Thanos

"I know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail nonetheless. It's frightening, turns the legs to jelly. I ask you to what end? Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now it's here. Or should I say, I am."

- Thanos

Thanos, referred to as the Dark Lord by his most loyal underlings and the Mad Titan by the galactic community, is a powerful Titan warlord who rules over a distant region of space and commands two massive armies, known as the Chitauri and the Outriders. His own main objective was to bring stability from the universe, as he believed its massive population would inevitably use up the universe's resources and condemn it. However, his methodology to succeed was warped; through use of the ancient Infinity Stones, he intended to harness their power to exterminate half of all life in the universe.

He spent many years hunting down the stones and his desire to achieve his goal is what led him to forge deals with Loki and Ronan the Accuser in their respective campaigns against Earth and Xandar, as seen in his promising to aid them in exchange for an Infinity Stone. Both of these new alliances cost Thanos much of his resources, including one of the stones and the loyalty of his two daughters, Gamora and Nebula, and inadvertently resulted in the formation of the two superhero groups: the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Fed up with these failures of his subordinates, Thanos opted to seek out the six Infinity Stones himself.

After an intense quest for the Infinity Stones and soon murdering Gamora and coming into conflict with the Avengers, Masters of the Mystic Arts, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the city of Wakanda, despite sustaining a severe injury and almost being killed by Thor, Thanos ultimately triumphed over his enemies once he finally completed the Infinity Gauntlet, using it to finally complete his goal and destroy half of life within the universe at the snap of his fingers.

Fall of Titan
"When Thanos took my homeworld, he killed my parents in front of me. He tortured me, turned me into a weapon."

- Gamora to Star-Lord

Thanos was born to Alars, a member of the Titans, a race of powerful, god-like beings that evolved on a planet with which they shared their name. Thanos was born misshapen, bearing a physical mutation that left him marked as an anomaly amongst his people and therefore left him an outcast. Despite his status, Thanos sought to save Titan when the planet became threatened by the imminent catastrophic event of overpopulation. When Thanos suggested killing half the population of the planet to solve the problem, his idea was considered too drastic and was dismissed by his people, which resulted in Titan becoming subsequently devastated as well as nearly uninhabitable. Another result of this devastation was that the Titan species was on the verge of extinction.

Sometime after Titan's fall, Thanos became a world-conqueror, moving throughout the universe and destroying half of the planets he conquered due to his ideology of balancing the universe by destroying half of all life. He became one of the most powerful and feared warlords, even ruling over a distinct region of space, and gaining control over the deadly armies of Chitauri and Outriders.

Training his Children
"Flesh is weak. Weakness must be cast aside for the sake of power."

- Thanos

Thanos collected orphans from each race that he conquered. When killing half of the Zehoberei people to balance Zen-Whoberi, Thanos's attention was caught by a young Zehoberei named Gamora. Commenting that she had "spunk", Thanos took her aside as his Chitauri army began the massacre, keeping her distracted with a knife. Thanos adopted Gamora as his daughter afterwards, training her to become the deadliest in the galaxy, and growing to genuinely care about her as a result.

He also massacred a Luphomoid family to raise Nebula to be another devoted and deadly assassin. Usually, when Nebula lost in a duel against Gamora, Thanos removed a body part from her, which according to him was to make her stronger than Gamora. Aside from Gamora and Nebula, Thanos took in and trained other children as well, namely Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian and Proxima Midnight. The latter four warriors, more faithful and devoted to Thanos' command than Gamora and Nebula, comprised the Black Order. Thanos also acquired the services of the Other to act as his servant.

Quest for the Infinity Stones
With the destruction of Titan weighing heavily on his conscience, Thanos came to believe that the universe's large swell of life was depleting its finite resources, and would eventually cause the destruction of the universe itself. Deducing that the Infinity Stones, objects of immense power that held considerable dominance over the various forces that occupied the universe, could solve this issue, Thanos made it his life's goal to gather them, and forged several alliances in order to locate them. He successfully located at least one of the stones; the Mind Stone, which he then hid inside a Scepter that was capable of manipulating minds.

Through many years of searching, Thanos discovered a lead on the Orb's location, sending Nebula and Gamora to the Cloud Tombs of Praxius under Korath's command. Nebula fell victim to a trap during the mission, and Thanos, not one to tolerate failure, forbade Gamora from rescuing her. Nebula was forced to amputate her own arm in order to escape. The Orb was never recovered, but Thanos let the failure pass and resumed his search.

