The epic build-up to THE INFINITY GAUNTLET!
The universe gave a sigh of relief when Thanos died. He’d already tried to become the universe itself once, then tried to destroy it before the Avengers, Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock shut him down. But if your girlfriend is the human personification of Death and she needs the ultimate cosmic psychopath to help her cull half the universe, all she needs to do is click her bony fingers.
Now, the Mad Titan is about to return to the land of the living and only the Silver Surfer can save half the lives in the cosmos from his wrath… but will he? What if, this time, Thanos is right?
Crossover: The story running through the Silver Surfer’s title detours into a two-issue Thanos Quest mini-series and includes an Annual tie-in.
Must Reads: Story arcs marked with a ✔are must-read stories from this time period, along with any key related stories and often-forgotten tales that are worth a read.
Anthology Issues: When an issue contains multiple stories, the relevant story is denoted with square brackets. For example, [2/5] refers to the second story of the five stories in that issue, so you don’t need to read the other four.
Previous events that directly impact this story:
- THE INFINITY EFFECT – Thanos first meets Adam Warlock
- THE FINAL THREAT – The death of Thanos
- I DIE LIKE THE STARS – The Elders of the Universe claim the Soul Gems
Want to keep it simple? Here’s the chronological reading order without story descriptions, or spoilers:
- ✔ Silver Surfer #34-38
- Silver Surfer Annual #3 [1/3] (tie-in)
- Silver Surfer #40-41 (tie-in)
- ✔ Thanos Quest #1-2
- Silver Surfer #42-43 (tie-in)
- ✔ Silver Surfer #44-50
| Must Reads | Title, Issue Number & Synopsis |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #34 The Silver Surfer takes his first nap in decades on a deserted desert planet. In a dream, he witnesses the embodiment of Death and her minions summoning an imposing spirit to address an imbalance in the universe. The spirit blasts the Surfer who exits Death’s tower in pain, then finds thousands of aliens watching a mother throw a child into a volcano. The dream gets stranger and he wakes to find himself confronted by the spirit creature made flesh… Thanos sits in his floating chair and very much alive… 1st appearance: Thanos’ Space Throne |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #35 Thanos explains that Death believes the population of the entire universe needs to be culled by 50%. He tricks the Surfer into bringing germs from Earth to the alien world of Salaria, wiping out half their population. Thanos challenges the Surfer to save the remaining 50% of Salaria’s population. So, the Surfer decides to seek help. Elsewhere, Chronos (aka, Kronos – the god of the Eternals of Titan) resurrects Drax the Destroyer… |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #36 The Silver Surfer returns to Earth where Captain America tells him of Thanos’ past exploits and how the Avengers and Captain Marvel ended his first plot to gain omnipotence (during THE THANOS WAR, 1974-1974), then took part in the conflict that ended the lives of both Adam Warlock and Thanos himself (during THE FINAL THREAT). The Surfer promises to keep the Avengers in the loop and heads towards Titan, a fake moon around Saturn. The Impossible Man interrupts his journey and successfully convinces the Surfer to stop being so serious and use a little humour. |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #37 On Titan, Thanos’ father, Mentor, explains to him that the only way to stop Thanos is to kill him. Drax the Destroyer follows Thanos’ scent, leading him to the Surfer and launching an attack on him. The brain-death Drax suffered when he was murdered by his own daughter, Moondragon, has severely affected his mental capacity. Taking the Impossible Man’s advice, the Surfer tricks Drax by taking him to Four Freedoms Plaza on Earth and convincing him to wait for the TV to reveal where Thanos is… |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #38 Days later, Thanos reclaims his ship Sanctuary III from Nebula and burns her alive for claiming to be his granddaughter (ever since THE WAR TO END ALL SKRULLS, 1985). Nebula’s crew member Geatar takes her to safety. Thanos lures the Silver Surfer to the planet Pyraxlon where they confront each other in battle. The Surfer uses cunning to sneak up on Thanos and destroy his chair. The explosion leaves only a charred corpse which the Surfer takes back to Mentor. But the corpse was a ruse. Now that the Surfer thinks he’s dead, Thanos is free to follow up on the next part of his plan… 1st appearance: Geatar, Infinity Well |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #40 (pp.1-3) (tie-in) Drax the Destroyer is the only one who isn’t convinced Thanos is dead, even when the Surfer shows him and Mentor the body on Titan. |
