The Infinity Stones are some of the most powerful artifacts in the Marvel Universe. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes used the Infinity Stones to bring the dusted back to life and topple Thanos in Avengers: Endgame. But what happens if the Infinity Stones were bonded to ordinary people? That’s the plot behind Infinity Watch, a new series spinning out of the “Infinity Watch” event spread across several Marvel annuals earlier this year. New and established characters are now hosts to the Infinity Stones, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe fan-favorite Phil Coulson, who is also host to an all-new Infinity Stone.
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Marvel released the preview for Infinity Watch #1 by Derek Landy, Ruairi Coleman, Scott Hanna, Brian Reber, Erick Arciniega, and VC’s Cory Petit. It opens with a mysterious narrator filling the reader in on the seven Infinity Stones and their bearers — Reality (Star), Soul (Multitude), Mind (Colleen Wing), Time (Overtime), Space (Quantum), Power (Apex), Death (Phil Coulson). The narrator breaks the Fourth Wall before dropping us into the action. The Infinity Watch shows up to an area under attack by alien invaders.
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Apex tries to greet them with a punch but takes one to the face instead. Overtime insists that the Infinity Watch work as a team, similar to the Avengers. Star says they’re not the Avengers because they’re way cooler. Multitude channels Earth’s Mightiest Heroes by conjuring soul constructs of the heroes, but gets a car tossed at him for his troubles.
How Marvel brought Phil Coulson back from the dead
The backup story in Thanos Annual, the first chapter of the “Infinity Watch” crossover event, resurrected Phil Coulson. It picks up immediately following the events in the main story in the Thanos Annual, with the new Death Stone leaving Thanos to seek out a human host. Nighthawk is hot on the trail of the Death Stone, tracking it to a cemetery in Wisconsin using an Infinity Stone scanner. He’s confused about there being a new Infinity Stone when there’s only been six in existence. When Nighthawk reaches out to grab the stone, it zaps him with a bolt of energy and begins to transform, bringing a skeleton out of its grave and reanimating it. Once the Death Stone enters the chest of the skeleton, it begins forming skin and hair until it takes on the form of the formerly dead Agent Coulson. His gravestone reads, “RIP Phillip ‘Cheese’ Coulson. He loved heroes and was one.”
Whereas Loki killed Phil Coulson in The Avengers, his comic book counterpart met an untimely fate ahead of Marvel’s Secret Empire. The event featured a Hydra-influenced version of Captain America attempting to take over the world. Agent Coulson started to distrust Cap, and when our evil Captain America learned of Coulson’s snooping, he ordered Deadpool to kill him. Even though Coulson and Deadpool were best buds, Deadpool was loyal to Cap and followed through on those orders.
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“It’s not every day you’re asked to assemble a new team of heroes… and even less often you’re asked to write an omnipotent team of misfits and malcontents!” Derek Landy told ComicBook when Infinity Watch was announced. “Aside from fan-favorites Phil Coulson and Colleen Wing, this is a group of oddballs, criminals, and, frankly, idiots who suddenly realize that they’re the most powerful beings in existence. There are big, terrible things on the horizon, and writing these bickering, petty wild cards and loose cannons as they stumble from lighthearted misadventure to reality-altering terror has been an absolute pleasure. The question then becomes: if your protagonists are all-powerful, how dangerous must your antagonist have to be to possibly challenge them?”
The preview of Infinity Watch #1 is below. The issue goes on sale Wednesday, December 11th.
