For over fifty years, the Infinity Stones have stood as some of the mightiest and most recognizable artifacts in the entire Marvel Universe. Alone, each of these six cosmic gems is able to bend a facet of reality, if not the very concept of it to the will of their wielder. Together, they command forces that would otherwise be unfathomable. Of course, they are far from the only ones of their kind across the wider multiverse, and the Death Stone was only the beginning of things to come.
When the multiverse as we know it collapsed thanks to reality-shattering Incursions, what emerged from its destruction was unlike anything readers had ever seen. Doctor Doom’s patchwork Battleworld found alternate versions of fans’ favorite heroes and villains living out their lives across a myriad of unnervingly familiar territories. As seen in 2015’s Infinity Gauntlet (by Gerry Duggan and Dustin Weaver), this included the Mad Titan himself. In this timeline, it was Thanos who was responsible for the Annihilation Wave wiping out nearly all life on the planet New Xandar, and it was there where he would eventually encounter a whole new kind of Infinity Stone.
Marvel’s Death Stone is Able to Destroy Thanos
Like Thanos, Anwen Bakian was desperately searching for the Infinity Stones. After donning the powers of the Nova Corps like her mother before her, Anwen and her allies raced against Thanos to acquire the impossibly powerful artifacts. Unfortunately, by the time she and the Mad Titan met for their final confrontation, she was only in possession of the Reality Stone, while her enemy wielded the rest against her.
Luckily, Anwen did the previously unthinkable and used the Reality Stone to fashion a whole new Infinity Stone of her own design — the Death Stone. While this newly minted Stone was identical to the Reality Stone on the surface, the power it held within was not the kind that Thanos or anyone else could ever hope to command. It washed over Thanos almost instantly, reducing his body to little more than ash. As such, the Death Stone offered a fitting end to the story at hand, although it has recently begun to offer some insight into things to come in the primary Marvel Universe, as well.
Thanos May Already Have the Seventh Infinity Stone
Fans are already anxiously anticipating things to come in Thor #29 (by Torunn Grønbekk and Nic Klein), which is set to find the titular All-Father plotting a potential confrontation with the Marvel Universe’s next Infinity Stone. Thor was previously given a glimpse of Thanos wielding his own Mjolnir adorned with a black Infinity Stone, all while seemingly commanding an army of zombified superheroes. If this new Infinity Stone is anything like the Death Stone that Thanos previously encountered, it may very well be capable of more than just controlling the dead, which would spell all but certain doom for Thor and his allies.
It is hard to imagine that the black Infinity Stone will merely grant Thanos control over the previously deceased or currently undead, especially for how nearly identical that setup would be to that of DC’s Blackest Night. On the other hand, Thanos has never been a particularly complex figure, so the idea of him taking hold of a single Infinity Stone for a single purpose would absolutely line up with what fans have come to expect from him.