| Silver Surfer Annual #3 [1/3] (tie-in) Mutated AIM agent George Prufrock sneaks into Bellevue Hospital to kill scientist Lamar Kwiat, but starts absorbing people and their pets as the Programma Virus takes hold of him again. Nick Fury calls on Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four to cover up SHIELD’s involvement in incident. After updating Captain America about Thanos’ demise, the Silver Surfer agrees to help Mister Fantastic bring down the rogue Lifeform. The Surfer takes the huge mutated blob to the husk of a world left over by Galactus. Prufrock’s human face emerges and begs the Surfer to kill him, the Surfer refuses as he still feels guilty about accidentally murdering Thanos. He flies away, leaving Prufrock to suffer. Also see LIFEFORM |
| Must Reads | Title, Issue Number & Synopsis |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #40 (pp.4-22) (tie-in) The Silver Surfer is approached by robot representing Dynamo City where Thanos was once granted citizenship. He heads to the floating megacity with C2DT42 to hear Thanos’ last will and testament, only to have his cosmic powers drained on arrival. The Silver Surfer stands trial, but is told he’s free to leave which isn’t that easy. His efforts are blocked when a security robot tries to disintegrate him for not paying the 50 credit Exit Tax. Now the powerless Silver Surfer needs to find a job… 1st appearance: Dynamo City |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #41 (tie-in) Without his cosmic strength and wrapped in a hot shell of silver, the Surfer’s not much use at manual labour. He befriends Zeaklar Belgewater among the sea of vagrants in Tent City. Zeaklar explains that Dynamo City is a place where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and it all happens under the Great I, a ruler no one ever sees. The Surfer gives the Sensory Stimulation Network access to his dreams in exchange for 200 credits. But he’s given just 2 credits after taxes, management fees, make-up and miscellaneous costs. A security robot beats him unconscious and someone steals his two credits. |
| ✔ | Thanos Quest #1 Thanos needs more power to achieve Death’s goal and begins a quest to collect the six Infinity Gems. At the Nexus of Reality, Thanos frees the In-Betweener and steals his Soul Gem, then leaves him to be punished by Lord Chaos and Master Order for trying to escape. On Tamarata, Thanos tricks the Champion of the Universe into destroying the planet. TO avoid being left floating in space, the Champion barters away his Power Gem, believing it to be useless. The Gardener has broken away from the Elders of the Universe in favour of turning a world into the perfect garden. Thanos takes no pleasure in challenging and defeating the Gardener, as the beauty of that world dies with him. Now Thanos has the Time Gem. New identity: Soul Gems as the Infinity Gems |
| ✔ | Thanos Quest #2 The Runner nearly kills Thanos and forces him to explain why he seeks the Infinity Gems. The gems were once aspect of one infinite being who existed alone in the universe. The entity gave up it’s own existence to create all life in the universe, and all that remains of it is the six gems. Thanos uses the Time Gem to rapidly age the Runner, steal the Space Gem from his forehead, then revert him to the state of an infant. Thanos offers the infant Runner to the Collector in exchange for his Reality Gem. Finally, Thanos plays a game against the ultimate strategist, the Grandmaster, with both their lives at stake. Thanos was prepared for the desperate Grandmaster to cheat. Avoiding death himself, Thanos kills the Grandmaster and claims the Mind Gem. With all six gems, Thanos is practically a god and sees himself as Death’s equal. But she still won’t speak to him as she now sees him as a being more powerful than her and, therefore, her superior. Even when he wins, Thanos loses… 1st appearance: Nemesis (unnamed), First Cosmos (unnamed) |
| Silver Surfer #42 (tie-in) Drax the Destroyer smashes his way into Dynamo City and claims he has proof that Thanos is alive, but flies off and leaves the powerless Silver Surfer behind. The Surfer agrees to use his abilities to channel energy to create the ultimate light show for the citizens. But he uses the energy to charge up, breaks free and fly towards the Great I’s sanctum, only to learn the Great I is just an enormous data processor. Having burned out his energy and blown his last chance, the Surfer is arrested and taken for termination. Zeaklar kicks a guard and dragged away with him… | |
