Thanos

The Mad Titan Thanos in Infinity v1 #4.

Thanos is a male comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Origin

Thanos of Titan in Silver Surfer v3 #34.

Thanos was a male Titanians Eternal who was born to Sui-San and Mentor on the planet Titan.

During his birth, his mother wanted to name him Dione but upon seeing the child's eyes she named him Thanos. (Thanos v2 #14) The very first time his mother laid her eyes on the baby led to her being driven mad where she tried to kill her child. (Thanos Rising v1 #1)

Thanos grew up to have an introvert nature, but despite this and his unusual appearance, Thanos was well accepted by his peers. He was a mild-mannered intellectual that dreamed of becoming a scientist like his neglectful father. However, signs of his true nature started to creep up early on. For instance, he liked to draw dead animals despite vomiting at the prospect of performing a dissection. Thanos' life reached a tipping point when a mysterious girl convinced him to explore with his friends a dangerous cave to overcome his fear of killing. A cave-in separated Thanos from his friends for three days, during which he refused to even think of murdering the inoffensive creatures that lurked underground for sustenance. When he found his friends, they had been killed by the animals living in the caves. After Thanos returned to society, the same girl convinced him to go back to the cave and slaughter the critters in revenge. (Thanos Rising v1 #1) By this point, he came to be recruited by a time travelling Mephisto to join his Multiversal Masters of Evil. (Avengers v8 #38) By the time he was a teenager, Thanos excelled academically and learned faster than he was ever taught. He began to vivisect creatures in secret in order to gain knowledge while searching for an answer to his abnormal genetic makeup. The girl that had helped him overcome his fear of killing became his confidante. Thanos' search for answers escalated into killing fellow Titanians, carrying out the first murders in the history of Titan. Despite declaring that his first two murders were going to be the last, Thanos eventually killed again, and found out that he enjoyed it. Thanos fell in love with his confidante, who enabled and further motivated and Thanos' actions, but she rejected his advances. After murdering 17 people in total, Thanos killed his mother in hopes of finding in her body the key to who he was, both spiritually and physically. (Thanos Rising v1 #2)

He left Titan afterwards, swore off killing, and found a menial job with a pirate crew with whom he explored the cosmos. As years went by, Thanos became detached and unemotional. In many different planets, he would find a partner and mate with them in hopes to feel something again, to no avail. He always abandoned them and the babies they bore him. Thanos eventually came into conflict with his captain in the pirate crew due to his disinclination for murdering. In an act of complete instinct, Thanos slaughtered him, and subsequently seized control of his crew. Thanos decided to embrace his murdering nature, and returned to Titan in secret. He was approached by his old confidante and tried to court her again. She demanded that Thanos prove that he belonged only to her. (Thanos Rising v1 #3) Travelling across space, he plundered worlds with his crew of pirates as he razed worlds and slaughtered people as he looked to please his intended love. In this time, he was said to had strangled the last of his children and lost count of the number of people he had murdered. Despite that, he found mass murder to be dull and boring with no sign from his lover that she was pleased with his endeavours. Thanos had wanted to know if his love had accepted his tribute and was ready to be his bride. She would claim that she would only be with him if he attained the power of god and snuff out all of creation. Angered, he would attempt to have her arrested only to learn that he was speaking to no one in the room. It was then that he learnt that the person he spoke to never existed and was simply Death herself who only appeared to Thanos. The revelation drove him mad and he attempted to destroy his ship along with his crew. However, he found he could not kill himself and instead devoted himself to Death in earning her love. As a sign of his devotion, he had his fleet head towards Titan with the intention of razing it to the ground. (Thanos Rising v1 #4) Once his armada bombarded Titan, Thanos personally descended to murder the survivors. He was confronted by the elder A'Lars, who managed to make Thanos doubt whether Death was actually by his side or if he was simply demented. Thanos spared his father solely so he could watch his son defile the cosmos and prove his sanity. Death finally kissed Thanos, but he found her embrace to be cold. Without his thirst quenched, Thanos continued his journey of destruction. (Thanos Rising v1 #5)

Infinity Gauntlet

As part of his pursuit for power, Thanos amassed a huge armada of battleships. Having kept the planet Earth under surveillance since it first exploded a nuclear weapon, Thanos learned of a power-object called the Cosmic Cube brought into existence by the subversive organization, Advanced Idea Mechanics. Thanos seized control of the reality-altering device and commanded it to give him control over the universe. (Avengers v1 #125) Transformed into a godlike wraith by the Cosmic Cube, Thanos battled the Avengers and the Kree Captain Marvel, the former of whom had already vanquished his armada. When Thanos carelessly discarded the Cube, believing falsely that he had drained it of all power, Mar-Vell struck the cube, willing it to restore the universe to what it had been. Robbed of power, Thanos reverted to mortal form in the center of the universe where his flagship Sanctuary II retrieved him under pre-programmed instructions. Revived, Thanos was dejected to discover that Death had abandoned him because of his failure. (Captain Marvel v1 #33)

