The Mind Stone turned out to be Thanos’ final acquisition at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. Audiences remember how the Mad Titan – now in full possession of five of the Infinity Gems, used his vast power to simply plow through the other Avengers. Although the Scarlet Witch managed to destroy the Mind Stone (and Vision with it), Thanos simply used the Time Stone to restore Vision – and then kill him again by ripping the Infinity Stone from his forehead.
In the comics, the Mind Stone (called the “Mind Gem” in his version) was also the final Infinity Gem that Thanos acquired. Unlike the movie, however, the gem’s Keeper was not the Vision, but The Grandmaster – an Elder of the Universe who appeared in Thor: Ragnorak played by Jeff Goldblum!
Goldblum created a version of the Grandmaster who was mostly used as a comic relief villain. In the comics, however, Grandmaster can be a genuinely dangerous adversary – as Thanos discovered when he wagered all five of his Infinity Gems against Grandmaster’s Mind Gem in a life-altering winner-takes-all contest.
The game took place in the final pages of The Thanos Quest, a two-issue miniseries that followed Thanos as he faced enormous odds to acquire the Infinity Gems. By the time Thanos faced off against Grandmaster, he had already won the Soul, Power, Time, Space, and Reality Gems. Such vast power should have made it easy for Thanos to simply overpower the Grandmaster and steal his Infinity Gem – but Thanos had a more… satisfying endgame in mind.
Knowing the Grandmaster could not resist a challenge, Thanos offered to play a game against the Elder of the Universe with all six of the Infinity Gems as stakes. Unable to turn down the Mad Titan, the Grandmaster arranged for the two to fight in a virtual reality arena using suits of equally powerful armor. The first contestant to issue a kill shot to the other would win – but the Grandmaster neglected to tell Thanos that, although virtual, the kill shot would also destroy the player in reality.
Nevertheless, Thanos’ battle tactics prove superior and he manages to get the drop on the Grandmaster – but then the Grandmaster reveals he cheated by sabotaging Thanos’ weapons system before the game, causing it to destroy Thanos when he fired on the Grandmaster. A moment later, however, Thanos revealed he anticipated this move and had a robotic double fight in his place – allowing the real Thanos to kill the Grandmaster while his doppelganger kept him occupied.
While a very different ending than the MCU movie, Thanos’ final battle in the comics shows some remarkable similarities with the film. Like the movie, the Mind Stone/Gem was the final Infinity Stone he needed to acquire before assembling the Infinity Gauntlet. Moreover, while the Vision wasn’t involved, Thanos did use (and sacrifice) a synthetic lifeform in his robotic doppelganger to get his prize. MCU films might take a lot of creative liberties with the source material – but they can find ways of acknowledging them too.
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