The Infinity Gauntlet was a powerful Dwarven-made Uru glove that was designed to channel the power of all six Infinity Stones.
History
Forging of a New Gauntlet
Thanos at Nidavellir with his new Gauntlet
After his minions failed him, Thanos decided to collect the Infinity Stones himself.[1] Thanos went to Nidavellir and forced the Dwarves to construct the Infinity Gauntlet for him. Once they had done so, the Mad Titan proceeded to exterminate the entire Dwarven race. Only Eitri, the king of the Dwarves, was spared, although Thanos destroyed his hands by smelting them in metal, ensuring he could never create anything further on his own.[2]
Infinity War
Thanos takes possession of the Power Stone
Thanos brandished the Infinity Gauntlet on his left hand and forearm, inserting the stones one-by-one as soon as he acquired them. Upon acquiring the Power Stone from the Nova Corps Vault on Xandar, Thanos attacked the Statesman. Thanos used the Power Stone to torture Thor in order to force Loki to give up the Space Stone. Thanos then inserted it into the Gauntlet and used it to block Loki's attempted attack before strangling and killing him. Thanos then used the Power Stone to destroy the ship while opening a portal with the Space Stone so he and his children could escape.
Thanos soon ventured to Knowhere, acquiring the Reality Stone from the Collector and inserting it into the Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos used the Stone to trick the Guardians of the Galaxy by conjuring an illusion of himself interrogating the Collector. After he revealed his true self, Thanos incapacitated Drax and Mantis, stopped Star-Lord's desperate attempt to kill Gamora and left with his daughter via the Space Stone.
Back on the Sanctuary II, Thanos used the Power and Space Stones to torture Nebula by slowly pulling apart her cybernetics, forcing Gamora to give up the location of the Soul Stone, revealed to be Vormir. At Vormir, he and Gamora encountered the Stonekeeper, and upon realizing he must sacrifice the one he loved, Thanos tearfully threw Gamora off a cliff to her death (after stopping her attempted suicide with his use of the Reality Stone) to acquire the Soul Stone. After inserting it into the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos traveled to Titan to collect the last two from the Black Order.
Upon arriving on his homeworld, Thanos was confronted by half the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy, who attacked him with the intent of removing the Infinity Gauntlet from his hand. Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to destroy the pillar dropped by on him Iron Man and turned it to a swarm of black crystals that he sent at the ironclad Avenger, as well as sending out blasts of energy at Star-Lord, although they were dodged. Doctor Strange soon realized that Thanos had to clench his fist for the Gauntlet to work and had the Cloak of Levitation restrain the Titan's left hand. Enraged, Thanos soon ripped the Cloak from his hand and used the Gauntlet to absorb an explosion caused by Iron Man and then redirected the blow towards the hero.
Thanos telekinetically ripping apart a moon
Eventually, Thanos was restrained through a carefully organized strategy of Star-Lord's plan and Mantis was able to immobilize the warlord before Iron Man and Spider-Man began removing the Gauntlet. As Iron Man and Spider-Man came close to slipping off the Gauntlet, Star-Lord, after realizing that Gamora had been killed (via Nebula's observations), repeatedly hit the Titan in a vengeful rage, breaking Mantis' hold on Thanos and allowing him to regain the Gauntlet. Thanos then used the mighty gauntlet to display the ultimate power of the Stones, using the Space Stone to allow the Reality Stone to move Titan's moon before then using the Power Stone to crush the moon to pieces and finally used the Space Stone again to pull the pieces to the planet, causing a shower of meteors to rain down upon the heroes.
Thanos battling against Doctor Strange
Thanos and Strange then dueled, with Thanos using the Gauntlet to fire a beam of energy courtesy of the Power Stone and then infused the Power Stone's energy into the Gauntlet to destroy Doctor Strange's use of the Mirror Dimension, after which he unleashed a black hole upon the sorcerer using the Space Stone, which Strange transmuted into butterflies. Thanos eventually won the altercation when he used the Power Stone to destroy all of Strange's copies by identifying the real one with the Soul Stone and then used the Space and Reality Stone to pull Strange while levitating and flying to further close the distance within them, thus resulting in Thanos subduing and choking Strange.
Thanos takes possession of the Time Stone
Iron Man saved Strange and then battled Thanos one-on-one, after using some of his suit's nanotechnology to force Thanos' hand open, but the warlord's natural strength and rage allowed him to overpower Iron Man and rip the device off, regaining the ability to use the Gauntlet. He then defeated the hero by impaling him with his own metal dagger, but before the Titan could finish him off, Strange bartered the Time Stone for Stark's life. With his prize secured, Thanos left for Earth.
Thanos completes the Infinity Gauntlet
Arriving in Wakanda, Thanos used the five Stones to quickly dispatch his foes: knocking away Captain America, Winter Soldier, and Okoye with the Power Stone; restraining Black Widow with the Reality Stone; confining Bruce Banner in rock with the Space Stone; destroying Falcon's wings and bringing him down with the Space Stone; crushing War Machine with the Space Stone; and blocking Scarlet Witch's attempt to hold him back with the Space Stone; and undoing Vision and the Mind Stone's destruction with the Time Stone. Seizing Vision, Thanos tore the Mind Stone from Vision's skull and completed the Infinity Gauntlet; however, he was struck by Thor's lightning. Thanos retaliated by shooting an energy beam from the Gauntlet, but Thor enchanted Stormbreaker with all his power and sliced through the beam. Thanos was cleaved in the chest by the Stormbreaker, but in spite of his wound, Thanos retained enough strength to snap his fingers, activating the Gauntlet, and eradicated half of all life in the universe.
