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"I thought by eliminating half of life, the other half would thrive. But you've shown me, that's impossible. As long as there are those that remember what was, there will always be those that are unable to accept what can be. They will resist."
Thanos was a genocidal warlord from Titan, whose own main objective was to bring stability to the universe, as he believed its massive population would inevitably use up the universe's entire supply of resources and condemn it. To complete this goal, Thanos set about tracking down the Infinity Stones, as the combined might could wipe out half the universe. Thanos forged alliances with Loki and Ronan the Accuser in order to track down some of the Stones: However, both alliances cost Thanos much of his resources, including the Mind Stone and the loyalty of his daughters, Gamora and Nebula. Fed up with all of his subordinates continued failures, Thanos forced Eitri to create the Infinity Gauntlet for him, while Thanos had opted to seek out the location of the six Infinity Stones himself.
Thanos engaged in a ferocious crusade in order to obtain the Infinity Stones. During his mission, both Thanos and his Black Order invaded multiple planets and slaughtered thousands to gain the stones, including Loki and the Asgardians. This quest even forced Thanos to sacrifice his beloved Gamora in order to take the Soul Stone. Thanos soon found himself challenged by an alliance comprising the universes greatest teams, which included the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. However, despite facing off against the powerfully combined opposition and the wrath of Thor, Thanos still ultimately triumphed and completed the Infinity Gauntlet, using it to finally complete his goal and had caused the Decimation, resulting in half of all life in the universe being wiped out at the snap of his fingers.
Following the Decimation, Thanos then ensured this could not be reversed by destroying all of the Infinity Stones, resulting in the Avengers tracking him down on Titan II before then being decapitated by Thor. However, in an alternative 2014, Thanos was alerted to the events of the Infinity War by a time traveling Nebula, resulting in him traveling to 2023 and laying siege on the Avengers, as he had just decided to instead wipe out the entire universe and replace it out of revenge for their efforts to stop him. However, Thanos had been just too late to stop the Decimation from being reversed as thousands of heroes came to stop him. Despite all Thanos' best efforts, he was unable to claim victory as Tony Stark used his armor to utilize the Infinity Stones and decimated Thanos, Chitauri and Outriders, finally killing the Mad Titan and ending his reign once and for all.
Thanos is a genocidal warlord from Titan who has a lifelong objective to bring stability to the universe by wiping out half of all life at every level. To accomplish this, he collected the Infinity Stones, and he used the Infinity Gauntlet to harness their power. Thanos was considered one of the most powerful and dangerous villains to be created by Marvel.
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Did Google remove the Thanos snap Easter egg?
Yes, Google introduced the Thanos snap Easter egg in April 2019 and removed it by mid-2020. The Thanos snap can still be viewed on the site elgooG.
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How did 2014 Thanos get to 2023?
In 2014, Thanos was alerted to the events of the Infinity War by a time traveling Nebula, and he used the Time-Space GPS and Pym Particles stolen from 2023 Nebula to travel to the future and lay siege to Earth in 2023.
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Biography
Early Life
Fall of Titan
"Titan was like most planets; too many mouths, not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution." "Genocide." "But random. Dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike. They called me a madman. And what I predicted came to pass."
Thanos was born to A'Lars, a member of the Titans, a race of powerful, god-like beings that evolved on the planet of Titan. Thanos had unconditionally loved his people and desperately sought to save Titan when the planet became threatened by the imminent catastrophic event of overpopulation. Coming up with his own solution, Thanos suggested killing half the population of the planet, and entirely at random, to solve the problem. However, his idea was considered too drastic and was dismissed by his people,[1] who exiled him from Titan for his suggestion.[2] However, Thanos' warning was ultimately proven right as Titan ended becoming subsequently devastated as well as nearly uninhabitable. Another result of this devastation was that the Titan species was on the verge of complete extinction.
As a result of Titan's fall and the circumstances surrounding it, 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. Hence, to save other planets from Titan's fate, Thanos became a world-conqueror, moving throughout the universe and destroying half of all life within the planets he conquered due to his ideology of balancing the universe.[1] Thanos had earned a fearful reputation as a galactic warlord, due to his immense power and even ruling over a region of space,[3] and gaining control over the deadly armies of the Chitauri[4], the Sakaarans,[5] and the Outriders,[1] that Thanos became considered among the most powerful, if not the most powerful, being in the universe.[3]
Seeking to build up his strength, Thanos collected orphans from several races that he conquered. His oldest children were Corvus Glaive, as well as Cull Obsidian and Proxima Midnight. These three warriors, all of whom were devoted to Thanos' command, had comprised the Black Order.[1] While Thanos and another one of his children, Ebony Maw, were killing half of the Zehoberei people to balance Zen-Whoberi, Thanos' attention was instead caught by a young Zehoberei named Gamora, who had bravely been pushing back against one of his Chitauri soldiers.
Looking down at Gamora, Thanos then questioned what was wrong, to which she demanded to know where her Mother was, while still looking at Thanos without any fear in her eyes. As he got down onto his knees to look at her, Thanos had become fascinated by the child's clear strength as he had then questioned what her name was before he commented that she was quite the fighter, before offering Gamora his hand while he promised to help her, taking her past all of the thousands of terrified Zehoberei who he had at his mercy.
Thanos took the young Gamora aside and offered her a switchblade to admire, showing Gamora how the blade was perfectly balanced, as he believed life should be. While Gamora was distracted, Thanos and Maw had then proceeded to massacre half of all the Zehoberei people, including Gamora's entire family.[1] Thanos adopted Gamora as his daughter, training her to become the deadliest woman in the galaxy,[3] and had grown to genuinely care about her as a result.
Even as Gamora changed from being devoted to him to hating him, Thanos still believed she could become loyal to him again and inherit his throne.[1] He also massacred a Luphomoid family to raise Nebula to be another devoted and deadly assassin.[6] Thanos always pitted Nebula against Gamora and whenever Nebula lost, Thanos removed another body part from her in order to make her stronger.[7] Thanos also acquired the services of the Other to act as his servant.[4]
Seeking Power
Quest for Infinity Stones
"The entire time I knew Thanos, he only ever had one goal. To bring balance to the universe by wiping out half of all life. He used to kill people planet by planet, massacre by massacre." "Including my own." "If he gets all six Infinity Stones... he can do it with the snap of his fingers like this."
Thanos eventually realized that there were far too many lifeforms in the universe for him to balance by himself. 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 permanently, Thanos made it his life's goal to gather them,[1] and forged several alliances[4] in order to locate them.[3] The first Stone he located was the Mind Stone, placing it within a Scepter[8] that was capable of manipulating minds as a means of better controlling its formidable power.[4]
Through many years of searching, Thanos would tell Nebula that his intention was that once he had claimed all the Stones and caused the Decimation, he would go to his Farm and live out a peaceful life, believing that the universe would be grateful for his actions.[5] Eventually, Thanos had 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.
As a result of Thanos' disregard of 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.[6] He had also sent Gamora to find the Soul Stone, but she lied and reported back to him that her search had been unsuccessful, while in actuality she found a map to the location of the Soul Stone and burned it to ashes. However, Thanos, being as perceptive as he is, easily saw through her but simply allowed her to believe she had fooled him for the time being.[1] Upon making a alliance with Ronan the Accuser, Thanos had assisted the Kree with several massacres, including one where Drax the Destroyer's entire family were killed by Ronan.[3]
"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?"