Chitauri Invasion


"The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world, a human world. They would wield its power, but our ally knows its workings as they never will. He is ready to lead, and our force, our Chitauri, will follow. The world will be his, the universe will be yours. And the humans, what can they do, but burn?"

- The Other to Thanos

Thanos discovered that the Tesseract was on Earth and allied himself with Loki in order to retrieve it, providing him the Scepter and his Chitauri army, who would help him conquer the entire planet in exchange for handing over the Tesseract to him. Through his intermediary, The Other, Thanos threatened the god of mischief, saying that if he failed in delivering the Tesseract to him, Thanos would force him to endure a new kind of horrific suffering. Despite his vast army of the Chitauri and powerful weapons, Loki was defeated during the Battle of New York, and the Scepter-laden Infinity Stone came into HYDRA's hands, while the Tesseract was transported to Asgard by Thor, along with the now captured Loki. The Other reported to his master how the Earth's inhabitants were not as weak as they were thought to be. He also declared that challenging the Earth's heroes would be to court Death. Thanos rose to his feet and smiled at the prospect of what was coming.

Quest for the Orb


"Your politics bore me. Your demeanor is that of a pouty child. And apparently, you alienated my favorite daughter, Gamora. I shall honor our agreement, Kree if you bring me the Orb. But return to me again empty handed and I will bathe the stairways in your blood."

- Thanos to Ronan the Accuser

Sometime later, Thanos brokered a deal with his old ally, Ronan the Accuser of the Kree Empire, promising to lend a fraction of his forces in a genocide against the Xandarians in exchange for locating the Orb for the Mad Titan. Ronan and Korath the Pursuer quickly discovered the Orb on Morag and attempted to deliver it to Thanos, but the stone fell into the possession of a Ravager called Star-Lord who was trying to sell it to Broker before Ronan could claim it. Unwilling to be denied the stone, Thanos ordered Ronan to pursue Quill and recover the stone, sending Gamora to aid the Kree in his pursuit. Gamora found Quill first, cornering him on Xandar where he was attempting to sell the Orb. She recovered it, but what Thanos did not realize is that Gamora had chosen to cut all ties with him, due to the torture she and her many siblings have suffered through from the Mad Titan and planned to hand the Orb over to the Collector, who also sought the Infinity Stones for his own purposes. When Ronan relayed news of Gamora's betrayal to Thanos which he had learned had been planned for some time, the Kree berated the Mad Titan for not taking the situation seriously and even murdered The Other when he lectured Ronan on not showing Thanos respect. Undaunted by The Other's death and Ronan's complaints, Thanos turned Ronan away, instructing him to return to his task and correct Gamora's betrayal, which he was only slightly irked by. Thanos then instructed Nebula to take Gamora's place as Ronan's aide.

Ronan the Accuser's Betrayal


"BOY! I would reconsider your current course!" "YOU CALL ME "BOY"?! I will unfurl one thousand years of Kree justice on Xandar AND BURN IT TO ITS CORE!! Then, Thanos, I'm coming for you!"

- Thanos and Ronan the Accuser

Ronan the Accuser and Nebula both eventually stole the Orb from the Guardians of the Galaxy, but when Thanos was contacted by Ronan to be updated on their progress, he was furious to discover that the Kree, having experienced the true power of the Orb, intended on keeping the Infinity Stone for himself, despite Korath the Pursuer noting Thanos was the most powerful being in the universe. Nebula joined with Ronan, contemptuous towards Thanos after the horror he forced her to endure throughout her youth. Now believing himself superior to Thanos, Ronan promised to come after the Dark Lord when Xandar was destroyed. Unphased, Thanos cut contact with them without a word. Ronan would eventually lose his life at the hands of the Guardians of the Galaxy, who gave the Orb to the Nova Corps, making yet another Infinity Stone lost to Thanos.

War for the Infinity Stones
"Fine. I'll do it myself."

- Thanos

With both Loki and Ronan the Accuser having failed Thanos in their tasks of conquering worlds and bringing him the Infinity Stones, and both of his daughters lost to him, Thanos had finally grown tired of the lack of progress in his crusade and decided to take matters into his own hands. He forced the dwarves of Nidavellir to forge the Infinity Gauntlet in order to control the power of all the six Infinity Stones at once and then began to hunt for the Stones himself, believing himself to be capable of completing the task while smiling confidently to himself at the prospect of victory.

