Before creation itself, there existed six singularities of immense power.
When the universe exploded into being, their remnants were forged into concentrated ingots
possibly by the Cosmic Entities Infinity, Entropy, Eternity and Death.
Over time, the infinity stones representing Space, Mind, Reality, Power, Soul and Time
became scattered across the universe, with only those of great strength able to wield
them.
Beings like the Celestial, Eson the Searcher, who used the power stone to destroy a planet.
During an age of darkness, before the dawn of the nine realms, the Dark Elves ruled unchallenged
from their home planet of Svartelheim (svart alf heim).
Yet they eventually lost their authority when other civilizations rose to prominence.
Determined to once more reign supreme, Malekith, ruler of the Dark elves devised a plan plunge
the nine realms into darkness using the Aether, or Reality stone, which took a fluid form
that was everchanging, able to transform matter into dark matter, seeking a host body to draw
strength from their life force.
Malekith planned his attack for the time of the convergence, an event every 5000 years
in which the nine realms aligned, however he was soon confronted by the Asgardians following
King Bor, who defeated them in battle and transported the Aether away using the bifrost.
Although Malekith and his closest followers survived the attack going into stasis aboard
a cloaked ship, the rest of the dark elves were destroyed with King Bor ordering the
reality stone hidden away in a secret location.
As the early civilizations of Earth developed, the time stone came to be held by Agamotto
a student of the mystic arts and the first Sorcerer Supreme, who housed stone in an item
called the Eye, so users could safely channel it's power.
The Eye was then kept safe by his followers for thousands of years, as they passed on
Agamotto's knowledge of the mystic arts to new generations.
During the Second World War, after years spent studying norse mythology, german born Johann
Schmidt, a member of Hydra and high ranking Nazi officer, arrived at a church in Norway,
where he found the Tesseract, a powerful bright blue cube containing the space stone, planning
to use it to power his advanced weapons program.
To stop Hydra and Schmidt, the allies sent Steve Rogers, a man with a vibranium shield
who was made faster, stronger and more resilient with a super soldier serum, becoming known
as Captain America.
Schmidt had also successfully enhanced his capabilities, with an early version of that
same serum, but it also disfigured him, turning his skin red to become Red Skull.
Wiping out Hydra cells across Europe, Captain America finally found the Hydra leader aboard
the Valkyrie, on his way to attack America.
During the confrontation, Red Skull attempted to hold the powerful Tesseract in his hand,
which unknowingly activated a portal, transporting him across the galaxy.
The Space Stone then burned through the floor of the plane, landing in the ocean.
In order to stop the Valkyrie from completing its attack, Captain America crashed the plane
off the coast of Greenland, leading Howard Stark to conduct an extensive search which
did not find Steve Rogers, but did find the tesseract, going into the custody of a government
organization known as SHIELD.
Although Steve Rogers was presumed dead, he survived frozen in ice for decades, until
his body was recovered in the 21st century when he went to work for SHIELD, alongside
other super beings and expert assassins on missions to protect humanity from dangerous
threats.
After Thor, son of Odin was transported to Earth, fighting a battle against an Asgardian
Destroyer in the streets of New Mexico, SHIELD became concerned about powerful aliens invading
their planet, and so created Project PEGASUS, sending Dr. Eric Selvig to the Joint Dark
Energy Mission Facility, to study the Tesseract, hoping to use it to create weapons for the
defense of earth.
Selvig was joined by Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, an expert assassin who specialized in archery,
assigned to protect the item.
However Far from the earth, sitting on his throne, the Titan Thanos, one of the most
powerful beings in the Universe, learned that humans held the tesseract, eager to get his
hands on the space stone within.
Already he had the Mind Stone in his possession, and ruled over a vast army of Chitauri, but
Thanos wished to collect all six infinity stones in order to enact his plan for reshaping
the universe.
And so he made a deal with Loki of Asgard, adopted brother of Thor, providing him a Sceptor
powered by the mind stone, and an army of Chitauri so he might retrieve the Tesseract
and rule as king of Earth.
In order to stop Loki, SHIELD director Nick Fury reactivated the Avengers Initiative,
with the goal of assembling together a group of remarkable people to see if they could
fight the battles humanity could not.
This group included Captain America, as well as the billionaire tech genius Tony Stark
also known as Iron Man, who fought in a battle suit powered by a miniaturized ark reactor.
There was also Dr. Bruce Banner, a renowned biochemist and nuclear physicist, capable
of transforming into an indestructible creature known as the Hulk, Thor the Asgardian son
of King Odin, known in norse mythology as the god of thunder, Natasha Romonov an expert
assassin aka Black Widow and while his mind was initially controlled by Loki, Hawkeye
soon regained his free will also joining the Avengers.