The Silver Surfer, later, sought out Thanos in order to discern Death's motives for plaguing him with images of death with the obvious intent on making him her new consort. Enraged, Thanos beat the Surfer to death and delivered his body to the Realm of Death himself. Believing Death to be unappreciative, Thanos revived the Surfer and sought to leave, further insulting Death, who cursed the Titan with immortality, forever barring him from her embrace. (Cosmic Powers Unlimited v1 #1)

Samaritan

After defeating the Thanosi, Thanos decided to atone for the destruction of Rigel-3 caused by the Higher-Powered Thanosi defeated by Thor. (Thor v2 #2000)

Annihilation

After a period of study, he successfully managed to find a means of harnessing the Power Cosmic by turning Galactus into a giant collector of its energy for harvest. He was used as a weapon to destroy worlds then harvest their cosmic energy whereby only a fraction was used to sustain his own functions whilst the great majority was diverted to the Annihilation Wave for Annihilus to feast on it. At first, Annihilus wanted Galactus killed as he wanted none of the energy lost but Thanos had explained that this was impossible as the World Devourer was needed for the process. Afterwards, the Mad Titan met with the captive Moondragon whose body was infested with control bugs thus making her obey his commands. He wanted her to probe the mind of Annihilus to learn of his grand plan and came to learn that the master of the Annihilation Wave had intended to turn Galactus into a giant living bomb with the intention of detonating him to destroy the entire universe. The goal was for Annihilus to be the only survivor and thus fulfil his desire to eliminate all life as they were deemed a threat to his existence. Such a plan saw Thanos underestimating his ally and he had Moondragon freed in order to aid him in enacting a failsafe to free Galactus. Whilst attempting to do so, Drax had arrived having forced his way onto the Annihilation Wave flagship in order to fulfil his purpose in eliminating Thanos. He knocked his daughter Moondragon unconscious and proceeded to land a critical blow against the Mad Titan who gazed upon a vision of Death in the background as he was killed before he could free Galactus thus potentially dooming the universe to Annihilus. (Annihilation v1 #4)

Though dead, the Universal Church of Truth discovered his remains and encased it in a protective cocoon where they proceeded the long process in trying to resurrect him. Upon emerging from the pod, Thanos killed everyone on the Church's homeworld of Sacrosanct as his mind went feral and he was in a mindless rage at being resurrected. The Guardians of the Galaxy attempted to stop him but were unable to match his strength in this state until Star-Lord used a Cosmic Cube to knock the Mad Titan unconscious. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #25)

Infinity

After the Avengers went to fight the Builders, Thanos decided to use the chaos to invade Earth and assembled the Black Order. (Infinity v1 #1)

After Black Bolt denied the tribute to Corvus Glaive, Thanos went personally to Attilan only to find the Inhuman king alone, as the city had been completely evacuated. In an attempt to kill Thanos, Black Bolt attacked him with a sonic scream that activated a Terrigen Bomb and destroyed Attilan, but the Mad Titan survived. While Terrigen Mist spread across the globe, Thanos and Black Bolt emerged from the rubble and had a brief fight that ended with the Inhuman king unconscious. (Infinity v1 #4)

Eight months after its formation, the Cabal had found some degree of legitimacy on Earth. The world stood by and allowed the Cabal to raze Wakanda and claim the ruins as their base of operations. The Cabal continued to protect the universe by destroying colliding Earths, but Namor had grown weary and disgusted with the Cabal's habit of engaging in wholesale slaughter of the colliding Earths' population, as opposed to simply planting the bomb and leaving. (New Avengers v3 #24)

Requiem

In the aftermath, his brother Starfox called a gathering of galactic groups to attend the reading of Thanos's last will and testament. This saw a recording where the Mad Titan proclaimed that he had a final measure in the event of his death to upload his mind into the brain of another person thus allowing him to be reborn. At the same time, the gathering was interrupted by the Black Order who stole Thanos's slain body and took it to Hela as she intended to resurrect the Mad Titan. (Guardians of the Galaxy v5 #1) She was aware of the fact that Thanos had indeed place his mind in another person to aid in his resurrection should his physical form ever be killed with this actually being his brother Eros. Hela came to Starfox where the programming was triggered and Thanos was in possession of his body where he accompanied her back to their headquarters where his body had been reconstructed. It was then that he went through the mind transferral with it expected that Eros would perish in the process. (Guardians of the Galaxy v5 #5)