Acquiring the Power Stone
Sometime before encountering Thor and the Asgardians, Thanos went to Xandar and massacred the entire planet and retrieved the Orb from the Nova Corps.

Obtaining the Tesseract
"Let him have his fun."

- Ebony Maw

With his ship, the Sanctuary II, Thanos tracked down the ship carrying the Asgardian survivors of the cataclysmic Ragnarök on their way to Earth, Loki and his brother Thor among them. After defeating the Hulk in single combat and killing Loki for failing him during the Chitauri Invasion, Thanos claimed the Tesseract and retrieved the Space Stone from it.

Interrogating the Collector
"The Reality Stone. Not even you would surrender anything so precious." "I didn't know what it was!" "Then you are more of a fool than I took you for."

- Thanos and Collector

Thanos had arrived on Knowhere long before the Guardians of the Galaxy could and after killing the Collector and retrieving the Reality Stone, having predicted the arrival of the Guardians, tricks them successfully with a realistic illusion conjured by the Reality Stone that made it look as if he was still torturing the Collector and was caught off-guard and killed by Gamora. Quickly revealing himself, he easily defeats both Drax and Mantis and restrains Gamora. When Gamora begged Peter to kill her, Thanos simply used the Reality Stone to turn his ammunition into bubbles and teleports away.

A Tragic Sacrifice
"Welcome Thanos, son of Alars. Gamora, daughter of Thanos." "You know us?" "It is my curse to know all who journey here." "Where is the Soul Stone?" "You should know, it extracts a terrible price." "I am prepared." "We all think that at first. We are all wrong."

- Red Skull and Thanos

Back on his ship, Thanos demanded Gamora to tell him the location of the Soul Stone, but she refused. However, Thanos forced Gamora to reveal that the stone is on Vormir by torturing her sister Nebula. Gamora and Thanos travel to Vormir where they meet the Stonekeeper, who guided them to the top of a nearby cliff. The guardian of the Soul Stone explained to Thanos that obtaining the Stone requires the sacrifice of a loved one. Upon hearing this, Gamora mocked Thanos as heartless and uncaring, but Thanos, having truly loved Gamora as his daughter, sheds tears that he would have to kill her. Although Gamora desperately attempts suicide, Thanos used the Reality Stone to turn Godslayer into bubbles and then threw her off the cliff still in tears. He then obtains the Soul Stone.

Battle of Titan
"You're strong...but I could snap my fingers...and you'd all cease to exist."

- Thanos to Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Star-Lord, Drax the Destroyer and Mantis

After sacrificing Gamora, Thanos arrives on Titan to retrieve the Time Stone from Doctor Strange. Thanos then gave a brief, but impassionate, speech on his goals and revealed that Titan was once his home until overpopulation destroyed it and left only he himself as the survivor of his kind and that he desires to wipe out half of life in the universe to save them from the same fate Titan suffered. After that, a ferocious fight began between Thanos and his opponents. Thanos was at first briefly neutralized by Mantis's empathic powers but is able to turn the tides when his sacrifice of Gamora is revealed, enraging Star-Lord and causing him to unsuccessfully attack him. Thanos summons a shower of meteors and badly injures Iron Man but spares his defeated opposers when Strange gives him the Time Stone.

Battle of Wakanda
"Daughter." "Did you do it?" "Yes." "What did it cost?" "...Everything."

- Thanos and Gamora's spirit

Having obtained the powers of the Time, Space, Reality, Soul and Power Stones, Thanos arrives on Wakanda to retrieve the final Infinity Stone, the Mind Stone. Even with all of his army destroyed, Thanos with the nearly complete Infinity Gauntlet is now far too powerful for all of his opposers and effortlessly defeats and incapacitates them. Despite Maximoff's tearful sacrifice of Vision to destroy the Mind Stone, it is for naught as Thanos simply uses the Time Stone to rewind to before Vision's death after comforting Maximoff briefly and then forcibly carves it out, finally completing the Infinity Gauntlet.

Universal Genocide Complete
"He did it..."

- Nebula

Almost immediately after completing the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos was engaged by Thor. Shooting an energy beam at the Asgardian, Thor managed to deflect the blast with Stormbreaker as he charged at him, successfully lodging the axe part of the weapon into his chest. Despite being severely wounded, Thanos is undeterred, musing to Thor that he should have aimed for his head, as he weakly activates the Infinity Gauntlet. Before Thor can react, Thanos snaps his fingers, releasing a burst of light. When the light fades, Thanos is mysteriously healed and in a landscape where he meets a young Gamora and when she asked him the cost of his goal, he solemnly said it cost him everything. Thanos then teleported to another planet as his goal to wipe out half the life of the universe unfolded. Having at last accomplished his objective, Thanos sat to enjoy a sunset.

