It’s downright shameful how the comic industry got looked down on from the rest of the literary world in years past. Only recently, in the past decade or so, have comics become more widely accepted—some even used in classrooms as an education tools. For the most part comics offer up some great stories, demonstrate how much of an art form narrative storytelling can be. The Infinity Gauntlet, which was recently announced as the cornerstone for Marvel/Disney’s next phase of movies, is the alpha example of such storytelling.
Published by Marvel Comics from July to December 1991, The Infinity Gauntlet spanned six issues and served as the culminating chapter of The Thanos Quest (a 2-issue miniseries) during which a intergalactic super-villain named Thanos collected 6 different “Infinity Gems,” each granting the possessor untold control over Mind, Power, Reality, Soul, Space and Time. Together they can give a being godlike abilities… ultimate power. However, The Infinity Gauntlet isn’t a traditional tale of good versus evil, rather, it’s a love story.
You see, Thanos couldn’t care less about being a god, his motivation was to capture the affection of Death (yes Death is an actual entity in the Marvel universe and she’s a female). Apparently Death had tasked him with a bidding of destroying half the population of the entire universe, as she felt there was way more people alive in it than had died, which was a major cosmic imbalance in her eyes.
In an attempt to impress Death, Thanos hoped that she would finally return his love for her and so, with the snap of his fingers (literally) he wipes out half of existence including some major superheroes needed to stop this cosmic douchebaggery. We’re talking the likes of the Fantastic Four, over half of the X-Men roster, some Avengers and others… gone. Just like that. That’s how scary powerful the Infinity Gems can be, especially in the hands of a madman like Thanos.
What’s left of Earth’s heroes then band together at the call of Dr. Strange, a newly resurrected Adam Warlock and a random assortment of other chracters (Dr. Doom, Drax) to make an honest attempt at trying to take Thanos out. They’re not entirely alone, however, as a lot of Marvel’s heavy-hitting cosmic beings are called into the fray as well… beings like Galactus, Enoch and Kronos to name a few. Yup, it takes all these guys to face down one dude with a hard on (literally) for Death.
Thanos isn’t a fool, though. He knows exactly what kind of army is coming for him and takes the opportunity to show off his “Mad Titan skills” and impress Death, allowing his attackers see a chance for victory and hope only to completely obliterate most of them like it’s nothing. He even defeats the big gun team of cosmic beings I alluded to earlier, imprisoning Eternity, and leaves his body to become part of the universe. This is where he slips up… leaving his physical body behind allows his granddaughter, Nebula (yeah, remember her from the Guardians of the Galaxy film?), to remove the gauntlet from his hand and claim it’s powers on herself.
Nebula eventually sets everything Thanos had done back to what it was before, but goes a little insane herself allowing Adam Warlock to grab the gauntlet for himself (against the wishes of the other heroes). In the end, it appears that Thanos destroys himself but in fact he goes on to live a short stint as a farmer (no, really) and after all that drama still doesn’t get the girl—go figure.
This is really one of the greatest stories to come out of Marvel and it’s still influencing the Marvel Universe 20+ years here later. Over that time, the story has seen a few different Infinity Sagas. Capcom released two successful video games based on it (Marvel Super Heroes and War of the Gems). More recently the Disney Infinity franchise integrated a Power Disc for your figures allowing players to claim the Gauntlet for themselves. As I mentioned earlier, it’s even a major plot point in the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
There’s been a handful of one shot “What If” issues based around this series that have a few interesting takes on the battle, my favorite being the one where the “New Fantastic Four” are the main heroes. Your best bet of obtaining this tale these days is the graphic novel route. There’s also an omnibus out there that includes tie-in issues from individual character titles during this event. All in all—totally worth checking out.
