Marvel Infinity Stones Guide: Names, History, Power & Locations

Sep. 23, 2023

Across the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), everything that has been happening always comes down to one thing, the Infinity Stones. Be it Red Skull using the Tesseract in an attempt to annihilate the United States of America, Loki showing up with his scepter, Captain Marvel gaining her powers, Peter Quill the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy figuring out that he is half celestial, and more events are all linked to Infinity Stones in Marvel movies.

But we never really got to know a lot about these Infinity Stones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe except for a few stories and dialogues briefly describing the origin of these stones. So, in this guide, we will talk about Marvel’s Infinity Stones and everything you should know about them.

Note:

This article contains spoilers for all Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies, so we advise you to watch theMarvel movies in order(up to Phase 3) to avoid ruining the story.

How Many Infinity Stones Are There in Marvel Universe?

There are a total ofsix Infinity Stonesin the Marvel Universe. According to the Marvel Universe mythology, long before time and space existed, there used to be six singularities, they were the only thing that existed.

When the Big Bang took place, these six singularities got compressed andtook a gem-like formcalled the Infinity Stones. These stones contained the concentrated power of the 6 basic elements everything that exists is made up of namely. Here are the six infinity stones that exist in the MCU:

Each Infinity Stone contains a specific set of powers, which can either be used individually or combined using something like the Infinity gauntlet. So, now let’s talk about the powers each of the Infinity stones possesses.

If we talk about the Space Stone, the cube is nothing but a sort of container to minimize the effects of direct contact with the stone. The true power of the Space Stone is tocreate limitless portalsthat can teleport the user from one place to another, even across universes.

The Reality Stone appeared first inThor: The Dark Worldwhen it was revealed that the red, liquid thing the villain Malekith wanted to use to replace all matter with dark matter, was a construct of the Reality Stone.

We see the Reality Stone was given to The Collector for safekeeping because apparently, the Space Stone and the Reality Stone should not be kept together. The Reality Stone has the power tomanipulate the fabric of realityto the user’s will.

Making its first appearance inGuardians of the Galaxy Vol.1, the Power Stone was accidentally discovered by Peter Quill only to find out that Ronan the Accuser wants to use the power of this infinity stone to destroy entire civilizations.

Later on, The Guardians of the Galaxy stop Ronan the Accuser and give the Power Stone to the Nova Corps for safekeeping. The Power Stone can manipulate raw energy and increase the strength of itsuser to god-like levels.

The Time Stone made its first appearance in Doctor Strange (one of themost powerful Avengers), where it was stored inside “The Eye of Agamotto.” Doctor Strange used its power to fight off Dormamu and later on used it against Thanos as well. The Time Stone has the power tomanipulate and control time at the will of its user.

Thanos travels to Vormir after capturing Gamora to collect the Soul Stone, where he meets Red Skull, the villain of the first Captain America movie. He had been given the curse of guarding the Soul Stone because he tried to use the power of an Infinity Stone. Red Skull tells Thanos that he will have to sacrifice something he loves to gain the Soul Stone, so Thanos kills Gamora to get the stone.

The power of the Soul Stone has not been properly described in the MCU, but if we look at the comics, the Soul Stonecan alter the soul of a personand the wielder of this stone can teleportother souls into an alternate dimension.

The Infinity Stones are too unstable to be held as it is a person’s hand. Even the Mad Titan himself needs something to concentrate and control the power of the Infinity stones, and this is where the Infinity Gauntlet comes in. The Infinity Gauntlet is a golden glove Thanos forced Eitri, a dwarf blacksmith who forged weapons for the gods, to make that can hold and harness all the Infinity Stones. It allows the one wearing it to use the stones at their will.

Everything that has been happening in the MCU till phase 3 was part of the Infinity Saga, meaning every single event that we witnessed in the MCU from phase 1 to phase 3 would eventually lead us to the formation of the Avengers and their dealing with the Infinity Stones. If we talk about the current status of the Infinity Stones, according to the movies and the lore, they are destroyed.

If you remember, in Avengers Infinity War Thanos’ snap wiped out half the world’s population, and while doing so, the infinity stones were destroyed as well. This is the reason the Avengers had to go back in time to collect all the Infinity Stones so they could bring back everyone who vanished using the stones.

So now the question arises, where are the Infinity Stones? Well, the answer to that is that they have been destroyed and no longer play a role in the MCU. With the end of the Infinity Saga, the MCU is now moving towards its multiverse saga with some amazingupcoming Marvel movies.

In Marvel mythology, before the existence of space and time, there used to exist six singularities which got compressed during the Big Bang andtook a gem-like formcalled the Infinity Stones.

Soul Stone is the most powerful Infinity stone as it allows the possessor to control life and death of anyone and everyone in the universe.

There are a total of six Infinity Stones: Space Stone, Mind Stone, Soul Stone, Reality Stone, Time Stone and Power Stone.

Shashank Shakya is an Entertainment Writer and has completed his Bachelors(Honours) with English Literature. He is a published writer. He boasts incomparable knowledge about the Marvel and DC universes along with other branches of entertainment with substantial experience in the field of writing.