Marvel has revealed the main villains who will be joining Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, and they are The Black Order.

In case you have been living under a bloody rock, Disney is currently hosting its infamous biennial event, the D23 Expo. If you didn’t know, D23 is essentially Comic-Con but for Disney, where they announce literally anything and everything related to and owned by Disney.

Some juicy news which has already come out is that there’s going to be Star-Wars themed lands coming to Disneyland and Walt Disney World which will be titled “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge”. Kingdom Hearts 3 is set to come out in 2018. There’s been heaps of updates about Disney’s new movies including Frozen 2, Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck it Ralph 2, Incredibles 2, Toy Story 4, and finally some new material, Coco. Even better, we’re also going to be seeing Will Smith bring the Genie to the silver screen in the up and coming live action Aladdin movie.

And while that’s all good and all, allow me to get to the crème de le crème – the Avengers: Infinity War news. This movie is literally shrouded in more secrets than Gretchen Weiners’ hair, so when news does come out, you can be sure everyone’s going H.A.M.

But I digress. Because today, Josh Brolin, Thanos himself, has revealed the existence of the Black Order in the MCU! Check out this clip from Geek Tyrant to take a look at Thanos’ children.

But if you’re worried that you have no idea who they are, that’s perfectly alright. Unless you are currently up to date with Marvel Comics, there’s no real reason that you should know who they are. So first thing’s first, Who are the Black Order?

Who are the Black Order?

The Black Order in Marvel comics are a group that Thanos enlists to help him achieve his goals in Jonathan (may he be blessed) Hickman’s Infinity story, released in 2013.

Becoming his de-facto generals, they essentially lead his armies, and are basically those mini-bosses you have to face before you get to the big-bad in any video game. Having said that, it looks like there will be some differences in the MCU. So rather than being some sinister group he recruits, it has been announced that the Black Order will be Thanos’ children, (probably adopted but who cares), and would have grown up with Gamora and Nebula from Guardians of the Galaxy.

In the comics they’re a group of five mean, clean, fighting machines who include: Black Dwarf (ironically the largest in size), Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw, and Supergiant. The latter doesn’t appear in the D23 reveal, so she may have gotten the boot this time around. In the Infinity storyline, Thanos orders the Black Order to go to several locations along the Earth to try and achieve several objectives: find his son, and find the Infinity gems.

So let’s give a special introduction to the group, starting off with Black Dwarf.

Black Dwarf

If the Black Order were a cell, then Black Dwarf would be its mitochondria. In his arsenal of skills, he has superhuman strength, density, and durability as well as unbreakable skin. In his physical arsenal, he has an axe. So, he’s essentially the Black Order’s answer to the Hulk, but with an axe.

In the Infinity storyline, he’s ordered by Thanos to deal with Black Panther’s elite nation of Wakanda.

Proxima Midnight

In the comics, Proxima Midnight is the groups best fighter and killer. So kind of like Black Widow or Gamora. Her abilities include invulnerability, and superhuman strength, speed, and endurance. So, pretty much Black Widow or Gamora on steroids.

In the comics, she was sent to the Namor the Submariner’s city Atlantis, and having made a bargain with Namor, discovered that she’d be able to find an infinity stone in Wakanda. If you have literally no interest in the comics, just ignore that last sentence, because Namor has never been mentioned, and to my knowledge will not be part of the MCU.

Her shtick is funnily enough a stick. And by stick, I mean spear. And by spear, I mean something so powerful it can kill anything. Forged by Thanos himself, her spear was created from a sun, trapped in a distorted time space so it was simultaneously a supernova and a black hole. Now I don’t really know what that means but I’m sure it’s power levels are over 9,000. When Proxima throws her spear, it will never miss its mark, and what’s worse is that it’s imbued with a kind of poison which can kill or immobilise anything within seconds. Apparently it’s been able to bind the Hulk, reverting him back to Bruce Banner. So that’ll be fun!

Corvus Glaive

If Thanos is George Washington, then Corvus Glaive is Alexander Hamilton (his right-hand man). In the comics, Corvus goes to the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning (the new school where the X-Men are based) to try and find Thanos’ son.

Corvus has superhuman strength, speed, durability, and endurance. So essentially has the same abilities as everyone else so far.

While Proxima has a killer spear, Corvus has a killer glaive which can split fucking atoms! So it has the potential to cut Wolverine’s claws, Captain America’s shield, and the toughest thing of all, my self-esteem! What makes it even worse is that as long as his glaive is intact, Corvus can never die. You could kill him, but as long as the glaive was fine, he’d be able to resurrect himself.

Ebony Maw

So you know how I said beforehand that pretty much everyone in the Black Order had superhuman strength, durability, endurance, so on and so forth? Well that doesn’t apply to Ebony Maw. He has the amazing power of Persuasion!

In the comics Ebony was sent to deal with Doctor Strange, and use him to find Thanos’ son, and to gather information from within the Illuminati. And yes, there is an Illuminati in Marvel comics; it’s made of the X-Men’s Professor X, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, the Fantastic Four’s Mr. Fantastic, the Inhuman’s Black Bolt, Namor the Submariner (don’t worry about this one), Black Panther and Captain America for a time.

So yeah, he has limited mental manipulation. But he’s also a super-smart guy and tactician which is handy.

Supergiant

The Black Order’s Supergiant. Source: Marvel Wikia

While it doesn’t appear that she’ll be appearing in the MCU, by reading this article will now be granted with niche knowledge to show off to your friends – showing off how much of a know-it-all you truly are. Supergiant is an omnipath, which is a cool way of saying telepath. Described as a kind of “mental parasite”, she has the ability to control, steal, and devour the minds of anyone she chooses.

In the comics, she also went with Corvus Glaive to the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning to look for Thanos’ son, and literally wiped the floor with all the X-Men.

So there you have it – the Black Order. They do have the potential to be intimidating villains, and I really hope they succeed. With the Russo Brothers leading Avengers: Infinity War, there’s a solid chance that we’ll see them as very developed and menacing characters. And who knows, maybe we’ll finally get a better villain than Loki.

What are your thoughts on The Black Order? If you have any questions, be sure to leave a comment down below!