Thanos

• 1. Introduction

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  Thanos first appeared on a comic book cover dated February 1973, in The Invincible Iron Man #55, and Marvel's heroes have not been rid of him since. He is a warlord from Titan, a moon of Saturn, born into two branches of a superhuman family at once. Writer-artist Jim Starlin created him. Over more than five decades, he has fought the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel counts him among the most powerful beings in its universe. Yet he is rarely a simple brute, and many stories show a villain who believes his own actions are justified. Where did a character like this come from? What does a conqueror want when conquest is easy? And how did a figure squeezed into a single Iron Man story become one of the best-known names in comics?

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• 2. A Psychology Class

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  Jim Starlin came up with Thanos in college psychology classes, taken between his U.S. military service and his first work in comics. The idea grew from Sigmund Freud's concept of a human death drive, which Freud called Thanatos. Starlin remembered inventing Drax the Destroyer in the same class. He was not sure how Drax fit, and guessed it was probably anger management.

  The chance to use them came when editor Roy Thomas asked whether Starlin wanted to write an issue of Iron Man. Starlin felt this might be his only opportunity, since he had no confidence that his career would last more than a few weeks. So both characters were jammed into that one story. Thomas also told him that Thanos was too thin, and Starlin later said he enjoyed beefing him up so much that the character kept growing in size.

  Starlin has acknowledged a debt to Jack Kirby's New Gods series, which was running at DC Comics at the time. He insists, though, that Darkseid was not his starting point. His first Thanos drawings, he says, looked more like Metron, and showed the figure seated in a chair. Starlin also had a whole cast of other gods and things he wanted to draw, which became Thanos and the Titans.

  Thomas looked at the Metron-like sketch and gave his verdict. In Starlin's telling, the editor said: "Beef him up! If you're going to steal one of the New Gods, at least rip off Darkseid, the really good one!" Drax, the other creation from that class, would later play a part in Thanos's own story.

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• 3. Child of Titan

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  Thanos was born on Titan to the Eternals A'lars and Sui-San. His grandfather was Kronos, his uncle was Zuras, and his granduncles were Oceanus and Uranos. He also had a brother named Eros. Thanos carries the Deviant gene, so he looks like the Eternals' cousin race rather than like his own parents.

  That appearance cost him his mother. Sui-San was shocked by the way he looked and believed he would destroy all life in the universe. She went insane and tried to kill him, and only A'lars stopped her. At school, Thanos was a pacifist who played only with Eros and with pets.

  By adolescence, his interests had darkened into nihilism and entropy. He began to worship the physical embodiment of Mistress Death, and eventually he fell in love with her. As an adult, he used his scientific knowledge, mysticism and cybernetic enhancements to increase his strength and powers.

  He then tried to build a new life, siring many children and becoming a pirate. Neither path satisfied him, until Death visited him again. To please her, he murdered his offspring and his pirate captain. Still wishing to impress her, he gathered an army of villainous aliens and began a nuclear bombardment of Titan that killed millions of his own people.

  The Jason Aaron and Simone Bianchi miniseries Thanos Rising expanded this origin in five issues, published monthly beginning in April 2013. Within the original story, Thanos then set out for Earth in search of the Cosmic Cube. As his vessel arrived, it destroyed a car carrying a family who witnessed the landing, and two of them survived.

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• 4. Courting Death

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  The father of that family, Arthur, was preserved as a spirit by the Titanian entity Kronos and given a new form as Drax the Destroyer. His daughter Heather was found by Mentor, Thanos's father, and raised to become the heroine Moondragon. Thanos knew nothing of this.

  The Cosmic Cube story ran through Captain Marvel #25-33, from March 1973 to January 1974. Thanos found the Cube and willed it to make him omnipotent, then discarded it. He imprisoned Kronos and taunted the Kree hero Captain Marvel, also known as Mar-Vell. Captain Marvel finally beat him by destroying the Cube.