Whilst dying in a singularity, he came to found by Phastos of the Earth Eternals who had need of an agent to perform set tasks for himself. He had uncovered that the Machine that was on Earth helped maintain resurrect the Eternals by killing humans in the process to use their energies to restore one of the planet's immortal members. Horrified at this revelation, Phastos looked to sabotage the Machine in a way that would prevent this function but knew that his fellow Eternals would not accept such an act. Thus, he forcibly recruited Thanos for this task where he did not fully resurrect the Mad Titan and had placed failsafes designed to kill him if he failed to comply with him. He had Thanos used the teleportation network of the Machine to murder Eternals that would oppose them whilst Phastos conducted his sabotage efforts. (Eternals v5 #6) At Titanos, Thanos was confronted by Ikaris of the Eternals with the two engaging in a battle. (Eternals v5 #2) Ultimately, it was discovered that the tampering of the Machine had created a chain reaction that was devastating the Earth. During this time, Druig came to form an alliance with the Mad Titan where they secretly began to work together. (Eternals v5 #6)

Delving into his father's mind, Thanos acquired the designs that created him. Returning back, he had Domo perform the surgery to full restore him. He came to learn how different he was from the other Eternals whch left Thanos satisfied. After killing Domo, he decided to activate Uranos's arsenal to destroy the planet and intended to take with him both Druig as well as the Oceanic Watch with him as they went off-world. They travelled to Titanos where he prepared to leave for deep space when he was confronted by the Eternals with the Mad Titan determining that Druig had betrayed him. After dealing with Ikaris, he turned his attention to killing his duplicitous minion only for a failsafe to be triggered which trapped Thanos who was then thrown into the timestream. It was discovered that this failsafe stemmed from Phastos who had engineered it into the Mad Titan's body and to which Druig had learnt where he had coded it to trigger if Uranos's arsenal was ever to be activated. Thus, Thanos came to be defeated and leadership of the Eternals passed to Druig who assumed the mantle of Prime Eternal. (Eternals v5 #12)

Overview

Personality and attributes

It was noted that his mother had initially wanted to name the child Dione. (Thanos v2 #14) For a time, he came to hold the title of Prime Eternal after leadership of the Earth Eternals. (Eternals v5 #7)

No one knew how many beings Thanos had killed in the course of his life with he himself not aware of it either. He claimed that he stopped counting the moment he strangled the last of his children. (Thanos Rising v1 #4)

Thanos had no compunction with killing his children and lovers but found that he hesitated in killing himself. (Thanos Rising v1 #4)

At some point, he encountered a female Inhuman of Earth where he impregnated her with his child. She came to flee him and escaped back to Earth where she gave birth to his son named Thane. (New Avengers v3 #10) After dying at one point, his energies came to merge with that of Death with this leading to their child being born. It was a creature of dark energy and horror that was called the Rot that was life yet not life at the same time. The Rot was a creature of darkness that grew as a void within Death and Eternity itself where it consumed anything that entered into it as it grew in size. (Avengers: Celestial Quest v1 #8)

Thanos stated that he did not create life and rather destroyed it with him being disgusted at the thought of fathering a child. (Avengers: Celestial Quest v1 #8) He was noted to had conduct a tribute whereby he demanded any child of his be handed to him so that he could kill them. (Infinity v1 #4)

He was a creature of passion and murder who enjoyed himself in such fights. (Eternals v5 #2)

Powers and abilities

Despite this, it was also claimed that he was not a true Eternal. (Eternals v5 #2) It was said that the power of Kronos was used to marry Deviant material to Eternal material. He was built with natural connectors in his being on a physical, spiritual and psychic level that could integrate him into the Machine. However, it was noted that Thanos was not how his parents had created with death congealed in every part of his body. As a result, he had changed to such a degree that the Machine no longer recognised him as Eternal. (Eternals v5 #12)

As an adult, Thanos augmented his physical strength and powers through his superior scientific knowledge using a combination of mysticism and cybernetic enhancements. (Thanos v2 #13) Energy projection were among the powers that were granted to him as a result of his experiments. (Thanos Rising v1 #4)

He could also augment his strength with his cosmic energy when needed but doing it rarely as his own power was mostly enough. (Thanos: The Infinity Relativity v1 #1)

Such was his power that he was shown to hold his own against Odin. (Warlock and the Infinity Watch v1 #25)