Although they were unable to stop the Chitauri invasion, they defended Earth in the battle
of New York, successfully closing the portal, defeating the enemy army, and capturing Loki.
The Scepter was then left with SHIELD for study, while Loki and the Tesseract were taken
back to Asgard where the god of mischief was sentenced to an eternity of imprisonment and
the Space stone was used to rebuild the bifrost, destroyed in an earlier battle with Loki,
in order to restore Asgard's connection to the nine realms.
5000 years after the last convergence, the event approached once more, and as the boundaries
between realms thinned, portals to other worlds temporarily opened, one of which was discovered
by Dr. Jane Foster.
Walking through the invisible portal, she was transported to the hidden location of
the reality stone called the Aether which took her as a host and would ultimately kill
her.
A friend to Thor, Jane was taken to Asgard for study, where she was tracked down by Malekith
and his Dark Elves, now awakened after thousands of years, and still fervent in their desire
to obtain the Aether and plunge the nine realms into darkness.
During the Second Dark Elf conflict, they invaded Asgard, killed Queen Frigga, took
the Aether from Jane Foster and seemed to kill Loki, though he in fact survived and
went into hiding.
Becoming the new host for the Aether, Malekith went to Earth, locating the center of the
convergence to release his power.
But he was confronted by Thor, who with the help of Dr. Eric Selvig, defeated the Dark
Elf threat.
Recovering Malekith's body, the Asgardians removed the Aether and sent it for safe keeping
with Taneleer Tivan, known as the Collector, because they already had the tesseract in
Odin's vault and did not feel safe keeping two stones so close together.
The Collector had a great museum of fauna, relics and species of all manner in a place
called Knowhere built inside the severed head of a celestial.
However the Collector also had an agenda of his own, wanting to collect all six infinity
stones.
Back on Earth, SHIELD, which was heavily infiltrated by Hydra agents, started using Loki's Scepter
to experiment with giving ordinary people super human powers, turning Wanda Maximoff
into Scarlett Witch, able to manipulate energy with her mind and her twin brother Pietro
Maximoff into Quicksilver, gaining super speed.
Although displeased that Loki lost the sceptre and failed to bring him the tesseract, Thanos
was undeterred from his quest to capture the infinity stones and so made a deal with Ronan
the Accuser, a radical Kree terrorist who rejected his people's peace treaty with
the Nova Empire.
In exchange for retrieving an object known as the Orb, which contained the power stone,
he offered to help Ronan eradicate the Nova Empire.
To aid Ronan in his mission, Thanos sent his adopted daughters Gamorra and Nova both trained
from childhood as master assassins.
However before their forces could Reach the planet of Morag where the Orb was located,
they were beaten to it by Peter Quill, aka Star Lord, a half human half celestial who
planned to sell it to an anonymous buyer working through an intermediary called the Broker.
But when the Broker learned Ronan the Accuser was seeking it, he called off the deal.
As others came searching for the Orb or Star Lord who had a bounty on his head, he encountered
Gamorra who was unwilling to help Thanos commit genocide and so betrayed him, making a deal
to bring the Orb directly to the Collector.
Star Lord also met Rocket a genetically enhanced Racoon, Groot a sentient tree like being,
and Drax the Destroyer a powerful warrior whose family was killed by Ronan.
Eventually Nebula took the Orb and gave it to Ronan, who decided to break his deal with
Thanos, and take the power stone for himself, absorbing it's power and placing the gem
inside his warhammer.
Now a rival to Thanos, Ronan set out to destroy the Nova Empire but was confronted by the
group that came to be known as the Guardians of the Galaxy, supported by the Ravagers and
Nova Empire.
Destroying Ronan's ship and his warhammer, Star Lord was able to take the power stone
in his hand, but was quickly overwhelmed by its effects, until saved by his new friends
who helped disperse the surge of energy and use its power to kill their enemy.
During the battle, Groot sacrificed himself to save the others, so rocket planted a part
of him and started to grow his son baby groot.
The guardians then left the power stone to be kept safe by the Nova Empire.
After Hydra made their move against SHIELD, splitting the agency into two warring halves,
the Avengers were called together to recapture the Scepter from their scientists.
However during the final battle, Scarlett Witch, who fought to defend Hydra, used her
mental powers to give Tony Stark a vision of a future in which humanity was destroyed
by an alien invasion.
She and her brother then let the Avengers leave unchallenged with the Scepter, confident
that Stark's would be haunted by the vision, leading him down a path of self-destruction.