Thanos discovered that the Tesseract was on Earth and allied himself with Loki in order to retrieve it, providing him with the Scepter, as well as a portion of his army of Chitauri soldiers, who would help him conquer the entire planet in exchange for handing over the Tesseract to him so Thanos could take the Space Stone. Before his mission, Thanos personally trained Loki in mind control. 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 armies of the Chitauri and powerful weaponry, Loki was defeated during the Battle of New York after Iron Man destroyed the Chitauri Command Center,[4] which had also then resulted with the Scepter-laden Infinity Stone came into the hands of HYDRA for their own research,[9] while the Tesseract itself was then transported away to Asgard by Thor, along with the now imprisoned Loki.[4] The Other reported to his master how the inhabitants of Earth 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.[10] Thanos then began researching the Avengers, coming to regards them as "unruly wretches,"[5] but gaining respect for Tony Stark, whom he viewed as a kindred spirit that was also "cursed with knowledge."[1]
Family Conquests
"Ronan has located the Power Stone, I'm dispatching you onto his ship." "He won't like that." "The alternative is death. Ronan's obsession clouds his judgement."
Sometime after that, Thanos ordered his daughters to take part in the slaughter of an alien race. Upon gaining victory, Thanos joined his daughters while wiping the blood from his Double-Edged Sword, informing them that Ronan had just tracked down the Power Stone, and so he would be sending them to Ronan's Dark Aster to oversee the retrieval of the Stone for him.
Although Gamora noted that Ronan would not be happy about them observing him, Thanos noted that the alternative was death and that Ronan's obsession with the Kree-Nova War clouded his judgments. Upon getting these orders, Nebula bowed before Thanos with her Electroshock Batons, vowing that she would not fail her father, to which Thanos had noted that he knew she would not, while Gamora rolled her eyes at her sister's attempts to appease their father.[5]
"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 starways in your blood."
At the same time, Ronan and his Kree ally, Korath the Pursuer, quickly discovered the Orb on Morag and attempted to deliver it to Thanos, but the stone fell into the possession of 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 Thanos and had planned to hand the Orb over to the Collector, who also sought the Infinity Stones for his own purposes.
As Ronan relayed news of Gamora's betrayal to Thanos which had been planned for some time, the Kree berated Thanos 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 regretted, but acted as though he were but slightly irked by. Thanos then instructed Nebula to take up Gamora's place.[3]
"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!"
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 Thanos 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, which made yet another Infinity Stone lost to Thanos.[3]
As Thanos dealt with his allies failing him, Nebula had returned and attempted to kill him onboard the Sanctuary II, only to be captured. With both Loki and Ronan the Accuser failing to conquer worlds and bring him the Infinity Stones, Thanos had decided to take matters into his own hands. He forced the dwarves of Nidavellir to forge the Infinity Gauntlet before massacring them all, leaving only Eitri alive, whose hands he crippled.[1] Thanos began hunting down for the Infinity Stones himself, as he believed himself to be the only being capable of completing the task while smiling confidently to himself.[11] During his preparations, Thanos thoroughly investigated the whereabouts of each Infinity Stone, including their current keepers. Having amassed all the knowledge he could Thanos launched the Infinity War so he could finally bring balance to the universe.[1]
"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 soon tracked the Power Stone down to Xandar, where it was being protected by the Nova Corps following the defeat of Ronan the Accuser.[3] Thanos infiltrated the Nova Corps Headquarters before acquiring the Orb. After having destroyed it, he placed the Power Stone into the Infinity Gauntlet and proceeded to kill half of the Xandarians.[1] As news of Thanos' attacks spread, the Confederacy warned HYDRA of Thanos' threat he posed to Earth and offered protection, leading US Air Force officer General Hale to make a deal with them. However, knowing they were no match against Thanos, they only exploited the deal in order to take the Earth's resources, primarily Inhumans and Gravitonium.[12]
With his ship, the Sanctuary II, Thanos managed to track down the starship carrying the only remaining Asgardian survivors of the cataclysmic Ragnarök on their way to Earth, which had also included his former ally, Loki and his brother Thor with them.[13] As the Black Order then massacred half of the Asgardians, Thanos personally confronted and easily beat Thor half to death, gloating about this victory while simply carrying the humiliated Thor across the ship.
Standing over Loki with Thor down on his knees, Thanos demanded that Loki hand over the Tesseract to him in exchange for his brother's life. When Loki claimed to not care whether his brother lived or died, Thanos proceeded to brutally torture Thor with the Power Stone while Loki looked on. However, while Thor had screamed in agony, Thanos continued watching Loki until his theory was proved correct and Loki finally begged for his brother's life.
Thanos then stopped torturing Thor, who insisted that none of them actually had the Tesseract, as he insisted that it had been destroyed by Surtur along with Asgard. However, Loki then revealed that he had stolen the Tesseract before Asgard's destruction, using his Magic to reveal it in his hand, while the wounded Thor claimed that he was the worst brother. Thanos then watched as Loki had stepped towards him in order to hand over the Tesseract to Thanos, while also promising Thor that the sun would rise on them both again, to which Thanos then claimed that Loki's optimism was misplaced.
However, when Thanos referred to Loki as an Asgardian, Loki simply corrected him by first claiming that he was actually not an Asgardian, before revealing that his side had a Hulk. Before Thanos could react, Hulk then charged forward and attacked Thanos, furiously smashing him against the walls of the Statesman. As Thanos initially was knocked back, Cull Obsidian stepped forward to assist him, only for Ebony Maw to insist that they all allow Thanos to have his "fun" by defeating Hulk himself.
Grabbing hold of Hulk's wrists, Thanos used his superior strength to rip Hulk away from him, before landing a hard punch onto Hulk's jaw which clearly stunned him. When Hulk then attempted to strike back, Thanos proved himself to not only be stronger but a vastly superior fighter as he proceeded to block all of Hulk's blows and landed counter hits against his head and body, leaving the Hulk completely stunned about being so vastly overpowered.
Finally, Thanos then managed to strike his knee into Hulk's face, which had left him completely dazed before Thanos proceeded to lift him over his head and smash Hulk down onto the ground, leaving him barely able to move and covered in blood. While Thanos looked down at the defeated Hulk, Thor attempted to land a strike against the back of his head, making almost no impact as Thanos kicked him away and Maw then used his powers to entrap him in metal bars.
With little hope of survival left, Heimdall then made a final ditch effort to warn the rest of the Nine Realms of Thanos' attack. Taking Hofund into his hand, Heimdall then used his power to send Hulk through the Bifrost Bridge, as Thanos was unable to stop him in time. With Hulk gone, Thanos had calmly stood over Heimdall, noting that he had just made a terrible mistake in doing this. Thanos then took Corvus Glaive' Blade and proceeded to stab Heimdall through the heart, killing him while Thor screamed in grief, threatening to kill Thanos until Maw silenced Thor by wrapping his mouth with metal.
With all the Asgardians defeated, Maw then bowed down before Thanos and offered him the Tesseract, expressing his admiration at Thanos' might while Thanos then removed his Armor and prepared himself for the Tesseract's power. Taking the Tesseract in his hand, Thanos had proceeded to crush it and revealed the Space Stone, before placing the Stone into the Infinity Gauntlet, giving him incredible new powers to transport himself across the galaxy.
Having gained two of the Infinity Stones, Thanos then instructed the Black Order to travel back down to the Earth in order to locate both the Mind and Time Stones and return them to him. However, he was then interrupted by Loki, who suggested that if the Black Order was going to Earth, then he could offer his services as a guide, also noting his experience on the Earth during the Chitauri Invasion, which Thanos had called his previous failures, although Loki refuted this.
Seemingly pledging the allegiance to Thanos once again, naming his titles in doing so while also referring to himself as the rightful king of Jotunheim and the son of Odin as he stepped towards Thanos and bowed his head. However, Thanos suspected that something was wrong and witnessed Loki attempting to plunge his dagger into his throat, as Thanos was able to use the Space Stone to freeze Loki in place just inches away, mocking Loki's vow of undying fidelity.