| Silver Surfer #43 (tie-in) The Silver Surfer and Zeaklar are teleported out into space to die in the void, but access to the cosmos restores the Surfer’s powers. He saves Zeaklar and destroys the security droids that demand they return for an alternative method of termination. Promising to return to Dymano City someday, the Surfer drops Zeaklar off on planet Pyrofax before heading towards Titan… |
| Must Reads | Title, Issue Number & Synopsis |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #44 The Silver Surfer returns to Titan where Mentor and Starfox reveal the corpse was a fake. Thanos teleports the Surfer and Drax right to him and uses the Infinity Gems to mess with them as a demonstration of his newfound power. He blasts them with the Soul Gem, leaving their soulless bodies on the surface of a dying world. Mephisto watches from his fiery realm and decides to take Thanos’ power for himself… 1st appearance: Infinity Gauntlet (unnamed) |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #45 Thanos returns to his ship to find Nebula alive but in tremendous agony. He uses his new power to keep her alive as ‘a monument to death denied’. Mephisto appears and offers to teach Thanos everything he doesn’t already know about the Infinity Gems and their origins. He convinces Thanos to leave his physical form and become one with the universe, joining with every mind and soul. While Thanos’ body is vacated, Mephisto steals the Infinity Gauntlet from his fist, only for it to try to choke him! Thanos returns to his body, puts Mephisto in his place and agrees to keep him around for his own amusement. But the demon knows, Thanos’ connection to his physical form will be his downfall… 1st appearance: Infinity Gauntlet (named) |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #46 Drax the Destroyer is going to punch his way out of the Soulworld, even if it means its destruction. The powerless Silver Surfer will have to climb the mountain where Adam Warlock is meditating, while Gamora and Pip the Troll keep Drax busy. Autolycus reveals Warlock’s origins to the Surfer. Warlock throws himself off the precipice and flies into battle… |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #47 Adam Warlock takes Drax down by blocking his airways, even though the brute doesn’t know he doesn’t need to breath to live in Soulworld. Warlock hints that he’ll soon have to confront Thanos, then returns the Silver Surfer and Drax the Destroyer to their bodies. Mephisto’s head materialises and taunts them over Thanos’ intentions, but Thanos has plans to let other agents deal with his two most relentless foes… |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #48 The Surfer sends Drax back to Titan to tell the Eternals about the Infinity Gauntlet. The Surfer pays a visit to Galactus who admits that he tampered with the Surfer’s soul when he turned Norrin Radd into his Herald. That way, he’d be able to handle the guilt of being responsible for leading Galactus to inhabited worlds, resulting in the deaths of billions and billions of sentient beings. He restores the Surfer’s link to his soul which unlocks tortuous emotions within him, but helps him accept responsibility for his actions. When the Surfer departs, Thanos materialises and warns Galactus to stay out of his business. The Mad Titan makes the world Galactus was about to consume disappear to get his point across… |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #49 Drax the Destroyer makes it back to Titan, but forgot what he was supposed to tell Mentor and Starfox. Thanos turns an innocent alien creature into a demonic being capable of keeping the Silver Surfer busy. It stalls him for a while before the Surfer heads back on his way… |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #50 When they last fought, Adam Warlock killed Thanos by turning to stone (during THE FINAL THREAT). Now, the Mad Titan animates the golem that was once his body and sends it to attack the Silver Surfer, attacking him on the physical plane while drudging up the harsher parts of his life on the mental one. Thanos learns that the Surfer’s disgraced father committed suicide when Norrin turned his back on him. That only made it easier for Norrin to give up his home world by committing his life to Galactus. The Silver Surfer destroys the golem, but exhaust him. He falls to Earth and crashes through the window of Doctor Strange‘s house… |
| Must Reads | Issues & Fallout | Event / Crossover |
| Damage Control #4 (1991) The In-Betweener is revealed to have freed himself from imprisonment; Death and the In-Betweener appear alongside each other, despite their past animosity. | ||
| Silver Surfer #51 (1991) A flashback reveals that, right after escaping Dynamo City, the Silver Surfer stops off to talk Nova (Frankie Raye) into being a moral Herald of Galactus. | THE INFINITY GAUNTLET | |