Personality
"Fun isn't something one considers when balancing the universe. But this... does put a smile on my face."

- Thanos

Thanos is usually seen by everyone else as the ultimate personification of sadism, cruelty, megalomania, infinite destruction, death, power, and madness, with his search for the Infinity Stones seen by others as his plot to gain dominion over all the civilizations in the universe. He desired to use the Tesseract to look beyond the known worlds to find greater ones that it would unveil. He is also relentless as seen by finding children to take as his own so he can raise them as assassins while forcing them to watch as he murders their families and tirelessly searching for the Infinity Stones.

He is is extremely intimidating and unforgiving of failures. The Other once warned Loki that he would know a new kind of pain if he did not give them the Tesseract, Thanos threatened to bathe the starways in Ronan's blood if he failed to deliver the Orb, visibly terrifying Ronan. He even forbade Gamora from rescuing Nebula when the latter fell into a trap whilst on a mission in the Cloud Tombs of Praxius. He has little to no regard for his followers, showing absolutely no empathy when Ronan killed The Other and referring to Gamora as his "favorite daughter," even with Nebula present. He was even able to command the Chitauri and Outrider armies, both being highly savage and powerful creatures, unchallenged.

He is extremely confident, to the point of borderline arrogance and being almost impossible to intimidate. He was shown to be smiling when The Other told him challenging the Avengers would be like courting Death. He was even unfazed at the idea of Ronan powered by the Power Stone coming after him despite knowing well that Ronan was already very powerful even without the Stone and the fact that he was backed up by Nebula who had betrayed him, displaying only anger at the betrayal. He also smiled confidently after deciding to hunt for the Infinity Stones himself. Whilst he claims his mission of “balancing the universe” puts him above pleasure or enjoyment, Thanos ultimately considers his quest for the Infinity Stones and the attempts of the Avengers to stop him “fun” and “put a smile on his face."

He is also manipulative and mistrustful, sending Ronan to retrieve the Orb for him and not telling him that it contained an Infinity Stone. He keeps a low profile, lurking in the shadows and making others do his work for him. However, he is fully willing to take action when necessary or having had his patience pushed to its limits, as after both of his alliances backfired, he decided to hunt for the Infinity Stones himself.

He is said to inspire no love, as he is despised by his own "daughters," Gamora and Nebula. Raising them in a brutal way, Thanos would pit them against each other in the hope that Nebula would beat Gamora; however, when Nebula lost, he would remove parts of her in order to make her stronger, taking her apart piece by piece and replacing her with artificial limbs and organs so she would be able to defeat her sister. However; is it seen that he deeply loves Gamora as his own child. He was seen in shock and tears when he realizes that to get the Soul Stone he must throw "a loved one" off the cliff, knowing the only one he loves is Gamora and then again when Peter asks where she is, Mantis stated that Thanos is traumatized and in severe emotional pain from sacrificing Gamora.

Even though he was shunned by his own people for a hideous mutation he bore, he ultimately loved them, even though he was ostracized, and desperately sought to save them, even going as far as to propose wiping out half of his kind so the other half may survive. His plan for saving his homeworld was rejected and thus lead to the fall of his race. This incident would have presumably turned him into the being he is now today with his desire to exterminate half of the population of every planet so as to save these civilizations from the same overpopulation tragedy which destroyed his home planet. This is why Thanos truly believed his cause for killing off half of everyone in all planets to be a righteous cause, seeing himself a righteous soul who is doing what is necessary to save all the civilizations of the universe, so they do not face the same tragedy as his home planet. He was not lying at all, as he states that the people back in Gamora's home planet do not suffer from environmental hazards, global hunger or any other form of violence anymore, due to him killing off half of their population.

Thanos has also shown himself to be surprisingly honorable, as he did not kill Iron Man after acquiring the Time Stone as he promised to Doctor Strange and instead simply left Titan. He also is capable of praising others should they prove worthy, as he said that he wished people would remember the heroism and will that Iron Man fought with if he was removed from existence once he used the Infinity Gauntlet.

Powers and Abilities
"Master, you cannot! Thanos is the most powerful being in the universe!"