The elite circle of generals that served the Mad Titan were his warriors among the Black Order. (Infinity v1 #1)

One of his creations were the Thanosi that were a type of clone created by Thanos. They were said to be a unique blend of android, clone and mystical doppelganger. These beings were made as a means of testing the strength and reliability of several probable foes as well as comrades. Some of them rivalled the power of Thanos himself but the clones suffered from an intellectual deficiency whereby they always opted for the most destructive answer to any problem. Any form of subtle logic seemed beyond them with their destructive shortcomings meaning they were too dangerous and unpredictable for him to use even with supervision. (Infinity Abyss v1 #3)

Among his armies included the Outriders that were four-armed genetically-engineered parasite-assassins who were not born but rather made to serve the whims of their master. They had no names but a binary designation with their existence being defined by the completion of their task. (Infinity v1 #1)

Within his headquarters, he was known to consult an object known as the Infinity Well that was a cosmic vortex linked to something greater where it became a source of unimaginable universal knowledge. Within was a realm of thought that had no barriers and it was said that all things were possible. (Thanos Quest v1 #1)

Notes

• Thanos was created by Mike Friedrich and Jim Starlin where he made his first appearance in Iron Man v1 #55 (February, 1973).
• In an interview with Jim Starlin, he commented on the characters creation, "I went to college between doing U.S. military service and getting work in comics, and there was a psych class and I came up with Thanos ... and Drax the Destroyer, but I'm not sure how he fit into it, just anger management probably. So I came up to Marvel, and editor Roy Thomas asked if I wanted to do an issue of Iron Man. I felt that this may be my only chance ever to do a character, not having the confidence that my career was going to last anything longer than a few weeks. So they got jammed into it. Thanos was a much thinner character and Roy suggested beefing him up, so he's beefed up quite a bit from his original sketches ... and later on I liked beefing him up so much that he continued to grow in size."
• As noted in Comic Book Legends, Starlin admitted the character's look was influenced by Jack Kirby's Darkseid, "Kirby had done the New Gods, which I thought was terrific. He was over at DC at the time. I came up with some things that were inspired by that. You'd think that Thanos was inspired by Darkseid, but that was not the case when I showed up. In my first Thanos drawings, if he looked like anybody, it was Metron. I had all these different gods and things I wanted to do, which became Thanos and the Titans. Roy took one look at the guy in the Metron-like chair and said: 'Beef him up! If you're going to steal one of the New Gods, at least rip off Darkseid, the really good one!'"

Alternate Versions

• In Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #35 (2006), an alternate version of Thanos was shown in the Ultimate Marvel reality designated as Earth-1610 in the Multiverse. He was shown as being the leader of the Endless Resurgence that was a vast empire in another plane of existence that contained thousands of worlds with its capital being the planet Acheron. Thirty thousand years ago, a powerful artifact known as the Cosmic Cube mysteriously landed on Acheron. Thanos found the artifact and used it in his conquest of the universe and expressed his will and influence to extinguish the will of anyone who opposed him and his "order". His expansion with the Cosmic Cube was halted when the Cube was destroyed by Mother Induna of Halcyon at the cost of her life. Though his expansion was halted, Thanos still rules his conquered empire with his draconian policies in which any resistance from his subject planets are brutally suppressed. In the present, Thanos captured Halcyon's most powerful Seed warrior, Tesseract the Everywhere Man, and attempted to brainwash him to serve his empire. However, when Seed Nineteen were able to rescue Tesseract and joined forces with the Fantastic Four, Thanos knew that Reed Richards would be able to construct the Cosmic Cube. Thanos first personally met Reed by possessing Ben Grimm and "requested" him to construct the cube with coercion by threatening to kill a weakened Johnny Storm. Fortunately Ben was able to resist Thanos' possession. Though Reed refused to build the Cube for Thanos, he however, intended to build it to use it against Thanos. Eventually the Fantastic Four came into a second conflict with Thanos in which he was able to harness Reed's Cosmic Cube and once again used it to express his will by conquering Earth and brainwashed Earth's heroes as his pawns to fight against his enemies. However, when Thanos attempts to utilize the Cube to ascend into godhood, he suddenly realized that there was something wrong and is instantly killed. His permanent death was elaborated that Reed had built a "cut-out" into the Cube so that it would only respond to conscious, willed thoughts, and that he removed this 'cut-out' while Thanos was distracted and which allowed his death. With Thanos' death and the restoration of his past actions of utilizing the Cube, Reed disposed of the Cosmic Cube in a time-rift creating a paradox in which the present events were the cause of Thanos getting the Cube in the past.
• In Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four v1 #48 (2009), an alternate reality version of the Thanos was shown to had existed in the universe designated as Earth-TRN430 in the Multiverse. By the End of Time, he was shown to had a son named Kratos who headed a group called the Black End which sought to ensure all life perished as the universe ended. Thus, their target was Galactus who was attempting to survive the collapse and escape into the new universe. Kratos and his allies were defeated by the Fantastic Four that were brought temporarily forward in time and whose powers were amplified by Galactus's Zero device.
• In Thanos v2 #13 (2017), an alternate future was shown where Thanos succeeded in wiping out all life in the galaxy with him taking the name King Thanos. He ruled the cosmos as a solitary ruler with Frank Castle being turned into his servant as the Cosmic Ghost Rider and Hulk being turned into a ravenous pet that served him. King Thanos used his Ghost Rider to abduct his younger self to aid him in battling the Fallen One under the belief that the destruction of this threat would allow him to finally be with his lady Death.
• In Cosmic Ghost Rider (2018), an alternate timeline was created when the Cosmic Ghost Rider travelled back in time to kill an infant Thanos. However, upon seeing the child, he decided to take him away and attempted to raise him to be a force for good. This resulted in a Thanos that saw the Cosmic Ghost Rider as his father and he moulded himself in his image as the Punisher where he operated under a similar ideology as his adoptive parent Frank Castle. He created a future where people lived under the peace he created or were left to die slowly in a wasteland outside his paradise. Upon seeing this future, the Cosmic Ghost Rider was horrified and rejected the future that he had unintentionally created.

