Infinity War: The Living Tribunal Explained

so the Living Tribunal makes its first full on appearance and Marvel Comics and strange tales issue number 158 but what's actually interesting here is that strange tales issues number 156 57 58 and 59 we're actually part of the sort of ongoing combined story whereby dr. strange encounters a phone named Umar the unmentionable and by virtue of being unable to defeat Umar on his own releases a multi-dimensional being named zom and what we see is that when zom is released of course dr. strange attempts to stop zom after a zombie gets to run amok and the Living Tribunal appears almost immediately the Living Tribunal dispatches zom fairly quickly and then decrees to dr. strange that zom or I'm sorry that the planet Earth has to be destroyed from here we see dr. strange pleading with a living tribunal asking the Living Tribunal why it is that the Living Tribunal has simply just arrived here and passed judgment without offering any or without allowing dr. strange to present any real case here we see the Living Tribunal responding to Doctor Strange telling him that the laws the sort of law and order court system type of scenario that we have here on the planet Earth has no real bearing on the Living Tribunal that the Living Tribunal exists beyond dimensions and therefore does not really care about the wishes and wants of the inhabitants of the planet Earth but we also see that the Living Tribunal wants to sort of show dr. strange what it is that he's done that has led to this circumstance whereby Earth has to be destroyed now of course this is really just Marvel giving us a chance to understand that bigger picture and to simply just give us a chance to see things from a living tribunals perspective and what we see is that by virtue of Doctor Strange releasing zom in order to help him defeat umar that dr. strange has a sort of upset this cosmic balance now what this cosmic balance is we don't really understand yet but what we see is that the Living Tribunal goes as far as to decree that his three faces have judged against the planet Earth and Doctor Strange now this is very important when it comes to the Living Tribunal and the reason why is because all three phases of a Living Tribunal have to agree on a judgment in order for that judgment to to be passed in order for that judgment to be implemented and what we see is that the first unshredded face the face that we can fully see is the face of equity and this is the face of the Living Tribunal that pertains to being just that pertains to being unbiased the second face is the face of revenge this is the face of the Living Tribunal which seeks out - to implement or I guess to affect those or to judge those that it receives to have harmed them or to have intentionally done something to upset the cosmic balance of a particular dimension universe or a reality the third face and the completely shrouded face is the face of necessity and this is simply the face that represents the fact that something needs to be done about this particular action and in order again in order for the Living Tribunal to actually implement judgment that all three of these faces have to agree on the fact that some judgment needs to be implemented in order for the Living Tribunal to act from here we get an explanation of what it was what kind of cosmic imbalance dr. strange had created that required the actions of a Living Tribunal and what we learn is that when all realities were created when all dimensions have either come into existence currently or had previously been created that in terms of dr. Strange's place and the cosmos and in the multi and the multiverse that he is simply but one facet that every single dimension has a master of the mystic arts more or less the dimension of Dormammu houses Dormammu himself who is the master of the mystic arts within his own dimension and someone is so forth then what we see is that by virtue of dr. strange releasing zom that dr. strange has created a circumstance whereby there are now two masters of the mystic arts more or less in the same dimension and the problem with this is that it's upset the cosmic balance and so the Living Tribunal has decreed that the planet Earth needs to be destroyed in order to keep this from happening again what we see is that of course dr. strange pleads with with the Living Tribunal telling the Living Tribunal of that not all hope is lost that the earth isn't necessarily this place that inherently and inherently houses evil that it's a place that can be saved and so of course we see the Living Tribunal at the end of strange tales issue number 158 offering a circumstance or offering a opportunity to dr. strange to save the planet Earth where dr. strange can take a period of time to demonstrate that the earth is not beyond saving that the earth is an inherently good place which of course he is successfully able to do and the Living Tribunal withdraws now from here we switch forward several years to the Silver Surfer vol 3 issue number 31 and all this really does is I give us a better understanding of the faces of the Living Tribunal and what we learn here is that the faces of the Living Tribunal are not absolute that is to say the faces of vengeance necessity and equity are not an absolute standard in terms of how they're perceived that an individual that looks upon the Living Tribunal will see the faces of vengeance