Thanos

Wishing to impress Mistress Death, Thanos gathers an army of villainous aliens and begins a nuclear bombardment of Titan that kills millions of his race.[14] Seeking universal power in the form of the Cosmic Cube, Thanos travels to Earth. Prior to landing, his vessel destroys a nearby car as a family witnesses his arrival.[15] Unbeknownst to Thanos, two of the family members in the vehicle survive: the father's spirit is preserved by the Titanian cosmic entity Kronos and is given a new form as Drax the Destroyer while the daughter is found by Thanos's father, Mentor, and is raised to become the heroine Moondragon. Thanos eventually locates the Cube, and also attracts the attention of Mistress Death. Willing the Cube to make him omnipotent, Thanos then discards the Cube. He imprisons Kronos and taunts Kree hero Captain Marvel, who, with the aid of superhero team the Avengers and ISAAC (a super-computer based on Titan), is eventually able to defeat Thanos by destroying the Cube.[16]

Thanos later comes to the aid of Adam Warlock in a war against the Magus and his religious empire. During the process, he ends up adopting Gamora in order to use her as his assassin and kill Adam Warlock before becoming Magus.[17][18] During this alliance Thanos cultivates a plan to reunite with Mistress Death, and secretly siphons off the energies of Warlock's Soul Gem, combining these with the power of the other Infinity Gems to create a weapon capable of destroying a star. Warlock summons the Avengers and Captain Marvel to stop Thanos, although the plan is foiled when Thanos kills Warlock. The Titan regroups and captures the heroes, who are freed by Spider-Man and the Thing. Thanos is finally stopped by Warlock, whose spirit emerges from the Soul Gem and turns the Titan to stone.[14][19] Thanos's spirit eventually reappears to accompany a dying Captain Marvel's soul into the realm of Death.[20]

Thanos is eventually resurrected,[21] and collects the Infinity Gems once again.[22] He uses the gems to create the Infinity Gauntlet, making himself omnipotent, and erases half the living things in the universe to prove his love to Death.[23] This act and several other acts are soon undone by Nebula and Adam Warlock.[24] Warlock reveals that Thanos has always allowed himself to be defeated because the Titan secretly knows he is not worthy of ultimate power. Thanos joins Warlock as part of the Infinity Watch and helps him to defeat first his evil[25] and then good[26] personas, and cure Thor of "warrior Madness".[27]

Thanos later recruits a team of Earth-bound super-villains and puts them under the field leadership of Geatar in a mission to capture an ancient robot containing the obscure knowledge of a universal library and extract its data.[28] Thanos uses information from the robot to plot against and battle Tyrant, the first creation of Galactus turned destroyer.[29] When trapped in an alternate dimension, Thanos employs the aid of the brother of Ka-Zar, Parnival Plunder[30] and later the Hulk[31] to escape, although both attempts are unsuccessful. Thanos is eventually freed and comes into conflict with Thor, aligning himself with Mangog in a scheme to obtain powerful mystical and cosmic talismans which will allow him to destroy all life in the universe,[32] and during their battles Thanos decimates the planet Rigel-3.[33]

Thanos then uses the heroes Thor and Genis-Vell (Captain Marvel's son) against the death god Walker, who attempts to woo Mistress Death and then destroy the entity after being rejected.[34] Thanos then devises a plan to become the All-Father of a new pantheon of gods created by himself. Thanos, however, finds himself opposed by the Avengers' former member Mantis and her son Quoi, who apparently is destined to be the Celestial Messiah. Thanos abandons this plan after having to unite with Mistress Death to destroy the "Rot", a cosmic aberration in deep space caused by Thanos's incessant love for Death.[35] Thanos also once conducted extensive research on genetics, studying many of the universe's heroes and villains before Cloning them, and gene-spliced his own DNA into the subjects. Although he later abandons the project, five clones survive, being versions of Professor X, Iron Man, Gladiator, Doctor Strange, and Galactus respectively. A sixth and unnamed version of Thanos also appears, and it is revealed the incarnations of Thanos encountered in the past by Thor and Ka-Zar were actually clones. The true Thanos – with the aid of Adam Warlock, Gamora, Pip the Troll, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, and Dr. Strange – destroys the remaining clones.[36]

When the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten uses a source of cosmic power, the Heart of the Universe, to seize power in present-day Earth (killing most of Earth's heroes in the process), Thanos uses a time-travel stratagem to defeat him. Thanos then uses the Heart of the Universe to reverse Akhenaten's actions and was also compelled to correct a flaw in the universe, for which Mistress Death kisses him, and speaks to him for the first time. Changed by the experience, Thanos advises confidant Adam Warlock he will no longer seek universal conquest.[37]