In other media

Television

• In Silver Surfer, Thanos first appeared as an antagonist in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Gary Krawford.
• In Avengers Assemble, Thanos appeared as an antagonist in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Isaac C. Singleton Jr.
• In Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos appeared as an antagonist in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Isaac C. Singleton Jr.

Films

• In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thanos made multiple appearances in the shared continuity setting.
  • In The Avengers, Thanos made a cameo appearance in the end-credit sequence of the live-action film where he was non-voiced but was portrayed by actor Damion Poitier.
  • In Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos appeared in a minor role in the 2014 live-action film where he was voiced by actor Josh Brolin.
  • In The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thanos had a minor appearance in the 2015 live-action film where he was voiced by actor Josh Brolin.
  • In The Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos appeared in the setting of the live-action film where he was voiced again by actor Josh Brolin.
  • in The Avengers: Endgame, Thanos appeared in the setting of the live-action film where he was once more voiced by actor Josh Brolin.

Video games

• In Marvel Super Heroes In War of the Gems, Thanos appeared as the final boss level antagonist in the setting of the 1996 beat-'em-up platform game.
• In Marvel Super Heroes, Thanos appeared in the setting of the Capcom fighting video game where he was voiced by actor Andrew Jackson.
• In Marvel: Contest of Champions, Thanos appeared as a playable character in the setting of the mobile video game.
• In Marvel Future Fight, Thanos appeared as a playable character in the mobile video game.
• In Marvel: Contest of Champions, Thanos appeared as a playable character in the mobile video game.
• In Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, Thanos appeared in the adventure video game where he was voiced by actor Jake Hart. This version sought an ancient artifact called the Eternity Forge, but was killed in battle by the Guardians of the Galaxy.
• In Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Thanos appeared as a playable character in the fighting video game where he was voiced by actor Isaac C. Singleton Jr.
• In Marvel Strike Force, Thanos appeared in the setting of the 2018 mobile game.
• In Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, Thanos appeared in the setting of the 2019 action role-playing video game where he was voiced again by actor Isaac C. Singleton Jr. After the Black Order assembled all Infinity Stones for him, Thanos teleported the heroes to the Sanctuary. After Thanos was defeated by heroes, Thane took the Infinity Gauntlet for himself and also created a suit of Infinity Armor. He was defeated by heroes, after which Thanos apprently disintegrated him.
• In Marvel Future Revolution, different versions of Thanos appeared in the setting of the mobile video game where he was voiced again by actor Isaac C. Singleton Jr.

Appearances

• Iron Man v1: (1973)
• Captain Marvel v1:
• Avengers v1:
• Cosmic Powers v1:
• Infinity Abyss v1:
• Avengers: Celestial Quest v1:
• Thanos v1:
• Annihilation v1:
• Guardians of the Galaxy:
• Avengers Assemble v1:
• Thanos Rising v1:
• Infinity v1:
• New Avengers v3:
• Thanos v2:
• Cosmic Ghost Rider v1:
• Guardians of the Galaxy v5:
• Thanos v3:
• Eternals v5:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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