How Thanos Gets the Infinity Stones in the Comics

Avengers: Infinity War is set to be the big finale to 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Part of that finale involves that Mad Titan called Thanos completing his quest for the Infinity Stones by coming to Earth and seeking out those he still lacks. But how did this quest transpire in the Marvel Comics universe?

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, most of the Infinity Stones are accounted for. The Power Stone is in the custody of the Nova Corps on Xandar. The Reality Stone is currently part of the Collector’s collection. The Time Stone is in the possession of Doctor Strange as the Eye of Agamotto. The Mind Stone gave life to the android Avenger Vision and now rest on his forehead. Loki swiped the Space Stone from Odin’s treasure hall before Asgard was destroyed. The Soul Stone remains unaccounted for.

But these were not the locations of the Infinity Stones when Thanos brought them together before the events of The Infinity Gauntlet. Instead, they were mostly-controlled by the Elders of the Universe.

Thanos’ journey up until that point wasn’t entirely impressive. He had become known as a fierce enemy of the Avengers primarily through two significant encounters. In the first, he came to possess the powerful cosmic relic known as the Cosmic Cube, but he was defeated. In the second he tried to assemble the Soul Gems, which was originally what all of relics now known as the Infinity Stones were known as, but again he was defeated.

Thanos died and was believed gone for good. Then Mistress Death brought him back to solve what she saw as a metaphysical crisis, the imbalance between life and death.

Thanos set out to eliminate half of all life in the universe. At first, he was going about it the old fashion way, traveling around with his pirate army and wiping out half of a planet’s population. Then Thanos gazed into a fount of knowledge known as the Infinity Well and found out the truth about the different powers of each of the “Soul Gems.” Thus his quest for the Soul Gems, which he himself renamed the Infinity Gems, began, though he was not entirely honest with his Mistress about the reasons why.

The Soul Stone

Unlike in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where the Soul Stone is still the great unknown wild card, the Soul Gem – the actual, specific Soul Gem – was the first one gathered up by Thanos.

The Soul Gem was in the possession of a cosmic entity called The In-Betweener. After coming into conflict with Mistress Death, the In-Between was imprisoned by his two masters, Lord Chaos and Master Order. The Soul Gem remained on his forehead, though he believed it to be just a trinket.

Thanos visited The In-Betweener in his jail and offered to free him in exchange for the Soul Gem. The In-Betweener agreed, fully planning on betraying Thanos once freed. Thanos didn’t tell The In-Betweener that his powers would not work once he was freed, and so The In-Betweener’s masters simply imprisoned him again.

The Power Stone

The next stop on Thanos’ quest was to the war-torn planet of Tamarata.

There, Thanos finds the Elder of the Universe known as the Champion of the Universe. The Champion possesses the Power Gem but believes it to be broken. He has been honing his fighting skills on the planet for some time without ever realizing that the Power Gem has been enhancing his abilities.

Thanos uses this against The Champion. He goads the Elder into combat and then uses the Champion’s own enhanced strength to get him to accidentally destroy the entire planet, leaving the Champion adrift in space.

Thanos offers to bring the Champion to another planet in exchange for the Power Gem. The Champion agrees.

The Time Stone

Thanos next visits the Elder of the Universe known as The Gardener in his garden.

The Gardener’s entire goal in his existence is to create the most beautiful flora in the universe. Though he doesn’t know why, he does know that his garden was never more beautiful than when he possessed one of the Infinity Gems, and so he went and found the same Gem again, the Time Gem.

Thanos and the Gardener have a pretty civil conversation in which The Gardener admits that he cannot defeat Thanos, but that he must try anyway.

The Time Gem has been allowing The Gardener to accelerate the speed at which his plants grow and bloom. The Gardener tries to envelop Thanos in vines. Thanos breaks free and uses the Power Gem to turn The Gardener’s own powers against him, with vines growing throughout the Elder’s body, leaving him dead and Thanos in possession of the Time Gem.

The Space Stone

Thanos began the second half of his quest by targeting another Elder of the Universe, The Runner.

However, by this point word of Thanos’s quest had gotten out. The Elder of the Universe known as The Grandmaster warned his remaining brethren about Thanos.

As such, The Runner – a kind of cosmic speedster – was able to find Thanos before Thanos was able to find him.

Though The Runner had the element of surprise and, at first, the upper hand, Thanos soon turned the tables on him and used the Time Gem to accelerate The Runner’s speed of aging, making him feeble.

Thanos then collected The Space Stone – which had made it so The Runner could teleport through space, something The Runner believed to be the effect of his great speed – and turned The Runner into a child so that he could more easily carry him to his next stop…

The Reality Stone

Thanos next headed to the lair of The Collector, taking the infant Runner along with him.

Unlike some of his brethren, The Collector was fully aware that he had an Infinity Stone in his possession, though he was unable to access its power.

Thanos and The Collector had made bargains in the past, and Thanos offered The Collector another one. In exchange for The Collector’s Infinity Gem – which was the Reality Gem – Thanos would give The Runner over to had to the collection.

The Collector accepted and handed the Reality Gem over to Thanos. What Thanos didn’t tell The Collector was that The Runner’s de-aging was temporary. Once it wore off, The Runner returned to full size and strength and was not pleased with his fellow Elder.

The Mind Stone

The last stop on Thanos’s tour was to visit The Grandmaster, who was in possession of The Mind Stone.

The Grandmaster has dedicated his entire existence to the playing of games. As such, he challenges Thanos to a contest for the Mind Gem. Thanos accepts.

The two enter a kind of virtual reality combat simulation. Thanos bests his opponent, but The Grandmaster cheats and activates a device to essentially lobotomize his opponent.

Thanos had expected this though. He sent a robot duplicate of himself to play The Grandmaster’s game while he remained in reality. And so, while The Grandmaster was trapped in his own game, Thanos was able to claim the final Infinity Gem.

The Thanos Quest

With his quest complete, Thanos returned ot the realm of Mistress Death and revealed the entirety of his intent.

Thanos did not just want to gather the Infinity Gems to complete the task Misteress Death gave him, he also wanted to put himself on the same level as his love.

At first, Mistress Death seems to respect this. She creates a throne for Thanos next to her own.

But then Thanos realizes Mistress Death still is not talking to him directly, but only through servants. This is because rather than simply doing Death’s allotted task, Thanos has by collecting the Infinity Gems made himself more powerful than she is.

This turn is the major reason why Mistress Death seems to resent Thanos in The Infinity Gauntlet, and why Thanos finally decides to eliminate half of the universe’s population and go to even more drastic measures to impress win her back over.