What Is the Seventh Infinity Stone? The Newest Addition to Marvel Canon, Explained

Ever since the Infinity Gems (or Stones) were established in Marvel lore in 1976, there have always been six of them. For more than four decades, the six main stones have been the Mind Stone, Power Stone, Reality Stone, Soul Stone, Space Stone, and Time Stone. Using the power of all six Infinity Stones embedded within a gauntlet, Thanos the Mad Titan sought to wipe out half of the entire population on Earth. The Infinity Stones have been explored both within Marvel comics and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Over the years, some additional Infinity Stones have arisen outside of the main Marvel Comics continuity. For example, in the UltraVerse comic book series, a seventh Infinity Stone called Ego is unveiled when the God of Mischief Loki begins collecting them. In the alternate universe in the Ultimate comic book series, there are a total of eight Infinity Stones which require two gauntlets to wield all at once. One alternate universe even introduced the Death Stone, a stone that was created by Anwen Bakian using the Reality Stone. Anwen gave Thanos the Death Stone in place of the Reality Stone. This clever trick resulted in the demise of Thanos as the Death Stone was powerful enough to diminish him to nothing but ash after being placed in his gauntlet.

While stones have been introduced in alternate timelines and non-canon storylines, Marvel’s main timeline has only ever had the six proper Stones. Now, Marvel is changing decades worth of their lore with the revelation that a seventh Infinity Stone exists within the Marvel universe—and it has ties to Thor. Here is everything we know about the seventh Infinity Stone and its powers.

What is the seventh Infinity Stone?

Earlier this month, Marvel Comics confirmed the existence of a seventh Infinity Stone, the Black Stone. Its existence was confirmed in Thanos: Death Notes #1 – Dead by Rumor, a new comic book series one-shot featuring Thanos that kicked off on November 30. In the story, Thanos has gone missing and is presumed to be dead. However, Thor has a vision of Thanos that says otherwise. In his vision, a Dark Thanos is seen leading the undead Avengers with his own dark Infinity Mjolnir.

The vision deeply rattles Thor and inspires him to travel to Titan, where he hopes to find answers in Thanos’ past. While on Titan, Thor is shocked to learn that his grandfather, Bor, is somehow connected to the seventh Infinity Stone. Upon further investigation, Thor learns that Bor had gathered his sorcerers and tasked them with creating a powerful magical weapon that could win a war the Asgardians were losing. But an explosion ended the war before the weapon could be completed. It is believed the seventh Infinity Stone may have been created from some combination of that weapon and the explosion.

So far, the powers of the seventh Infinity Stone are not known. However, it is believed to be closely connected with death; in Thor’s vision, Thanos was seen using it to lead the undead Avengers. The mystery and darkness surrounding the stone seem to hint that it is much more powerful than simply giving the wielder power to control the dead. One also can’t help but notice some parallels between the seventh Infinity Stone and the Death Stone from the Ultimate timeline, suggesting the seventh Infinity Stone may have similar powers.

(featured image: Marvel Studios)