Thanos decides to atone for the destruction of Rigel-3, and agrees to aid a colony of Rigellians in evacuating their planet before Galactus can consume it. During the course of this mission Thanos learns Galactus is collecting the Infinity Gems in an effort to end his unyielding hunger. Thanos later learns Galactus is being manipulated into releasing a multiversal threat called Hunger, which feeds on entire universes. Despite opposition from Thanos, Galactus unwittingly frees the entity, and when its intentions are revealed, the pair team up and attempt to destroy it.[38]

En route to the Kyln, an intergalactic prison, Thanos meets Death for the first time since re-building existence with the Heart of the Universe. Death claims to be worth wooing, but says Thanos must offer something other than death. At the Kyln Thanos encounters Peter Quill, who has retired himself from the role of Star-Lord, and the Strontian warrior Gladiator of the Shi'ar Empire, who are both prisoners, as well as the Beyonder, who has been rendered amnesiac by its choice to assume a humanoid female form. Thanos battles the Beyonder, causing its mind to shut down and leaving its power trapped within a comatose physical form. Thanos then instructs the Kyln officers to keep the Beyonder on life support indefinitely in order to prevent the entity from being reborn.[39] The destruction frees Thanos and his fellow inmates, and he finds himself accompanied by the chaos-mite Skreet in his plans to leave the remains of the prison. He discovers, however, that the destruction wrought by the battle with the Beyonder has freed the last prisoner brought in by Peter Quill before he gave up the title of Star-Lord: the Fallen One, revealed to be the true first Herald of Galactus, who had been held in a container deep in the Kyln. Thanos defeats the former Herald and places him under complete mental control.[40] He later appears in Wisconsin attempting to charge a weapon called the Pyramatrix with the life force of everyone on Earth until he is defeated by Squirrel Girl. After the battle, Uatu the Watcher appears and confirms to Squirrel Girl that she defeated the real Thanos, not a clone or copy.[41]

During the Annihilation War Thanos allies himself with the genocidal villain Annihilus. When the Annihilation Wave destroys the Kyln, Thanos sends the Fallen to check on the status of the Beyonder, whose mortal form he finds has perished. Before the Fallen can report back to Thanos it encounters Tenebrous and Aegis: two of Galactus's ancient foes. Thanos convinces Tenebrous and Aegis to join the Annihilation Wave in order to get revenge on Galactus, and they subsequently defeat the World Devourer and the Silver Surfer. Annihilus desires the secret of the Power Cosmic and asks Thanos to study Galactus. Once Thanos learns Annihilus's true goal is to use the Power Cosmic to destroy all life and remain the sole survivor, he decides to free Galactus. Drax the Destroyer kills Thanos before he can do so but discovers that Thanos had placed a failsafe device to allow Silver Surfer to free Galactus in the event that Annihilus betrayed him.[42] During a climactic battle with Annihilus, Nova is near death and sees Thanos standing with Mistress Death.[43]

A cocoon protected by the Universal Church of Truth is revealed to be hiding Thanos, who has been chosen by Oblivion to be the new Avatar of Death.[44] Resurrected before his mind could be fully formed, Thanos goes on a mindless rampage before being captured by the Guardians of the Galaxy.[45] Thanos pretends to aid the Guardians against the invading Cancerverse, and after discovering its origin kills an alternate version of Mar-Vell, the self-proclaimed Avatar of Life. This causes the collapse of the Cancerverse, and Nova sacrifices himself in an attempt to contain Thanos inside the imploding reality.[46] Thanos escapes[47] and returns to Earth seeking an artificial cosmic cube. He forms an incarnation of the criminal group Zodiac to retrieve it, but he is defeated by the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy and remanded to the custody of the Elders of the Universe.[48]

Thanos soon invades Earth again after being informed that most of the Avengers have temporarily left the planet.[49] He launches an assault on Attilan, which he offers to spare in exchange for the deaths of all Inhumans between the ages of 16 and 22. Black Bolt later informs the Illuminati that the true purpose of the invasion is to find and kill Thane, an Eternal/Inhuman hybrid that Thanos had secretly fathered years earlier.[50] Thanos is trapped in a pocket limbo of stasis by his son.[51] Thanos is freed by Namor and was among the villains that joined his Cabal to destroy other worlds.[52] Thanos later meets his end on Battleworld, where he is easily killed by God Emperor Doom during an attempted insurrection.[53]