- Korath to Ronan

Powers
Thanos is terrifyingly powerful, certainly among the most powerful beings in the universe. He is able to easily intimidate and overpower other formidable beings such as Loki, Ronan the Accuser and Hulk. He also rules the powerful Chitauri army unchallenged. Korath fearfully claimed that Thanos is the most powerful being in the universe. When Nebula told Gamora that she planned to kill Thanos, Gamora plainly told Nebula that she didn't know if this was possible. Thanos's power is so great that he can easily handle the power of the Infinity Stones, which speaks for his immense power as very few could do such a feat and most of them showed great difficulty in wielding the Stones, even being able to survive wielding the power of all the six Infinity Stones. He holds this much power and reputation even without possessing the Infinity Stones; according to Gamora, he would be capable of "[wiping] out half the universe" with a simple snap of his fingers if he were to obtain all six of them.
 * Immortality: Thanos is immortal, having been a galatic warlord for centuries. Gamora told Nebula that killing Thanos may not be possible, strongly implying that in addition to having an eternal lifespan, Thanos's immortality also makes him unkillable to most means. Indeed, Thanos was only able to be severely injured by a mature Thor wielding the Stormbreaker, a weapon enchanted to be specifically able to cut through anything.
 * Superhuman Strength: Thanos's physical constitution has displayed incalculably vast levels of supernatural strength, making him one of the the strongest beings in the universe as he is so strong that he easily proves fully capable of wielding the Infinity Stones without suffering any strain, something that very few could do, even going as far as to wield the complete Infinity Gauntlet with ease. He casually crushed the Tesseract with just a single hand to retrieve the Space Stone. Thanos' immesurable strength allows him to easily physically overpower, lift, restrain, badly harm and knock down others of tremendous resilience and strength, even the likes of Hulk, who he effortlessly beat to a bloody pulp and casually lifted and threw him to the ground with a single hand, Thor with his full powers unlocked, who he easily severely beat down and was about to kill him by squeezing his head (though Thanos already had the Power Stone), and Loki, who he easily firmly put in place with a choke-hold and strangled to death with one hand. He can also simply and effortlessly overpower beings of lesser, but still high, superhuman strength, as he was able to casually drag Gamora around and throw her off the cliff in Vomir to sacrifice her, quickly overpower Iron Man, even tearing away a part of his Mark L armor, and Captain America needed to put all of his strength, which was notably considerably augmented by the mind stone sensing his desire to save the Earth, to just barely hold back Thanos using only a single hand, who showed no strain and eventually easily knocked the exhausted Super Soldier with a single punch. Though he initially struggled and was overwhelmed by the combined efforts of Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Drax, Nebula, Mantis and Star Lord, he was eventually able to overcome them and regain control of the Infinity Gauntlet, proceeding to defeat the said team. Only a mature Thor wielding the Stormbreaker, a weapon enchanted to be capable of cutting through anything, was able to match and severely injure him.
 * Superhuman Durability: Thanos' physical constitution grants him incalculably vast levels of supernatural resilience and durability, rendering him capable of easily handling the Infinity Stones with the Infinity Gauntlet without any strain or harm done to himself, even surviving the power of all six without harm, something that few who have attempted have survived. Thanos's durabillity allowed him to effortlessly shrug off punches from Spider-Man and even Thor with his full powers unlocked, which only staggered and slightly hurt him. While wearing his armor, he is completely unfazed and unharmed by Hulk's blows, who was capable of destroying a gigantic Leviathan with a single punch. Even prolonged ferocious beatings from individuals of considerable strength can only slightly injure him, as he only had a slight cut on his face after repeated full power blows from Iron Man's nanosuit, barely being staggered by Thor's punches (though Thanos required the power stone). His durability is great enough that it took an attack from a Thor wielding Stormbreaker, a weapon enchanted to cut through anything to finally severely wound him by lodging the blade directly in his chest. Even then, Thanos retained enough strength that despite the otherwise fatal wound, it was not enough to stop him from using the Infinity Gauntlet, allowing Thanos to still snap his fingers and complete his goal.
 * Superhuman Reflexes: Thanos, despite his size, possess extreme levels of reflexes, as he was able to easily dodge a few blows from Hulk and then instantly strike him multiple times. He also easily reacted to Loki's attempt to kill him and easily choked him before he could react.

Infinity Gauntlet
"The entire time I knew him, he only ever had one goal: to wipe out half the universe. If he gets all the Infinity Stones, he can do it with the snap of his fingers... just like that."

