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 which included murdering Loki, Heimdall , the surviving Asgardians and his adoptive daughter Gamora and coming into conflict with the Avengers, Masters of the Mystic Arts, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the nation 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 the 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. He also sent Gamora to find the Soul Stone, but she reported back to him that her search had been unsuccessful. However, Thanos somehow managed to record a video that proved to him that Gamora did knew where it is but is keeping it a secret from him, although for unknown reasons, he ignored this for centuries until he decided to finally personally seek out the Infinity Stones.

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.

Infinity War


"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 and destroyed it to unveil the Power Stone and then inserted it into his Gauntlet.

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. Thanos then massacred half of the Asgardians and badly beat Thor, using him to force Loki to give up the Tesseract. Even though Loki was able to offer a distraction for  Hulk to attack, Thanos soundly defeated the Hulk and when Heimdall sent him away, Thanos killed him using Corvus's glaive. After ordering his children to retrieve the other stones upon crushing the Tesseract and retrieving the Space Stone from it, Loki offered to help but Thanos easily saw right through him and stopped his assassination and then snapped his neck, killing him for failing him during the Chitauri Invasion. Thanos then charged the Stateman with the Power Stone and warped his children and himself out of the exploding ship after saying that Loki is truly dead to Thor.

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 then 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. He then reveals himself after saying that Gamora still deep down cared for him, calling it a reality he had foreseen, and boasts with the Reality Stone, reality itself is his to command. Indeed, he easily defeats both Drax the Destroyer and Mantis by using the Reality Stone to turn them to pieces and restrains Gamora before she could pick up Godslayer. When Gamora begged Peter Quill to kill her, Thanos then brought her closer to Quill and dared him to do it. However, when Star-Lord really did it, Thanos simply used the Reality Stone to turn his ammunition into bubbles and teleports away after praising him for being willing to sacrifice his girlfriend to save the universe.

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 gave Gamora food, saying that he believes that she is hungry, but Gamora tosses it to his throne, saying bitterly that she always hated the throne, which Thanos simply retorted to by saying yet he always hoped she would sit on it. Thanos and Gamora then argues on Thanos's destruction of her home and Thanos reminds Gamora that it was due to his training that she became the fiercest woman in the Galaxy and he was so confident in her abillities that he even send her to locate the Soul Stone, which she sarcastically apologized for failing to do. However, Thanos is unfazed and takes Gamora to reveal that Nebula has been captured and tortures her in front of Gamora. Even though Gamora desperately sought to conceal it, Thanos reveals that he is aware that Gamora had lied to him, going as far as to say that while Thanos turned her into the warrior and assassin she is now, he never taught her to lie and thus she is never a good liar. Giving in, Gamora tells Thanos the stone is on Vormir. Gamora and Thanos travel to Vormir via a portal from the Space Stone where they meet Red Skull, 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. A light bursts out that briefly knocked Thanos out but once he awoke, he found the Soul Stone in his right hand and inserts it into his Infinity Gauntlet.

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. He confronts Captain America, Black Widow, Falcon, War Machine, Bruce wearing Hulkbuster, Black Panther, Okoye and Groot single-handedly without fear and after briefly staring at his enemies, calmly walks towards them as they began their attempt to repel him. Even with all of his army destroyed, Thanos with the nearly complete Infinity Gauntlet proves to be practically invincible for all of his opposers and he makes short work of them, effortlessly stopping Hulkbuster and imprisoning it in solid stone by making it intangible for a while, effortlessly sending Captain America to the ground, easily catching Black Panther in the neck when he charged at him and negated Black Panther's attempt to use his energy pulse upon choking him before slamming him down to the ground to redirect it, downing two individuals within seconds, calmly sending Falcon to the ground after easily withstanding his bullets, casually crushing and twisting the guns of War Machine's armor and pinning him with large debris to interfere with his flight before simply flinging him away, knocking down Winter Soldier soon after with a single shockwave of energy, stopping Okoye's spear and easily downing her to the ground, trapping Black Widow with large concrete walls and then easily breaking out of Groot's vines and incatipating him as well. As he approaches Vision and Scarlet Witch, Captain America desperately buys time as much as he can and to Thanos's shock, is able to land a few hits on him and block his Infinity Gauntlet hand, but it is only temporary as Thanos swiftly dispatches the Super Soldier with a single punch. Now free of distractors, Thanos is about to retrieve Vision's Mind Stone when he saw Scarlet Witch try to destroy it. Thanos tries to stop it but Wanda is able to push him back, although he slowly charges through the beam but it is too late as Wanda destroys the Mind Stone before he could get to them. Rather than angrily killing the girl for her hinderance of his goals, Thanos sympathised with her tearful sacrifice of Vision to destroy the Mind Stone, as he too had sacrificed Gamora for the Soul Stone. He then uses the Time Stone to rewind to before Vision's death 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, who struck him with a blast of lightning. He fired an energy beam at the charging Asgardian, who threw Stormbreaker to deflect and injure him. Thor then twisted the wound, grievously harming Thanos, but failed to kill him. Unfazed, Thanos simply taunted Thor for not aiming for his head, and before Thor could react, Thanos snapped his fingers to Thor's horror, releasing a burst of bright light. When the light fades, Thanos found himself in limbo, where he met a young Gamora and told her he finally completed his mission. When she asked what it cost, he solemnly replied, "Everything." Regaining consciousness, Thanos is furiously questioned by Thor on what did he do but Thanos simply teleported away to another planet as his goal to wipe out half the life of the universe unfolded. Having at last accomplished his objective, Thanos rested, watching a sunset with satisfaction.

