The Complete History of the Infinity Stones: The Space Stone

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...

Next up: the Space Stone! This one allows its user to exist in any location, move throughout different realities, warp or rearrange space, teleport across planes regardless of the laws of physics or magical barriers, and even omnipresence.

The Stones got up to a lot before Thanos brought them back together for the first time since Nemesis saw its demise. To find the Stones in the first place, Thanos had to journey for quite some time and face many perils. The Space Stone and Reality Stone were being held on a prison satellite by the entity known as Xiambor. Thanos attempted to join the Stones, but was thwarted by Warlock, Captain Marvel, and the Avengers in the pages of AVENGERS ANNUAL #7.

Next, the Stones would be gathered together by a conclave of the Elders of the Universe in order to further their ambitions. By using a space platform to align the six gems with six corresponding planets in order to focus their energy. Through these means, the Elders set a trap for Galactus and used their apparatus to try and steal his planetary energies and thus kill the planet-eater, subsequently hoping to destroy Eternity along with him, since without Galactus the balance of Eternity would topple. The result would have been an end and rebirth of universes with only the Elders surviving and taking the place Galactus had held in their old universe. Luckily, Galactus’ heralds, the Silver Surfer and Nova, were able to foil this plan in time to save Galactus and the universe in SILVER SURFER #9. 

Having famously played a part in the events of  THANOS QUEST and INFINITY GAUNTLET before Adam Warlock chose to split the Gems apart, the Space Stone was then hidden in plain sight after it was given to Pip the Troll in WARLOCK AND THE INFINITY WATCH. 

After that, the gems did not stay apart for very long and were periodically brought back together by the Elders, Thanos, the Infinity Watch, but the most lasting separation occurred after the Illuminati incursion wherein they used the Gauntlet to push away another universe colliding with Earth-616, an event which resulted in the Space Stone being shattered in the pages of NEW AVENGERS. After the destruction of the Multiverse and its restoration, the Stones were reconstituted and scattered anew throughout the universe.

More recently, in the pages of MARVEL LEGACY #1, the Space Stone ended up in the mysteriously-reanimated hands of the Canucklehead, Wolverine. From there, it's gone on a whirlwind journey through INFINITY COUNTDOWN and now into the pages of INFINITY WARS, where the cosmic calamity is just getting started...

Read up on the Infinity Stones with Marvel Unlimited right now! And keep an eye out soon for our look at the history of the Mind Stone.