- Gamora

After equipping the Infinity Gauntlet into his left arm, combined with his already extraordinary physical powers, Thanos was able to safely harness the supernatural powers of all the six Infinity Stones, gaining dominion over the fabrics of reality the stones represented as well as becoming so powerful that he was able to destroy half of life in the Universe by just snapping his fingers, most likely making him the most powerful being in the universe. So far he has shown the following supernatural powers.
 * Regenerative Powers : Upon completing the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos appears to be able to use it to instantly heal any of his wounds, as upon activating the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos healed instantly from the severe injury Thor dealt to him with Stormbreaker and any other injury he sustained from fighting the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy.
 * Energy Manipulation: After inserting the Power Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos is granted the stone's power to project extremely powerful purple, fire-like energy in many forms. In addition to projecting energy attacks, Thanos can also unleash the destructive energy of the Power Stone upon planets such as Xandar to destroy them and charge objects to quickly destroy it, as he did to the Statesman causing it to explode shortly after.
 * Force Field Generation: Using the same energy from the Power stone, Thanos could generate extremely strong force fields capable of easily deflecting repulsor beams from Iron Man in his Mark XLVIII and instantly vaporizing bullets upon contact.
 * Energy Beams: Thanos can unleash powerful energy beams using the energy of the Power Stone, as he did when he fought in Titan.
 * Energy Shockwave: Thanos was able to project an omnidirectional shockwave of energy using the Power Stone that easily knocked down many of his opposers when he went to retrieve the Mind Stone.
 * Power Redirection: Thanos was able to prevent Black Panther from using his kinetic energy pulse and redirect it to the ground while slamming the latter down.
 * Space Manipulation: After inserting the Space Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos is granted the stone's dominion over space, allowing him to manipulate space itself to a great degree to achieve a variety of potent capabilities.
 * Telekinesis: After inserting the Space Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos becomes able to exert vast amounts of potent telekinetic force, to the point that he was capable of ripping apart portions of Titan's moon and hurling them as meteors. He can effortlessly levitate and throw many heavy objects, as he easily interfered with War Machine's flight by holding him down with large amounts of debris, as well as casually throw and restrain others with his telekinesis, as he easily sent Okoye to the ground before she had a chance to attack him with her spear and was able to do so to Hulkbuster as well.
 * Portal Creation: After inserting the Space Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos is granted the power to open gateways to any part of the universe, effortlessly going to Titan and later Wakanda without the need for a spaceship.
 * Vortex Creation: Using the Space stone, Thanos made a small but devastating vortex that gathered up everything it's path, it was sent flying towards Doctor Strange. However, Strange was swiftly capable of transmuting it into a harmless substance.
 * Time Manipulation: After inserting the Time Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos is granted the stone's tremendous powers over time. His skill in using the Time Stone's powers are shown to be far more refined than Doctor Strange.
 * Event Recreation: Thanos is capable of rewinding time to recreate certain events, as he was able to recreate the events where Vision died, so as to resurrect Vision and recreate the Mind Stone, even after Wanda had destroyed both of them.
 * Reality Manipulation: After inserting the Reality Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos is granted the stone's dominion over reality itself, allowing him to warp reality to a great extent to achieve numerous, powerful effects.
 * Illusion Conjuration: Thanos can use the Reality Stone to alter reality to create realistic physical illusions, which he used to fool Gamora, Starlord, Drax and Mantis into believing that he was torturing the Collector for the Reality Stone while in actuality he had already acquired it and had killed the Collector before they arrived in order to ambush them. He can also implant the illusions on a specific target's mind, as he gave Gamora illusions of destruction and his own death.
 * Matter Transmutation: He can use the Reality Stone to transmute matter to such a molecular extent that he showed the capability to easily transform weapons into harmless substances, as he instantly turned Star-Lord's ammo within his gun into a flock of bubbles before he had a chance to shoot and did the same with Gamora's sword before she attempted to kill herself. He can even transmute the matter within someone's body by hitting them with a blast from the Reality Stone, as he easily turned Drax and Mantis's body into pieces, although it is only temporary as Drax and Mantis eventually returned to their original form.
 * Earth Manipulation: Thanos also can use the Reality Stone to manipulate the earth, as he easily made large concrete pillars rise from the ground to keep Black Widow in place.
 * Dematerialization: He is capable of using the Reality Stone to dematerialize any object, as he easily made the Hulkbuster disappear off Bruce when he tried to attack him.
 * Element Transmutation: Thanos was able to absorb fire after being engulfed in it from a explosion, which notably he was unharmed by, and transformed it into a long beam of heat towards his enemies. Additionally, he could transmute flames caused from an explosion into sharp flying debris that was sent flying towards Iron Man.
 * Invisibility: While giving Gamora illusions of destruction and his own death, Thanos could render himself invisible using the reality stone while talking to Gamora, he then revealed himself to her.
 * Soul Manipulation: After inserting the Soul Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquires the stone's dominion over life and death, thus gaining the divine right to decide who dies and who lives.
 * Death Inducement: Having finally completed the Infinity Gauntlet and thus greatly enhancing the Soul Stone's powers, even though he had been grievously injured, Thanos was still able to use the Soul Stone to kill off half of the universe, causing his victims bodies to disintegrates into ashes and their souls to be erased from existence. This catastrophic event even claimed the lives of most of the Avengers and all of the Guardians of the Galaxy, aside from Rocket Raccoon and Nebula.

