What is The Infinity Gauntlet?

It's Thanos's six-gemmed golden glove from Marvel Comics and the MCU, which fans turned into a Photoshop and DIY cosplay meme format starting in 2015.

Where did The Infinity Gauntlet come from?

The object debuted in Silver Surfer Vol. 3 #44 in December 1990, and the earliest known meme edit was posted to Twitter by @WorkerSpice on May 22, 2015.

What does The Infinity Gauntlet mean?

In meme use, slapping the gauntlet onto someone or something is shorthand for giving them god-tier power, usually as a joke about politicians, celebrities or an obviously useless household object.

How do you use The Infinity Gauntlet?

People typically Photoshop the glove onto a famous person's hand, or build a DIY version from a yellow rubber glove with six colored objects stuck to the knuckles like the stones.

Is The Infinity Gauntlet still popular?

It's a classic Marvel-fandom reference that spikes again around new MCU releases, with the DIY yellow-glove bit still the most-shared version.

The Infinity Gauntlet

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Published October 1, 2026

The Infinity Gauntlet is Thanos's golden power glove from Marvel Comics, which fans turned into a Photoshop and DIY meme format starting in 2015 by sticking the gauntlet onto celebrities, politicians, and household objects. After Avengers: Infinity War hit theaters in 2018, cheap rubber-glove parodies exploded on Twitter and became one of the defining Marvel fandom jokes of that year.

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Overview

The Infinity Gauntlet meme comes in two main flavors. The first is a Photoshop edit that drops the golden, six-gemmed glove onto the hand of a public figure, usually to joke that whoever is wearing it suddenly outranks everyone else on earth. Early targets included Barack Obama, Jeb Bush and Michael Jackson, with captions riffing on world domination and pop-culture rivalries6.

The second flavor is the DIY cosplay parody. People grab a yellow dish-washing glove, glue, paint or stick colorful gems, candy, rings or random pantry items onto the knuckles, and photograph the result as an "affordable" or "budget" Infinity Gauntlet2. The joke lands on how little effort it takes to get the general silhouette right while looking absolutely nothing like Thanos's screen-worn prop. Both formats trade on the gauntlet's status in Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the ultimate symbol of unchecked power5.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Marvel Comics (source) / Twitter (viral spread)

Date

2015

The Infinity Gauntlet itself debuted in Marvel's Silver Surfer Vol. 3 #44 in December 1990, where Mistress Death tasks Thanos with wiping out half the universe using six Infinity Gems slotted into the glove7. Marvel created the object; the meme formats around it were made by fans decades later and the original artist of any specific edit is unconfirmed.

The earliest documented Infinity Gauntlet meme on social media came from Twitter user @WorkerSpice on May 22, 2015, who posted a Photoshop of President Barack Obama wearing the gauntlet with the caption "ISIS may have the Dragon Balls... but they don't have the Infinity Gauntlet! @POTUS"1. The post pulled in roughly 50 retweets and 95 likes over the following three years and set the template of superimposing the glove onto whichever powerful or famous person was in the news6.

How It Spread

After @WorkerSpice's 2015 Obama edit, Photoshopped gauntlets kept turning up on other targets through the mid-2010s, including Jeb Bush during his presidential run and Michael Jackson in archival photos6. These stayed niche until the April 2018 release of Avengers: Infinity War pushed Thanos and the glove into the mainstream and reignited the format.

The DIY wave kicked off on April 29, 2018, when @MrFord213 tweeted an "affordable" Infinity Gauntlet built from a yellow rubber glove, which collected more than 80 retweets and 200 likes within two weeks2. The bit went supernova on May 7, 2018, when @NateDingeman posted a yellow glove with a brownie glued to the knuckles; the tweet racked up over 79,000 retweets and 295,000 likes in four days3. Copycats followed almost immediately, swapping the brownie for rings, candy, plastic gems and other pantry objects.

On May 10, 2018, Twitter's editorial team compiled the trend into an official Moments page spotlighting fan-made gauntlets, which helped push the DIY format in front of users outside the Marvel fandom4. The gauntlet stayed a recurring reference point through the rest of the Infinity Saga and is still revived on Marvel release days and Halloween5.

Timeline

1990-12

The Infinity Gauntlet debuts in Marvel's Silver Surfer Vol. 3 #44, with Mistress Death tasking Thanos to collect the six Infinity Gems.

2015-05-22

Twitter user @WorkerSpice posts a Photoshop of Barack Obama wearing the gauntlet, the earliest documented meme use of the format.

2018-04-27

Avengers: Infinity War opens in theaters, pushing Thanos and the gauntlet into mainstream pop culture.

2018-04-29

@MrFord213 tweets an 'affordable' Infinity Gauntlet made from a yellow rubber glove, kicking off the DIY trend.

2018-05-07

@NateDingeman's yellow glove with a brownie on the knuckles goes viral, pulling 79,000+ retweets in four days.

2018-05-10

Twitter publishes a Moments page compiling fan-made DIY Infinity Gauntlets.

How to Use This Meme

The Photoshop version typically layers a transparent PNG of the Infinity Gauntlet over the dominant hand of a politician, celebrity or fictional character, with a caption that frames them as impossibly powerful or petty. The DIY cosplay version typically starts with a yellow rubber glove to mimic the gold base, then adds six colored objects (gumdrops, LED rings, plastic jewels, a brownie) in roughly the right positions for the Space, Time, Reality, Mind, Soul and Power stones3. Common convention is to pose the hand mid-snap and caption it with a Thanos quote or a mundane household goal.