Marvel recently announced that the Infinity Stones will return in the upcoming summer event Infinite Destinies. The question is: where did they go? Following the announcement, several readers were left scratching their heads over the realization that the Stones were ever missing. Their disappearance was relatively easy to miss, so here's a quick rundown of recent happenings.
Infinite Destinies will be a series of eight annuals focusing on the Infinity Stones and a select group of heroes who have gotten their hands on them. Each hero, including new characters Star and Amulet, will be partnered up with classic characters like Captain America or Iron Man.
To determine the current location of the Infinity Stones, it's necessary to examine Infinity Wars, the finale of which saw the Stones -- except for the Soul Stone and the Reality Stone -- leave Earth.
Written by Gerry Duggan, Infinity Wars followed a conflict over the stones in which Gamora killed Thanos and took his place as the one seeking to gather them all together. In the end, Adam Warlock actually managed to gather all of the stones and instead of using them himself -- as he knew they would only corrupt him in the end -- gave each stone a soul, then set them free into the universe.
This plot expands on an idea created by Brian Michael Bendis. In Bendis's Illuminati, it is explained that the stones have some degree of sentience, albeit limited, that allows them to seek each other out. This is Bendis's way of explaining why they are so frequently gathered together. For Duggan, it creates the opportunity to end the story without anyone acquiring the ultimate power offered by the Infinity Stones. Adam Warlock makes this decision basically on the understanding that total power corrupts totally, so he decides to let the stones go. In a big way, this is what makes Infinity Wars more of an event that happened in the Marvel Universe than one that happened to it.
Two stones remained on Earth: Ripley Ryan bonded with the Reality Stone and Hector Bautista bonded with the Time Stone. As a result, Hector Bautista -- a man falsely accused of murder -- became the character Overtime, who has the ability to stop and start time at will. Ripley Ryan, also known as Star, merged with the Reality Stone and now has the ability to alter reality as she sees fit.
Since Star will be a part of Infinite Destinies, it's possible the Infinity Stones have all merged with different characters, which is how they'll return to the Marvel Universe. This may turn out to be the most exciting thing to come out of Duggan's Infinity Wars, if the Infinity Stones are presented and used new ways.