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 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, this was proven true when he ruthlessly murdered Loki for his failure in retrieving the Tesseract for him and when the Asgardian tried to kill him. 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.

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. He proves that he cares little for Nebula, as he had no qualms torturing her to get the location of the Soul Stone out of Gamora, and held her in a low regard, going as far as to coldly said he did not want to waste his time to kill Nebula. However; is it seen that he deeply loves Gamora as his own child. He cared for her to the point where he shielded her from viewing the massacre of her homeworld when he first met her. 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 and praised Doctor Strange for his mastery in the Mystic Arts to be able to single-handedly go up against him with the Infinity Gauntlet. He was also complimentary of Star-Lord as he was going to kill Gamora, saying that he "liked him" for doing what would have needed to be done in order to stop Thanos on his quest to obtain the Infinity Stones.

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, Thor, 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, this was later proven true as after he did it nearly all beings of the universe turned into ash.
 * 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 has displayed incalculably vast levels of superhuman strength, as he is able to wield all six Infinity Stones and the Infinity Gauntlet simultaneously without suffering any strain, which makes Thanos among the strongest beings in the universe. With his strength, Thanos casually crushed the Tesseract in a single hand (this retrieving the Space Stone), instantly broke out of Groot's vines, sent Drax flying with a kick through stones, destroyed Doctor Strange's Eldritch Magic shield with a kick while silmutaneously forcing the latter back, effortlessly broke out of Spider-Man's web and used it to pull Spider Man to him as well, as casually pinned down Spider-Man himself with a single hand, easily strangled Loki without the latter being able to break free and snapped his neck with one hand, casually restrained Gamora and threw her off a cliff in Vomir with a single hand, effortlessly stopped Black Panther's full-charge with a single hand and choke-hold, and quickly overpowered Iron Man (tearing apart the latter's Mark L nanotech armor). Captain America was only just barely able to hold back Thanos’ gauntlet hand and the Mad Titan proceeded to effortlessly knock the Super Soldier out with a single punch. Even the combined efforts of Doctor Strange's use of Eldritch Whips to bind Thanos' hand, Spider-Man webbing up his body, Star-Lord using the bottom barell of his blasters to emit streams of electricity, and Drax holding his leg were barely capable of holding Thanos in place long enough for Iron Man to get a grip on his gauntlet and Mantis to put him to sleep, with even then Iron Man and Spider-Man being unable to pull the gauntlet off his arm, due to Star-Lord pausing a few moments too long. Upon awaking from the forced slumber, Thanos was quickly able to throw Mantis away with a single hand, to kick away Drax, to free himself of Dr. Strange's Eldritch Whips (redirecting it's force to send him flying), and swiftly regain control of the Infinity Gauntlet from Spider-Man, tossing him away. Most impressively of all, Thanos was able to quickly rip the Mind Stone out of Vision's extremely durable vibranium forehead, to easily break out from the grip of the immensely strong Hulk and then effortlessly overpower and beat Hulk to a bloody pulp within seconds, as well as to easily severely beating a fully-empowered Thor, threatening to kill the latter by crushing his head. The fully-empowered Thor wielding Stormbreaker, a weapon enchanted to be capable of cutting through anything, was notably the only one able to get close enough to finally injure Thanos and even that was due to Thanos being caught off-guard, though the Mad Titan regained control of the Infinity Gauntlet shortly thereafter.
 * Superhuman Durability: Thanos has 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 ever survived. Thanos's durability also allowed him to barely flinch when simultaneously hit in the back by Star-Lord's blasters and slashed in the leg by Drax's knives, to effortlessly shrug off punches from Spider-Man, to sustain only a slight cut on his face after repeated full-power blows from Iron Man's Mark L armor, to withstand the full force of getting hit by the Milano ship, to withstand full-power energy blasts from Scarlet Witch, and even to be barely fazed by blows from Hulk or fully-empowered Thor. Indeed, Thanos' durability is great enough that it took an attack from fully-empowered Thor wielding Stormbreaker, a weapon enchanted to cut through anything, to finally wound and harm him when the blade got lodged directly in his chest and even though Thor caused Thanos severe pain by twisting the axe deeper, Thanos retained enough strength to activate the Infinity Gauntlet, allowing Thanos to still snap his fingers, recover, and complete his goal, even going as far as to mock Thor for not aiming at his head.
 * Superhuman Reflexes: Thanos, despite his size, possess extremely enhanced reflexes, as he was able to easily dodge a few blows from Hulk, and then instantly struck him multiple times before Hulk had a chance to respond. Thanos also easily reacted to Loki's swift attempt to kill him, effortlessly choking Loki to death before the latter could react. With just a single hand, Thanos was able to easily grab Gamora before she could strike him with Godslayer (which Thanos broke in the process), and to even react to the extremely agile Spider-Man's attacks, eventually getting a grip on him and pinning Spider-Man down.