Declaring that he should have chosen his words more wisely, Thanos proceeded to lift up up the God of Mischief by his throat as Loki desperately attempted to break free, while gasping for air. Thanos looked Loki straight in the eye before turning to Thor, who watched on in horror as his brother was unable to free himself. As Thanos turned back to his victim, Loki told him that he would never be a god, which Thanos responded to by simply crushing Loki's throat.
As Loki's corpse went limp in his hands, Thanos heard Thor cry out in pain and grief upon watching his brother's death. Thanos dropped Loki's corpse in front of a distraught Thor, saying that he will not be resurrected again. Thanos then completely destroyed the remaining parts of the Statesman with the Power Stone, as he used the Space Stone to transport his children and himself out of the exploding ship, leaving Thor and dead Asgardian bodies to float out in space.[1]
"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 then arrived on Knowhere long before the Guardians of the Galaxy could and proceeded to force the Collector into handing over the Aether which he had been tasked with safekeeping following the Second Dark Elf Conflict. Having solidified the Aether into the Reality Stone, Thanos predicted the arrival of the Guardians as he knew that he needed Gamora in order to locate the Soul Stone. Thanos tricked the Guardians with an illusion conjured by the Reality Stone, making it look as if he was still torturing the Collector.
Thanos then waited for the Guardians to arrive, conjuring the illusion that Knowhere was not engulfed in flames as they had attempted to launch a surprise attack on Thanos. Eventually, the Guardians made their presence known as Drax the Destroyer was knocked out by Mantis to keep him from attacking first, as Thanos instead allowed Gamora to charge forward to attack his duplicate, which proceeded to break Godslayer before Gamora had used her other sword to stab Thanos' illusion directly in the throat, before finishing the job by using the Switchblade he once gave her to stab Thanos in the heart.
Thanos then watched on as Gamora fell to her knees, weeping over the seeming demise of her only father figure, until his voice spoke through the emptiness, questioning if he could sense sadness within her. Thanos then revealed himself and boasting that while the reality is often unpleasant, while also revealing the true burning wreckage of Knowhere, noting that using the Reality Stone, he could make reality to be whatever he wanted. Noting that he had known that she would come, Thanos offered Gamora the chance to go with him willingly.
However, Gamora refused and attempted to pick up Godslayer, but Thanos effortlessly restrained her before she could grab it. He then effortlessly incapacitated both Drax the Destroyer and Mantis as he used the Reality Stone to turn them into pieces of stone and strings. Thanos was then confronted by Star-Lord, who threatened to kill him if he did not let her go, aiming his Quad Blasters directly at Thanos' head, as Thanos realized this was Gamora's boyfriend.
While Star-Lord still continued threatening an unintimidated Thanos, Gamora had begged him to instead kill her to prevent Thanos from discovering the location of the Soul Stone. Realizing what was now happening, Thanos claimed that Gamora was expecting too much from Star-Lord and, to prove his point, Thanos had then brought her closer to Quill and dared him to shoot her, believing that Star-Lord's love for Gamora would not allow him to ever pull the trigger.
Pushing Gamora into his face, Thanos furiously demanded that Star-Lord fire and watched the pain going across his face as he made his decision. However, when Quill hesitatingly pulled the trigger, Thanos simply used the Reality Stone to turn his ammunition and blaster into bubbles, much to the shock of both of them. Thanos teleported away with Gamora, after taking a liking to Star-Lord as he proved himself, while returning Drax and Mantis back to their normal selves.[1]
"That's why I trusted you to find the Soul Stone." "I'm sorry, I disappointed you." "I am disappointed. But not because you didn't find it. But because you did. And you lied."
Back on his ship, the Sanctuary II, Thanos gave Gamora food, believing that she was hungry, but Gamora had tossed it at his throne, saying bitterly that she always hated the throne, which Thanos then simply retorted by saying he always hoped that she would sit on it. Gamora, however, insisted that, not only had she hated the throne, but she had hated everything about the life which Thanos had given her.
Having already heard Gamora's repeated confessions of hatred for his ship and her life, Thanos remained unfazed by all of Gamora's angry statements, commenting that she had told him as much every day that she had been with him. Sitting on the steps in front of his throne, Thanos insisted that he saved her when Gamora reminisced on how she was a child when Thanos took her from her homeworld, before massacring her entire family in the process of taking her.
Thanos argues about his plan for the universe
Thanos then revealed to Gamora on how thanks to his massacre of half the population, Zen-Whoberi had since prospered and were no longer going to bed hungry every night, as Gamora had done as a child when her planet had been on the brink of an extinction. When Gamora had noted how he had murdered half of the population of their entire planet, Thanos simply dismissed this as a small price to pay for salvation, while insisting that it was simply calculus.
Thanos had remained calm even as Gamora denied everything that Thanos believed in and reminded Gamora on how she once had the same will as he had and that it was due to his training that she then became the fiercest woman in the Galaxy. Thanos then noted that he had once been so confident in her abilities that he even send her to locate the Soul Stone, which she sarcastically apologized for failing to do for him, which Thanos had already deduced to be a lie.
Commenting to Gamora that he was disappointed not because she did not find the location of the Soul Stone, but that she did and lied about it, Thanos then took Gamora to reveal that Nebula has been captured due to her attempt to assassinate him, noting that she had come close to succeeding. As Thanos looked on, Gamora reacted in horror upon seeing that her sister's cybernetic implants had all been torn out of her body, which had caused Nebula terrible agony.
Using the Power Stone, Thanos began torturing Nebula, causing her to scream out in pain until Gamora begged him to stop, insisting that she never found the Soul Stone. Despite Gamora's claims, however, Thanos revealed that he was aware that Gamora had lied to him by showing a video recording inside Nebula's system. Thanos went as far as to say that while Thanos turned her into the warrior she is now, he never taught her to lie and thus she was never a good liar.
Thanos tortured Nebula even further, long enough for Gamora to feel remorse for all her pain, as Nebula screamed in endless agony as her cybernetic implants were torn further from her, all while Thanos had continued furiously demanding that Gamora finally reveal where the Soul Stone could be found. Giving in, Gamora told Thanos the stone was on Vormir, which then caused him to stop torturing Nebula as he demanded that Gamora also come with him to find the Stone.[1]
Thanos and Gamora then traveled to Vormir via a portal created from the Space Stone. As they looked over the landscape, Thanos had told Gamora that the Soul Stone had better be where she claimed it was, making it clear that Nebula would suffer a terrible fate if this was not the case. Thanos and Gamora then walked on top of the cliff where the Stone apparently was, in search for Thanos' ultimate prize.
Once Thanos and Gamora had reached the top of the cliff, they were greeted by a mysterious stranger, who acknowledged that he knew Thanos was the son of A'Lars and that Gamora was the daughter of Thanos, much to Thanos' surprise. The Stonekeeper would then talk with Thanos about finally retrieving the Soul Stone away from him, as the Stonekeeper simply noted how this would extract a terrible price, but Thanos just responded to his statement, that he was prepared.
As the Stonekeeper guided them to the top of a nearby cliff, Thanos questioned how he knew so much about the Infinity Stones, to which the Stonekeeper explained how a lifetime ago he sought the Stones and had even held the Tesseract in his hands. While the Stonekeeper continued telling his story, he simply explained that the Tesseract had banished him to Vormir to protect the Soul Stone, before he showed Thanos and Gamora to the end of the high up mountain edge.
Thanos being forced to make a terrible choice
As the guardian of the Soul Stone explained to Thanos that obtaining the Stone required a sacrifice of a loved one, ensuring that whoever held it would understand the stone's true power, summing this up by explaining that a soul must be given to obtain the power of the souls. Upon hearing all this, Gamora mocked Thanos as heartless and uncaring, but Thanos, while still believing that he had truly loved Gamora as his daughter, shed tears that he would have to kill her.
