The Infinity Gauntlet is a six-issue comic book limited series published by Marvel Comics from July to December in 1991. The series was written by Jim Starlin and penciled by George Pérez and Ron Lim.
Publication history
The storyline is the culmination of events from Silver Surfer vol. 3, #34 (Feb. 1990) and the two-issue miniseries The Thanos Quest (Sept.- Oct. 1990).
In 1991, artist George Pérez signed on to pencil the six-issue limited series. However, due to the emotional stresses Pérez was suffering from related to his concurrent work as writer/artist on DC Comics' Wonder Woman and as artist on the DC limited series War of the Gods, Pérez was unable to finish penciling each issue of Infinity Gauntlet. Pérez left the project while working on issue #4, with penciler Ron Lim assigned to replace him. Pérez remained as the inker over Lim's cover art for the remainder of the miniseries.
Additional plotlines not addressed in the main story were featured in other books published during the same time period.
The storyline led to two sequel miniseries, Infinity War and Infinity Crusade. All three series were the core of a company-wide crossover story.
Plot summary
Thanos mounts the six Infinity Gems (collected in the Thanos Quest limited series) on his left glove to form the titular Infinity Gauntlet. Each Gem grants its bearer complete mastery over one aspect of the multiverse: Time, Space, Mind, Soul, Reality, and Power. Now all-powerful and desperate to win the affections of Death, Thanos decides to offer the entity a gift of love by completing a task she had given him, erasing half the sentient life in the universe (including most of the X-Men, Daredevil, and the Fantastic Four), quite literally with a snap of his fingers.
The surviving heroes on Earth band togetherâ€"guided by the newly resurrected Adam Warlockâ€"to battle Thanos. In a bid to impress Death, Thanos allows the heroes a slight chance of winning, but easily defeats and kills almost all of them. Thanos then goes on to defeat and imprison many of the universe's cosmic entitiesâ€"including Galactus; the Stranger; the Titan Kronos; Epoch; the entities Love and Hate; two Celestials; Master Order and Lord Chaos; and Eternity. After defeating Eternity, Thanos leaves his body and becomes the living embodiment of the universe. This leaves his abandoned body vulnerable to Nebula, his alleged granddaughter.
Nebula takes the Gauntlet off Thanos' hand and dons it herself; she then undoes all of Thanos' actions, restoring her from disfigurement, bringing the dead back to life, and reversing the damage done to the cosmos. Another battle with the heroes and cosmic deities ends with Adam Warlock taking possession of the Gauntlet, after which Thanos appears to commit suicide. Warlock's allies object when he plans to keep the gauntlet intact for himself, but he ignores them. Later, Warlock and his companions discover Thanos working at a farm while contemplating his loss and, satisfied that he is no longer a threat, decide to leave him be.
Comic tie-ins
Lead up
- Silver Surfer #34-38
- The Thanos Quest #1-2
- Silver Surfer #44-50
- Quasar #24
- Cloak and Dagger #18
Main event
Aftermath
- Silver Surfer #60
- Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1
- Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #36
Other versions
What If?
The Infinity Gauntlet is featured in several issues of the alternate universe title What If. The first explores the outcome if the Silver Surfer and Impossible Man respectively had possessed the artifact. A one-shot publication depicts a new version of the Fantastic Four - who replace the deceased original members - consisting of the Hulk; Iron Man; Spider-Man and Wolverine. The quartet successfully defeat Thanos when Wolverine distracts him by telling him how he should "touch" death to show her he cares. This allows Wolverine to cut off Thanos' gloved hand, Spider-Man subsequently undoes the damage Thanos had caused before giving the Gauntlet to the Watchers for safe keeping.
Avengers and the Infinity Gauntlet
A retelling of the story in the all-ages Marvel Adventures line, written by Brian Clevinger and drawn by Brian Churilla, was released in August 2010. This version features Spider-Man, the Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Wolverine, and Doctor Doom fighting Thanos after he uses the Gauntlet to kill half the population of the Universe. Doom betrays the Avengers and seizes the gauntlet for himself, but fails to get it to work culminating in Spider-Man using the Gauntlet to erase the entire adventure from history, with only him and Thanos remembering what took place.
Collected editions
The series has been collected into a trade paperback and a hardcover:
- The Infinity Gauntlet (collects The Infinity Gauntlet limited series, 256 pages, softcover, March 2000, ISBN 0-87135-944-8, December 2004, ISBN 0-7851-0892-0, July 2006, ISBN 0-7851-2349-0, hardcover August 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4549-4)
- Marvel Premiere Classics 46: Infinity Gauntlet
In other media
- Capcom released two video games based on the events of the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems.
- A pinball table based on The Infinity Gauntlet is downloadable in Marvel Pinball as part of the Avengers Chronicles pack.
- The Disney Interactive game, Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes has a purchasable add-on "power disc" which equips the character whose figure sits atop the disc with the infinity gauntlet. Once equipped, a charge meter begins to fill. When fully charged the gauntlet can be activated for a special effect.
- When Marvel Studios officially announced the films Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1 and Part 2, they featured a clip of Thanos wielding the Infinity Gauntlet.
References
External links
- The Infinity Gauntlet at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
- Infinity Gauntlet at the Grand Comics Database
- Infinity Gauntlet (storyline) at the Comic Book DB
