Since the tease at the end of 2012’s “The Avengers,” both comics fans and movie fans alike have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the villain Thanos to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now it’s 2018 and we’re less than two weeks away from “Avengers: Infinity War.” With 18 movies, it can be difficult to catch up or even parse the information you need to know. So here’s a review of the who and what you need to know before going into Infinity War.

The MCU’s 10-year road to Infinity War all started with the surprise hit of “Iron Man.” Tony Stark is a billionaire, weapons manufacturer, and after being kidnapped by a terrorist organization and forced to build weapons for them. While he’s in the cave Tony begins to realize that he’s been dealing in death, and vows to stop dealing weapons and to help people however he can. It just so happens that the way he decides to help people is by building a suit of armor to protect the people his weapons are used against.

“Iron Man” is important to the MCU because it set a blueprint and a tone that the rest of the universe continues to build off of. Including the three other origin stories that “Phase One” presents us, including “Thor,” “Captain America: The First Avenger,” and “The Incredible Hulk.” All these origins combine in “The Avengers.”

In “The Avengers,” Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk have to come together for the first time to stop Thor’s brother Loki from bringing an alien invasion to destroy New York. This is also the first introduction the Infinity Stones.

In the MCU the Infinity Stones are described in “Guardians of the Galaxy” as “Six Singularities, that existed before creation itself, then the universe exploded into existence and the remnants of this system were forged into concentrated ingots.” Now that’s just sci-fi gibberish, but what it means is that the stones are incredibly powerful artifacts that control an aspect of the universe. The six stones are the Mind (yellow), Space (blue), Reality (red), Power (purple), Soul (orange), Time (green). The abilities of each stone are loosely defined but when they all come together the wielder will become a god. That’s Thanos’ ultimate goal, to gain all the stones and eliminate half of the life in the universe.

Where are the stones right now? I’m glad you asked. The Mind Stone is currently imbedded in the head of The Vision, it was used to bring an A.I to life and it’s what gives him sentience. The Space Stone was most recently stolen and in the possession of Loki, who is on his way to Earth. The Reality Stone was last seen on Knowhere (a giant floating head in space) and it’s current whereabouts are unknown. The Power stone is being kept on the alien planet Xandar until protective custody. The Time stone is being guarded by Doctor Strange, and finally the Soul stone has never shown itself in the MCU, but if I had to guess it’s most likely being held somewhere in Wakanda by Black Panther.

With half of the stones being kept on Earth, Thanos is coming to take over the planet and our heroes are not the biggest fans of that. While the heroes were recently divided by infighting they are going to half to come together to face their largest threat yet. Since there are ver 76 characters joining the battle for the universe, if you have never seen a Marvel movie you might be a little lost, but hopefully this gave you enough to follow along when “Avengers: Infinity War” comes to theaters worldwide on April 27.