WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Loki Episode 1, “Glorious Purpose,” streaming now on Disney+.
One of the most unexpected moments in the first episode of the new Marvel Cinematic Universe series Loki was the revelation that the TVA actually has access to plenty of Infinity Stones. So many, in fact, that members of the organization actually use them as paperweights. This comes as a complete shock to Loki, who soon finds that he can’t use the Space Stone within the Tessaract. This is because the Infinity Stones don’t work outside their given place in reality.
As embodiments of the reality they inhabit, the stones are incredibly powerful within their own realm, but next to useless in other realities where they cannot draw energy from the universe around them. This is actually consistent with the core Marvel Universe, where artifacts like the Infinity Gauntlet can’t be utilized outside of their home realities. While this may catch the MCU Loki by surprise, it was less of a shocker for Darkseid, the titanically powerful and villainous Lord of Apokolips from DC Comics — who briefly gained an Infinity Gauntlet only to note how weak it was in his reality.
Darkseid had the chance to briefly claim the Infinity Gauntlet thanks to the events of 2003’s JLA/Avengers by Kurt Busiek and George Perez. The event saw Kronos and the Grandmaster engage in a wager, pitting the Justice League against the Avengers in a mission to collect vital artifacts from one another’s universes — with the team that collects the most getting the chance to survive while the other reality perishes. This sends the various heroes across time and space, depositing them in unexpected locations. The contest ends up stranding Thor, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Flash, Steel and Firestorm onto Apokolips where the villainous New God has already found and claimed the Infinity Gauntlet.
The heroes are all terrified. The Marvel heroes all know the power of the Infinity Gauntlet, and the DC heroes know how dangerous Darkseid is. But while Darkseid can feel the “matrices of power” within the Gauntlet, he considers it a dead artifact. DeSaad investigates the Gauntlet and determines that it was designed to affect reality — but that it only works in the Marvel Universe and is useless within their own. Considering the gauntlet a waste of his time, Darkseid drops it for the heroes to try and recover — setting off a race between Flash and Quicksilver to take it before it hits the ground — which Flash wins.
This weakness to the Infinity Stones — and the Infinity Gauntlet as a result — actually carries over to the Marvel Universe as well. During the build-up to Secret Wars, a new incarnation of the Illuminati was formed to contend with the Incursions, events where two realities effectively collide with one another, destroying both unless one is wiped out beforehand. One of their earliest ideas is to utilize the Infinity Stones, only to learn that they don’t work outside of their home realities. This became a consistent beat with the Council of Reeds from Fantastic Four as well, with the multiversal versions of Mister Fantastic claiming multiple Gauntlets that then couldn’t work outside their realities.
It’s a unique weakness to the Infinity Stones, and a perfect way for the personifications of the universe to fail. And while that may surprise someone like Loki and shakes him to his core, Darkseid is entirely unbothered by the failings of otherwise unstoppable forces.
About The Author
