Infinity Gems

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In the fictional universe of Marvel Comics, the Infinity Gems, sometimes referred to as the soul gems early on, are six immensely powerful gems. Whoever holds all six gems in the Infinity Gauntlet gains omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and God-like power, and has absolute dominion over the universe. In later storylines, a seventh Gem was added, but was not originally required to form the Gauntlet.

Description

Each gem is smooth and oblong, and about the length of a man's hand. They can shrink to fit into the groove on the Infinity Gauntlet, where they could formerly act in concert to grant the wearer absolute power over all of reality.

The seven gems, and a partial list of their owners are:

• Time Gem (orange/red*) - Control over the flow of time.
  • Owners: Gardener, Thanos, Adam Warlock, Gamora, Magus, Maxam, Rune (Ultraverse), Hardcase (Ultraverse), Loki, Galactus, Darkseid (DC Comics)
• Space Gem (purple) - Control over space, allowing instantaneous travel across vast distances.
  • Owners: Runner, Thanos, Adam Warlock, Pip the Troll, Magus, Rune (Ultraverse), Loki, Galactus, Darkseid (DC Comics)
• Power Gem (red/pink*) - Increases physical strength and endurance.
  • Owners: Champion, Thanos, Adam Warlock, Drax the Destroyer, Magus, Thor, Rune (Ultraverse), Lord Pumpkin (Ultraverse), Loki, Galactus, Champion (again), Titania, Darkseid (DC Comics), Dr. Doom (in Mega Morphs, which may not be canon)
• Soul Gem (green) - Control over the soul.
  • Owners: High Evolutionary, Adam Warlock, In-Betweener, Thanos, Adam Warlock (again), Magus, Rune (Ultraverse), Ghoul (Ultraverse), Loki, Galactus, Darkseid (DC Comics)
• Mind Gem (blue) - Allows mind control and vastly enhances the holder's intellect.
  • Owners: Grandmaster, Thanos, Adam Warlock, Moondragon, Magus, Rune (Ultraverse), Primevil (Ultraverse), Loki, Galactus, Darkseid (DC Comics)
• Reality Gem (yellow) - Control over reality itself, creating and uncreating matter and energy.
  • Owners: Collector, Thanos, Adam Warlock, Rune (Ultraverse), the Night Man (Ultraverse), Loki, Galactus, Darkseid (DC Comics)
• Ego Gem (gold) - contains the consciousness of Infiniti, when merged with the other gems reforms the cosmic entity the gems were once part of. Also grants the wielder the ability to manipulate dimensional energies. It was not one of the original six gems in the Marvel Universe, but was found in the Ultraverse when Loki attempted to steal the other gems from the existing holders.
  • Owners: Sersi, Loki

* Prior to The Infinity Gauntlet the Time Gem was orange and the Power Gem was Red, currently the Time Gem is red and the Power Gem is pink. The Power Gem appeared blue when worn by Thor.

History

The Infinity Gems first appeared as the Soul Gems, in Warlock. At first only the Soul Gem was seen. Two more were seen in an issue of Marvel Team-Up. The existence of six in total were revealed in an Avengers Annual and a Marvel Two-In-One Annual. However, their true power would not be revealed until the two-issue mini-series Thanos Quest. In it, Thanos steals the gems from the Elders of the Universe (as well as the In-Betweener) in possession of the gems to form the Infinity Gauntlet. The Infinity Gems figured prominently in four major crossovers. In chronological order, they were:

• Infinity Gauntlet
• Infinity War
• Infinity Crusade
• Gem Quest

Following the Infinity Gauntlet event, the Living Tribunal declared that the Infinity Gems would no longer function as a whole, although Eternity (the incarnation of that cosmic concept) may be able to reverse the decision should he desire to. When the gems were separated, they were distributed to individual members of the Infinity Watch.

A cross-over story arc featuring the Avengers and Malibu Comics' Ultraforce revealed the seventh gem, as well as the fact that the seven gems were originally extracted from the consciousness of a cosmic being known as Nemesis. In this story arc, the gems temporarily gained independent consciousness, and some even physically anthropomorphized as physical entities. They have since been recovered as gems, although their whereabouts are not all known (the seventh gem, Ego, has not been seen since and is often discounted by many fans).

In the recent JLA/Avengers crossover, the DC Comics villain Darkseid (the inspiration for Thanos) obtained the full Gauntlet, but casually discarded it when he discovered it wouldn't work in the DC universe. At about the same time, Galactus collected all the six gems (but not the Ego gem) while manipulated by an extradimensional entity called "Hunger".

The Infinity Gems also figure into the arcade game Marvel Super Heroes.