With the release of that jam-packed trailer, there’s a lot of hubbub about the events of Avengers: Infinity War going on right now. Weirdly, though, one place people don’t seem to be looking for answers is Jim Starlin and George Perez’s 1991 Infinity Gauntlet comic book series that the film loosely adapts. Fortunately, Matthew Erao at Screen Rant has done his homework and spotted a cool reference to the comic in the trailer.
One of the key opening moments in the source material is when an out of control and injured Silver Surfer smashes through the roof of Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. The Silver Surfer is a powerful cosmic entity that pals around with none other than Galactus, the world eater, so anyone that can give give him a black eye is someone to take seriously. Eventually, in the midst of his pain and confusion, he blurts out “THANOS IS COMING!”
Sadly, Marvel cannot use the Silver Surfer (or Galactus) as their rights are bundled up with the Fantastic Four IP, which is currently the property of Fox. But, it looks like the studio has done the next best thing and swapped out the durable character for the equally durable Hulk. This is a smart move, as not only does it establish Thanos as someone who’s capable of wiping the floor with one of the most powerful characters in the MCU, but also because there are few others who could survive being tossed through the atmosphere of Earth and survive.
Said fight clearly comes soon after the end of Thor: Ragnarok, which sees Thor, Loki, Valkyrie and Hulk running into Thanos’ craft. This encounter ends badly for them, obviously, and they’re scattered across the cosmos. We now know Hulk makes it back to Earth and lands with a thump, and Thor splats onto the windscreen of the Guardians of the Galaxy, but where do Loki and Valkyrie wind up?
I guess we’ll have to wait until May 4th, 2018 to find out. In the meantime, I’m going to be re-reading my copy of The Infinity War very closely indeed…