  Adam Warlock's war against the Magus and his religious empire brought Thanos back as an ally. Thanos adopted Gamora to serve as his assassin, planning to have her kill Warlock before he could become the Magus. Meanwhile he plotted to reunite with Death. He secretly drained energy from Warlock's Soul Gem and combined it with the other Infinity Gems to build a weapon that could destroy a star.

  Warlock summoned the Avengers and Captain Marvel, but Thanos killed Warlock and captured the heroes. Spider-Man and the Thing freed them. Warlock's spirit then emerged from the Soul Gem and turned the Titan to stone. This storyline filled Strange Tales #178-181 in 1975 and Warlock #9-11 from October 1975 to January 1976. Thanos does not actually appear until the end of Warlock #9. His spirit later returned to accompany the soul of a dying Captain Marvel into the realm of Death.

  Silver Surfer vol. 3, #34 revived Thanos in February 1990. His best-known story came in The Infinity Gauntlet, a six-issue series published from July to December 1991. Resurrected, he gathered the six Infinity Gems again and built the Infinity Gauntlet, which made him omnipotent. To prove his love to Death, he erased half of the living things in the universe, and many heroes were among the dead.

  Nebula and Adam Warlock later undid these events. Warlock revealed that Thanos had always allowed himself to be defeated, because he secretly knew he was not worthy of ultimate power. The storyline has remained one of Marvel's most popular. Afterward, Thanos joined Warlock in a team called the Infinity Watch, whose series ran 42 issues from February 1992 to August 1995.

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• 5. Atonement and War

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  The ancient Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten used a source of cosmic power called the Heart of the Universe to seize control of present-day Earth. In the process, he killed most of the planet's heroes. Thanos defeated him with a time-travel stratagem. He then used the Heart to reverse Akhenaten's actions and to correct a flaw in the universe. For this, Death kissed him and spoke to him for the first time. Changed by the experience, he told Adam Warlock that he would no longer seek universal conquest.

  He next set out to atone for the destruction of Rigel-3. Thanos agreed to help a colony of Rigellians evacuate their planet before Galactus could devour it. During this mission, he learned that Galactus was collecting the Infinity Gems to end his unyielding hunger. Galactus was also being manipulated into releasing a multiversal threat called Hunger, which feeds on entire universes. Thanos opposed the plan, but Galactus freed the entity anyway, and the two then teamed up to destroy it.

  On the way to the Kyln, an intergalactic prison, Thanos met Death for the first time since rebuilding existence. She said she was worth wooing, but told him he must offer something other than death. In the Kyln, he found Peter Quill, who had retired as Star-Lord, and Gladiator of the Shi'ar empire. He also found the Beyonder, which had lost its memory after choosing to take a humanoid female form. Thanos fought the Beyonder, shutting down its mind and leaving its power trapped in a comatose body. He ordered the prison officers to keep it on life support indefinitely, so that the entity could not be reborn.

  The destruction freed the prisoners, including the Fallen One, revealed to be the true first Herald of Galactus. Thanos defeated him and placed him under complete mental control. These events led into Annihilation: Silver Surfer, published from June to September 2006, and the six-issue Annihilation, from October 2006 to March 2007. In that war, Thanos allied with the genocidal villain Annihilus. He persuaded Tenebrous and Aegis, two ancient foes of Galactus, to join the assault, and together they defeated the World Devourer and the Silver Surfer.

  Annihilus wanted the secret of the Power Cosmic and asked Thanos to study Galactus. Thanos then learned the true goal, which was to destroy all life and leave Annihilus as the sole survivor. He decided to free Galactus. Drax the Destroyer killed him before he could.

  In The Thanos Imperative, published from July to December 2010, Oblivion chose him as the new Avatar of Death. He was resurrected before his mind had fully formed and went on a mindless rampage until the Guardians of the Galaxy captured him. He pretended to help them against the invading Cancerverse. Once he understood its origin, he killed an alternate Mar-Vell, the self-proclaimed Avatar of Life, and the Cancerverse collapsed. Nova sacrificed himself trying to trap Thanos inside the imploding reality, but Thanos escaped and returned to Earth seeking an artificial cosmic cube. He formed a new version of the criminal group Zodiac to retrieve it. The Avengers and the Guardians defeated him, and he was placed in the custody of the Elders of the Universe. He returned anyway, in Avengers Assemble #1 in March 2012.

