Death Stone: Black Infinity Stone and Its Powers Explained

Thanos paired with Infinity Stones is one nightmarish albeit legendary combo well-known both in the comics and in the MCU. Every time Thanos puts on the Infinity Gauntlet, terrible things happen, and the fate of the Universe hangs by a thread. So far, in the comics, we’ve been introduced to six canon infinity stones, the same ones we’ve seen Thanos chasing in the MCU, which he used to destroy half of the life in the Universe, but the recent release of Thanos: Death Notes #1 reveals the existence of yet another Infinity Stone, malevolent both in nature and appearance. We’re talking about Death Stone, being equipped with a chilling black gauntlet. Due to this, we’ve decided to explain the new seventh Infinity Stone, Death Stone, and its powers and origins. 

Death Stone is the seventh official Infinity Stone, created by Thor’s grandfather Bor. The stone was a product of evil magic and a powerful explosion which was a result of a weapon that Asgardians were trying to create at the time, and the creation of Death Stone was accidental in nature. So far, all powers of the Death Stone are not revealed but judging by everything we’ve seen so far; the stone has the powers of reanimation as Thanos successfully used it to compel the undead Avengers to serve him. It’s possible that the Death Stone can be used to tap into the powers of Death and gives its bearer necromantic abilities and mastery over the minds of the undead. 

Now that we’ve covered everything we know so far about this strange new Infinity Stone, it’s time to analyze the issue further. If you’re interested in more, stay with us and keep reading!

Thor was the one that discovered possible origin of the Death Stone 

In Thanos: Death Notes #1, we can see troubled Thor searching for the answers to whether Thanos still lives somewhere, in some form, after a vision he had. On Titan, he stumbles upon a large collection of files, some of which recount Thanos’ past, and we see glimpses of how Thanos came to be what he is today. We can see Thanos’ past with his lover Carella and how she seemingly sacrificed herself to save his life using the same logic he always liked to use – the conservation of resources. 

By going through the archive, Thor comes across a file titled “The Black Stone,” but the file is empty. Bor, Thor’s grandfather, seemingly holds the answers regarding the Black Stone. 

What is the origin of Death Stone, the seventh Infinity Stone?

The story is then continued in Thor #29; we can see Thor searching for his sister, Laussa, whom Corvus Glaive kidnaped, and he seems to think that the Death Stone is somehow connected to it. He knows that one person alone can decipher ancient Niffleheim, Runa. 

After finding Runa, Runa recounts what happened back during the time of the rule of his grandfather Bor. Bor recruited the sorcerers to create a mighty weapon that would end all wars in existence and allow him to crown himself the god-king of everything. However, the experiments went wrong, and during the creation of that weapon, magic caused an explosion, and combined with the weapon, it created something horrible. What was left in the explosion’s aftermath couldn’t be contained, only sealed away. 

The area where the explosion took place had the power to change people, drain their life, and make them merely shadows of their past selves. 

In short, the seventh Infinity Stone, the Death Stone, was created by a magical explosion when Bor ordered his sorcerers to create a weapon of all weapons. Somehow the magic of the weapon and the Asgardian Magic created the gem with horrific powers to pull remnants of souls from corpses. 

The exact powers of the Death Stone are still unrevealed, but they are possibly connected to necromancy 

Now that Death Stone’s origin has been cleared up, it’s time to analyze its powers, at least what we know about them so far. We know that Corvus Glaive is convinced that the Death Stone is the key to Thanos’ return, and we know that Dr. Doom sought the stone’s powers as well, possibly to attain godlike mastery over Death. 

The stone, given its name and nickname, is connected to necromancy, and it gives its wielders the ability to control the undead and remnants of their souls. 

This was hinted at the back in Thanos: Death Notes #1 when Thor, in his vision, sees Thanos wielding Dark Mjolnir and the Black Stone in the Black Gauntlet, Avengers surround him, but those are not the classic Avengers that we all know and love. Instead, he is leading an army of zombified twisted Avengers, reanimated undead versions of the heroes. 

Hence, everything hints at the fact that Death Stone has the ability to provide its bearer with necromantic abilities. 

This is not the first time that Marvel included Black Stone in its stories 

One older version of the Death Stone was created by Anwen Bakian. Anwen created Death Stone by using Reality Stone when Thanos tried to take it from her. Anwen didn’t resist and gave the new stone to Thanos. But when Thanos combined it with the other stones to create the Infinity Gauntlet, the Death Stone started affecting him with a dark substance and eventually caused him to turn into dust.

In another alternate reality, Death Stone originated from Battlerealm. To collect the other five Infinity Stones without any resistance, Thanos enlisted the help of Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight, who used the Death Stone to imprison most of the heroes within the mirror dimension.