We were never expecting Avengers: Infinity War to be a 100% faithful recreation of The Infinity Gauntlet storyline, so it was a pleasant surprise when many of the arc’s most identifiable moments were present in the film. Obviously, the big final shock of Thanos wiping out half of the universe was inspired by Gauntlet‘s inciting incident, but individual moments such as Nebula’s torture and a hero crashing into Doctor Strange’s Sanctum were replicated as well.
Speaking of Strange, it seems that his role in Infinity War could be taking the place of another hero’s from the comics. Marvel diehards will know that Adam Warlock has an important part to play in the story in the source material. Apparently, he was so important that the movie’s screenwriters even pondered inserting him in the film. After all, a post-credits scene from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 had already set him up for a future appearance.
In Adam’s absence, though, the Master of the Mystic Arts has stepped in to fill his place in the story. In the comics, Warlock is the resident expert on Infinity Stones on the team – in particular, the Soul Stone. As he wears the Time Stone and can harness its powers, the closest figure to this in Infinity War is Stephen Strange. However, the similarities go even deeper than that.
On the page, Adam makes the calculated decision to let Thanos kill half of the Avengers. His connection to the Soul Stone allows him to see into the Mad Titan’s own psyche, which reveals that Thanos does not truly feel worthy of the Gauntlet’s power. So when the time is right, he tells the villain that his loss has been pre-determined and the Mad Titan is defeated.
In Avengers: Infinity War, on the other hand, Doctor Strange is shown to witness the one version of the future out of 14 million in which the heroes come out on top. As he’s dying, he tells Tony Stark that “this is the only way,” suggesting that he means they’re on track to eventually win. Seeing as Strange let Thanos have the Time Stone, he could be playing a similar game to Adam Warlock in the comics.
Chalk that up as speculation for now, but we’ll get to see how closely the two storylines play out when Avengers 4 arrives next May.