top 10 thanos facts
Thanos is arguably one of the most powerful villains to ever grace the pages of Marvel
comic books.
But it’s not just his power that makes him a great antagonist; he’s a complex character,
with a tragic backstory thats filled him with a relentless ambition that has carried over
from the panels to the big screen in recent years in the MCU.
So today, we’re going to be counting down some of the reasons why he’s so adored by
fans with our top 10 thanos facts list.
And heads up- there’s a few spoilers on this list for the recent Thanos run.
You’ve been warned.
10 His First Appearance Thanos debuted in Iron Man #55 in 1973.
Creator Jim Starlin had approached Marvel editor Roy Thomas who asked him if he wanted
to do an issue of Iron Man.
Starlin said, I quote, “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.”
9 He Doesn’t Actually Need the Infinity Gems
In the most recent run on Thanos, vol 2 issue 14 reveals a Thanos of the future, in which
he slaughters a ton of heroes, including the X-Men, Namor and Atlantis, the Guardians of
the Galaxy, King Thor and Maestro Hulk.
All without the help of any of the Infinity Gems.
He then builds himself a temple out of the bones of slain Celestials, where he plans
on living out his life in complete silence, but, in typical Thanos nature, that doesn’t
satisfy him.
He ends up travelling to the past to visit present day Thanos, and asks for his help
in finding Lady Death.
Regardless of that, it’s quite neat to see that Thanos is still just as powerful without
the Infinity gems and his gauntlet, further solidifying how much of a threat he is in
the Marvel universe.
8 Drax In the MCU, Drax is one of the beloved characters
in the Guardians of the Galaxy films.
But, in the comics, his origin story differs quite a bit.
Drax was actually created with the purpose of killing Thanos.
Drax was originally a man named Arthur Douglas, a human on Earth who had been driving through
the Mojave Desert with his wife and daughter when Thanos passed by overhead.
He destroyed their car in an attempt to keep his visit to Earth a secret.
Thanos’ father had been monitoring him though, and captured the astral form of Arthur in
order to put it into a humanoid body with super powers, with the intention of using
this new creature, named Drax the Destroyer, as a means of keeping his son from becoming
a bigger threat.
7 Obsessed with Death Thanos, due to his deformed state compared
to other Eternals - something we’ll touch on later - didn’t have the most pleasant
of upbringings.
In his youth, he became obsessed with the concept of death, so when he encountered the
entity Lady Death, he was overcome with love for the first time in his life.
This love is what drove him to strive to become more powerful, so that he would be worthy
of her love.
This escalating from conquering to his desire to obtain the Cosmic Cube, and to the creation
of the Infinity Gauntlet to harbour the power of the infinity gems.
When he had discarded the Cosmic Cube, believing he had drained it of his powers, Mar-Vell
got his hands on it and reverted the universe to what it had previously been, which made
Thanos lose all of his power, and Death rejected him because of it.
6 Likes Christmas Sort of.
When taking in Gamora, Thanos thought it would be best for her psychologically to condition
her in the same ways that you would a norm child.
This included giving her a birthday, and celebrating Christmas.
Or as he calls it, honouring the pre-Christian yule with shades of modern earth's Christmas
tossed into the mix.
https://imgur.com/gallery/WmHWJ
5 Thanos copter In Spidey Super-Stories #39, readers were
given a real treat in the story The Cat and the Cosmic Cube, in which Thanos took on Hellcat
(known as the Cat in this instance).
How?
By chasing her around in a helicopter with his name written on it.
He doesn't even really do much with it, except follow her around and set off explosions causing
her to lose her balance.
And drop the cosmic cube.
4 Born with Deviant syndrome Thanos was born on Plant Titan, which orbits
Saturn, and is home to a colony of Eternals.
When he was born, it quickly became apparent that he showed signs of having Deviant Syndrome,
which is a rare condition in which an Eternal closely resembles a Deviant.
Deviants are enemies of the Eternals.
Thanos had hide-like skin, and his body was massive and deformed.
His mother went mad, and tried to kill him.
Things only got harsher for poor Thanos, and growing up he only ever played with his brother
Eros.
He eventually made friends, but they were all killed in a terrible accident which severely
traumatized him.
It’s no surprise that the immortal Eternal became obsessed with death.
Kinda gives you a new sympathetic appreciation for Thanos, doesn’t it?
3 His Name’s origin Jim Starlin based the character off of things
he learnt in his college psychology class.
This includes his name.
It derives from Thanatos, who, in Greek mythology, was the personification of death.
Thanatos also refers to ‘the death drive’, which allegedly compels humans to engage in
risky and self destructive behaviour that could potentially lead to their own death.
2 He’s a rip off Speaking of Jim Starlin, the writer artist
has admitted that Thanos was heavily inspired by DC characters.
Initially, Starlin was enchanted by Jack Kirby’s New Gods.
He said, I quote, “I came up with some things that were inspired by that.
You’d think that Thanos was inspired by Darkseif, 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!"
1 His Real Name Part of that new Thanos run and issue 14 story
line gave us a new tidbit of information about the Mad Titan.
Thanos’ real name is actually Dione.
Aside from exploring his future, the villain’s backstory is also elaborated on, including
his birth on planet Titan.
When King Thanos of the future arrives, he convinces Thanos that he is who he says he
is by revealing a piece of information only the two of them would know - that the name
his mother Sui-San had given him before going mad was actually Dione.
There we have it friends!
Are you reading the current Thanos run?
What’s your thoughts on it?
Let us know in those comments below!
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In the meantime, thanks for watching!
I’m Kelly Paoli and this has been top 10 nerd.
Catch you all in the next one!