Infinity Stones and the Villians who seek them

This entry of Ray-views is to enlighten those who have not watched many of the marvel movies and want to go into the movie with an understanding of the potential stakes, and what is the infinity war generally about.

First and foremost the objects of great interest are the infinity gems/stones.

Benicio del Toro as The Collector

It’s sometimes difficult to get into the storyline without making reference to the varied comic books, and the significant characters that greatly affected the history and mythology of the stones.  Names like Adam Warlock will be thrown around and the collector, both have been introduced in the cinematic universe, but to a far lesser degree. So that aside, what are the Gems and where are they currently as we open into the infinity war movie?

There are 6 infinity stones,  5 of which has been revealed to us the viewing audience and the final one is most likely to be obtained in Infinity war: part 2 or the untitled  Avengers  4 movie slated for release May 3^rd 2019.

In an explanation given during a scene in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. one.  Benicio del Toro who plays the collector gave the following introduction. “Before creation itself, there were 6 singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence and the remnants were forged into 6 concentrated stones”.

In a recent issue of the Guardians of the galaxy comic.  An easier interpretation was given by posing the following concept.   If you were to view the universe as a simulation, then the infinity stones would be the source code of said simulation.  

Let’s look at these stones and where are they now.

The Space Stone/gem – color blue – located inside the Tesseract/Cosmic cube – First seen in the first Captain America movie.  Its real power was revealed when the Red Skull held it with his hand and it opened a portal to space, that launched his existence into space (allegedly). After being re-discovered with Captain America frozen inside a plane for nearly 60 years, it was used to open a wormhole over New York City to allow for an interplanetary alien invasion as seen in The first avengers movie.  It was last seen in Thor Ragnork, as the Villain Loki took the cube from Odin’s Asgardian vault before their planet was destroyed and is most likely  obtained by Thanos as the film concludes with Thor and the surviving Asgardians being intercepted by Thanos ‘s Massive Q-ship. – Meaning we are going to open the Avengers Infinity War with Thor captured  and tormented by Thanos as seen by  a glimpse of the latest trailer and Thanos possessing his first stone by breaking open the Tesseract.

The Space Stone or Tessaract was first used in WWII (1941), by the Nazis using its energy signature to create weapons to disintegrate their enemies.  If revealed , in its true power, the Space stone  allows its user to be omnipresent or everywhere at once;  thus far it has been used to teleport beings anywhere they want, moving objects, and changing the distance of things by warping space itself. (In the comics it is usually the purple stone)

The Reality Stone/gem – color red – referred to as the Ether and was first seen on Thor: Dark World. It was used as a weapon to revert the universe, or warp the universe back to a darker age, by turning matter into dark matter.  It appears as shifting flying ooze.  In its alleged fully realized state, the reality stone becomes a wishing stone granting its user anything in the universe to be possible or impossible. Meaning having the ability to bring anything you want into existence as it can defy every law of physics.  It was last seen being handed over to the collector at the end of Dark World. However, in Guardians of the Galaxy volume one, a movie that was released a year later.  The Collectors’ home and collection of things appeared to be obliterated by the power stone; and so the exact current location is unknown.  It is only surmised that collector may still be in possession of the Ether.

The Ether

(In the comics it’s usually the yellow stone)

Power Stone

Power Stone/Gem – color purple- was kept in an orb container, was first seen on Guardians of the Galaxy volume One . Like the name states, its power; in can enhance the users’ strength, durability, speed, it can shred a planet into nothingness in a single blast and give the user omnipotence when the stone is fully accessed. And when combined with other infinity stones it can boost all of their powers too. Currently the power stone is in the protection of the Galactic police department known as the Nova Corp. The stone was last seen at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy volume one. (In the comics it’s usually the Red Stone)

The Mind Stone/ Gem – color yellow - It appeared in both Avenger’s movies.  It was first revealed in Loki’s scepter and used to control the minds of those the scepter touched like Avenger Hawkeye, Dr.

