Galactic Marvel Movies Hinted with Thor The Dark World

Thor: The Dark World proves to be another success for Marvel Studios with its release this past weekend and an excellent box office. While The Dark World is a fun and entertaining film on its own, Marvel has deemed that this movie help open up the stars for their future movies especially with the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy.

There are 3 major clues to the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the Thor sequel, hammer past the jump to find more about these clues.

This will be my only warning of SPOILERS for the mid-credit scenes from Thor: The Dark World. So if you have yet to watch the movie, maybe hold off from reading this article.

Let’s begin.

The Collector

Wow, Benecio del Toro gave a very lively portrayal of the Collector. Now let’s learn about the character del Toro is bringing to life.

The Collector first appeared in comics in Avengers #28 in 1966. In that story, he tried “collecting” Wasp and the rest of the Avengers. The Collector is the last of his race but has also been alive longer than other beings. He and a few other aliens are collectively known as Elders, but they rarely collaborate.

Why does the Collector collect? This goes back to mid-credit scene from Avengers showcasing the mad god from Titan, Thanos. Originally, in the comics, the Collector had a vision of Thanos and the destruction he will bring to the universe; thus the Collector begins collecting creatures and items to preserve them from annihilation.

Yes, we’ve learned that the Thanos “pay-off” is till years away. That does not mean that we can not learn more about the Mad Titan, especially with the plot of Ronan the Accuser as the main villain of Guardians of the Galaxy will be working for Thanos. Now Ronan may have to be at odds against the Collector since he now posses the Aether, one of the Infinity Gems (Stones in film canon). We can only guess that the Collector may need some guarding, if you catch my drift.

The Infinity Gems (Stones)

We also learn that the Tesseract from Captain America and Avengers also happens to be an Infinity Stone along with the Aether introduced in The Dark World. In Comics, the Stones are actually referred to as the Infinity Gems but it makes sense to combine items to make the universe more cohesive.

What are the Infinity Gems? The Infinity Gems are items that possess god-like power associated with a specific trait (Power, Mind, Soul, Time, Reality and Space), combining all 6 of the gems will create the Infinity Gauntlet and give the user the powers of a god (and not just the level of a Thunder God). In the comics; when Thanos possessed the Gauntlet, he was able to  basically kill every living being in the universe. Yeah, it’s that powerful.

We don’t know which Stone is which Gem yet, or even if they will follow the comic book formula. But for fun and sticking with color of the original Gem, I will guess that the Tesseract is the Mind Gem and the Aether is the Power Gem.

Dr. Selvig’s Chalkboard

Midway through the movie, we are witness to Selvig losing his mind with understanding of the universe and trying to explain it to an asylum.

In a comedic scene that also featured Stan Lee, it is easy to miss a few cues from that appear on the chalkboard.

First, above the drawing of Yggdrasil and underlined twice is “616 Universe.” In canon, the 616 Universe is the designation of the original universe our heroes reside in. This may actually amount to nothing more than a nod to the comics, but may also allow Marvel Studios to explore much more especially when you we get to a few other items.

On the right side of the board, the are two sets of words: “The Fault” and “The Crossroads.” Again these are nods to stories that require more set up but allow Marvel Studios to venture into different fields. The Crossroads in another dimension with a crossroads that will lead to other universes. In comics, Doctor Strange banishes the Hulk here for a time and the Beyonder even finds the Crossroads. Then there is The Fault, which is a scar on the universe caused by the fallout of War of Kings storyline which featured Black Bolt and Vulcan fighting to the death. The Fault also leads to another universe known as the Cancerverse.

All big hints to a multiverse. Of course, right now we’re just playing the guessing game but it’s a lot of fun. But with ideas that the Inhumans may appear lead to The Fault, the next Hulk movie may introduce Doctor Strange and the Crossroads, or hell the 616 “Marvel Studios” Universe will visit the Sony or Fox Universes.