Thinking back to the fate of Titan, Thanos told Gamora that he could not ignore his destiny to seemingly save billions of lives this second time. Although Gamora was genuinely touched for a moment, she quickly and desperately attempted suicide, grabbing her Switchblade as she attempting to plunge it straight into her stomach, but Thanos instead used the Reality Stone to turn her knife into bubbles while he tearfully apologized before then grabbing Gamora by the wrist.
While Gamora tried to fight back, Thanos threw his beloved daughter from the cliff, as she fell to her death. Having committed this terrible act, Thanos sternly looked over the cliff and mourned over Gamora's death,[1] as a voice told him his will was strong and his sacrifice had proved him worthy.[14] A light burst out and knocked Thanos out, but once he awoke from a river, with the Soul Stone in his hand, he then inserted it into his Infinity Gauntlet, giving Thanos greater power.[1]
"With all six Stones, I could simply snap my fingers. They would all cease to exist. I call that... mercy." "And then what?" "I finally rest and watch the sunrise on a grateful universe. The hardest choices require the strongest wills."
Following the Sacrifice of Gamora, Thanos arrived on Titan to retrieve the Time Stone. However, he was greeted by Doctor Strange, who was sat on top of a hill, noting how Thanos fit his name well. Upon seeing Strange there, Thanos swiftly deduced that Ebony Maw was dead, noting that Maw had accomplished his mission nevertheless by bringing the Time Stone to him, as Strange noted he may regret Maw bringing him face-to-face with a Master of the Mystic Arts since he intended to personally defeat Thanos.
Thanos then proceeded to ask Strange where he had thought Maw had brought him to and corrected Strange when he calmly guessed Titan as being his home, saying it was. The Titan then told him about the history of his planet while altering the reality around them using the Reality Stone to show all its former beauty. Thanos had then told Strange how when Titan was coming close to extinction, he offered his solution with a mass genocide, which the Titans rejected as they called him a madman, resulting in Thanos' prediction coming true.
Thanos explaining his plan for mass genocide
Strange mockingly called Thanos a prophet, to which Thanos simply insisted that he was merely a survivor. When Strange then accused Thanos of wanting to murder trillions of lives, he had explained how he planned to commit a painless and randomly fair genocide across the entire universe with the power of the Infinity Stones, claiming that he would be able to cause this mass genocide with a simple snap of his fingers, after which he intended to rest and watch the sunrise.
Thanos angrily unleashing his true powers
As their conversation ended, Thanos explained his belief that the hardest choices required the strongest wills, to which Strange then insisted that "their" will was equal to his. Just as Thanos questioned what Strange meant by this, Iron Man soured down and smashed a massive piece of debris onto him. However, this only enraged Thanos as he used the Power Stone to destroy that debris and turned them all into an endless swarm of furious bats with the Reality Stone.
With the bats attacking Iron Man, forcing him to flee, Spider-Man swung into the fight and used his Synthetic Webbing to blind Thanos, before Drax the Destroyer quickly slashed him with his Knives while Strange conjured a sword made of Eldritch Magic to engage Thanos in close combat. However, Thanos had swiftly composed himself and overwhelmed them, managing to land a heavy blow against Drax and blocking Strange's attack and then angrily kicking him away.
Before Thanos could destroy Strange, Star-Lord charged forward and began shooting Thanos with his Quad Blasters. Before Thanos could stop him, Star-Lord managed to maneuver through all Thanos' blasts with aid from Strange, who conjured platforms for him to jump on and shot him before planting an explosive on Thanos' back, which briefly stunned him while Star-Lord simply vanished through an Inter-Dimensional Portal which had just been created by Strange.
When Thanos attempted to retaliate, the Cloak of Levitation wrapped itself around the Infinity Gauntlet, which stopped him from using his powers. In the same moment, Doctor Strange opened more portals using his Sling Ring and Spider-Man attacked Thanos through them, but it only served to irritate the titan, who swiftly pinned Spider-Man down and angrily called him an insect before flinging him at Strange, knocking them down as Thanos tore the Cloak off the Gauntlet.
Returning to the battle, Iron Man caused a massive explosion around Thanos by shooting missiles from his Mark L Armor, although Thanos had once again remained uninjured and just simply used the Infinity Gauntlet to absorb and blast all the flames back at him. Thanos was once again attacked by Spider-Man who tried to steal the Gauntlet, but Thanos easily broke out of his webbing and then used that to pull Spider-Man towards him, before ruthlessly striking him in the face.
Once Thanos had ripped all the webbing from his Gauntlet, suddenly, a Necrocraft crashed into him, dragging him across the battlefield. As Thanos was getting back on his feet, he was then suddenly struck in the face by Nebula, who had escaped Sanctuary II. Coldly greeting his former adopted daughter, Thanos dismissed killing her as being a waste of parts. While Nebula attacked Thanos with her Electroshock Batons, she demanded to know where Gamora was, but Thanos had refused to answer as he soon overpowered her with a backhand.[1]
With Thanos unable to move, Iron Man flew back and attempted to pull the Gauntlet away from him, while Strange opened another Inter-Dimensional Portal over his head, which then allowed Mantis to land on Thanos, using her powers to put him in a trance-like state. With all the heroes working together, Thanos was trapped while Iron Man and Spider-Man worked together to take the Gauntlet, with Thanos using all his might in his attempts to break himself free from their hold.
Rejoining the others, Star-Lord then mocked Thanos by noting how he had thought that Thanos would be harder to catch before he had then demanded the location of Gamora. Despite being under Mantis' control, Thanos was still able to communicate a few words as he referred to her as his Gamora, which Star-Lord denied. Mantis, however, revealed that Thanos was mourning, as Star-Lord and Drax had both questioned what he could possibly have to mourn.
This comment, however, led Nebula to finally understand in horror and sadness that Thanos had actually just sacrificed Gamora in order to obtain the Soul Stone back on Vormir. Refusing to accept that his girlfriend was gone, Star-Lord ignored Iron Man's advice as he then furiously questioned Thanos to tell her that Nebula was lying and Thanos emotionally said he had to. Infuriated by this, Star-Lord punched Thanos, causing Mantis to lose her control over him.
Thanos angrily subdues all the heroes
Having become freed from his trance and furious over almost being defeated, Thanos brutally attacked the group, ripping the Gauntlet back and throwing Mantis across the battlefield of Titan, with Spider-Man just able to save her. Thanos then knocked back Iron Man and took down the Guardians of the Galaxy by kicking Drax into the other members, before then stopping them from attacking him by knocking them all down with a powerful shockwave from the Gauntlet.
Thanos wrathfully ripping apart an entire moon
With the Guardians now defeated, Iron Man returned into the fight as he used a sword created from his Mark L Armor to try and finally kill Thanos, but Thanos had managed to block the blow and then responded by headbutting Iron Man. Fueled by pure rage, Thanos proceeded to use the Power Stone to pulverize an entire moon above Titan, before Thanos had then used the Space Stone to hurl a hail of meteors at his opponents, taking advantage of Titan's unusually high gravitational pull to make all these projectiles much more rapid.[1]
As the meteors continued raining down upon them, Thanos was then confronted by Doctor Strange, who just floated down with the Cloak of Levitation and looked Thanos straight in the eye. Strange then readying his Magic for a duel against Thanos, who remained calm and confident over being challenged by a Master of the Mystic Arts, who then began their fight by ferociously launching some fiery beams at Thanos, which had destroyed the ground around him.
Thanos immediately leaped into the air to avoid the fiery beams and retaliated with a beam of energy from the Infinity Gauntlet, which had completely obliterated a passing meteor. However, before this could kill him, Strange then managed to use his own powers to summon up the Mirror Dimension to absorb the blast. Hoping to also trap Thanos within the Dimension so that he could not be any harm to the outside world, Strange then launched the Dimension straight towards him.
