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.
- Space Gem (purple) - Control over space, allowing instantaneous travel across vast distances.
- Owners: Runner, Thanos, Pip the Troll
- Power Gem (red/pink*) - Increases physical strengh and endurance.
- Owners: Champion, Thanos, Drax the Destroyer
- Soul Gem (green) - Control over the soul.
- Owners: In-Betweener, Thanos, Adam Warlock
- Mind Gem (blue) - Allows mind control and vastly enhances the holder's intellect.
- Owners: Grandmaster, Thanos, Moondragon
- Reality Gem (yellow) - Control over reality itself, creating and uncreating matter and energy.
- Owners: Collector, Thanos
- 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, but was formed 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.
History
The Infinity Gems first appeared along with the Infinity Gauntlet in the two-issue mini-series Thanos Quest. In it, Thanos collects steals the gems from the Elders of the Universe in possession of the gems. 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.
In the recent JLA/Avengers crossover, the DC Comics villain Darkseid obtained the full Gauntlet, but casually discarded it when he discovered it wouldn't work in the DC universe.
A cross-over story arc Ultraforce revealed 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 Infinity Gems also figure into the arcade game Marvel Super Heroes.