Avengers: Infinity War sees Earth’s Mightiest Heroes failing catastrophically. Despite their combined powers and the knowledge that billions of lives are at stake, Thanos comes out on top. The good guys would eventually triumph a year later in Avengers: Endgame, but I still remember the shocked silence in theaters (and a child sobbing) as the credits rolled.
But what would have happened if things had gone a tiny bit differently? There’s a key scene on Titan in which Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Star-Lord, Mantis, Drax, and Nebula formulate a plan to get the Infinity Gauntlet off his hand. Mantis manages to lull Thanos into near-unconsciousness, and they begin to slip the gauntlet off his hand… only for Star-Lord to throw a fit when he discovers that Gamora is dead.
But What If… The Plan Worked? So the heroes now have the Infinity Gauntlet and with it almost complete power over time and space. It’s true that none of them (save perhaps Strange) could do anything as major as The Snap, but even so, these would grant immense cosmic abilities.
Fans have been debating this possibility on Reddit, with the best response coming from user scottthang. They argue that the moment the gauntlet was secured, Strange would portal Thanos away to a distant corner of the galaxy (hopefully one where he can’t contact his fleet). Following this, he’d take possession of the stones and take them to a sealed mystic vault where they can be studied and concealed.
Other comments point out that in the comics, Nebula seizes the stones for herself, so it’s possible that she could have taken a turn towards villainy after being corrupted by the power they represent. At the very least, they could enhance or heal her damaged body, as well as enabling her to get revenge on those that have wronged her. It’s also easy to imagine Stark attempting to use the gauntlet for practical reasons and creating yet another world-threatening evil robot.
However, the fact that Strange sees 14 million potential futures and only the Endgame story results in a true victory may also mean that even if they’d removed the gauntlet, Thanos would still succeed in another way.
So, despite many blaming Star-Lord for Thanos being able to wipe out half of all life in the universe, perhaps it was his screw-up that resulted in a happy ending. Maybe we owe him an apology?
Avengers: Infinity War is available to stream on Disney Plus.