| Thanos Annual #1 (2014) Using the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos travels back in time to visit his past self, following his defeat at the hands of Captain Marvel after the ‘Thanos War’. | ||
| ✔ | Infinity Gauntlet #1-4 (1991) The Silver Surfer warns Doctor Strange that Thanos has the Infinity Gems; Thanos offers Nebula to Death as a gift; Adam Warlock, Gamora and Pip the Troll are resurrected; Thanos wipes out half the population of the universe using the Infinity Gauntlet; Adam Warlock leads the charge against Thanos; Thanos faces the Hulk in combat, but has the Infinity Gauntlet to back him up. | THE INFINITY GAUNTLET |
| Silver Surfer #57-58 (1991) The Silver Surfer confronts the demons from his past. | THE INFINITY GAUNTLET | |
| ✔ | Infinity Gauntlet #5-6 (1991) Mephisto finally betrays Thanos; Mephisto’s prophecy comes true when Nebula steals the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos’ unguarded physical form; Adam Warlock claims the Infinity Gauntlet. | THE INFINITY GAUNTLET |
| Silver Surfer #63 (1992) The Silver Surfer meets the spirit of Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) in the land of the dead, though this may be an illusion. | ||
| ✔ | Warlock and the Infinity Watch #2-6 (1992) Adam Warlock, Gamora, Pip the Troll and Drax the Destroyer become team mates when Warlock distributes the Infinity Gems among individual guardians and forms the Infinity Watch; a mysterious is granted the Reality Gem. | |
| Silver Surfer #67 (1992) Geatar is revealed to have been cloned by Mentor to look after the catatonic Nebula. | THE INFINITY WAR WAR OF THE SEVEN SPHERES | |
| Silver Surfer #84 (1993) The Silver Surfer makes peace with the spirit of his father, Jartran Radd. | THE INFINITY CRUSADE | |
| ✔ | Quasar #58 (1994) The Grandmaster is revealed to have survived his confrontation with Thanos, possibly through further trickery or because Elders of the Universe are notoriously difficult to kill. | |
| Incredible Hulk #417 (1994) The Impossible Man and the Silver Surfer next cross paths when they both attend Rick Jones‘ bachelor party. | WE ARE GATHERED HERE | |
| ✔ | Silver Surfer #97-98 (1994) The Champion of the Universe returns and reveals how he survived his fall; Champion tracks down Thanos, looking for revenge, but Thanos teleports him to the Silver Surfer to deal with. | |
| ✔ | Avengers/Ultraforce #1 (1995) The entity who became the six Infinity Gems is named Nemesis; Nemesis is restored when the Infinity Gems are taken to the Ultraverse (Earth-93060) and come into contact with the lost seventh gem, the Ego Gem. Ultraforce/Avengers #1 (1995) The Avengers and Ultraforce defeat Nemesis by destroying the Ego Gem. | COUNTDOWN TO BLACK SEPTEMBER |
| X-Man & the Incredible Hulk Annual (1998) Thanos faces the Hulk, without the Infinity Gauntlet to back him up. | ||
| ✔ | Avengers: Celestial Quest #5 (2002) The energy left in the realm of the living by Thanos when he died is revealed to have merged with energy from Death to form an abstract entity called the Rot. | |
| ✔ | Amazing Spider-Man #503 (2004) The Gardener returns with no explanation as to how he survived or was resurrected. | |
| Thanos #11 (2004) It’s revealed that Galactus had a Herald before the Silver Surfer called the Fallen One. | ||
| Avengers Assemble #7 (2012) Thanos breaks his non-interference vow with the Collector by using a Cosmic Cube to wipe him and the other Elders of the Universe from existence; the effect of this appears to be only temporary. | ||
| Thanos Rising #1-5 (2013) Thanos’ origin is fully explained (but with numerous contradictions). | INFINITY MARVEL NOW! | |
| ✔ | New Avengers #10 (2013) Thanos is revealed to have ‘dropped progeny’ the more traditional way when his son, Thane, emerges. | INFINITY |
Notable collected editions featuring the Rebirth of Thanos…
| Collected Edition Title | Collects… |
| Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos | Silver Surfer #24-38 Thanos Quest #1-2 |
| Silver Surfer Epic Collection: The Return of Thanos (vol.5) | Silver Surfer #24-38 Silver Surfer: The Enslavers |
| Silver Surfer Epic Collection: Thanos Quest (vol.6) | Marvel Comics Presents #50 [part] Silver Surfer #39-50 Silver Surfer Annual #3 Thanos Quest #1-2 |
| Thanos: Thanos Quest | Thanos Quest #1-2 |
| Collected Edition Title | Includes… |
| Infinity Gauntlet Box Set Slipcase | Silver Surfer #34-38, 40, 44-50 Thanos Quest #1-2 |
| Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus | Silver Surfer #34-38, 40, 44-50 Thanos Quest #1-2 |
| Daredevil Epic Collection vol.14: Heart of Darkness | Silver Surfer Annual #3 |
Reading Order ©OmniverseComicsGuide 2023
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