Abilities

 * Master Manipulator: Thanos is an exceptional manipulator, as without leaving his throne, through only the manipulation of other powerful beings, easily deceiving even the extremely intelligent and skilled manipulator Loki into doing his bidding, he ultimately caused both the Chitauri Invasion and the Battle of Xandar. As Thor noted, Thanos has effectively manipulated the Avengers for his own goals.
 * Master Leader: Thanos is an exceptional leader, as he was able to lead the Outriders and Chitauri armies despite their savagery and power unchallenged and inspire absolute loyalty into his Black Order children. Thanos's outstanding leadership was displayed by the fact that he was known for having led his forces with such effiency as to having easily decimated many species and killing half of said species during his mission to rebalance the universe.
 * Master Combatant: Thanos is an exceptionally accomplished hand-to-hand fighter, with millennia worth of fighting experience. Thanos's skills allowed him to easily defeat and beat Hulk, the former undefeatable champion of the Grandmaster's Contest of Champions, to a bloody pulp and defeat Thor, without much effort. He later easily defeated and grievously wounded Iron Man and was about to kill him until Strange made a deal to surrender the Time Stone in exchange for Thanos to spare Tony's life.
 * Genius-level Intelligence: Even at his youth, Thanos was deemed a genius among his kind despite his deformation. His long life allowed Thanos to refine his intellectual appitude to the highest degree, making him exceptionally intelligent. While hiding in the shadows, Thanos's intelligence allowed him to create extremely complex and well-coordinated plans and execute them effectively, giving the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy great trouble all the while remaining anomyous. Thanos was even capable of surpassing the incredibly smart Loki, something few were able to do, as he easily tricked the God of Lies into becoming his minion and later easily predicted Loki would attempt a sneak attack and countered it casually and killed him. His intellect also allowed him to think many times ahead, as he was able to predict that the Guardians of the Galaxy would arrive to get the Reality Stone and easily tricked them into letting their guard down with an illusion that showed he had been killed by Gamora and was torturing the Collector while in actuality he was waiting patiently to ambush them and had retrieved the stone long before they arrived.
 * Arcane Lore: Thanos has a vast amount of knowledge on mystical objects as he even knew of the existence of the Infinity Stones as well as their dominion over realty itself, something that few are aware of. He also has a great amount of knowledge and skill in wielding the stones's powers, as after only shortly acquiring it, Thanos was instantly shown capable of expertly using the stones's dominion over reality in combat. Further evidence of this is that he appears to be considerably more skilled in using the Time Stone than Doctor Strange, as while the latter could only make a false version of the stolen pages of the Book of Cagliostro and could not made it real, whereas Thanos not only knew how to reverse time but he can also make it real as well, seeing has how he recreated the Mind Stone and Vision.

Weapons

 * Infinity Gauntlet: A catalysmically powerful item that Thanos stole to allow him to channel the power of all the six Infinity Stones. He would successfully complete the Gauntlet and use it to wipe out half of the universe.