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 existence 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, its power was able to quickly heal and regenerate any of Thanos' wounds, regardless of severity or blood loss, allowing Thanos to instantly heal and recover 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.
 * Flight: The Infinity Gauntlet, when imbued with at least the Power, Space, Reality and Soul Stones, grants Thanos the power to levitate off the ground and fly, as he was able to fly, while silmutaneously pulling Doctor Strange to him.
 * Energy Manipulation: After inserting the Power Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos is granted the stone's dominion over power, giving him vast energy-manipulating powers, even able to counter dimensional warping from Doctor Strange.
 * Pain Inducement: Thanos is able to expose an individual to the energy of the Power Stone to cause them to tremendous pain. This was potent enough to cause a fully-empowered Thor excruciating amounts of pain, forcing Loki to cooperate with him.
 * Strength Augmentation: Thanos can empower his fist with the energy, using it to destroy the crystalline fractals formed from Strange's transmution of his energy attack.
 * Energy Crush: With the Power Stone, Thanos can crush large objects by exerting the destructive energy into said object, as he used the Power Stone to crumble Titan's moon.
 * Energy Projection: Thanos is able to project the extremely powerful purple, fire-like energy of the Power Stone in many forms of potent energy attacks.
 * 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 Bursts: Thanos is capable of unleashing bursts of the destructive energy of the Power Stone that is potent enough to engulf and destroy entire planets and large ships such as Xandar and the Stateman in seconds. He was also able to swiftly destroy a large ship that Iron Man crashed on him with a powerful burst of energy.
 * 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. He also projected a smaller shockwave to knock down Drax the Destroyer, Nebula and Star-Lord during his fight in Titan.
 * Power Negation and Redirection: With the Power Stone, Thanos can negate and redirect oncoming energy attacks, as he easily prevented Black Panther from using his kinetic energy pulse and redirected it to the earth when he struck the latter to the ground.
 * 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: With the Space Stone, Thanos gains the power to exert tremendous amounts of telekinetic force. His telekinesis allows him to effortlessly levitate, throw, stop and even crush many heavy objects, as he easily interfered with War Machine's flight by holding him down with large amounts of debris, crushed Falcon's wings to send him tumbling to the ground and stopped Okoye's spear in mid-air, casually pull, throw and restrain others with his telekinesis, as he easily pulled Doctor Strange to him, sent Okoye and Captain America to the ground before they had a chance to attack him, flung War Machine away and stopped Hulkbuster's charge and hurled him forward. He was also able to telekenetically and painfully and slowly drag apart Nebula's cybernatics.
 * 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. In addition to using the portals that he can open with the Space Stone as an instant means of transportation, Thanos can also use it to send attacks from other places, as he did to transport the pieces of Titan's moon that he crushed to use them against his opponents.
 * Vortex Creation: Using the Space stone, Thanos can create black holes, as he made a small but devastating vortex that gathered up everything it's path and sent it 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 with a surpassing amount of finesse, as he was able to recreate the events where Vision died, so as to resurrect Vision and recreate the Mind Stone, even after Wanda Maximoff had destroyed both of them, whereas Doctor Strange could not truly recreate the stolen pages of the Book of Cagliostro.
 * 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, Star-Lord, 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 was also able to transmute the pieces of the ship that he destroyed when Iron Man threw it at him into a countless swarm of black crystals that he sent towards Iron Man.
 * Biokinesis: With the Reality Stone, Thanos is capable of manipulating the bodies of a living organism to the point of turning them into pieces by hitting them with a blast from the Reality Stone, as he easily turned Drax the Destroyer into pieces and Mantis into strips, although it is only temporary, as Drax and Mantis eventually returned to their original form.
 * Telekenesis: In addition to the Space Stone's telekinesis, the Reality Stone also grants Thanos powerful telekinetic powers, although he seems to prefer using the Space Stone's telekinesis. The Reality Stone's telekinesis is strong enough to move Titan's moon and then control it's pieces to send it towards his enemies via a portal.
 * 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 Banner when he tried to attack him.
 * Element Absorption and Transmutation: Thanos is capable of using the Reality Stone to absorb and then transform elements in his path into attacks and even transmute elements to change them into physical objects, as he absorbed fire after being engulfed in it from a explosion and transformed it into a long beam of heat towards his enemies and transmuted the flames caused from said 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 still was able to use the Soul Stone to kill half of the life in the universe with just a snap of his fingers, causing his victims bodies to disintegrate into ashes. This catastrophic event even claimed the lives of most of the Avengers and all of the Guardians of the Galaxy, with the exception of Rocket Raccoon and Nebula.
 * Soul Detection: Thanos can use the Soul Stone to detect the souls of others, allowing him to see through duplicates of individuals and correctly identify the real one as when Doctor Strange used his mystical powers to conjure up many mystical clones of himself, Thanos was able to identify the real one among them by identifying which one had Doctor Stange's soul, thus revealing the true Doctor Strange hidden amongst them.
 * Mind Manipulation: After inserting the Mind Stone into his Infinity gauntlet, Thanos acquires the stone's dominion over the hearts and minds of people. So far, Thanos has not shown any abilities relating to the Mind Stone.

