On last Friday, the trailer for Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” was released. Due to be released in just about a month, it’s part one of the two-part event which has been literally 10 years in the making. ((Fun fact: This is the second time I’ve written about Marvel for Odyssey; can you tell I’m really into it?)) But this isn’t about that- how insane of an undergoing this was for Marvel and how the "Avengers" has blown up to unbelievable proportions in popularity and has made the Disney Company even more powerful.

Nope, this is meant to talk about the central part of the movies: "The Infinity Stones". Since a lot of movie-goers may only casually enjoy the "Avengers" or Marvel films, they may not really know what the "Infinity Stones" are, or who Thanos is, or why any of this is important. My goal is to kind of make a guide for the casual moviegoer for "Infinity War".

Quick Note- I don’t know much about the original comics, but I’ve seen the associated Marvel Cinematic Universe films about half a dozen times at minimum except for Doctor Strange (which I’ve seen twice) and Black Panther (which I’ve seen only once).

So, how many infinity stones are there? 6.

What are they? To quote the Collector in "Guardians of the Galaxy vol.1" They are: 'Before creation itself, there were six singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots- infinity stones.' That might be a little vague so as best as I understand it: Before the universe, the notions of power, time, space, etc existed and when the big bang happened these notions were forced into a physical form.

"The infinity Stones" include: The Space Stone, the Mind Stone, the Reality Stone, the Power Stone, the Time Stone, and the Soul Stone.

Here are the ones we know and have been in the films: The Space Stone is the Tesseract which was a central part of “Captain America: The First Avenger.” As we saw at the very end of “The First Avenger” and during the course of the first “Avengers” film, it can create portals between dimensions/worlds/areas in space.

Next is the Mind Stone- which was in Loki’s scepter first seen in the “Avengers.” He uses it to control Hawkeye ((Clint Barton, AKA missing from all Infinity War promotional art- no, I'm not mad about this)). In “Avengers: Age of Ultron” it is removed from the Scepter and causes the creation of Ultron and later is used as the center point for the creation/birth of the Vision. Vision, last we saw in Civil War, has the stone in his head.

((Also, there’s a fun theory that Loki was under control of the Mind Stone himself under Thanos’ orders during the "Avengers." Hint: Look at his eyes and his demeanor especially when he first arrives on Earth. ))

Then there is the Reality Stone which is also referred to as the Aether. It’s main movie was “Thor: The Dark World,” which was the second Thor movie. The Aether was going to be used to make the universe return to its initial dark state, according to the dark elf, Malekith. Presumably he meant before the creation of Earth/Midgard’s sun or maybe even the Big Bang? Either way, the reality stone is frightening in its capabilities.

In "Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1", during a after credit scene, we see Volstagg of the Warriors Three (Thor’s best friends ) and Lady Sif ( Thor’s kind of love interest) bringing the Aether to the Collector who I quoted earlier. The Collector is an eccentric figure, and apparently one of at least respectable power and restraint if the kingdom of Asgard trusts him to hold an infinity stone.

Later on during “Guardians of the Galaxy vol.1” after the Orb destroys the Collector’s club in the after credit scenefor that film we see the Aether escaping into space as unlike the other infinity stones it has no solid form and is rather like vapor.

So, its precise location is unknown at the moment.

Then there is the aforementioned Power Stone, AKA the Orb, which is the central item driving forward the plot of “Guardians of the Galaxy vol.1.” Last we see of it, it’s being placed in the protective custody of the Nova Corps. During the trailer for Infinity War, there is a purple stone in the Infinity Gauntlet- likely the Power Stone. ((I’ll explain the Gauntlet at the end)). To give an idea of how much power this stone has, the villain of “Guardians” was going to use it to destroy an entire planet. So, an entire Death Star that can fit in the palm of a human’s hand.

Second to last is the Time Stone. Now I know the least about this one because I haven’t seen “Doctor Strange” as many times as I’ve seen other Marvel films and I know little about Doctor Strange as a comic book character. As of “Thor: Ragnarok” the Time stone is still in the possession of Doctor Strange- which is referred to as a relic like his cloak of levitation. The Time stone is in a necklace called the Eye of Agamotto.

Last ,but not least, is the Soul Stone- which hasn’t been in any of the Marvel movies that I know of. There was a theory that it was the tesseract until it became clear that it was the Space Stone. Lately, there have been even more theories since it’s the only stone missing.

A personal favorite is that its somehow in either Steve Rogers (Captain America) or Clint Barton (Hawkeye). I’m more in the Hawkeye camp because it seemed like in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” they really tried to hammer in the idea that Hawkeye was the soul of the team. Though, that may have just been because he was totally given the short end of the stick in “Avengers.”

The Infinity Gauntlet is the shiny gold thing that Thanos is wearing in the trailer. It can hold all six infinity stones and control their individual powers. But from what I know, not everyone can handle that immense amount of power.

If you got anything out of this, I hope it’s the clear fact that if Thanos does get his hands on all the stones- the Marvel Cinematic Universe really is screwed.