necessity and equity relative to their stance and their life experiences within the Marvel cosmos and so Doctor Strange would look upon these three faces and see something vastly different than what the Silver Surfer would see now what we also see is a several years later actually in 2006 we switch over to she-hulk volume 2 issue number 12 and what we see here is again a little bit more of an expansion in terms of the the Living Tribunal whereby we learn about the fourth face of a Living Tribunal and this is something that I'd hope you noticed by this point that the Living Tribunal has four sides to its head but we only ever see three faces what's really interesting about this particular scenario is that the Living Tribunal again rehashes the the various the the three faces that he has but then he mentions his fourth faces hidden face and he tells she-hulk to simply look upon his hidden face and when she does she sees a reflection of herself and what the what the letme tribunal tells to her is that the I guess the the fourth face is the face of a mirror it's the cosmic mirror which reminds people to always judge others as they would have themselves judged now whether or not this is Marvel attempting to maybe set up some sort of moral code or attempting to elevate the Living Tribunal to being a reflection of the one above all is something that we're not entirely sure about if anything I would go as far as to say that this may very well be I guess a step in a different direction that we had seen and the Silver Surfer volume three issue number 31 where I guess so let me tribe you don't had told the Silver Surfer that at one point in time the fourth face could have represented this stranger but regardless of the circumstances the Living Tribunal is a very I guess a very rigid in a very absolute character and this is something that I find pretty refreshing about his role in the Marvel Universe that there are a lot of characters whose motivations whose mecha nations whose desires in the Marvel Universe could be interpreted could really be looked at in a multitude of different ways and a really subjective based on the storylines based on the events that are taking place so with a living tribunal it's not that way the Living Tribunal only shows up in times when the multiverse or a particular universe is threatened to the point that it upsets some kind of cosmic balance now this element of the Living Tribunal only appearing when a cosmic balances has been upset there's something I would like for you to keep in the back of your head because this will become very important when we get into the Infinity Gauntlet and we see eternity I guess appealing to the Living Tribunal and asking the Living Tribunal to intervene regarding the actions of Thanos possession of the Infinity Gauntlet but again with regards to our discussion about the one above all and the Living Tribunal an important thing to bear in mind here is that of course a Living Tribunal is second to the one above all but these two individuals exists outside the realm of the of a single universe they exist in a sort of position to where they oversee multiverses and while the Living Tribunal exists to judge all the multiverses and to ensure that cosmic balances remain that you're talking about characters who have such a high caliber level of power that there really is no difference between the two of them that individuals in the Marvel Universe would simply look upon both the one above all and the Living Tribunal and see them equally because their power could only be quantified by simply saying they can do everything there's really no point in which you could say one of them could do more than the other of course I would go as far as to say that the one above all could easily eliminate the let me Tribunal being that the one above all was the one who created the Living Tribunal but again at this point you're talking about a level of power that's so extreme that there's really no differentiation between how how their powers would be perceived if they ever were to use them to their full extent with that being said this is pretty much it when it comes to the Living Tribunal again he's very rigid he's very absolute in terms of his stance in the Marvel Universe and there really isn't a whole lot to offer in terms of discussion in terms of interpretation of the Living Tribunal because it really isn't anything to interpret he simply just exists to carry out the judgement of the one above all and to ensure that cosmic balances remain in check so that no one universe becomes a threat to any of the other universes within the Marvel multiverse with that being said I'm gonna go ahead and bring this video to an end to hope you guys enjoyed it if you did let me know and I will catch you guys later peace

Channel: Comics Explained

Views: 1,134,198

Keywords: fluidicbeats, x-men the days of future past, x men days of future past explained, guardians of the galaxy, marvel comics guardians of the galaxy, captain america the winter soldier, captain america the winter soldier trailer 2, captain america the avengers, the avengers best scenes, the avengers fighting together, the avengers age of ultron, the avengers age of ultron comiccon, the avengers age of ultron comic con, thor the dark world, thor the dark world heimdall

Id: VwDlc9LeoTQ

Length: 10min 52sec (652 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 22 2014