Man, the Infinity Gauntlet was awesome. The story of the mad Titan, Thanos, combining the power of the six infinity stones and obtaining complete power over the universe and the desperate, doomed attempts of the Marvel heroes and cosmic beings to do anything and everything they can to stop him, the only reason I haven’t done one of these for it yet is that, really, it’s quite difficult to narrow the awesome down to 5 moments, so really a ton of great stuff will be lumped together so this isn’t a 25 Coolest Things From…

Without further ado, 5 of the coolest moments from the pure 90’s goodness that is one of the best Marvel comics ever published, the Infinity Gauntlet.

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Thanos Solves the Traffic Problems

Thanks to the shenanigans of the MCU Thanos and the way the stones are portrayed there, the most famous action Thanos takes with the stones is the first real one we see. In order to impress the physical embodiment of Death, he instantly wipes out exactly half of all life in the universe. Unlike in the MCU there is no dusting, no chance for dramatic goodbyes, just one moment they’re there, then the next they’re gone. Even land masses disappear! It’s immediate chaos everywhere, and with that the most heinous, notorious act in the history of the Marvel universe is completed in an instant.

 

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Hey, Kids! Watch All of Your Heroes Get MURDERED!

Adam Warlock and Dr Strange recruit the remaining heroes they can and, along with the Silver Surfer, they mount a truly desperate attack against Thanos, knowing they won’t win. Adam Warlock and the Surfer hold back with the idea to pick a moment to try to do their part. Mephisto, the demonic/satanic creature, is hanging around Thanos and tells him that since the snap didn’t seem to impress Death maybe a display of prowess will? Fight the heroes, and kill them, but you can’t just annihilate them as if they are nothing to you. You need to lower your power level way, way down so they have a chance, as small as it may be. Thanos agrees and lowers his power to 1% of his limit. So, the heroes might have a shot after all!

Oh.

Oh, geez.

He just- oh, my God.

That’s not even everyone, but let’s take a quick look at what we see in the horrors above, shall we?

In a very, VERY short window we see the deaths of Thor, Spider-Man, the Vision, and Cyclops, followed by Nova, Iron Man, Wolverine and Quasar. That’s not including the deaths of Cloak, Scarlet Witch, Namor or She-Hulk.

Absolutely brutal.

I first read this when it hit stands back in 1991 and as a dumb kid I didn’t realize that these WEREN’T permanent deaths, and that by the end of the story they would be reversed. So this was just.. I mean, it was my favorite characters thrown into a meat grinder! And then..

 

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Captain America’s Last Stand

It all comes down to the last man standing: Captain America.

In typical super awesome fashion, Cap just strolls straight up to Thanos like he didn’t see his friends and teammates horribly, brutally murdered a few seconds ago, or that Thanos didn’t just- like four seconds earlier- BLOW UP the Quantum Bands by LOOKING AT THEM. Then he talks smack. Good lord, the balls on this man.

It’s here that we learn that Warlock knew this would happen, and purposefully sacrificed the heroes to Thanos in the hopes that there would be just one tiny, possible opening where Thanos would let his guard down and they could get the gauntlet off of him. As Thanos prepares to kill his last opponent, Warlock tells Surfer to go and go now! Surfer goes as fast as he can, which is REALLY fast–

-but he JUST misses the mark.

Thanos casually kills Captain America and wills himself back to full power. (Again, he did this at ONE PERCENT!!)

It’s a good thing for him, too, since the REAL fight is about to begin.

 

 

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Cosmic Mayhem

Now it’s time for Thanos’ real opponents, the cosmic avatars and advanced beings. The likes of Chaos & Order, Love & Hate, Galactus, the Celestials, the Stranger, even Eternity himself show themselves and attempt to destroy the new God of the universe.

They throw planets at him, try to kill him with time, emotion, splitting his mind, trying to fry him with energy attacks, and nothing is working. Finally, it’s Thanos vs the big guy himself: Eternity, the physical representation of the entirety of the universe!

Thanos doesn’t even hesitate to throw himself right into the fight.

 

It doesn’t go so great for the big guy, and all seems lost. Thanos is completely unbeatable. The only hope anyone has is if he makes some kind of mistake, but there’s no way he would do that.

 

 

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Bow Before Your New God: Adam Warlock!

So, Thanos makes a huge mistake and Nebula, who he has been torturing this entire time, takes possession of the gauntlet and the omnipotence that comes with it. Thanos is forced to team with the surviving members of the Earth assault as well as Adam Warlock, Dr Strange and the Silver Surfer and try to wrest Godhood from her before she becomes accustomed to it and becomes unbeatable. There is a mighty struggle, and when the dust clears the new God is:

Warlock’s new position as the supreme being in the entire cosmos is an interesting one and opens up a lot of new story avenues. Much of this is continued in the series Adam Warlock and the Infinity Watch before dovetailing into the woefully underrated (but still inferior) Infinity Gauntlet sequel, Infinity War (no relation to the MCU blockbuster).