Investigating a temporal anomaly on Titan, Thanos finds Pip the Troll and an older Eros who has come from the future. Eros tells him about an enemy made out darkness that will destroy Thanos in the future. Eros and Thanos craft a plan, but when they go to implement it Thanos is confronted by his future self who tells him to alter the plan to ensure his safety. The future Thanos then takes control of the past Thanos' body.[54]

Under the control of his future self Thanos began searching through ancient temples and sites to find something that would allow him to eventually become like his future. Through his journey he was also forced to kill Adam Warlock who might interfere with his future's plan. After being unable to locate Eros, his future self tells Thanos that Eros was extremely important to his cosmic masterwork. Then after locating an moving comet Thanos goes to the comet which contained a treasure more powerful than the Infinity Gems. Despite the speed of comet being enough to immediately vaporize any being Thanos was able to get it since he "existed outside the norm". With this artifact Thanos was able to absorb every cosmic being that exists in his universe, eventually facing Eternity and Infinity. Despite their best effort Thanos defeats them and absorbs the two beings. He then merges with his future self finally taking the battle to the Living Tribunal and the One Above All.[55]

Facing the One Above All and the Living Tribunal, Thanos' future self went on to absorb both of them becoming the entirety of the Multiverse. As the multiverse began dying, while his future self searched for Eros, present Thanos was locked away within his future's psyche not allowed to interfere. In a desperate ditch effort to prevent all of this Eros, alongside Pip, travel to different points of Thanos' past and tell him he is not alone and that he is loved. However, it is all in vain as Thanos simply didn't care, but these temporal paradoxes did allow present Thanos to use that little access of his future's power to talk to Eros through his past selves. He directs Eros and Pip to his future's psyche and had Eros free him, but unfortunately this allows future Thanos to finally find Eros and had him absorbed inside his universe. Then Adam Warlock came and refuses to free Thanos because he would end up as Eros and tells Thanos that trust would be the only thing that would stop future Thanos. As his future self saw that existence was just a never-endless cycle which trapped all beings decided to commit suicide and "free" everyone from this "torture". Thankfully, Kang prevented Eros from going to talk to Thanos' past selves which allowed him to avoid capture. This caused future Thanos to get distracted which allowed present Thanos to take control and reset everything prior to his future machinations, while erasing his future in the process.[56]

Thanos is unintentionally brought back to the universe by Galactus.[57] When Thanos prepares to raid a Project Pegasus facility to steal a Cosmic Cube, he is ambushed and defeated by a team of Avengers. During their battle, he mortally wounds War Machine and critically injures She-Hulk.[58][59][60] After his defeat, he is imprisoned in the Triskelion,[61] and manipulates Anti-Man into facilitating his escape.[62] Thanos goes on a killing spree, but Black Panther, Blue Marvel and Monica Rambeau are able to stop him by devising a device that blocks the electrical synapses in his brain.[63]

Thanos somehow later recovers and escapes captivity, and reclaims his Black Order forces from Corvus Glaive. After retaking command of his Black Quadrant outpost, Thanos discovers that he is dying.[64] Thanos tries to force his father, Mentor, to find a cure for his malady, but kills him when he is unable to.[65] Soon after Thanos would be battered and detained by the Shi'ar Imperial Guard after he invaded the very planet station of his father's facility sitting in their territory.[66] A quick jump into the future shows Thanos's estranged son Thane having bested his mad father with the personification of death at his side.[67]

Presently locked within a maximum security cosmic Alcatraz, Thanos sits alone within a cell as his sickness ravages his body. All while being mocked by its prison warden whom he lured into a false sense of security in order to escape; ripping off his arm for escape access and murdering half his personal staff in a bid for freedom.[68] Having narrowly escaped his imprisonment before its self-destruction, Thanos retreats to a hidden outpost where a roving mercenary colony loyal only to him was once stationed. Only to find it decimated at the hand of the new lover of Mistress Death; who reveals that she'd stricken her former avatar with his fatal sickness, being his son Thane, now boasting the power of the Phoenix Force. Whom under her coaxing, had banished the mad titan back to the decimated Moon of Titan now entirely stripped of his godlike powers.[69]

For the next few months, Thanos would survive alone and all but powerless in the ruins of his home city. Surviving off the flesh of mutated vermin and being accosted by local scavengers who preyed upon him in his weakened condition, he is soon picked up by the unlikely crew of Thane's betrayed cohorts Tryco Slatterus, his adopted daughter Nebula and his brother Eros of Titan.[70] Having heard of their plight, the three were dismayed to find Thanos stripped of all he was and had ever been; his second daughter only agreeing to come along so she could kill her father, immediately assaulted him.

