The Netflix original series Kid Cosmic centers on five Cosmic Stones of Power similar to Marvel’s Infinity Stones. The elemental crystals of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are remnants of six singularities predating creation that represent different aspects of the universe — Space, Reality, Power, Soul, Mind, and Time. Similarly, the 5 Cosmic Stones of Power are remnants of a world destroyed by Erodius the Planet Killer that correspond to five alien species. Both the Cosmic Stones of Power and Infinity Stones are core elements of their respective stories that each grant their user time, space, and body-altering superpowers.
Kid Cosmic tells the story of an orphaned boy known simply as “Kid” who discovers five powerful cosmic stones in the wreckage of a spaceship. Desperately seeking to become a superhero, Kid glues the “five Cosmic Stones of Power” onto hex nuts to create the “rings of power." Although not worn as rings, the Infinity Stones are housed in various objects such as the crystalline cube-shaped Tesseract, the Eye of Agamotto pendant, Loki’s Sceptor, and an ancient orb. In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos collects all six stones in his Dwarven-made Uru glove known as the Infinity Gauntlet, granting him many similar powers as those wielded by Kid and his team of superheroes.
Shortly after fashioning the magical stones to hex nuts, Kid sets out to test their powers. The green Stone of Power is the first to receive a test run and grants Kid the ability to fly, which sparks the interest of local teenager Jo. She convinces Kid he’ll need help in defending Earth from alien invaders, and tests the purple Stone of Power, which opens teleportation portals much like Marvel’s Space Stone. Kid’s four-year-old neighbor, Rosa, acquires the blue Stone of Power and turns into a 40-foot giant. Kid’s hippy grandfather, Papa G, wields the yellow Stone of Power, which can create multiple versions of its user, similar to the capabilities of Marvel's Reality Stone. Kid hides the red Stone of Power inside the collar of a cat named Tuna Sandwich, who subsequently receives visions of the future from a third eye manifested on his forehead, similar to Marvel’s Time Stone.
While the Infinity Stones are, perhaps, the most obvious antecedent to the 5 Cosmic Stones of Power, there are other objects from comics and films similar to Kid Cosmic’s stones. A lesser-known Marvel comics storyline is the Merlin Stones, six magical stones, or gems as they’re also called, once belonging to the sorcerer Merlin. The stones debuted in 1962’s Fantastic Four #5 along with the character Doctor Doom, who sends the male members of the eponymous team back in time to retrieve the stones from the treasure chest of famed pirate Blackbeard. The Merlin Stones, which can open portals with their reality-altering powers, pop up again at various times, and Doom even embarks on a hunt to collect all six scattered stones much like Thanos. The Cosmic Stones are also similar to that of the DC's famous Green Lantern Power Rings, which grant those who wear them a number of interesting abilities including energy projection, force field creation, flight, and access to wormholes in space.
Kid Cosmic’s 5 Cosmic Stones of Power may share certain similarities with the MCU's Infinity Stones, but the difficulty of finding them is not one. What took Thanos a series of films to achieve Kid does in the first five minutes of episode 1. However, for the Netflix original series, the lesson lies not in the journey of finding the stones but in the learning of how to wield them, from which the show’s theme — “Life doesn’t come with an instruction manual” — emerges.