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• 6. Thanos Against Himself

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  Jonathan Hickman's Infinity miniseries of 2013, drawn by Jim Cheung, Jerome Opeña and Dustin Weaver, put Thanos at the center of an Earth invasion. He attacked after learning that most of the Avengers had temporarily left the planet. At Attilan, he offered to spare the city if the Inhumans between the ages of 16 and 22 were put to death. Black Bolt later told the Illuminati the real purpose. Thanos wanted to find and kill Thane, an Eternal and Inhuman hybrid whom he had secretly fathered years earlier.

  Jim Starlin himself returned in May 2014, working with Ron Lim on the one-shot Thanos Annual. It was a prelude to a trilogy of original graphic novels. The first, Thanos: The Infinity Revelation, appeared that August. The second, Thanos: The Infinity Relativity, followed in June 2015, and the third, Thanos: The Infinity Finale, in 2016. A four-issue miniseries called Thanos vs. Hulk, set before the trilogy, began in February 2015.

  One of the strangest Thanos stories sends him through time during The Infinity Conflict. On Titan, he found Pip the Troll and an older Eros who had come from the future. Eros warned him about an enemy made of darkness that would one day destroy him. Thanos was then confronted by his own future self, who altered the plan and took control of the younger body. Through that body, the future Thanos killed Adam Warlock and seized a treasure from a comet, more powerful than the Infinity Gems. He absorbed every cosmic being in his universe, including Eternity and Infinity. Then he merged with his future self and faced the Living Tribunal and the One Above All.

  The future Thanos absorbed both of them and became the entire multiverse. He eventually concluded that existence was a never-ending cycle of torment and decided to end it by killing himself, which would free everyone. Eros and Pip traveled to earlier points in Thanos's life to tell him he was loved. It made no difference. Kang stopped Eros from reaching more of Thanos's past selves, and the distracted future Thanos lost his grip on the present one. The present Thanos reset everything and erased his own future.

  During Civil War II, Thanos prepared to raid a Project Pegasus facility to steal a Cosmic Cube. A team of Avengers, tipped off by a vision from Ulysses Cain, ambushed him. He mortally wounded War Machine and critically injured She-Hulk before going on a killing spree. Black Panther, Blue Marvel and Monica Rambeau stopped him with a device that blocks the electrical synapses in his brain.

  In 2017, as part of Marvel NOW!, Thanos received a solo title written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Mike Deodato. After 11 issues, Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw took over. In the story, he escaped captivity and took back his Black Order forces from Corvus Glaive. At his Black Quadrant outpost, he discovered that he was dying. He demanded that his father, Mentor, find a cure, and killed him when Mentor could not. The Shi'ar Imperial Guard later detained him. After he escaped, he went to the God Quarry to regain his powers, and there he embraced villainy and attacked Eros.

  Then a being known only as the Rider seized Thanos on the Chitauri homeworld and carried him millions of years into the future. There he met King Thanos, an elderly version of himself who had destroyed nearly all life in the universe. The old king needed help to defeat the Fallen One, the last being left, so that he could reunite with Death. The Fallen One turned out to be a darkened Silver Surfer. After the Surfer was killed, Death arrived, and the younger Thanos saw the true reason he had been brought there. King Thanos wanted to die by his own hand. At first the younger Thanos agreed, but he stopped, disappointed at how pathetic and submissive his older self had become. He returned to the present, and his actions erased that future timeline.

  In the Infinity Wars storyline, Thanos began plotting to rebuild his gauntlet, after learning the Infinity Stones were being collected again. A woman called Requiem, whom he apparently recognized, quickly killed him. She destroyed the Infinity Gauntlet and commanded the Chitauri loyal to him to die. In 2021, the twelve-issue Eternals vol. 5, by Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribić, reintroduced him as a primary antagonist. Later, in a prelude to A.X.E.: Judgment Day, Druig and Phastos revived him to help remove Zuras from leadership. Druig placed a device in his body to prevent betrayal. Thanos won the vote of the Uni-Mind and became the Prime Eternal. He killed Zuras for revenge and killed Druig to hide his weakness. Zuras was the same uncle who appears in his Titan family tree.