Starfox was able to preempt her attempt at patricide while inviting his wayward tyrant of a brother aboard their vessel. Thanos mentioned the only way for him to be relieved of his mortality was to seek out the God Quarry heralded by The Witches of Infinity. Starfox initially wrote this off as fable and folklore. Now on the path to the cosmic coven set at the edge of the known universe, Thanos and crew stop short of a black hole, knowing full well that it is where the witches make their home. The Mad Titan jumps into the pinhole of nothingness alongside his brother, whom not trusting his butcherous sibling with the supposed infinite power of said collective; having survived the crushing force of the singularity they dove into, Thanos and Eros are greeted by the Coven at the godly graveyard.[71]

Thanos demands the three that are one to return his godhood to him. Starfox tries his best to charm the enchantresses only to be rebuked by them, much to Thanos's joy when they prematurely aged him. Seeing as it was neither their place to destroy nor turn away those seeking them, The Witches profess the only way for the warlord to be made whole again was to climb down into the God Quarry and await a trial that would test his soul. Immediately after setting foot within the graveyard of old gods, Thanos is subsumed into the bedrock within which they rest.[72]

As his journey of the core being commenced, Thanos's trial began with him as leader of earth and the universes greatest champions, the Avengers. But he's unable to escape the nagging feeling he's forgotten something, till the quarry itself wearing the guise of Falcon reminds him of who he used to be; tempting him to live as a hero and a man at peace for the first time in his immortal life. But Thanos laughs maniacally as he coldly rebukes such a path, ruthlessly killing his would be friends and allies while choosing to remain whom he always was. His cosmic might returned to him, Thanos is freed from the God Quarry, wherein he immediately accosts his brother Eros and threatens the coven to release him from their domain so that he might do away with Thane once and for all.[73]

Around the time of the New Thor's appearance, Thanos is approached by a mysterious hooded woman, who proposes an alliance. He tasks her with bringing him the hammer of the deceased Ultimate Thor.[74] The woman fails, but removes her disguise to reveal herself as Hela, the Norse goddess of death. She tells Thanos that she needs his help to reclaim Hel, and in exchange, offers to give him the one thing he has been searching for his entire life: death. After this, the two kiss.[75]

Some time after his battle with Thane, Thanos travels to the Chitauri homeworld. However, upon subjugating the planet, he is attacked by a being identified only as The Rider, who captures Thanos and uses a piece of the fractured Time Stone to bring Thanos millions of years into the future, where he encounters an elderly version of himself who has destroyed nearly all life in the universe.[76] At first, Thanos believes it to be some sort of trick, but is convinced once the future Thanos utters the name Dione, which Thanos's mother had planned to name him before she went insane.[77] King Thanos reveals he needs his younger self's assistance to defeat the Fallen One, the last being left in the Universe, so that he may finally reunite with Death.[78] The Fallen One soon arrives, revealed to be a darkened Silver Surfer armed with the hordes of Annihilus and the deceased Thor's Mjolnir, using the latter to swiftly kill the Rider. The Surfer is distracted by the feral Hulk that Thanos kept chained in his basement, allowing the two Thanos to kill him using Surtur's Twilight Sword.[79] Upon the Surfer's death, Death arrives, and Thanos realizes the true reason that King Thanos brought him into the future: so that King Thanos can finally die, reasoning that if he must die, it can only be at the hands of himself. At first, Thanos is more than happy to oblige his future counterpart's request, but quickly stops, disappointed at how pathetic and submissive his older self has become. Resolving to never become as pathetic and complacent as King Thanos has become, Thanos uses the fragment of the Time Stone and the Power Cosmic left in the Surfer's corpse to return to the present day. As the future begins to crumble around him, King Thanos realizes that his younger self has taken the steps necessary to ensure that this timeline will never take place. As he fades into nothingness, King Thanos asks Death what his younger self did, to which she simply responds "he won."[80]

During the "Infinity Wars" storyline, Thanos later discovers that the Infinity Stones are being collected once again and begins plotting to reassemble his gauntlet. However, he is assaulted by Requiem, whom he apparently recognizes, and is quickly killed. She then destroys the Infinity Gauntlet and also commands the Chitauri loyal to Thanos to die.[81]

