The Complete History of the Infinity Stones: The Mind Stone

Get to know the minds that brought the Mind Stone to life!

What are the Infinity Stones? Like, what are they...really?

Eons ago, the six Gems (as they were then known) were an essential part of an ancient entity called Nemesis, who chose to destroy itself rather than live as the only sentient being in the universe. From its destruction came the Stones—the six key building blocks of the universe: Mind, Reality, Power, Space, Time, and Soul.

As the INFINITY WARS are raging, we decided the time was right to break down the full history of the most powerful items in the Marvel Universe...

The Mind Stone allows its user to enhance their mind, awaken or heighten psionic abilities like telepathy and telekinesis, and—when combined with the Power Stone—even access all minds in existence concurrently. In the spirit of the Mind Stone, we're taking a look at the minds responsible for some of the most significant Infinity Stone stories ever!

Even though the Infinity Stones date back to the beginning of the Marvel Universe, their first iteration and appearance came in 1972's MARVEL PREMIERE #1, by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane.

But the first time all six Stones would appear together was in the “Thanos War” storyline, which spanned over several different series. Jim Starlin and Mike Friedrich took the reigns on the Infinity Gem stories with IRON MAN #55, CAPTAIN MARVEL #25-#28, MARVEL FEATURE #12, and CAPTAIN MARVEL #32. Additionally, Steve Englehart contributed to “Thanos War” alongside artists John Buscema and Dave Cockrum with AVENGERS #125, then the writer joined Starlin on the last issue of the “Thanos War” arc with CAPTAIN MARVEL #33.

In Steve Englehart’s SILVER SURFER #6-#10 and #16-#17, the cosmic items are referred to as Soul Gems, then they transformed in Jim Starlin and Ron Lim’s THANOS QUEST, in which the Mad Titan refers to the jewels as Infinity Gems. This iconic series paved the way for another with THE INFINITY GAUNTLET in 1991. Then the Gems made their way through THE INFINITY WAR, WARLOCK AND THE INFINITY WATCH, and THE INFINITY CRUSADE.

More recently, the Stones have appeared in series such as INFINITY, before spiralling into the current cosmic events that began with INFINITY COUNTDOWN and have now entered the pages of INFINITY WARS, where the calamity is just getting started...