic heroes like Nova was turned into small cubes, and Quasar was outright killed. Fearsome foes like Thor were turned to glass. The last man standing was Captain America, who made his last stand. Absent from the battle and light years away were the Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock, who knew and fully expected the frontal assault to fail. Key to the real strategy was Mephisto's involvement. After shattering Captain America's shield, Thanos raised his fist to deliver the final blow. This was the cue for Adam Warlock's true plan to go into effect as Surfer rushed in to steal the gauntlet. This gambit failed, and Thanos realized how close he was to failure himself. He once again reinstated his omniscience, and became all-powerful, all-knowing once again.
It was then that the Cosmic forces themselves attacked. The mighty forces, each near-omnipotent on their own, were no match for the omnipotence the Infinity Gauntlet bestowed on Thanos. Eternity and Thanos have final epic battle where Thanos perseveres, becoming the embodiment of this universes reality. Thanos sheds his mortal form and takes his place Eternity's replacement. Nebula takes this opportunity to take the gauntlet from the former body of Thanos. Thanos realizes his error and joins with the remaining heroes and cosmic forces to defeat the now omnipotent Nebula. Their relentless attack on the confused Gauntlet wielder allows Adam Warlock to enter the Soul Gem, a gem he is intimately attached to. From within the Soul Gem he links with the other Infinity Gems and causes the gems to feedback on Nebula, causing her to remove it.
Adam Warlock then becomes wielder of the Gauntlet. In an attempt to be a "perfect" god, Warlock's first use of the power was to expel from his soul the Good and Evil. This was the first step to his reign as God. But before he can begin, the Living Tribunal appears and judges Warlock too unstable and therefore unfit to wield the power. He didn't appear previously because he knew that Thanos wouldn't upset the delicate balance of the universe. Without morals or vices, with his sole focus of being a god being undermined, Warlock violently reacts to the Living Tribunals judgement. The Living Tribunal dismisses Warlock's uses of the Gauntlet and deems that they would no longer be able to function together, preventing anyone from achieving omnipotence through possession of the gems. The gems seperate, and Adam Warlock forms Infinity Watch to safeguard the powerful and dangerous Infinity Gems. Thanos retreats to a life of farming to reflect on his life, death, and brush with godhood.
Associated Issues
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Galactus prepares for fight with Thanos. Silver Surfer brings Nova to Earth thousands years ago to realize that all life is precious.
Drax and Firelord are on Titan and they are trying to find out, why people disappear.
Ael-Dan and Dar-Benn assasinate Clumsy Foulup by a robot, which looks like Silver Surfer. After Clumsy's death they become leaders of the Kree empire.
As a parting gift, unbeknownst to Quasar, Thanos has opened all the portals from the Eonverse to the universe and turned Eon’s immense body inside-out. This has caused Eon’s body to come pouring out of each of the portals, including the one in Four Freedoms Plaza.
Inside the Eonverse, Quasar is trying to converse with the previous wearers of the Quantum Bands (Stygian Starbender, Ree, Trantra, and Marvel Boy), but they are hungry for blood. Quasar manages to down Marvel Boy and In a brief exchange of Quantum-constructs, Quasar manages to hold his own, but realizes he’s far too outnumbered.
He flies off to put some distance between himself and the other Quantum-banders, which the three remaining consider quite cowardly.
Meanwhile, Her discovers that her genetic twin is still alive, she finds him, but he (being Adam Warlock) is deeply embroiled in the Infinity Guantlet affair and has no time for mating at the moment. He tells her to join the effort or begone. Elsewhere many of New York’s heroes (Sleepwaler, Darkhawk, the Squadron Supreme… etc…) are attempting to save inncent bystanders from the green flesh that has erupted from the FF headquarters.
Back in the Eonverse, Quasar attempts a “total energy drain” but is caught by surprise when they slam a pair of Quantum-slabs the size of trucks in an attempt to crush him. They briefly discuss which of them will win the honor of being the last Protector. Trapped, Quasar briefly considers giving up, but he overcomes it and manages to escape after hearing a call for help that sounds a great deal like Eon.
He Quantum-Jumps into the Quantum-Zone andwaits for them. He figures that if the ‘background noise” of the Q-Zone can cover what he is attempting then he stands a chance. He begins concentrating on his connection with all fourteen gems on the bands and opens them to their fullest. The three remaining Banders come and he surprises them by overloading their Quantum-Bands with too much power. They get disintegrated and Quasar returns to the Eonverse.
There, Quasar begins to notice how sparse the Eonverse is of Eon’s body and again hears the call for help. He is however attacked from behind by a recovered Marvel Boy. Quasar quickly makes clear that Marvel Boy is not in the same league with a Protector of the Universe by swatting Marvel Boy away.
Quasar finds and plugs-up the portal to Earth and quickly finds where the calls for help are emanating from. He finds an egg-like object. From this egg comes a small Eon-like entity. Calling herself Epoch, she tells Quasar that she is Eon’s daughter and successor as the guardian of all life in the universe. She thanks Quasar for saving her life and shows him a message from Eon which says that Eon considers Quasar its greatest champion.
Fresh off his defeat of the Cosmic Assassin, Quasar returns to Four Freedoms Plaza to check in with his friends. He makes it clear to Kayla that he would like to persue a relationship with her (finally getting back to their conversation in #19), Moondragon interupts saying that Kayla isn’t worthy of a relationship with the universe’s most cosmic man, and that Moondragon herself has all the prerequistes to be the ideal woman for him. Quasar disagrees, he says relationships and love are about feelings, not ideals or prerequistes. Moondragon angerly leaves and goes in search of allies to help her gain Quasar’s affections.
The cosmically empowered Her, notes Moondragon’s starship, but pays it no heed. She goes in search of her ideal mate as well.
Quasar returns one last time to the Eonverse to pay his last respcts to his fallen mentor. He says a few words of regret for its passing, but is interupted when he detects energy readings within the Eonverse, noting he’s not along, he goes to investigate.
Finding a starship that more resembles a cathedral than a ship, he is greeted by what appears to be an alien cadre of priest. They claim they have arrived to mourn the loss of Eon. Quasar can detect no weapons aboard the ship and they seem to be forthright so Quasar allows them to carry out their ritual.
Their representive, Fath, tells Quasar that the funeral will begin in 3.14 days, so Quasar goes to take care of his personal life, helps the Avengers, and continues repairs upon his office inflicted by the Presence.
He returns to the funeral to find an image of a tree-like creature that has many faces. Quasar surmized that this is Eon’s true form.
Quasar is directed to sit and during the eulogy find that he is more moved by fath’s word about Eon than he was over the priet’s words at his father’s funeral (QUASAR #21). It is then that Thanos appears and disrupts the proceedings. Quasar tells him to leave, and it devolves into a fight. Despite that Thanos possesses the Infinity Guantlet he has no interest in killing Quasar (not yet, anyway), so, Quasar holds his own and directs 100 megaton blast right between Thanos’ ears.
Unbelieveably, Thanos reforms and says he: ‘has other more interesting enemies to fight’, with that Thanos grows four entities from Eon’s dead form. They are: The Stygian Starbender, Eon’s first Protector; former Protector, Ree of the long dead Archepeians; former Protector Trantra of the Trill, Marvel Boy, the first human to wear the Quantum-Bands. They all have fully functioning replicas of the Quantum-Bands and have all been in instilled with the need to kill Quasar, the last one surviving will be Thanos’ Protector of the Universe until the end of time.
| Storyarc Name: | Infinity Gauntlet |
| 1st Appearance: | Infinity Gauntlet #1 |
| Appears in: | 13 issues |
| Publisher: |
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