• Thanos was featured in the Silver Surfer animated television series, voiced by Gary Krawford. Due to Fox's broadcast standards, Thanos is depicted as a worshipper of Lady Chaos.[90]
• Thanos appears on The Super Hero Squad Show, voiced by Steven Blum in his first appearance,[91] and by Jim Cummings in all subsequent appearances.[92]
• Thanos appears in the Avengers Assemble[93] and Guardians of the Galaxy animated shows, voiced by Isaac C. Singleton Jr.[92]
• Thanos appears in Lego Marvel Super Heroes - Guardians of the Galaxy: The Thanos Threat, voiced again by Isaac C. Singleton, Jr. He sends Ronan the Accuser and Nebula to find the Build Stone so he can use it to build a weapon that will help him destroy Earth.
• Thanos appears in Lego Marvel Super Heroes - Black Panther: Trouble in Wakanda, voiced again by Isaac C. Singleton Jr.[92][94] After being beaten by the Avengers, Thanos collaborates with Erik Killmonger and Ulysses Klaue to raid Wakanda for its Vibranium so he can become stronger.
• The MCU version of Thanos will appear in the upcoming Disney+ animated series, What If...?, with Josh Brolin reprising the role.[95]

Thanos appears in various Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

• Thanos first appears during the end credits of The Avengers as Loki's mysterious benefactor, portrayed by Damion Poitier (credited as Man #1).[96][97] For his subsequent appearances, he is portrayed by Josh Brolin via motion capture.[98][99]
• Thanos makes an uncredited appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy, which introduces him as the adoptive father of Gamora and Nebula.[100]
• Thanos makes a cameo appearance during the credits of Avengers: Age of Ultron, donning the Infinity Gauntlet so he can retrieve the Infinity Stones himself.[101]
• In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos begins his crusade to collect all six Infinity Stones and bring balance to the universe. Despite the Avengers' efforts to stop him, he succeeds.[102][103]
• In Avengers: Endgame, three weeks after eliminating half of all life, Thanos is ambushed by the surviving Avengers on his farm and reveals that he destroyed the stones to ensure that his work would never be undone before Thor kills him. Five years later, a past version of Thanos from 2014 becomes aware of his future through a connection between Nebula and her past self when the Avengers initiate their plan to retrieve the stones from different times in the past and undo his actions. He has his Nebula pose as her future self and bring him to 2023, then attacks the Avengers' facility and declares his intention to destroy the entire universe and repopulate it with life that only knows gratitude and not loss. A final battle ensues pitting the Avengers and their allies against Thanos and his army. Although he's able to overpower those who try to stop him from getting the stones, Thanos is ultimately defeated when Tony Stark snatches them away and uses them to destroy him and his troops at the cost of his own life.

• Thanos appeared as a playable character in the Capcom fighting games Marvel Super Heroes[104] and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, voiced by Andrew Jackson.[92]
• Thanos appears as the final boss in Capcom's Marvel Super Heroes In War of the Gems.
• Thanos appears as a DLC character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes.[105]
• Thanos appears as a playable character of Lego Marvel's Avengers, voiced by Isaac C. Singleton Jr.[92]
• Thanos appears as a playable character in Marvel Future Fight.[106]
• Thanos appears as a playable character in Marvel: Contest of Champions.[107]
• Three incarnations of Thanos appear as playable characters in the match-three mobile game Marvel Puzzle Quest. The first two, based on the comics ("Modern" and "The Mad Titan"), were added to the game in December 2016,[108] while a third inspired by the MCU incarnation ("Endgame") was added on April 2019.[109]
• Thanos appears in Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, voiced by Jake Hart.[92] He seeks an ancient artifact called the Eternity Forge, but is killed in battle by the Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Thanos appears as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite,[110] voiced again by Isaac C. Singleton Jr.[92] He is captured by Ultron Sigma until he is rescued by the remaining heroes and aids them in devising a plan to combat Ultron Sigma.
• The MCU incarnation of Thanos appeared in Fortnite Battle Royale as part of Marvel-sponsored Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame tie-in events, voiced by archive footage of Josh Brolin.[111]
• The MCU incarnation of Thanos appears in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2.[112]
• The MCU incarnation of Thanos appears as a boss in the Spider-Man Unlimited Infinity War tie-in update, voiced by Kyle Hebert.[113][114]
• Thanos appears in Marvel Powers United VR, voiced by Isaac C. Singleton Jr.[92]
• Thanos appears in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, voiced by Isaac C. Singleton Jr.[92]
• Thanos appears as a playable character in Marvel Strike Force.[115]

• Thanos appears in the 2017 novel, Thanos: Death Sentence by Stuart Moore.[116] The book follows Thanos' last chance to win Death's love after his defeat at the end of The Infinity Gauntlet.
• Thanos appears in the 2018 novel, Thanos: Titan Consumed, by Barry Lyga.