Doctor Strange featured comics canon Easter eggs, cameos and massive ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The latest Phase Three film opened doors to new dimensions, introduced new villains but how did it wrap into the big cosmic conspiracy weaving through all the Marvel movies?
I love when non-comic reading but Marvel movie fans come to me wanting to know more about the comics and asking those geektastic questions like, “wasn’t that a stone like in the other movies? That’s part of a bigger thing right?”
Yes, I respond enthusiastically and dive in.
Nearly every film has one common element that will lead to Avengers: Infinity War: Infinity Stones.
In the comics Thanos gathered these six stones on a cosmic Gauntlet and unleashed Death (an actual entity he worships) across the Marvel universe.
Where are those stones and how does Doctor Strange fit into the quest for pieces of the ultimate weapon?
Before we continue here’s a SPOILER ALERT in case you have not seen Doctor Strange yet.
Where are the stones and what stone turned up in the latest Marvel masterpiece?
Space Stone
This blue stone was in the Tesseract Cube seen in Thor, a flashback in Captain America: The First Avenger used by the Red Skull and The Avengers in which Loki used it to open a portal to deep space and the Chitauri invasion force. The Avengers gave it to Thor for safe keeping in Asgard. Is it still there given Loki has seized the throne?
Reality Stone
The red stone aka the Aether (an ancient weapon used by Malekith) in Thor: The Dark World ended up being taken to The Collector in his cosmic collection. The Collector’s collection on Knowhere was in ruins by the end of Guardians of the Galaxy and we can only assume this alien still holds it.
Power Stone
The purple stone was in an orb sought by Ronan the Accuser (the Kree warlord serving Thanos) in Guardians of the Galaxy. Star-Lord and his crew felt the stone’s power in a showdown with Ronan and gave it to the Nova Corps headquarters on Xandar.
Mind Stone
This yellow stone ended up in the forehead of Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron but it took a long strange trip to get there. Thanos had the stone but embedded it into a scepter used by Loki to brainwash Hawkeye, Dr. Solvig and other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to do his bidding in The Avengers. Hydra (operating within S.H.I.E.L.D.) seized the Stone and used it on test subject volunteers to create super villains turned heroes Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. The yellow stone now resides in the Vision’s forehead and emits a powerful beam of energy.
Time Stone
The fifth and green stone is now revealed in Doctor Strange. In The Ancient One’s library, Wong refers to the Eye of Agamotto (an ancient artifact held by the Sorcerer Supremes) connected to an Infinity and warns Strange not to mess with it. Strange uses the Eye and Stone to manipulate time in his final showdown with Dormannu of the Dark Dimension. The Time Stone is now in Kamar-Taj in Nepal and that’s just a short portal jump for Doctor Strange from his New York City Sanctum.
Did Thanos sense the power of the Time Stone being used? Is the Mad God of Titan sending his minions to Earth to seize it?
Soul Stone
One more stone left in an unknown location.
Will it turn up in Thor: Ragnarok? You may remember seeing the Gauntlet in Odin’s vault in Thor. Jeff Goldblum is playing the Grandmaster in the sequel. In the comics Grandmaster and Collector are Elders of the Universe.
Could the Soul Stone be in Wakanda? This would bring the Black Panther film into the bigger cosmic endgame. Wakanda is the only known source of Vibranium, said to have fallen to Earth in a meteorite. Could this final stone have been in the alien rocks?
Is the Soul Stone in Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume Two? Could this last stone be a cosmic connection between Star-Lord and his father, Ego the Living Planet?
Doctor Strange is the number one movie in the world and source of the fifth Infinity Stone. With only one stone left, fans are closer to seeing the cosmic web weaving in every film and Thanos is closer to getting his evil purple fist into the ultimate weapon.
By Editor