However, Thanos responded by crushing the entire Mirror Dimension with a strike from the Power Stone, before he then used the Space Stone to crush whatever was remaining of the Dimension and then launched these remnants back at Strange in the form of a destructive black hole, which Strange had managed to successfully transmute into blue butterflies, the sight of which made Thanos briefly pause to look at them in suprise, as he had expected a more deadly reaction from Strange.
Thanos then watched on as Strange lifted himself in the air and used a spell to conjure dozens of replicas of himself, all of whom had then used their Binding Spell to entrap Thanos, covering him in their whips which held him in place. However, Thanos refused to be held down yet again and eventually won as he dispelled the many replicas of Strange with a blast of the Infinity Stones, the power of which had caused Strange's Astral Form to be briefly pulled out from his body until he then managed to regain control of his true form.
Ending the duel, Thanos was able to pull Strange to his hand before he could react, tightening his grip around Strange's throat. Thanos admitted he was impressed by Strange's mastery over Magic, while noting that he should have used the Time Stone to his advantage in the fight, calling it Strange's greatest weapon. However, once Thanos had crushed the Eye of Agamotto, he then realized that Strange had removed the Time Stone, causing Thanos to throw him aside.[1]
Before Thanos could look for where the Time Stone was hidden, he was intercepted as Iron Man then used his trap to restrain the Infinity Gauntlet. Iron Man expressed his anger at Thanos throwing the moon at him earlier before Thanos then revealed that he actually knew Iron Man's true identity of Tony Stark due to the events of the Battle of New York. When Thanos then noted that he had been cursed with knowledge, Iron Man simply responded by insisting that his only curse was Thanos himself.
Ending the conversation, Iron Man launched several missiles straight at Thanos, which he was able to survive. Before he could even react, Thanos was then attacked relentlessly by all of Iron Man's advanced technology from his Iron Man Armor, as Iron Man smashed Thanos into some rocks and hit him with jet-powered battering rams. Thanos then responded by ripping off Iron Man's helmet, which he had soon replaced, and hitting him, causing Iron Man to fall to the ground.
With Iron Man lying dazed on the ground, Thanos then ripped his trap from his Gauntlet, which had allowed him to gain access to the power of the Infinity Stones again. With all this power back, Thanos unleashed a blast of energy from the Power Stone, although Iron Man was able to deflect the blast by creating his shield from his nanotech suit. Despite being pushed back several feet by that blast, Iron Man was unharmed and was able to charge back into the fight.
Getting back to the fight, Iron Man turned part of his suit into a heavy claim, which had held down Thanos' arm, before using a jet-powered battering ram to strike Thanos right across the face. The force of this blow of enough that Thanos actually was cut, causing him to bleed slightly; however, this only served to amuse Thanos as he noted that all of Iron Man's greatest efforts and weaponry could do nothing more than causing a small cut to his face with a single drop of blood.
Intending to end the fight once and for all, Thanos caught Iron Man off-guard by effortlessly freeing himself and brutally beat him down, badly damaging his Iron Man Armor as Thanos had struck Iron Man repeatedly in the head, with each blow ripping his helmet apart and causing the nanotech to work faster to repair itself. Hitting Iron Man with the Power Stone, Thanos still moved towards him, as Iron Man desperately fired his repulsor beams to try and slow him down.
While Thanos continued using the gauntlet to deflect all of Iron Man's repulsor beams, he soon got close enough to Iron Man to punch off his helmet, with little of his armor now remaining to protect him from another hit. As Iron Man did everything in his power to save himself, he used what little nanotech he had left to create a sword to stab Thanos, but he simply responded by breaking off the sword and then stabbing Iron Man straight through the stomach with it.
With Stark gasping for air, bleeding heavily from this wound, Thanos walked him backward and gently sat Stark down on a nearby rock. Softly placing his hand onto his head, Thanos then admitted that he had gained strong respect for Stark. Thanos then promised that once the Decimation was completed, half of humanity would still be alive, noting that he hoped those who survived would remember Stark's legacy as a hero, before then stepping back and preparing to use the combined power of all four Infinity Stones to finally execute him.
Before Thanos could end Stark's life, however, Doctor Strange spoke out and promised that if Thanos agreed to spare Stark's life, then he would offer up the Time Stone in exchange. Strange promised that this would not be a trick, as Thanos turned the Infinity Gauntlet away from Stark and aimed it at Strange instead. Despite Stark desperately begging him not to do it, Strange had then used Magic to reveal the Stone's location, as he had managed to hide it within a star.
Having manifested the Time Stone into his hand, Strange regretfully considered his decision to go against his vow as one of the Masters of the Mystic Arts before he finally allowed it float towards Thanos, much to the horror of Stark. Taking the stone, Thanos examined it for a moment and then inserted the stone into the gauntlet, giving him the power to control the very fabric of time itself. With the fifth stone in the Gauntlet, Thanos had only the Mind Stone left to collect before he finally had the power to complete his ultimate goal.
As Thanos basked in his victory, he was suddenly struck by multiple blaster shots, as Star-Lord had appeared out of nowhere and began furiously shooting at him with his Quad Blasters, still furious over the death of Gamora. However, Thanos remained completely uninjured and simply conjured his portal using the Space Stone and departed from Titan, intending to go to Earth and collect the final Infinity Stone, leaving all of the heroes behind, feeling utterly defeated by him.[1]
Having obtained the Time Stone, Thanos proceeded to use the Space Stone and arrived onto Wakanda with the one intention of retrieving the final Infinity Stone, the Mind Stone. However, Thanos found himself confronted not only by the forces of Wakanda, but also fractured teams of the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Thanos stood single-handedly without fear and, after briefly staring at his enemies, began to calmly walk toward them.
Even with all of his army of Outriders now destroyed, Thanos with the nearly complete Infinity Gauntlet proved to be practically invincible and far too powerful for all of his opposers and he made short work of them. As Bruce Banner charged at him in the Hulkbuster, Thanos did not slow his pace and simply made the Hulkbuster intangible and imprisoned it in solid stone. With more of the heroes charging at him, Thanos used the power of the stones to subdue them all.
With both Captain America and Black Panther charging towards him, Thanos used the Power Stone to send Captain America flying back, before grabbing ahold of Black Panther by the throat, punching him down to the ground. Thanos then proceeded to blast Falcon out of the air before War Machine unloaded his entire arsenal upon him. However, Thanos remained unaffected as he simply blocked all the shots and crushed the Mark IV Armor, before tossing it aside.
Since Thanos still continued making his way towards the Mind Stone, the Winter Soldier and Okoye did whatever they could to bring him down, as Thanos shrugged off the bullets and stopped the Vibranium Spear and knocked them both backwards with a shock wave, before trapping Black Widow under rocks ripped from the ground. With the Stone near, Thanos saw that Scarlet Witch was attempting to use her powers to destroy it, despite the fact that Vision would also die.
With little left between Thanos and the Stone, Groot tried to trap him with his vines, but Thanos simply tore these apart. With only Captain America left, he furiously took on Thanos alone, striking him with the Wakandan Shields. Tiring of this fight, Thanos tried to push Captain America down with the Infinity Gauntlet, as he was impressed by Captain America's strength and determination to stop him, before knocking him down with a brutal punch to the head.
Finally, Thanos reached the Stone, as Scarlet Witch then unleashed a blast of energy to try and hold him back while she continued trying to destroy the Stone to keep Thanos from completing his goal. Thanos found that Scarlet Witch's power, which also came from the Infinity Stones, harder to get through, as he pushed with all his might to get to her. However, Thanos was too late as Scarlet Witch overloaded the Stone, causing it as well as Vision to be completely destroyed.
