Image via Marvel
After Marvel unleashed the final trailer for Avengers: Infinity War, it took fans all of six hours to break the single-day pre-sale tickets record Black Panther set back in January. That shouldn't be a surprise; Marvel Studios has been building towards this film over the last decade, but, more specifically, since 2012's The Avengers, which was the first time their big screen team-up concept came to life. They've made us care about the Infinity Stones, which they've scattered throughout their Cinematic Universe, and this film finds Thanos finally emerging to bring his sinister plan of world galactic domination (utilizing said Stones) to the forefront.
For the comic book heads out there, this is a moment many have been waiting for. Since his debut in the pages of Iron Man back in 1973, Thanos the Mad Titan has been a force to be reckoned with. His primary quest has been self-serving and full of evil, and is always based on amassing the Infinity Stones to make him the most powerful being in the universe.
Now, as excited as many of you are, you know full well that many people are going into this film thinking: "It looks dope, but what the hell is a Thanos?" As per usual, we've got you covered. Here's a brief overview of what the non-comic book fans out there need to know about Thanos before walking into Avengers: Infinity War on April 27.
He’s in love with Death—literally
Thanos’ story is one of destruction in the hopes of gaining ultimate power, but this all leads to one thing: Thanos trying to win the affection of the embodiment of Death. That’s Death with a capital D, mind you. In the world of Marvel Comics, Death is said to have visited Thanos in the form of a little girl he went to school with on his homeworld of Titan. While he grew up as a pacifist, Thanos always felt like an outsider, primarily due to his purple skin and appearance (which stems from him having the genealogy of the superhuman Deviants race inside of him).
As Thanos grew older, his infatuation with Death manifested itself in a number of ways, ranging from catching and experimenting on animals to even murdering everyone on Titan, all just to get curved by Death. Thanos became a space pirate and embarked on a murderous trek through the cosmos that found him obliterating the planets he visited with his crew. Every time Thanos thought he’d done enough, he realized Death was still unimpressed. Thanos later came to the conclusion that he might have been the only one who saw Death after all, but at that point, it might’ve been too late. The question will always be, was Death really there, or is Thanos just that Mad?
He has mad power…
Initially, Thanos has a subset of powers. Being born as a mutant of the Eternals living on Titan, he is basically immortal. Eternals can’t be poisoned, nor can conventional weapons harm them; word is they can’t even drown. Thanos has all of those powers and more, due to Death increasing his already-awesome abilities. He’s super strong, has the powers of telepathy and telekinesis, and can shoot energy blasts. He’s also a capable toe-to-toe combatant, holding his own against the fiercest people in the Marvel Universe, including Thor’s father Odin.
...but he really wants ALL of the power
In Thanos’ mind, Death should eventually come around to loving him if he murders enough beings and gains enough power. In the comics, that’s how he happens upon the Infinity Gems, which we know as the Infinity Stones in the MCU.
First called Soul Gems and later dubbed Infinity Gems, these powerful totems, when combined, turn the person holding them both omnipotent and omnipresent. They were initially used to take on mega-powered beings like Galactus, but have been closely used in stories involving Thanos, who created the Infinity Gauntlet to house all six of the gems and allow himself to be the sole controller of the (Marvel) Universe. At one point, Thanos used the combined power of the Gems to take out half of all living things (including major Marvel superheroes). Although those actions were later undone in the comics, chances are the MCU will follow that murderous blueprint in Infinity War.
He rolls with a squad
Just know that, while Thanos could more than likely handle his business on his own, he does have a squad that does his dirty work. Known as The Black Order (aka the Cull Obsidian), the crew consists of:
- Corvus Glaive, who carries a pike that can cut through anything (and makes him practically immortal);
- Black Dwarf, who is not only Glaive's brother, but is super strong and has impenetrable skin;
- Proxima Midnight, who is Glaive's wife and a master at hand-to-hand combat;
- Ebony Maw, who has genius-level intellect and is a master of persuasion;
- Supergiant, a telepath.
Thanos sends this destructive squad of aliens out to planets to obliterate, primarily in search of the aforementioned Infinity Gems. Based on the Avengers: Infinity War trailer(s), this appears to be their job in the MCU as well. Interestingly enough, word is that their allegiance to Thanos has been switched up a bit with rumors of the Black Dwarf character being renamed Cull Obsidian for the film, and that the group is said to be the "children" of Thanos, as opposed to being a crew he pulled together. This brings up another interesting point...
He has an interesting family
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thanos' family ties have been spelled out for us, primarily in the Guardians of the Galaxy series. It was in the first Guardians film that we were introduced the Gamora, who revealed that after Thanos murdered her family, he raised her as his own daughter and trained her to be an assassin. Gamora eventually rebelled against Thanos, pissing off the Mad Titan and her adopted sister, Nebula, who had her own plans to undermine Thanos. In Vol. 2, we learned that Thanos would make Nebula and Gamora fight as children, and any time Nebula lost to Gamora—which was a lot—he would replace her limbs with cybernetics. The whole process mutilated her body and was just very fucked up.
In the comics, their stories are a bit different. While Gamora was indeed adopted by Thanos as a child and used as a weapons against his foes (and, ultimately, defected from under his rule), Nebula's comics origin plays out much differently. In her story, Nebula basically took advantage of everyone thinking Thanos was dead by claiming to be his granddaughter. When Thanos found out, he used the Infinity Gauntlet to turn her into a mindless zombie as punishment. She ended up being restored after gaining control of the Gauntlet herself, although she was imprisoned and put on trial for her actions.
He's been making moves behind the scenes
If you've been paying attention to the Marvel films, you've definitely seen—or at least heard of—Thanos before. He first emerged in a post-credits scene during 2012's The Avengers, as the mysterious being making things happen for Loki. In 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos has a fair amount of screen time, as he sends Ronan the Accuser on the path to obtain an Infinity Stone. Word is he was supposed to be a much larger part of the film, but it was Joss Whedon's decision to ease into Thanos' presence as a major threat. It isn't until the post-credits scene in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron that we see Thanos pick up the Infinity Gauntlet and utter the chilling phrase: "Fine, I'll do it myself." That's when we all knew the shit was about to hit the fan—whenever he returned for good. In the films since then, both he and the Infinity Stones have been a connective tissue tying everything together.
Everything now comes to a head on April 27 with Avengers: Infinity War landing in theaters. Based on Thanos' history, the Avengers are in for the battle of their lives. Who's ready?!