Infinity War
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Infinity War was a comic book crossover that ran through numerous comics published by Marvel Comics in 1992. The main plot of the series occurred in the six-issue Infinity War miniseries, which was written by Jim Starlin and illustrated by Ron Lim. Infinity War was a sequel to the Infinity Gauntlet miniseries, and was followed a year later by the Infinity Crusade crossover miniseries.
The primary villain of the crossover was the Magus, who was created when Adam Warlock expelled good and evil from his soul after attaining omnipotence in the conclusion of the Infinity Gauntlet miniseries. The evil portion of his soul became the Magus, while the good portion of his soul became the Goddess, who is eventually seen at the end of Infinity War and is the main villain of Infinity Crusade. To battle the Magus and his army of evil doppelgängers, Adam Warlock and Earth's heroes teamed up with Thanos, the villain of the Infinity Gauntlet.
[edit] Plot summary
The Magus developed a highly intricate scheme in order to gain absolute power over the Marvel Universe that Warlock inhabited. The Magus had a fortress constructed outside of the Marvel Universe where he’d scheme. He then travelled to numerous alternate realities & obtained several cosmic containment units similar to the Cosmic Cube (though their power was dwarfed by the Infinity Gauntlet). He also gained numerous followers from the Dimension of Manifestations, which he turned into doppelgangers of inhabitants of the Marvel Universe with the containment units. One of the doppelgangers was of Thanos, which the Magus used as a tactical adviser since the Magus was keen to see how the real Thanos would behave.
The Magus used the containment units to render Eternity catatonic, as well as to keep himself invisible from the powerful beings that inhabit the Marvel Universe. He then created powerful energy signatures in a part of space where the real Thanos inhabited. The Magus abducted Thanos and showed off his power, then allowed Thanos to flee to Monster Island, where Thanos would seek help from Warlock's Infinity Watch. Thanos believed Warlock’s understanding of the Magus’ mind would be useful to him. Using Pip the Troll’s Space Gem, Thanos and the Watch went to Death’s domain to seek knowledge from the Infinity Well. They were unaware that the Magus was spying on them through the cosmic containment units. He alerted Death to the presence of intruders before they could get any useful information, resulting in Thanos and the Watch fleeing from Death’s domain.
The Magus left a trail of energy leading to his fortress across space & various dimensions. Galactus, sensing great power at the end of the trail, decided to investigate, accompanied by Doctor Strange, Nova and the Silver Surfer. The four travels through several dimensions and universes along the way, and encountered several threats, including the demonic Cyttorak. When the Magus felt that Galactus was getting too close to his fortress, he used the containment units to destroy Galactus' vessel. Galactus was able to reconstruct the vessel, but was shocked by the power the Magus had displayed. Behind Galactus’ craft were Doctor Doom and Kang the Conqueror, who remained invisible to both the Magus and Galactus, seeking ultimate power at the end of the trial. Thanos and the Infinity Watch traced the energy trail as well.
The Magus sent doppelgangers to combat some of Earth’s heroes, including the Avengers, X-Men, X-Factor, Fantastic Four and Alpha Flight. Reed Richards and Iron Man were knocked out and replaced by doppelgangers; Spider-Man defeated his doppelgenger, but then he and Hawkeye were hospitalised in another battle; and Wolverine slew his own doppelganger. The Magus also sent doppelgangers to attack the Inhumans' Royal Family on the Moon, but these were defeated with the assistance of the time-traveling Guardians of the Galaxy. The doppelganger of Reed Richards assembled Earth’s remaining heroes in the Baxter Building. Wolverine smelled the doppelgangers of Reed and Iron Man and attempted to confront them. This led to the heroes fighting each other amidst confusion. The doppelganger of Reed Richards then detonated a gamma bomb, but the Invisible Woman and Thor saved the heroes from harm. Meanwhile, the Magus and the doppelganger of Thanos teleported into the Baxter Building and took the doppelganger of Reed Richards back with them to their fortress. As they vanished, some of Earth’s heroes where tricked into thinking that Thanos was responsible for the strange goings on and that the Magus was actually Warlock.
Quasar got in touch with Captain America, informing him and Earth’s heroes that Eternity was catatonic. This caused some of Earth's heroes to be dispatched to chase after the energy trail while others remained in the Baxter Building. Earth’s heroes would follow the energy trail using mystics to teleport them. There was a finite number that could be teleported so only the most powerful and experienced forces were sent. The Earth heroes who followed the energy trail ended up bumping into Thanos and the Infinity Watch, and the two groups battled one another to a near-standstill. Meanwhile, the heroes who had remained on Earth were invaded by numerous doppelgangers.