Upon seeing the Mind Stone's destruction, Thanos did not react with any rage at the girl who had seemingly hindered his ultimate goal. Instead, he sympathized with her tearful sacrifice of Vision to destroy the Mind Stone, seeing the same pain which he had felt as he sacrificed Gamora in order to obtain the Soul Stone. Scarlet Witch then insisted that Thanos could never understand her pain, to which Thanos had claimed to have lost more than she could ever know.
Thanos then claimed that he did not have any time to mourn, noting that this was no time at all. To the horror of Scarlet Witch, Thanos then activated the Time Stone and aimed the gauntlet at Vision's remains, returning all the pieces of Vision's vibranium body back together and returning him into life, along with the Mind Stone. Upon seeing this, Scarlet Witch screamed out in horror and attempted to stop him, only for Thanos to knock her out with a brutally heavy strike.
Thanos then wrapped the Infinity Gauntlet around Vision's throat and proceeded to lift him in the air. Looking Vision straight in the eye, Thanos crushed his vibranium skull, forcefully ripping the Mind Stone from Vision's head and killing him in the process. While Vision's lifeless body turned grey, Thanos threw him aside and admired the Mind Stone in his hand.[1]
With all six of the Infinity Stones, Thanos had placed the Mind Stone in the Infinity Gauntlet, which gave him the ultimate humongous power. As the might of all six stones were combined with the Gauntlet, Thanos harnessed infinite power and control over the universe. As this powered entered his body, Thanos had roared out to the sky in victory.
Moments after the Gauntlet's completion, Thor furiously charged out from the sky and struck Thanos with a large lightning bolt which had been fired from Stormbreaker. In response to the attack, Thanos had furiously fired an energy beam with the combined strength of all six stones. However, the Asgardian then launched Stormbreaker with all his might, which directly cut through the beam and straight towards Thanos himself, who could do nothing to stop it coming at him.
The axe ultimately struck Thanos in the chest, gravely wounding him as Thanos dropped down to his knees in agony while Thor had stepped over to him, basking in his victory over his enemy. Thor then took ahold of Thanos' head, and reminded him of his promise that he would kill Thanos for murdering Heimdall and Loki, and thousands of Asgardians on the Statesman, furiously forcing the axe blade deeper into Thanos' chest which caused him to roar in pain.
After a brief moment of discomfort from the terrible wound caused by the axe still embedded deep inside his chest, Thanos had then, while struggling to get all his words out, taunted Thor that he should have aimed the axe for his head. Before his stunned opponent could react, Thanos simply lifted the Infinity Gauntlet into the air and snapped his fingers. The energy surged from the Gauntlet, which then caused the blinding light flooding the battlefield as Thanos briefly passed out.
To his surprise, Thanos then awoke within the Soulworld, without the wound in his chest or the Infinity Gauntlet. The void was empty, save for Thanos himself and one building far in the distance. The building resembled the same archway on Zen-Whoberi where Thanos found the young Gamora waiting for him. Thanos grievously told her that he had finally completed his mission. As Gamora had asked "what did it cost?", Thanos became solemn and simply replied, "Everything".
Regaining normal consciousness, Thanos returned into his body back in Wakanda. Upon seeing all the damage inflicted on the scorched Infinity Gauntlet as a result of finally being able to activate the Decimation, Thor furiously questioned Thanos about the finger-snap, demanding to know what he did, but he offered no answers and instead used the opening to heal his injury, give his enemy a spiteful glare, and teleport away using the Space Stone.[1]
As half of all life across the universe began to disintegrate as a result of his actions, Thanos reappeared on Titan II. Unable to hear all the screams of sadness and pain that were going out across the universe as trillions died in front of their loved ones, Thanos rested in a small hut with a view overlooking the alien countryside. Having at long last accomplished his objective, Thanos peacefully gazed out to the rising sun and smiled in satisfaction, content at his victory.[1]
Three weeks after the Decimation, knowing that he would be tempted into a lust for power and acknowledging that the Avengers would target them, Thanos utilized the Infinity Stones a final time to reduce them to the atomic level with their own energies, essentially destroying them and eliminating any possibility from reversing the damage he did, which caused grevious wounds and scars on his body, mainly those parts nearest to the gauntlet, which was further damaged by the stones destruction as well. Severely wounded, Thanos continued to tend to his hut in Titan II, oblivious to the fate that would await him.[5]
"I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me, but the work is done. It always will be. I am... inevitable." "We have to tear this place apart. He... he... he has to be lying."
Two days after Thanos destroyed the Stones, the surviving Avengers, save for Tony Stark, was able to locate his coordinates via the Benatar. Flying down, Captain Marvel discovered that Thanos had no defenses or armies defending him, as the Titan was merely picking crops from his farmland. Collecting his harvest in a bag, the injured Thanos returned to his hut, where he began to prepare a stew. As he tended to his food, he looked up, to see a bright light crash though his hut; the newly recruited Captain Marvel blasting him with energy before knocking Thanos back and putting him in a headlock, as Bruce Banner in the Iron Man Armor: Mark XLIX burst out from the floor, and War Machine broke in, together he and Banner restrained both of Thanos' arms. Thor then arrived, crashing though the back of the Titans hut, and used Stormbreaker to sever Thanos' left arm, freeing the Gauntlet, which dropped to the ground, causing great pain to the Titan, who yelled out in a mixture of rage and agony. Lastly, Captain America and Black Widow arrived to interrogate Thanos about the location of the Stones, as Thanos was held retrained and for the first time; helpless. As Rocket Raccoon turned the charred Infinity Gauntlet over, the team saw that the stones were gone. Demanding to know where they were, Thanos replied that after he accomplished his goal, the stones served no purpose beyond temptation. Enraged, Banner yelled that Thanos had killed trillions, and shoved him onto the ground. Thanos replied that Banner should be grateful, but was brutally punched by him. When Black Widow asked again where the stones were, Thanos revealed that he had used the stones to destroy the stones, to ensure the Decimation was irreversible, and make his victory everlasting. He explains that this effort nearly killed him, but then said his work was done, and would always be. Thanos declared himself to be "inevitable".
A disbelieving Rhodes inquired the Avengers to tear the hut down to find the Stones, although Nebula confirmed that, while Thanos was many things, he wasn't a liar. Surprised, Thanos thanked Nebula, finally admitting that perhaps he treated her too harshly. These affectionate words towards his adoptive daughter proved to be his last, however, as an enraged Thor swung Stormbreaker at the Mad Titan, decapitated Thanos with one swift stroke, sending his head rolling across the floor of his hut as his body slumped to the ground, fittingly fulfilling his taunting 'suggestion' weeks earlier. As the Avengers looked on in horror and contentment, Nebula crouched by her fathers head and closed his eyes as a final deed for him. Thor turned away, and walked out of Thanos' hut. Thanos was dead, but the Avengers victory over him was shallow, as even in death, he won, destroying the stones and all hope of reversing the Decimation seemed lost.[5]
War on Earth
Seeing the Future
Five years later, however, a gleam of hope surfaced for all of those that opposed Thanos. Ant-Man returned to the normal world after remaining in the Quantum Realm for five hours. He had been imprisoned due to Thanos' snap erasing his allies just as they were preparing to bring him back to the surface world. Having discovered that Time Travel was possible through the Quantum Realm, Ant-Man came to the facility and told the Avengers about it. As such, the Avengers devised a plan to recover the Infinity Stones before Thanos could. They split into groups and set out to recover each Stone. To do so, some of them had to do what Thanos did in the original timeline, including a sacrifice to obtain the Soul Stone. Black Widow committed suicide so Hawkeye could retrieve it from Vormir.
