The History of the Infinity Stones




The first stone, the Soul Gem, was given to Adam Warlock in Marvel Premiere #1, by Roy Thomas & Gil Kane. Apparently the gem was just a design flourish that Gil came up with when he and Roy were figuring out Warlock's design. It was also Gil who christened him "Adam."


Roy ran with the gem idea, giving it powers that were initially fairly nebulous, but when Jim Starlin took over the writing chores of Warlock, the Soul Gem started to take on a life of its own. Finally, in Warlock #15, it reveals to Adam that it's one of six gems. And then, Warlock's book was cancelled!


So in Marvel Team-Up #55, Bill Mantlo picks up the thread. The Stranger is hunting the Soul Gems, as they're still called at this point. He already has one, and he's detected another on the moon, which is where Adam Warlock has turned up. Unbeknownst to The Stranger, another cosmic being, The Gardener lives there, and he also has a Soul Gem. By the end of that issue, The Gardener's gem is corrupted, so he carelessly discards it because it's of use "only as a weapon."


Jim Starlin then returns, to continue the saga in Avengers Annual #7. Finally, we see all six Soul Gems, and how Thanos obtained them. Having not yet conceived of the Infinity Gauntlet, Starlin has Thanos combine them into a kind of mega-gem.


The Avengers, along with Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock, destroy the gem, and then in Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2, they defeat Thanos. Adam dies (again!) and then the Gardener and his gem turns up in Hulk #247 & 248, by Bill Mantlo & Sal Buscema.


Then the Soul Gems don't get a mention for 8 years... until Steve Englehart revives them in Silver Surfer #7. The Elders of the Universe plan to use the Gems to kill Galactus. Obviously, this doesn't go well for them, but at the end of the story, they still have the Gems.


In Silver Surfer #34, Jim Starlin returns, and wastes no time in reviving Thanos. He's out to restore balance in an overpopulated universe, and needs the Soul Gems to do it - essentially the plot that Infinity War borrowed for the MCU.


So he goes in search of the Gems in The Thanos Quest, and in #1, he refers to them as Infinity Gems for the first time.


In #2, Thanos reveals that the Gems are fragments of a cosmic being who took his own life, giving birth to the universe - God, essentially.


So the last part of the jigsaw is the Infinity Gauntlet, which Thanos wields for the first time in Silver Surfer #44.



And from there, it's just a short step to the "Infinity Gauntlet" mini-series.


As well as showing the fictional history of the Infinity Stones, I wanted to show process of creating something in a shared work like the Marvel Universe. People often think ideas spring into life, fully formed and planned out in advance, but that's not always the case. In this instance, Gil Kane sketched a gem on Warlock's forehead, and over the next 20 years, and via dozens of writers and artists, an entire mythology was created.



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