Tony Stark and Bruce Banner then used the power of the sceptre to create Ultron, an
artificial intelligence program which unexpectedly activated, and did not function as intended,
coming to believe that peace could only be achieved if humanity was destroyed so that
it could start over.
Stark and Banner then used the JARVIS AI program to create a new being that could stand against
Ultron, which Thor then powered with the mind stone from the sceptre, creating Vision, an
android of incredible strength and resilience, who could fly, shoot energy blasts and walk
through solid objects.
Although they were able to defeat Ultron, Quicksilver died in the final battle as did
many innocent people with the city of Novi Grad, capital of Sokovia destroyed.
Horrified by the cost of their victory, the world worked together to write the Sokovia
Accords, a document creating a set of rules and regulations for enhanced individuals,
like forcing them to reveal their true identities and those with innate powers being tracked
at all times.
This created a split in the Avengers, with some accepting and other rejecting the accord.
By this time, the team had grown to include James Rhodes, or War Machine, a longtime friend
of Tony Stark with his own Battle Suit, working early on with the Avengers.
There was also Vision, Scarlett Witch and Sam Wilson, called Falcon, a soldier and friend
of Captain America, who had a flight suit which allowed him to soar through the air
at incredible speeds, and wore goggles that enhanced his sight.
However, during the United Nations ceremony in Austria, the Vienna International centre
was bombed, killing many in attendance, including King T'Chaka of Wakanda.
Although the terrorist Helmut Zemo was behind the attack, it was blamed on the deadly assassin
Winter Soldier.
This then further divided the Avengers, with their conflict growing to violence, as the
Winter Soldier was Bucky Barnes, the childhood friend of Captain America who was thought
killed in the second world war, but was actually captured by Hydra who enhanced his capabilities
and conducted mind control experiments, turning him into a weapon for their use.
Believing Winter Soldier was innocent, Captain America gathered his allies to help learn
the truth, including Falcon, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, a friend
of Falcon who wore a suit that allowed him to shrink to the size of an Ant as well as
grow to the size of a giant.
However those who signed the Sokovia Accords could not to allow them to subvert the system,
and so Iron Man led the his own allies to capture them, joined by Vision, War Machine,
Black Widow and T'Challa, son of T'chaka, who wore the Mantle of Black Panther, and
sought vengeance for the murder of his father.
Stark also brought in outside help from New York, inviting young Peter Parker, aka Spider
Man who possessed great strength, speed and resilience, able to climb walls and swing
from buildings, developing these powers after being bitten by a spider.
During a confrontation at a German airport, War Machine was injured, leaving his legs
paralyzed, and Tony Stark soon lost other supporters like Black Widow who was sympathetic
to the other Avengers, and Black Panther when he learned that Helmut Zemo was really behind
the bombing.
Even after the terrorist was captured, the Avengers remained broken apart with Captain
America and his allies going into hiding, while Hawkeye retired and Winter Soldier was
left with Black Panther's people in Wakanda, who possessed technology that might help him
regain control of his mind.
Iron Man then remained as the new leader of a much smaller group of Avengers, though Captain
America made it clear, if Stark ever needed them, they would come to his aid.
When Earth became threatened by Dormammu, ruler of the Dark Dimension, the Masters of
the Mystic Arts fought against him, however with the death of their leader the Sorcerer
Supreme called the Ancient One, the task fell to the gifted practitioner Doctor Stephen
Strange, who used the Time stone within the Eye of Agamotto to defeat the enemy and save
the planet.
Taught about the power of the infinity stones by his friend Wong, Dr Strange learned that
while 5 of them were somewhat accounted for, little was known about the Soul Stone which
may prove to be the most dangerous of them all.
Although the rest of the Avengers were occupied with events on Earth, Thor set out to re-establish
peace in the nine realms, then came into conflict with his sister Hela who re-emerged after
the death of his father Odin.
With the help of Loki, a Valkyrie and the Hulk who he found fighting in a contest of
champions on Sakaar, they were able to defeat Hela by allowing their world to be destroyed,
evacuating the Asgardians to find a new home.
Yet before departing, Loki took the Tesseract from Odin's vault.
After suffering a number of defeats, including the failure of Loki and Ronan the Accuser,
the loss of two of his daughters who turned against him, and the destruction of a large
part of his Chitauri army, Thanos put on the Infinity Gauntlet, an item able to harness
the power of all the gems at once, and set out to capture the infinity stones himself.
He then tracked down Loki and the Asgardians who were on their way to Earth after the destruction
of their homeworld, and who were in possession of the Space Stone.
No comments:
Post a Comment