Avengers: Infinity War is filled to the brim with characters, ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ doing battle with Thanos and the ‘Children of Thanos’ alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy, and their various avenging sidekicks and mates.
That said, we wish three more characters had been added to the mix, in the shape of Silver Surfer, Mephisto and Adam Warlock, as they play a very prominent role in comic book from which Infinity War draws the most inspiration. Which is Jim Starlin’s Infinity Gauntlet.
The Silver Surfer
Before the events of Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos vows to bring balance to the universe to impress Mistress Death. Which he plans to do by killing half the universe. Silver Surfer learns of this plan, which causes Thanos to imprison him in the Soul Gem — aka the Soul Stone in the movies.
While trapped in ‘Soul World’, the Silver Surfer meets and tells Adam Warlock of his plan. But more on him later. He then escapes and heads to earth to tell the Avengers what’s about to go down, then travels a light year away to watch it all kick off.
Meaning Silver Surfer sets much of the action in motion. Though he isn’t quite as pivotal as this next character…
Mephisto
We know that the ‘Children of Thanos’ are the big bad’s henchmen in Infinity War. But it’s a shame we aren’t getting Mephisto too, as he’s one of the best characters in Infinity Gauntlet, lying and manipulating Thanos for his own evil ends.
Throughout the story, Mephisto is whispering in the super-villain’s ear, encouraging Thanos to make half the living things in the universe disappear. Then suggesting he limit his own powers while defeating the Avengers to prove his bravery to Mistress Death.
But Mephisto is just waiting for his moment, and while Thanos is being attacked from all sides, he piles on, hoping to win the Infinity Gauntlet for himself. And ultimately failing.
However, while Mephisto doesn’t appear in the movie, ‘Child of Thanos’ Ebony Maw does. And while we’ve been told that Maw is Thanos’s most loyal follower, we reckon he might have Mephisto-like ulterior motives. And if not, Loki is a good candidate to be filling this role.
Adam Warlock
Cosmic being Adam Warlock is a key player in the Infinity Gauntlet story. Having cameo-ed in a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 post-credit scene via his cocoon — thereby making him an official part of the MCU — it’s all-the-more disappointing that Adam Warlock doesn’t feature in Infinity War.
In the comic, Warlock rounds up cosmic entities like Galactus, Eon and Eternity to halt Thanos. He also tells the super-villain that he keeps failing because, in his heart, Thanos knows that he is unworthy of the Infinity Gauntlet’s power. Which causes the purple dude to have something of an existential crisis. This would have been fun to see onscreen.
By this time Nebula controls the Gauntlet, though Warlock uses his immense power to claim it for himself. Which pretty much ends the story. Though in the epilogue, Warlock’s plan to remove competition and ambition from the world is deemed unwise, and he ultimately loses that power, with the five gems scattered throughout the universe to keep them apart.
Those are the three characters we’re gutted haven’t made it into the movie. But there’s much more to Infinity Gauntlet, with the book’s plot very possibly pointing the way to Infinity War‘s end. As we detail in the below article…