The infinity stones. Items of limitless power with the strength to reverse time, destroy planets, take over minds and even rewrite reality itself. Thanos has been on a little mission since first appearing in The Avengers to gather up the six stones. He seeks to use them to rule the entire galaxy and all that jazz. Here’s the real question though: How do the Avengers stop him? It’s a tough job, but here’s a few ideas I have about how it could happen.
1. Adam Warlock!
In the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, where Thanos originally managed to assemble the entire infinity gauntlet complete with all six stones, it was Adam Warlock who managed to stop him from destroying the entire galaxy, with a hefty assist from the Silver Surfer and Nebula. Nebula does exist in the MCU while Surfer does not, but he could easily be replaced by someone like Vision. As for Adam Warlock himself, we long ago in Guardians of the Galaxy saw his cocoon from the comics in the Collector’s collection. Is it possible that he will emerge and help the Avengers to defeat Thanos?
2. The Avengers defeat him alone!
Is it possible that the infinity stones in the MCU won’t give Thanos quite the omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscience that the original stones gave him in the story. In any such case, any weakness at all in his power would provide the Avengers with a chance to take the titan out on their own without somebody like Adam Warlock there to help. This would also make the story easier to tell, because if Thanos is all powerful then you are forced to question why he doesn’t zap all of them out of existence as soon as they try to challenge him? However, there’s another way to tell this story that I think is the best way.
3. Thanos never assembles the gauntlet!
What if Thanos can’t get all six stones? Vision and Doctor Strange keep their respective stones pretty close at hand. The three others are located in Asgard, the collectors collection and on Xandar. It seems probable that Thanos will collect at least two or three stones, but what if he invades Earth and the central focus of the film is on the Avengers driving him and his forces back while defending the time and mind stones that they have safe? This would make an even fight, and could focus on Thanos using his armies to attack which would allow every hero to fight their own battles instead of everyone attacking just the one villain. In my mind this all just makes the most sense. If Thanos has some but not all of the stones then it really presents him as a mega powered villain. However it doesn’t make it unrealistic that the Avengers can eventually beat him.
And that’s all folks! With Avengers: Infinity War now in production, we only have to wait about thirteen painstakingly long months until the major blockbuster to tie the entire MCU together hits our screens! Check out more of my crazy ramblings below and go to The Comical Theory on Facebook and @ComicalTheory on Twitter for even more!