Other Equipment

 * Space Throne: Thanos' stationary home, he was accompanied by The Other until he was mercilessly killed by Ronan the Accuser.
 * Sanctuary II: A gargantuan spaceship commanded by Thanos.
 * Q-Ship: To be added

Family

 * Alars - Father
 * Black Order
 * Corvus Glaive † - Adopted Son
 * Cull Obsidian † - Adopted Son
 * Ebony Maw † - Adopted Son
 * Proxima Midnight † - Adopted Daughter
 * Gamora † - Adopted Daughter turned Enemy, Attempted Killer and Victim
 * Nebula - Adopted Daughter turned Enemy, Attempted Killer and Attempted Victim

Allies

 * The Other † - Former Subordinate
 * Chitauri - Subordinates
 * Leviathans - Subordinates
 * Outriders - Subordinates
 * Stonekeeper

Enemies

 * Asgardians
 * Loki † - Former Ally turned Attempted Killer and Victim
 * Heimdall † - Victim
 * Tivan Group
 * Taneleer Tivan/Collector
 * Avengers
 * Steve Rogers/Captain America - Attempted Victim
 * Tony Stark/Iron Man - Attempted Victim
 * Bruce Banner/Hulk - Attempted Victim
 * Thor - Attempted Victim and Attempted Killer
 * Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
 * Vision † - Victim
 * Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch † - Victim
 * Sam Wilson/Falcon † - Victim
 * James Rhodes/War Machine
 * Peter Parker/Spider-Man † - Victim
 * Guardians of the Galaxy
 * Peter Quill/Star-Lord † - Victim
 * Drax the Destroyer † - Victim
 * Rocket Raccoon
 * Groot † - Victim
 * Mantis † - Victim
 * Doctor Strange † - Victim
 * Bucky Barnes/White Wolf † - Victim
 * T'Challa/Black Panther † - Victim
 * Okoye - Attempted Killer
 * Ronan the Accuser † - Former Subordinate
 * Korath the Pursuer † - Former Subordinate
 * Nova Corps
 * Nick Fury † - Victim
 * Maria Hill † - Victim

Trivia

 * In the comics, Thanos was a member of the Eternals, a race of superpowered beings that descended from a caste of humans genetically enhanced by the Celestials. Thanos himself was the son of Mentor, the leader of an Eternal colony on Saturn's moon of Titan. Much of Thanos' villainous motivations in the comics revolve around his romantic feelings for the entity Death. In the famous Infinity Gauntlet storyline, he became the master of the Infinity Gauntlet, which he used to murder most of the universe's inhabitants in an attempt to impress Death. He is one of the Avengers' most historical foes, but when he took a break from being a conqueror, Thanos was entrusted with the Reality Gem of the Infinity Gems.
 * The name "Thanos" is based on the name of the mythological Greek figure, meaning "death."
 * Thanos is popularly considered by many and by Kevin Feige to be the main antagonist of the entire MCU saga. Feige has stated that Thanos is "the biggest, baddest villain of all." Additionally, he is the mastermind behind many events such as the Chitauri Invasion which led to the Battle of New York as well as the Quest for the Orb which led to the Battle of Xandar.
 * Thanos, Helmut Zemo, Surtur and Loki are the only main villains whose plans were successful to any extent, as Thanos managed to collect all 6 of the Infinity Stones to wipe out half the universe as he planned.
 * Thanos is the most mentioned antagonist in the MCU films.

Behind the Scenes

 * Thanos' presence in The Avengers was kept top secret until the release of the movie.
 * Damion Poitier was credited as "Man 1" despite actually playing Thanos.
 * Josh Brolin was uncredited for his appearances in Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
 * Thanos is one of the few characters who are played by different actors in different films. The others are James Rhodes, Howard Stark, Bruce Banner, Fandral, and Red Skull.
 * It was Joss Whedon's idea to reveal Thanos as the true villain of The Avengers, but ironically he considered the villain too difficult to write.
 * Thanos was the main villain in Nicole Perlman's draft of Guardians of the Galaxy: Whedon asked Thanos's role be downsized and Gunn agreed.
 * Joss Whedon assisted James Gunn with the casting of Thanos.
 * Josh Brolin took inspiration from 's performance as in  in his portrayal of Thanos.
 * Joe and Anthony Russo considered showing Thanos' backstory in Avengers: Infinity War, but ultimately decided that it was not necessary. His backstory is instead explored in the tie-in novel Thanos: Titan Consumed.
 * Greg Rementer and Keil Zepernick were stunt doubles for Josh Brolin in the role of Thanos.
 * Joe Russo states that: “What I think is interesting is he’s sort of a cult figure, Thanos. He’s a world-conqueror like . He’s been moving throughout the universe conquering worlds. He destroys half of a planet because that’s his goal – to bring balance to the universe by destroying half of all life. He then collects orphans from each race that he’s conquered. These are called the Children of Thanos. Some of them, like Gamora and Nebula, have broken free from the Cult of Thanos. His cult of personality. Others, like Ebony Maw, celebrate and are the greatest acolytes of Thanos."