However, when War Machine and Nebula time traveled to 2014 and succeeded in reaching the Orb after knocking down the past Star-Lord on Morag, Nebula overloaded, as hers and her past self's cybernetics network connection were shared, acting as if they were a single mind, but splited in two different bodies. Concurrently, the past Nebula overloaded after a killing spree, prompting Thanos to ask Ebony Maw to analyze her aboard the Sanctuary II. He then discovered that there were two Nebulas: their Nebula and one from the future. Meanwhile, on Morag, War Machine time traveled back to the present with the Power Stone, but Nebula remained behind as her memories were still overloading.[5]
Suspecting something, Thanos had the future Nebula captured and brought to him aboard the Sanctuary II. He gained access to her memories, thus learning of his original fate in 2018 after the Infinity War and the Avengers' plans to reverse the Decimation in 2023.
Using this information to accomplish his goal more easily than in the original timeline, Thanos retained the future Nebula as his prisoner while he sent the past Nebula to impersonate her future self and recover the Infinity Gauntlet for him. As such, the past Nebula time-traveled to the future while Thanos assigned Gamora to watch over the future self of her adoptive sister.[5] Thanos also had Ebony Maw use his sorcery to reverse-engineer the Pym Particles so that there would be enough for his fleet to use in order to time-travel into the future.[15]
By the time the past Nebula arrived on Earth in 2023, a new Infinity Gauntlet had been constructed by Hulk and Thor, with the former using it to reverse the effects of the Decimation, thus bringing back all those who had died originally at the end of the Infinity War, though moderately injuring Hulk in the process. However, past Nebula used the time machine to transport Thanos and his fleet from 2014 to the present day. With the Sanctuary II, Thanos obliterated the New Avengers Facility, thus trapping Hulk, War Machine and Rocket Raccoon under the rubble to drown before Ant-Man came to rescue them.
Upon leaving his ship along the Black Order, Thanos approached the Avengers to inform them that he had always wanted to take out half of all life of the universe so the other half could flourish without the danger of overpopulation. He now had realized that his plan was wrong all this time since the survivors would not be able to stop remembering the victims, which would, in turn, prevent them from thriving. Thus, Thanos decided to announce that upon taking the Infinity Gauntlet, he would now use it to destroy the entire universe only to then reconstruct it in his image so that the new populace would never know about the previous universe, never attempt to rebel against Thanos, and be grateful for the life they were given.[5]
"In all my years of conquest, violence, slaughter, it was never personal. But I'll tell you now, what I'm about to do to your stubborn, annoying little planet... I'm gonna enjoy it. Very, very much."
However, while Thanos proclaimed his new intentions, he was unaware that his time's Nebula had recovered the Iron Gauntlet from Hawkeye, only to be killed by her future self and Gamora, who had realized that the future self of her adoptive sister was telling the truth that this was the time to save many planets from suffering from Thanos' tyranny. On the other hand, on the battlefield, the Avengers discovered that they weren't alone: all their fallen, now resurrected, allies, including the deceased Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Wakandans, the Ravagers, the Masters of the Mystic Arts and the Asgardians had come to aid them on the battle for the fate of the universe against Thanos, the Black Order, the Chitauri, the Outriders and the Sakaarans.
Immediately, the battle started and the Avengers rapidly got the upper hand. However, despite losing most of his men, including Cull Obsidian, Thanos was still a match for Thor, who intended to kill him just as he did in the original timeline. However, as Thor was about to be killed by Thanos, Captain America came to his rescue by summoning Mjølnir and engaging the hostile in combat. However, even still, Thanos was ultimately able to defeat Captain America and proceeded to take the Infinity Gauntlet.
Thanos, in an attempt to retake the Gauntlet from Black Panther, was halted by the Scarlet Witch, who then proceeded to engage him in direct combat. Despite seemingly gaining the upper hand on her, Wanda managed to overwhelm him, dealing significant damage to his sword and almost tore him apart. However, Thanos called down an airstrike from his ship, despite Corvus Glaive's protests, which knocked back Scarlet Witch stopping the attack. But although the airstrike was successful in keeping the heroine, along with the rest of his opposition at bay, it came at the cost of destroying much of his army. The airstrike was stopped by Captain Marvel who arrived from space and destroyed the Sanctuary II, as a bewildered Thanos looked on.
Thanos successfully halted the efforts of his adversaries to return the Stones to the past and attempted to retake the Gauntlet in the ensuing chaos, managing to stave off the efforts of Captain Marvel, Thor, and Captain America. Though Iron Man intervened and tried to prevent him from repeating the Decimation, Thanos was finally able to knock Iron Man aside and snapped his fingers just like he did in the original timeline, only this time with the intent on destroying the entire universe and replacing it with a new one.[5]
However, to Thanos' surprise, this time, his snap had no effect because the Infinity Stones had been removed from the Iron Gauntlet and had been transferred to Iron Man's armor. Confused and horrified, Thanos watched Iron Man, with all the Stones on his armored hand, snap his fingers this time. Rather than destroying the universe like Thanos desired, it instead caused all of Thanos' forces - including the Black Order and alien armies, excluding Gamora and Nebula, to be killed by turning into dust, at the cost of Iron Man's life.
Realizing that his fate had already been sealed and that this time, there was no chance of escaping it, Thanos stood silently before sitting on the ground, and watched the sunrise solemnly as his allies vanished before his eyes, accepting his defeat with dignity before he faded away into nothingness. In his last moments, Thanos suffered the same demise his victims endured in the original timeline five years earlier, thus bringing his threat to an end once and for all.[5]
Personality
"I'm thankful, because now I know what I must do. I will shred this universe, down to its last atom. And then, with the stones you have collected for me, create a new one. Teeming with life, that knows not what it has lost, but what it has been given. A grateful universe."
Thanos was 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. In reality, Thanos was also a more complex and tortured soul given his traumatic past and obsession with completing what he perceived as his destiny led him to commit horrible actions all in the name of saving the universe even at a great personal sacrifice to himself. He desired to use the Tesseract to look beyond the known worlds to find greater ones that it would unveil. He was also relentless, as seen by his gathering of children from across the galaxy to take as his own so he can raise them as assassins and tirelessly searches for the Infinity Stones.
He was extremely intimidating and often 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 he tried to kill Thanos. Even though Ebony Maw had never failed Thanos, he still feared his master and father enough that he did not dare go to Titan without having fully taken the Time Stone from Doctor Strange. Thanos threatened Ronan the Accuser that he would bathe the starways in his 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 had little to no regard for his subordinates, as seen by him showing absolutely no empathy when Ronan killed The Other. He is also shown to be an extremely skilled leader, due to being able to inspire fierce loyalty from the Black Order, as well as command the Chitauri and the Outriders, both being highly savage and powerful creatures, unchallenged.
He was extremely confident to the point of borderline arrogance and appears to be 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, who was powered by the Power Stone, coming after him despite knowing full 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. He also smiled confidently after deciding to hunt for the Infinity Stones himself.
He was also manipulative and mistrustful, sending Ronan to retrieve the Orb for him and not telling him that it contained an Infinity Stone, while also sending Nebula and Gamora to monitor him. He is surprisingly patient, as he keeps a low profile, lurking in the shadows and making others do his work for him even after centuries of failure. He did not make a move for the Infinity Stones directly nor did he openly show he possessed an Infinity Stone until he was finally ready to collect the stones himself in rapid succession, presumably because he knew possessing one or more of the Infinity Stones would draw unwanted attention, prompting others to attack him and impede his preparations before he was finally ready.