Galactus witnessed the two battles involving Earth’s heroes and decided to stop them. He used his powers to erase the doppelgangers, then performed a cerebral scan on all of the Earth’s heroes, the Infinity Watch and Thanos. All whom this scan was performed upon now new the all the details of the situation. As an unintended side effect of the mind link, the Invisible Woman's darker half, Malice, rose to the surface of the heroine's psyche, but was defeated in an internal psychic struggle. At that point Thanos and Warlock decided that the Infinity Gauntlet should be used to stop the Magus’ activities. Warlock assembled the Gauntlet and attempted to use its power, but it would not function because of the Living Tribunal ruling that the Gems would not function when assembled together. Galactus went off with Gamora of the Infinity Watch in order to speak with the Living Tribunal in order to reactivate the ultimate power of the Infinity Gauntlet. Moments after Galactus departed with Gamora, the Magus and the Thanos doppelganger teleported right behind Warlock and abducted him while he still had the Gauntlet assembled. At the same time, Doctor Octopus took advantage of the absence of most of the Earth's heroes to lead a new team of Masters of Evil to invade the Avengers' Mansion. The Masters were defeated by the Guardians of the Galaxy with the assistance of Yellowjacket, a member of the Masters who had switched sides to join the Guardians.
With Warlock captive, the Magus observed the meeting between Galactus and the Living Tribunal and awaited for the moment the Tribunal would repeal his ruling and allow the Gauntlet to function. The Tribunal stated that only Eternity could repeal the ruling even though he was still catatonic. Galactus then attempted to revive Eternity with the help of Gamora. When Warlock was abducted Thanos became horrified with this so he got Quasar to go after the Magus with the Ultimate Nullifier, which had been stolen from Galactus’ craft. The Magus had expected this move and used the power of his cosmic cubes to stop the activation of the Nullifier. The Magus explained to Warlock that rendering Eternity catatonic, showing off his might to Thanos, causing Earth’s heroes to attack the Watch and other events were all done to frighten and confuse Warlock and Thanos into assembling the Infinity Gauntlet and getting it reactivated.
Captain America ordered Thor to go back to Earth to see what was happening. Thor stood on Earth’s moon accompanied by the Watcher, and was horrified to see a duplication of the Earth emerging from it. On planet Earth all its inhabitants seemed to be in a trance except the hero Sleepwalker. The Magus was attempting to replace the original Earth with one of his own. The telepaths and mystics among Earth’s heroes attempted to break the trance the Magus held over humanity, but it was no use.
While the Magus waited patiently, Doom and Kang entered the fortress undetected, attacked the Magus while he was off guard and destroyed the instrumentation that controlled the cosmic cubes. The Magus knew that Quasar would soon be able to use the Nullifier on his fortress. Warlock and the Magus attacked the intruders as Warlock feared that he’d be worse off if either Doom or Kang got the Gauntlet. The Magus tried to reach one of his cosmic cubes in order to regain control of the situation, Doom pounced on him before he could one of the cubes. Doom demanded the Gauntlet and with it still unable to function the Magus was in the process of handing it over. At the same Galactus completed his task of awakening Eternity. Galactus then explained the situation to Eternity and Eternity, unaware that the Magus possessed the Gauntlet, told the Tribunal to "Let the Gems work as one." At that moment the Magus gained control of the Gaunltet and easily disposed of Doom and turned the power of the Nullifier on Quasar.
Earth’s heroes decided to use a teleporter on Galactus’ ship to storm the Magus’ fortress, but it turned out that they were sent onto a planet full of doppelgangers. In fact, Thanos had sent the heroes into the battlefield so that he could face the Magus alone, and only the Invisible Woman had thought to follow him, undetected. Thanos entered the Magus’ fortress and killed the Thanos doppelganger. The Invisible Woman, partly under the influence of Malice, watched the two identical combatants to battle to the death without intervening. Galactus then teleported to the battelfield hoping to stop the Magus before he fully adapted to the power of the Ganutlet. Unfortunately, the Magus decided to end the game by destroying his doppelgangers and imprisoning Galactus and all of Earth's heroes that remained on the battlefield in a trophy room of sorts. Thanos then broke into the Magus' control room and revealed that he only had five of the six gems. Warlock and Thanos had created a forgery of the Reality Gem, fearing that the Gauntlet could fall into the wrong hands. With this distraction, Warlock grabbed the Gauntlet on the Magus’ arm, and they wrestled for control of the universe. Warlock defeated the Magus with the aid of Eternity and Infinity. Warlock absorbed the Magus into the Soul Gem where he could do no harm. The inhabitants of the Soul Gem could not see or feel him since he had no soul; in the Soul World, the Magus was less than a ghost. The gems were returned to the Watch members, and reality was restored to as it had been before the Magus dabbled with it. All of the Earth’s heroes returned home. The battle for the universe had been very damaging for Warlock, sending him into a deep coma.
Eternity decided that the gems could never work all in unison again. Thanos recalled from his visit to the Magus’ fortress that the cosmic containment units were missing. He feared that they had been stolen by Warlock's self-proclaimed "good" half, and realised that he would have to battle Warlock’s other side in the future.