The damaged Infinity Gauntlet after the Snap
The sheer energy required for such a feat nearly overwhelmed him in his weakened state and cast Thanos' soul inside the Soul Stone, where he conversed with a young Gamora. The effort also severely damaged the Infinity Gauntlet itself, making any further use of the stones in battle a potential risk. Thanos soon transported himself to an alien farmland with the Space Stone, resting and enjoying the sunrise or sunset as he stated he would.[2]
Destruction of the Infinity Stones
The Infinity Gauntlet is cut off Thanos' arm
- "Where are the stones?"
"Gone. Reduced to atoms."
"You used them two days ago."
"I used the Stones to destroy the Stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be. I am inevitable." - ―Captain America, Thanos, and Bruce Banner[src]
Thanos, knowing that the Infinity Stones would only tempt him into a lust for power and acknowledging that the Avengers would target them, used their own power to destroy them, thus ensuring that the Snap could never be undone. The energy wave released from the act, along with ravaging Thanos' left side, burned the already damaged Gauntlet even further, fusing it to Thanos' arm.
Two days later, Thanos was suddenly ambushed by the Avengers, who tracked the energy surge caused by the Stones. Once Captain Marvel, Bruce Banner and War Machine had restrained the warlord, Thor used Stormbreaker to lop off Thanos' left hand only for Rocket to discover that the stones were missing. Once Thanos revealed that he had destroyed them, an enraged Thor decapitated him. With all hope of undoing the Snap seemingly gone, the Avengers left the planet, leaving the charred and useless Infinity Gauntlet behind to rust.[3]
Capabilities
- "He has the Power and Space Stones; that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands on all six Stones, Tony..."
"He could destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of." - ―Bruce Banner and Doctor Strange[src]
The Infinity Gauntlet was specifically made to allow the wielder to channel the powers of all six Infinity Stones; it even allows the use of their powers in unison, such as using the Space Stone to send the Power Stone's energies to Titan's moon. The Stones seem to be drawn towards the Gauntlet; the wielder has only to hold the stone over an empty pocket and the stone fuses to it by itself. Upon completion of the Gauntlet, the user is able to accomplish almost anything at will — even wiping out half the universe with a snap of the fingers. Despite the great power it grants its wielder, the Gauntlet has a flaw: it must be clenched before the power of any Stone could be accessed. Additionally, the Gauntlet's wearer must possess a level of mental fortitude and physical strength capable of withstanding the severe strain caused by using even just one Infinity Stone.
The Infinity Gauntlet is tremendously durable; able to withstand having all six infinity Stones embedded into it and able to provide protection from Captain Marvel's Photon Blasts even in its damaged state. However, Thanos using the power of all six Stones put too much strain on the Gauntlet, heavily damaging it, though it remained functional enough for Thanos to use the Stones to both heal himself and escape. The Gauntlet, though heavily damaged, would again survive yet another full-scale use of it when Thanos utilized it to destroy the Infinity Stones themselves. The aftermath of its use ended up leaving severe burns on Thanos' arm, part of his chest and his neck and fusing the Gauntlet to his arm.
Trivia
- In the comics, the Infinity Gauntlet was originally a glove from Thanos' own armor modified to house the individual Infinity Gems. In the movies, the Infinity Gauntlet was specifically forged at Thanos' demand, and does not match the armor seen on his right hand when worn.
- Due to the Infinity Stones receiving different colors from the original Infinity Gems seen in previous media, the color setup of the Infinity Gauntlet from the movies differs from the color configuration originally seen in the comics.
- The Infinity Stones that are shown in the Gauntlet in Odin's Vault are fakes created by Asgardians, presumably to show how the item is supposed to look, like a museum piece, although the order of the Stones is vastly different from Thanos' order or the original comic configuration.
- Each stone's visual effects are unique, for example; when using the Time Stone, Thanos (just like Strange) had green rings encircle his arm, but while using the Power Stone, Thanos' fist would glow purple.
Behind the Scenes
- The Infinity Gauntlet prop from Thor was showcased at Comic-Con 2010, while Josh Brolin entered the stage wearing a fake Infinity Gauntlet glove at Comic-Con 2014.
- After the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige confirmed that in the Marvel Cinematic Universe there were two Infinity Gauntlets and that the one Thanos retrieved was not in Odin's Vault.[4]
- When asked how Stormbreaker could overpower the power of the completed Infinity Gauntlet, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely suggest that Eitri is responsible because of his "Dwarven magic": He made both items and made it so that Stormbreaker is able to defeat the Infinity Gauntlet.[5]
- Regarding the Snap, Christopher Markus has stated that the immense amount of energy of using all six Infinity Stones at once would kill anyone who attempts it, even with the Infinity Gauntlet, and "the strongest being in the universe has to be the one to do it," referring to Thanos.[5]
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