How do Infinity Stones work in Marvel's Multiverse?

What If…? Episode 8 left a lot of Marvel fans with more questions than answers when it comes to the Infinity Stones.

In this episode we see Ultron split Thanos in half using the mind stone and take the remaining 5 stones from Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet. This essentially makes him Invincible. He then proceeds to destroy all forms of life in the Universe. Maybe Thanos wasn’t such a bad guy after all? I mean he only wanted to wipe out half of all life.

However, it’s what happens next that has fans asking questions. Once all life has been eradicated from the known universe Ultron then senses The Watcher before realising the existence of the Multiverse.

Ultron then breaks the barrier of his own universe and battles The Watcher in multiple universes – all while using the Infinity Stones!

How do Infinity Stones work in other Universes?

Ultron Infinity Stones — *Ultron with the Infinity Stones (@ajdesigns0220)*

If you watched Marvel’s Loki series you might be thinking to yourself that the Infinity Stones are useless outside of their own universe right? They even use them as paperweights. Wrong!

The Loki series taught us that the Infinity Stones are useless in the TVA, not other universes. This is because the Time Variance Authority exists outside of space and time. What If…? Episode 8 showed us that they are equally as powerful in all universes, not just the one from which they originate.

Different from the comics

The Infinity Stones in Marvel comics are actually called Infinity Gems. The Infinity Gems do not work outside of the Universe from which they originate.

Given what we’ve now seen in this What If…? Ultron Won episode it seems as if the Marvel Cinematic Universe is taking a much different approach.

It will be interesting to see how this develops in future Marvel projects. I’m sure this isn’t the last we hear of this with the Multiverse now taking center stage in Spider-man No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

What do you think? Is it getting too confusing? Let us know in the comments or over on social media @geeksgonnageek. As always, thanks for reading.