Abilities

 * 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 aptitude to the highest degree, making him exceptionally intelligent. Hence, due to Thanos's intellectual genius, he is among the most intelligent individuals in the universe. His intellect contributes to his ability to conquer many worlds. By simply using his manipulative and strategic skills, he indirectly causes the Battle of Xandar and Chitauri Invasion, both of which caused the formations of the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers to fight their respective battles. All the while, Thanos remained effectively anonymous, enough that even the extremely intelligent Iron Man was unable to figure out Loki had been aided by Thanos in his invasion, and with Doctor Strange initially not having Thanos on his list of otherworldly threats. It was only after Thor received a vision on the Infinity Stones that he was able to figure out Thanos' involvement, with Thor admitting that Thanos had been using his intellect to play a very intricate game and has effectively used the Avengers as pawns without them even realizing it until Thor saw the vision. Thanos was even clever enough to easily outsmart Loki himself on more than one occasion - he not only successfully used Loki as a pawn without the latter realizing it for a long time, but he was later also able to successfully finish off the God of Mischief by easily predicting that he would attempt an assassination and countering it casually. Thanos also easily deceived the Guardians of the Galaxy into letting their guard down, thus allowing Thanos to incapacitate them and capture Gamora.
 * Master Strategist: Thanos is an exceptionally accomplished strategist and tactician, with centuries of experience in using strategies. Thanos's mastery and experience in using strategy and tactics allows him to create extremely complex and well-coordinated plans and execute them effectively, with the strategies he created and employed being so effective that he gave the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy great trouble all the while remaining anonymous. Thanos is an even more skilled tactician than Loki, as he easily deceived the God of Mischief into becoming his minion and later easily predicted and outsmarted Loki's attempt to assassinate him. Thanos's strategical aptitude also allows him to accurately predict incoming events and effectively manipulate said events to his advantage, as he was able to anticipate the Guardians going to Knowhere to retrieve the Reality Stone and arrived there before they could prevent him from taking it. Thanos even went as far as to set up a brilliant trap for the Guardians by casting an illusion to fool them into believing that he is still torturing the Collector for the Reality Stone while in actuality he had acquired the Reality Stone long before they arrived, all the while easily manipulating Gamora using illusions specifically seen in her mind to lure her into emotionally charging at Thanos, which worked to a great effect, catching Gamora and the Guardians completely off-guard and allowing Thanos to successfully capture Gamora and escape from the Guardians uninjured.
 * Master Manipulator: Thanos is an exceptionally skillful and experienced manipulator. Without leaving his throne, he was able to manipulate other powerful beings, such as Loki, into doing his bidding. His manipulation ultimately caused both the Chitauri Invasion and the Battle of Xandar. As Thor noted, Thanos has effectively manipulated the Avengers for his own goals. He also easily manipulated Gamora into attempting to kill an illusion of him by giving her horrifying visions.
 * Master Leader: Thanos is an exceptional leader, as he was able to lead the Outriders and Chitauri armies, despite their savagery, 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 efficiency as to having easily decimated many species and killing half of said species during his mission to re-balance the universe.
 * Master Combatant: Thanos is an exceptionally skilled hand-to-hand fighter, with millennia worth of fighting experience. This allowed Thanos to fight off and eventually force back both Doctor Strange using a sword made of Eldritch Magic, and Drax with his knives (while his right eye was blinded by a web cotton), to easily fight off and quickly pummel Spider-Man with only one hand (while his other hand was restricted by the Cloak of Levitation), and to easily defeat and grievously wound Iron Man (despite Iron Man's nanotech Mark L armor and sword), with only Doctor Strange's intervention saving Iron Man from death. Additionally, Thanos easily countered Black Panther's charge by choking him with a single hand and then pummeled him to the ground with a single punch, as well as effortlessly defeating and knocking out a Mind Stone-empowered Captain America with a single blow. Most impressively, Thanos was even able to defeat and beat Hulk (the former undefeatable champion of the Grandmaster's Contest of Champions) to a bloody pulp with ease, as well as defeating a fully-empowered Thor without much effort. It was only with a sneak attack that Thor armed with Stormbreaker was able to land a severe wound on Thanos, but even then the Mad Titan was able to quickly recover.

