So who was that Guy at the End of Thor?

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THOR: THE DARK WORLD

Non-comics fans have no idea the power we feel coming out of Marvel movies. To them we're almost like oracles, using our knowledge of arcane scripture to chart the future paths of gods. And when Samuel L Jackson showed up at the end of Iron Man, it appeared our services would become even more required as things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe were getting more complex.

And that brings me to the mid-credits teaser of Thor: The Dark World, where my services are once again needed. A five-minute appearance of actor Benicio Del Toro as a very strange alien gent has confused mass audiences and provided the key to the MCU's future. If you want to know who Del Toro was and what this means read on after the jump...

First of all, let me describe the teaser. Sif and Volstagg are being lead through a weird alien warehouse full of weird alien stuff by a pink girl. The pink girl then introduces Del Toro as Taneleer Tivan, the Collector. The Collector bows to the two Asgardians and asks why they've come. Sif hands him a small box containing the Aether, the superweapon from the main plot of the movie. The Collector asks why they just don't keep it on Asgard to which Volstagg explains that they can't because they already have the Tesseract there. Direct quote: "It is unwise to keep two Infinity Stones in one place". The Collector assures them the Aether will be safe in his collection and they leave. As soon as the two depart, he says, "one down, five to go". Black out.

The Collector in the comics

So what does this mean exactly? Well The Collector was one of Marvel's first big cosmic villains. He was an Elder of the Universe, a race of super-immortal beings as old as the universe. Each of the Elders has a specific obsession that defined how they would spend their immortal existence. The Grandmaster was obsessed with games, the Champion was obsessed with sports and competition, etc. The Collector's obsession was collecting obviously. This is actually how he first encountered the Avengers. By trying collecting them all.

Now it had been announced that Del Toro was playing the Collector in next summer's Guardians of the Galaxy, but nobody expected him to show up here. That's actually the biggest thing Del Toro specifically brings here. This is our first indication of what Guardians' aesthetic will be. And so far, I'm digging it. Del Toro looks like he wandered off the set of 60s Star Trek and everything else has a very Fifth Element/2000 AD look to it. This is exactly the kind of colorful comic-bookiness Sci-Fi movies have been lacking since probably the 70s and I for one am glad to see it back. It looks to fit the kooky humorous tone of Guardians perfectly.

But the more interesting thing here is the mention of the Infinty Stones. Called Infinity Gems in the comics, these are six magic stones which when brought together in the Infinity Gauntlet basically makes you God. Again, we kind of saw this coming. The Infinity Gauntlet (sans stones) was a background prop in the first Thor and the reveal of the gauntlet's most infamous wielder Thanos at the end of The Avengers just made it a matter of time until they showed up. But the details have been changed for the movies.

The Infinity Gems

In the comics the six Infinity gems were just that, gems. Each one had a different color to denote its power but they were still just gems. But in the movies it appears the Infinity Stones will be portrayed differently. For example, both the Tesseract and the Aether have been name-checked as stones and they both look very different. The Tesseract is a glowy blue cube and the Aether is a swirly black & red silt/mist cloud. This has the effect of throwing off long-time Marvelites like myself. We thought we knew what to look for but nope.

This raises the question though, what are the other stones? The Aether is clearly meant to be the Power stone because of its red color and universe-destroying capability. Fuzzier though is the Tesseract. Fans are speculating it to be the Space stone, capable of universal teleportation, but traditionally the space stone is purple not blue. Plus, the Tessearct is already the MCU's stand-in for the Cosmic Cube. But we'll go with it for now. That leaves the Soul, Time, Mind, and Reality stones.

Adam Warlock
(The Soul Gem is the glowy thing on his forehead)

I had guessed that the Mind stone, which is blue, was the gem in Loki's spear from The Avengers, explaining its brainwashing powers. The fate of the spear is currently unknown though and if the stones aren't actually stones then I'm probably wrong. Other than that, I've got nothing. A plot synopsis for Guardians seems to indicate they will have at least one of the stones and the green Soul stone is traditionally held by Guardians supporting character Adam Warlock. No announcement has been made about Warlock being in the film but I wouldn't put it past Marvel to surprise us.

At any rate, this one five-minute scene has some major ramifications for the future of the MCU and it looks like things are going to get way more cosmic here on out. Any guesses on what the other Infinity Stones could be? Share in the comments.