The Infinity War - Understanding the Stones and the Glove in the Center of it all

The dates are available on just about any comic website:

Part 1 of the Infinity War is in theaters in May of 2018

Part 2 of the Infinity War is in theaters in May of 2019

Yay!  I mean....wait....what is the Infinity War?

The Infinity War will be the fight for the six Infinity Gems (Infinity “Stones” in the movies), or Soul gems as they were originally dubbed when introduced in Marvel Comics in the 70’s.  The Gems are six powerful, and indestructible, artifacts...the most powerful in the Marvel Universe.  The interesting thing is that although they each have a unique incredibly powerful property they can also be used together to cause even more havoc (the whole being greater than the sum of its parts).  In other words, they can grant the power of a god.

Not sure what the stones are or the power they represent?  Here’s a brief overview (and, yes, there are inconsistencies between the comic books and the movies in regard to color and power....sigh.  See below.):

Tesseract - The Space Stone

This gem was seen in both Captain America (used by Red Skull) and The Avengers (used by Loki).  The Tesseract is a blue stone capable of teleporting anything from point ‘a’ to point ‘b’.  Thor supposedly took it back to his homeworld of Asgard at the end of The Avengers.

Aether - The Reality Stone:

The Aether was represented by a red floating liquid like thingy that appears to connect itself to a host and make it...well...stronger.  As an aside, this is not how it was in the comics.  In the comics it was focused more on wish fulfillment.  The only appearance, so far, was in Thor: The Dark World.  It was given to The Collector for safekeeping by the end of the film.  No one is sure if its still there after the end of Guardians of the Galaxy where The Collector’s home is destroyed.

Orb - The Power Stone:

The destruction of The Collector’s home, as discussed above, was caused by this stone.  This stone gives the wielder immense power.  It can give superhuman strength and the ability to wipe out planets, just by touching the surface.  At the end of Guardians of the Galaxy this stone was being housed by the intergalactic police known as Nova Corps.

Loki’s Scepter/Vision’s Forehead - The Mind Stone:

Marvel tricked you!  (well...me too)  Loki’s blue-glowing scepter was the home of the yellow infinity stone!  As seen in The Avengers, the mind stone allows the bearer to control the minds of others (hence the name “The Mind Stone”).

The Soul Stone:

This one hasn’t made its appearance yet.  If you go by the stories in Marvel Comics, the Soul Stone was a somewhat sentient creature that could trap souls inside another world.  As “trapping souls” has not really been explored yet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) there is no telling what the power may be.

The Time Stone:

Visit the future!  Visit the past! Alter them both so each time it's different!  You can even speed up or slow down the passage of time!  If you are horribly scarred go back in time and don’t have 6 beers before handling an arc welder, or pick up something safer like a nail gun!  I think you get the idea.  Like the Soul Stone, this gem has not been explored yet in the MCU.

So, what’s up with the glove?  Actually, it’s a gauntlet.  And, as an FYI, there are two of them, so it should be gauntlets....plural.  If you don’t believe me watch Thor.  In the Asgard treasure chamber, along with the other dangerous relics, the right glove can be seen.  At the end of The Avengers: Age of Ultron, however, we see Thanos pick up the left glove.  I’ll wait while you go and watch the movies to try to prove me wrong.

When will we see the last two stones?  I would venture to say that they will appear in any one of the number of Marvel movies coming out between now and Infinity War, Part 2.   I make this ridiculously safe bet because I really hate to lose.

If I wanted to just go with just a “semi-safe” bet I would point the finger at Doctor Strange and/or Thor: Ragnarok and/or Guardians of the Galaxy 2 for the other“gem sightings".

The Marvel Easter Egg:  Do The Stones Spell “Thanos”?

There have been rumors that the name of the stones spell out “Thanos”.  So far we have the “T” in Tesseract”, the “A” in Aether, the “O” in Orb, and the “S” in Scepter.  That leaves “H” and “N”.  But what would the names of the stones be?  Helicopter and Numbskull?  Horace and Norris?  wHo kNows?  I’m not going to lose sleep over it, it’s just a rumor and, frankly, a terrible excuse for an easter egg.

And What Comes After?

Once Marvel hits its cinematic peak in Infinity War Part 2, the conclusion that all of the movies have led to, what happens next?  It’s anybody’s guess and, as of right now, Marvel doesn’t have much planned.  All we know is that in July of 2019 the movie Inhumans is coming out.  This is kind of like planning dinner after having a feast for lunch.  What could possibly top what you just had?  I would NOT want to be connected to that film in any way, shape or form as all the reviews will be based on what was previously seen.

