WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Zack Snyder's Justice League, now streaming on HBO Max.
There have been many comparisons between Marvel and DC over the years, and with the prominence of each company's recent films and TV shows, those comparisons and debates have only grown. With the release of Zack Snyder's Justice League, fans have found another point of comparison between the two: the difference between the plans of main villains, Darkseid and Thanos, and what means they used to accomplish their goals. For the Mad Titan, it was the Infinity Gauntlet while for the God of Tyranny, it was the Anti-Life Equation. Both weapons amount to the same destination in the long run, control, but they have different means of getting there.
First, there's Marvel's Infinity Gauntlet. The Gauntlet itself is ultimately a powerless glove on its own, but it becomes exponentially stronger with every Infinity Stone added. With all six, the wielder is in control of all aspects of power, space, soul, time, reality and mind across the universe, effectively making them omnipotent. This allows anyone wielding the Stones to do whatever they can think of. In the comics however, the Stones come with a flaw: the Stones only hold power in the universe they come from. Remove them from that universe, and they become nothing more than shiny rocks. For this reason, the Infinity Gauntlet was never considered a weapon that could affect the entire multiverse.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Gauntlet came with other limitations. While in the comics, the Stones effectively confer their powers passively and are harmless to pick up, in the MCU, the Infinity Stones are shown to be much more volatile, requiring more specialized tools to wield them effectively. The Gauntlet itself was a custom-made creation by Eitri the Dwarf to handle the energy of all six Stones. Even then, using all six Stones on a universal scale wrecked the Gauntlet and permanently scarred Thanos' arm, showing the cost that comes from using them. This is in distinct contrast from the comics, where no ill effects are suffered by the user of the Infinity Gauntlet.
Meanwhile, DC's the Anti-Life Equation is a bit more complicated. To summarize, the Anti-Life Equation is a transcendental mathematical formula that allows those who know it to dominate the free will of any sentient being. It was highly sought after by Darkseid, who wanted to use it to bring order to all existence by controlling the minds and wills of all living beings and remaking the universe in his own image. In comparison to the works of Marvel, the Equation is rarely used, even in the comics, despite it being Darkseid's primary goal. In the events of Final Crisis, it was employed against the people of Earth, with Darkseid uploading the Equation to the Internet and turning half the population into slaves of his will.
In non-comic media, one of the few places the Equation has been used was in the Young Justice cartoon. Granny Goodness discovers that the hero Halo, who merged with a Mother Box, was the key to the Anti-Life Equation, and used her to enslave the wills of the Justice League along with the original Young Justice team members who went after them. The effect was only counteracted by the efforts of Cyborg, who had bonded with a Father Box and broke the control technology used on Halo, letting her free the others.
In Zack Snyder's Justice League, Steppenwolf learns that the Anti-Life Equation is hidden on Earth's surface. In a future timeline, it will be used in conjunction with the death of Lois Lane to enslave Superman's will to Darkseid, thus creating the Knightmare timeline seen in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder's Justice League. Like with the MCU's Gauntlet, the Anti-Life Equation seems much weaker in the film than in other DC media, requiring the grief from Lois' death to take control of Superman, as opposed to just controlling him directly.
In the end, both Thanos and Darkseid wanted the same thing: control over everything. But whereas in Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos simply desired the death of half of all life to achieve his twisted version of balance, Darkseid could've undoubtedly done far worse with the Anti-Life Equation. With it, Darkseid could've left all life in the universe in a state of suffering and pain, their wills enslaved to his own. Granted, in Avengers: Endgame, Thanos did intend to use the Stones to remake and reset the universe, which might've been worse in some ways, but he probably still wanted some kind of balance, while Darkseid could've just left the universe as a twisted hellscape in his own image.
In short, the Infinity Gauntlet is probably much more powerful, but the Anti-Life Equation is a far worse and more dangerous tool for domination. In the hands of Darkseid, the Equation could've posed a much more existential threat in the long run than even the Infinity Stones.
Zack Snyder's Justice League stars Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Ray Porter as Darkseid, Ciarán Hinds as Steppenwolf, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon. The film is currently available on HBO Max.