Helen Cho and professor Selvig. It was the cause that made Ultron both Sentient and murderous and gave life to Vision and provided his extraordinary powers with his vibrainium body (The use of vibranium is extremely multifaceted as seen in the Black Panther movie).  The Mind Stone’s potential when fully realized, can connect with every single mind in the universe or in existence at once; and can gain access to all the thoughts & memories and have complete control of the mind, plus enhancing the abilities of those who are psychics.  (In the comics it’s usually blue)

Time stone in the Eye of Agamotto

The Time Stone/Gem – color green – It first appeared in Dr. Strange and is housed inside the talisman called the Eye of Agamotto and protected by the sorcerer Supreme – Doctor Stephen Strange. It allows its user to manipulate time. Moving it forward and backward, speeding it up or slowing it down on either a single object or everything around the person, or in the instance of the showdown with the Evil Entity known as Dormamu it can create a time loop, trapping its occupants indefinitely. As its true power is the ability to take control of all of time. (It is usually Orange in comics)

The Final stone is the Soul Stone. – Currently unknown location – It has not been introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far.  – Its orange in comics - It has the ability to take control of all living and dead souls, It can corrupt and change souls and take control of all life in the universe.  It can also open a gateway to pocket universes where souls can live i.e. Heaven or Hell.

According to comic storyline, when the Gems/Stones are place together they communicate to one another, allowing the wieldier of the Stones to track and find other infinity stones.

Once the stones are brought all together, in the case of Thanos Gauntlet glove he will be Omnipotent and Omnipresent, and wield god-like power. As the exposition given in the second trailer of infinity war by Gamora, played by a green skinned Zoe Saldana , Thanos wants to eliminate half the life in the universe, and he can do that in a snap of his finger or a whisper. 

Next, if the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy are the heroes  then let’s look at the opposing villains.

At The official reveal of the black order (Children of Thanos as they are sometimes referred to) took place during D23 Expo as part of ToyWiz  toy-line.

There are 4 characters in the movie that are showcased by ToyWiz.

In the comics they are not really Thanos’ Children but his generals who do his bidding

They were first introduced in 2013, in issue Eight of the new Avengers, so they, in a comic book time frame are fairly new characters.

Corvus Glaive –Thanos most loyal servant and right hand man, In the comics Corvos betrayed his

own people just to be in good favor with Thanos. He possesses super strength and speed, but is nowhere near the level of power of Thanos.  His Staff; which is a blade, if remains intact, keeps Corvos immortal. He is an expert tactician and strategist, and has used his skills to destroy worlds with the help of his wife a fellow black order member Proxima Midnight. He possesses a genius level of combat, in the way that he observes and studies every form of combat and warfare; that planet has engaged in                                                                     and figures out the best way to invade and attack that planet.

Proxmia Midnight is the best warrior in black order, for the cinematic universe, Marvel may 

not include the union of Proxima and Corvus, and  just have them  be represented as Thanos’s soldiers. Her fighting style and ability is unmatched, she possesses enhanced strength, invulnerability, and her weapon of choice is a spear, and when she throws it, it becomes lethal black light, which can cut things down to a molecular level, and it never misses its target. The spear posses the power of a supernova, and the spear can produce nets that has the weight of a star. It’s notable to point out, that in the comic books her spear struck the hulk causing him to revert back to banner automatically.

Super Giant – a character from the comic who will not appear in the movie, she is an omnipath,

Super Giant

which means she operates at the absolute highest level of telepathy, and essentially she is a telepathic vampire, meaning she feeds off ones intelligence, and any intelligence she gains from her victims Thanos gains that knowledge as well, before she completely devours the minds of her victims.

Ebony Maw – the character we see holding Dr. Strange hostage with spike and needles to his face, in the second trailer to infinity war. He is referred to being the most dangerous member of the black order,   He possess the ability to manipulate any situation to his favor. He is known as a whisper, someone 

Ebony Maw

who can affect your brain with mind webs that leave behind a spider like creature. And once it gets in your head he can gain all your secrets and control you to do whatever he wants, complete domination of your mind. Like Corvus Glaive he is a genius tactician and strategist, and sets out to make sure other people or minions do his dirty work, he is protected by a protective force field and has the ability to teleport.  It’s to note in the comic books, he took complete control over Doctor Strange, he used Strange to release extremely dangerous multidimensional creatures .

Black Dwarf

Black Dwarf  He is essentially the muscle of the group, he is a massive enforcer, he possesses super strength and his skin is unbreakable, He is the brother of Corvus Glaive and sister –in-law is Proxima Midnight.  It’s to note that in the comics he lead the invasion in Wakanda , but the technology and fierce fighting style of Black Panther’s Guards was able to stop this behemoth and they were able to cast him out of Wakanda. But his strength is on Par with the Hulk .

 In an indirect way the black order represents the infinite stones .

The power stone that is absolute power, strength and energy – that can be manifested as Black Dwarf

The reality stone – the ability to manipulate people to obtain certain goals and tactics, and recognizing the environment around them – that can manifest into Corvus Glaive

Mind Stone – Super Giant