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

 * Armor: Thanos utilized a Golden Armor while he was searching for the Infinity Stones. The Armor was resilient enough to resist damage from Hulk's blows. He discarded the Armor upon requiring the Space Stone from Loki.
 * 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-Ships: To be added

Family

 * Alars - Father
 * Black Order
 * Corvus Glaive † - Adopted Son
 * Proxima Midnight † - Adopted Daughter
 * Cull Obsidian † - Adopted Son
 * Ebony Maw † - Adopted Son
 * 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
 * Sakaarans - Subordinates
 * Leviathans - Subordinates
 * Outriders - Subordinates
 * Stonekeeper

Enemies

 * Asgardians
 * Loki † - Former Ally turned Enemy, Attempted Killer and Victim
 * Heimdall † - Enemy and Victim
 * Tivan Group
 * Taneleer Tivan/Collector - Enemy and Attempted Victim
 * Avengers
 * Tony Stark/Iron Man - Archenemy, Nemesis, Attempted Killer and Attempted Victim
 * Steve Rogers/Captain America - Enemy and Attempted Victim
 * Thor - Enemy, Attempted Killer and Attempted Victim
 * Bruce Banner/Hulk - Enemy, Attempted Killer and Attempted Victim
 * Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow - Enemy and Attempted Victim
 * Vision † - Enemy and Victim
 * Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch † - Enemy and Victim
 * James Rhodes/War Machine - Enemy and Attempted Victim
 * Sam Wilson/Falcon † - Enemy and Victim
 * Peter Parker/Spider-Man † - Enemy and Victim
 * Guardians of the Galaxy
 * Peter Quill/Star-Lord † - Enemy, Attempted Killer and Victim
 * Drax the Destroyer † - Enemy, Attempted Killer and Victim
 * Rocket Raccoon - Enemy and Attempted Victim
 * Groot † - Enemy, Attempted Killer and Victim
 * Mantis † - Enemy, Attempted Killer and Victim
 * Doctor Strange † - Enemy, Attempted Killer and Victim
 * Bucky Barnes/White Wolf † - Enemy and Victim
 * T'Challa/Black Panther † - Enemy and Victim
 * Okoye - Enemy, Attempted Killer and Attempted Victim
 * 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.
 * Thanos is one of the only 3 main antagonists in the MCU to appear in more than 1 movie. The others are Loki and Red Skull.
 * The name "Thanos" is based on the name of the mythological Greek figure, meaning "death."
 * Thanos is the only main antagonist to physically appear before he became a main antagonist, as he appeared in The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron before he appears in Avengers: Infinity War.
 * 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."