Infinity Gems or Soul Gems?  Easter Eggs?  Post Infinity War Movies?  It all remains a big question mark.  All we DO know is that people will wait decades to watch the next part of a good mystery.  Just ask Star Wars.

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10 Best Selling Comic Book Titles of the Past Century

I am often asked what the 10 best selling titles are of all time.  Here is a list of the top 10 and some information regarding each.  Enjoy!

10.)  Death of Wolverine  I was surprised by this, but apparently it’s true.  This is a comic by Marvel and was released in September of 2014 with unit sales of 274,000.  Although it seems like every character is dying and coming back to life the death of Wolverine, in particular, got some heavy duty sales.

9.)  All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder  This is a comic by DC Comics that was released in July of 2005 with unit sales of 276,000.  The All Star line was undoubtedly an answer to the Marvel Ultimate line, but it didn’t do quite as well.  This is Batman’s highest selling appearance so far this century.  The combination of Frank Miller and Jim Lee were unbeatable at the time.

8.)  Uncanny Avengers  A spinoff of Avengers vs. X-Men, this combination of the Avengers and the X-Men in one team was quite a hit.  As a comic fan I can honestly say that I felt this was a long time coming and was bound to be big.  This was released by Marvel in October of 2012 with unit sales of 305,900.

7.)  Rocket Raccoon  This one comes as no surprise.  Fresh off the success of Guardians of the Galaxy there was no character more popular save for Groot.  This was released in July of 2014 by Marvel comics and had unit sales of 311,000.  If you have this one, and any possible variants, ya’ done good.

6.)  Captain America  Not just any Captain America, the Civil War Death of Captain America.  Though it’s no surprise that Cap died, since many of his colleagues had already done the same and come back, it symbolized the death of freedom and liberty.  In his place, the very capable, and newly reformed, Bucky Barnes.  This was released by Marvel in March of 2007 with unit sales of 317,700.  We will soon get to see this live in the upcoming Civil War movie.

5.)  Justice League of America  No surprise here, this was part of the New 52 and was the best selling comic of the entire event.  This particular issue has a cover with an American flag (shown) and a cover for every state with each having it’s state flag on the cover.  I’ve seen comic stores selling the entire set for $100.  This was released by DC in February of 2013 with unit sales of 326,000.

4.)  Civil War  I’ve seen this listed as one of the worst events in comic history and couldn’t disagree more.  This event was a long time building and was played out very well by the writers and artists.  This particular comic is where Spiderman unmasks starting a cavalcade of mixed emotions that follow him through subsequent comics.  Civil War was released from May 2006 to February 2007 by Marvel comics and this comic had unit sales of 341,900.  This was Marvel’s biggest event of the century....by far.

3.)  Walking Dead  Issue #100 is the only “non-DC/Marvel” comic to be on this list.  It is the smash event that took TV by storm and did extremely well in it’s comic adaptation.  If you follow the two storylines, though, you will see that the two differed markedly as soon as issue #2.  This was released by Image in July 2012 with unit sales of 384,800.  

2.)  The Amazing Spider-Man  Arguably Marvel’s version of Superman/Batman, Spider-Man has gone through many changes, clonings, and death’s of loved ones over the years.  It was all capped off in #700 by the “death” of Peter Parker himself.  This comic was the rejuvenation of the brand and the return of the original Peter Parker.   This comic was released by Marvel in April 2014 with unit sales of 559,200.  An astounding 170,000 units more than the #3 spot.

1.)  Star Wars  This is an interesting comic to be at this spot.  As you well know Marvel was in a state of near bankruptcy in the 70’s.  It was Star Wars that not only bailed them out but brought them back to near financial stability.  Marvel did this by licensing Star Wars early in the game and thereby helping the brand, and themselves, get a foothold in the marketplace.  Now, with Star Wars coming back to Marvel it’s no surprise that it did it again by being at the top spot.  Released by Marvel in July 2015 with unit sales of 985,976 it crushed the #2 spot by over 400,000 units and the #3 spot by 600,000 units.  It wasn’t even close.

For those keeping score at home this makes 7 titles for Marvel, 1 title for Image and 2 titles for DC.  My guess is that you could have called Marvel as the clear winner before you even started reading.

So what does this say about the future of comic sales?  Has the Trinity lost it’s appeal with DC?  Has Batman run it’s course after 75+ years?  Or are we seeing just another cyclical high by Marvel soon to be replaced by an equally impressive low?  My guess is that unless DC gets it’s act together it won’t be outselling Marvel anytime soon.  The New 52 didn’t perform like it was supposed to and Convergence confused people more than anything with no real changes coming from it.  It’s going to take more than yet another “reboot” to get DC back in the running.