Eventually, the combined forces of all the heroes we've gotten to know and will get to know will be needed to take down the MCU's big bad, Thanos. Even if you're a fan of the MCU who has never read a comic or don't know anything about Thanos beyond what the movies have presented, chances are you've been informed of his true importance and the level of danger he'll bring with him when it's his turn to truly shine by someone who has. Until Guardians of the Galaxy, the Infinity Gems - or Stones, as the films prefer - had been a topic of mystery, with the films avoiding the issue altogether and leaving fans to debate whether or not the Tesseract and the Aether would one day be revealed as Stones. Though the concept of the Stones hadn't been presented in the films up until the Collector got his hands on the Aether in the mid-credits scene of Thor: The Dark World, suggesting that it could be one, Guardians of the Galaxy took a beat to finally explain to audiences what the Stones are, with the film's introduction of the Power Stone serving as a harsh reminder of what just one is capable of, let alone all of them combined. We've only seen three of the six Stones so far in the MCU, but it's no spoiler that Thanos will inevitably get his hands on all of them one day, along with the Infinity Gauntlet glimpsed in Odin's Trophy Room in 2011's Thor. Though that day may be a long way away, the Collector's explanation of the Stones has paved the way for the future of the MCU, gifting Guardians of the Galaxy with one of the franchise's most crucial and long-awaited scenes.
Writer, film enthusiast, part-time gamer and watcher of (mostly) good television located on the fringe of Los Angeles, who now has his own website at www.highdefgeoff.com!