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• 7. Powers and Mind

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  Thanos is a mutant member of the Titanian Eternals, and he has the abilities common to that race, raised to a far higher degree. Several sources feed that strength: his mutant and Eternal heritage, bionic amplification, mysticism and power bestowed by the abstract entity Death. He has enormous superhuman strength, speed and stamina, along with immortality and invulnerability. He can absorb and project vast quantities of cosmic energy, and he has telekinesis and telepathy.

  He can also manipulate matter and live indefinitely without food, air or water. He cannot die of old age, he is immune to all terrestrial diseases, and he resists psychic assaults well. On Titan he trained in the art of war, so he is an accomplished hand-to-hand combatant. He has briefly held his own against Odin and has blasted Galactus off his feet.

  His mind is just as formidable as his body. The source calls him a supergenius in virtually all known fields of advanced science, and he has built technology far beyond anything on contemporary Earth. He often travels in a transportation chair. It can fly through space, project force fields and teleport. It can also carry him through time and across alternate universes.

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• 8. Legacy Online and Onscreen

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  In July 2018, the Reddit forum /r/ThanosDidNothingWrong announced that half of its subscribers would be banned, mirroring the character's plan to eradicate half of all life in the universe. The forum was devoted to sharing theories and memes about Thanos. Its subscribers rose from 100,000 in June to over 700,000 on the 9th of July, and over 350,000 were banned. This was the largest such banning in Reddit's history.

  Forbes writer JV Chamar noted that "Thanos did nothing wrong" had become a popular internet meme. He argued that the film Endgame offers some evidence for that view, citing a line from Captain America: "I saw a pod of whales when I was coming over the bridge... There's fewer ships, cleaner water." Chamar added that, given the extinction crisis driven by human actions, the villain might even have saved the world in the long run.

  Critics have ranked him highly. George Marston of Newsarama placed Thanos first on a list of the best Marvel supervillains, and Comic Book Resources put him first among the 13 most important Marvel villains. IGN ranked him sixth among its top 25 Marvel villains and 47th among its top 100 comic book villains. Complex placed him 21st on a list of the 25 greatest comic book villains of all time.

  Some alternate versions have also appeared. In the Amalgam Comics universe, Thanoseid is a composite of Thanos and DC's Darkseid. In Earth X, Thanos's mother was a Skrull, but he was deceived into believing Death was his mother. After learning the truth, he destroyed Death with the Ultimate Nullifier. A young Thanos called Kid Thanos belongs to the multiversal Masters of Evil. In the Ultimate Marvel universe, he rules Acheron and is the father of Ronan the Accuser.

  Damion Poitier played Thanos in the film The Avengers in 2012. Josh Brolin then took the role in Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015, Avengers: Infinity War in 2018 and Avengers: Endgame in 2019. Brolin also voiced alternate timeline versions in the first season of the animated series What If...? in 2021. In the Infinity Saga films, he mainly played the character through motion capture.

  Animated series have used many voices. Gary Krawford voiced Thanos in Silver Surfer, where broadcast standards at Fox made him a worshiper of Lady Chaos rather than Death. Isaac C. Singleton Jr. voiced him in Avengers Assemble and Guardians of the Galaxy, and in several Lego specials. Maurice LaMarche voiced him in The Simpsons.

  In video games, Andrew Jackson voiced Thanos as a playable character in Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. He appears in Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, voiced by Jake Hart, where he seeks an ancient artifact called the Eternity Forge. Archive audio of Brolin voiced him in Fortnite Battle Royale. Two novels followed: Thanos: Death Sentence by Stuart Moore in 2017, and a second in 2018 by Barry Lyga. Marvel Puzzle Quest added two comic book versions in December 2016. In April 2019 it added a third, inspired by the film and named Endgame.

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