Despite Thanos' ruthlessness during the early days of his conquest, he was not without compassion, especially when it came to children. When he met the young Gamora during his invasion of her planet, he gave her the task of balancing a blade he gave her to distract her from witnessing her people's decimation. When her attention turned to her people's screaming, he gently reminded her to remain focused on her task. He especially liked Gamora, deeming her his "favorite daughter"; he even hoped that she would be the one to inherit his throne. However, he sometimes shows it in an extreme manner such as turning Nebula into a cyborg to make her stronger. When he learned from Doctor Strange that Ebony Maw is dead, he stated the quest for the Infinity Stones "extracts a heavy toll" and when Nebula gloated he should have killed her, Thanos claimed it would have been a "waste of good parts", even though she almost succeeded in assassinating him. Despite caring for his children, he is brutally strict with them as he does not hesitate to torture them if they fail to meet his expectations, as Maw stated there would be "judgment" if he failed Thanos. He also seems to display a soft spot for children, with an example being when he met Gamora. Even though Gamora claimed Thanos killed her parents in front of her, in reality, he gently kept her from being a part of the random genocide of her people by having her focus on balancing a dagger he gave her. During the trip to Vormir to acquire the Soul Stone, despite Gamora being the enemy, Thanos took the lead when they ventured to the Soul Stone's shrine and when they encountered the Red Skull, not knowing if he was friend or foe, he made a gesture telling her to stay back, shielding her with his own body. Thanos was also heartbroken when he realized he had to kill Gamora to gain the power of the Soul Stone, to the point where he was shedding tears. Due to his belief that it was for the greater good, he still went through with it, though Mantis noted that he was tormented by guilt and grief during the battle on Titan. In the final moments of his life, following Nebula defending his honor, Thanos genuinely thanked her and regretfully reflected that he'd been too harsh on her. When his past self saw this recording, he appeared to take those words to heart and decided to treat Nebula better such as breaking the chain Ebony Maw had wrapped around Nebula's neck and cradled her chin in his hands affectionately, believing her loyalty and giving her the chance to prove it. He also trusted her to retrieve the stones herself and seemed very concerned when she wasn't answering her comm. His love for his children was reciprocated with Gamora breaking into tears once she'd thought she'd killed him and Nebula silently crying for Thanos once Thor had killed him, even closing his eyes so he could rest in peace.
Even though he was shunned by his own people for a hideous mutation he bore, Thanos loved them unconditionally and desperately sought to save them, 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, leading to the fall of his race. This incident has burdened Thanos with immense regrets and remorse as he confessed to Gamora that he had ignored the inevitable extinction of his people once when he could have saved them by being more forceful and resolved in carrying out the genocide against his people's wishes. As a result, Thanos became more determined in exterminating half of the population of every planet so as to save these civilizations from the same overpopulation tragedy on Titan. This is why Thanos truly believes his cause for killing off half of everyone on 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. As such, he stated that the Zehoberei did not suffer from environmental hazards, global hunger, or any other form of violence anymore, due to him killing off half of their population. Regardless of his campaign to murder trillions, Thanos’ viewpoint of killing them in an admittedly painless and quick manner of disintegration was, according to him, mercy compared to all of life suffering the same fate of starvation that his own people endured. Not only that, but he did make an effort to keep the casualty count to an absolute minimum during his quest for the Infinity Stones and let the Decimation handle killing half of all sentient life. Thanos was somewhat delusional, believing the universe would be grateful for having people they care about killed, even if they would have more for themselves; such as food.
Thanos' quest for the Infinity Stones came not from a desire for power but for a means to facilitate his goal of balancing the universe, as when he succeeded in his goal he was quick to destroy the stones not wanting to be tempted by their power.
Though he sought the Infinity Stones, the most powerful artifacts in the universe, Thanos did not do this for selfish reasons and reserved special respect for those who displayed signs of great selflessness such as Iron Man confronting him or Star-Lord being willing to kill Gamora. By contrast, he loathed those who sought power for selfish gain, finding Loki's motivations to be pathetic and being openly disgusted by him as he choked the Frost Giant to death or holding Ronan's vendetta on the Xandarians in contempt. He also appeared somewhat dismissive of Ebony Maw's sycophant traits.
Thanos had shown a dark sense of sarcastic humor and was able to remain calm and unfazed in situations that would frighten and shock most others, as he remained fully composed even after thwarting Loki's assassination and mocked him for choosing the word "undying". He ignored Loki's acts of defiance before dying, with Loki declaring he would never be a god as he was suffocated. He even remained unfazed after being badly injured by Thor and even mocked him for not striking him in the head.
Thanos had also shown himself to be surprisingly honorable. He did not go back on the end of the deal he made with others and would honor them even when angered, as he was still willing to destroy Xandar for Ronan should he retrieve the Orb even though he was angry at Ronan for coming to him empty-handed and alienating Gamora. He extends this even to his enemies, 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 been necessary in order to stop Thanos on his quest to obtain the Infinity Stones. He also showed some empathy towards Scarlet Witch's killing Vision despite the fact that she destroyed the Mind Stone, which was necessary for his goal, as he too had killed Gamora for the Soul Stone. Despite his manipulative nature, Thanos is also known as a man who never lies, a fact firmly confirmed by his own daughter Nebula.
Interestingly, despite being usually considered as an incredibly cruel and cunning being, Thanos did not take his genocidal motives as a pretext to eliminate potential foes who could be able to exact revenge on him. Indeed, he kept his intent to make his genocide as random and dispassionate as he intended, resulting in the survival of several members of the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy who had done everything they could to stop him. It was only after another version of himself was confronted by these survivors did Thanos realize that there would always be people who would seek to undo his actions, prompting him to extend his plans from balancing the universe to simply erasing it all and creating a new one.
When Thanos first saw what would become of his future self, he simply saw it as destiny, and was mostly unfazed by the recording of his death. It was only after finding out about the Avengers' attempt to reverse the Decimation that Thanos came to realize that as long as there are people who remember what life was like before the Decimation, they could not accept what the future could be. Thanos came to the conclusion that he would have to shred the universe down to the last atom and make the universe anew so that the people of the new universe would be grateful for the lives they were given while completely unaware of the previous universe that had existed. Thanos himself claimed that when it came to the planets he conquered and slaughtered, it was never "personal", but due to the Avengers and Earth's heroes constantly frustrating his plans, he viewed the Avengers as "unruly wretches" for daring to challenge him and by extension he came to see Earth as "stubborn and annoying" and that he would enjoy tearing Earth apart. Having not gone through the same experience of losing his children and learning empathy for his foes, this Thanos was far more arrogant and callous, dismissing Scarlet Witch's condemnation of him taking everything from him as he did not know her and willing to sacrifice his forces just to shake her off and showed no regard for Cull Obsidian's death, and boasting that he would inevitably accomplish his goal. He also retained his propensity for delegation, having Nebula bring the Infinity Gauntlet to him contrasting his 2018 self retrieving the Stones himself. It was this lack of development that led to his downfall and allowed Iron Man to outsmart and defeat him, as Thanos had consistently dismissed all of Earth's defenders as beneath him. Although visibly distraught, upon seeing the sunrise, the Titan was at least able to find some solace that he could enjoy it without being hindered and died sombrely, accepting his defeat and fate with dignity.
Powers and Abilities
"Thanos' strength is unrivaled. You will lose even with your powerful friends fighting alongside you."
Thanos is an immensely powerful Titan, feared throughout the galaxy as one of the most powerful beings in the universe. He is able to easily outfight other powerful beings such as Thor and Hulk, and commands his Chitauri, Outrider, and Sakaaran legions unchallenged. The Confederacy, despite their combined strength, openly admitted that their forces could not face Thanos and said even if Glenn Talbot, in his initial stages of having Gravitonium, were to join forces with the Avengers, he would still lose. When Nebula told Gamora that she planned to kill Thanos, Gamora stated that she didn't know if it was possible. Even Thor acknowledged that he needed Stormbreaker if he was to face Thanos, as fighting him without it would have been suicidal.
Powers
"Master, you cannot! Thanos is the most powerful being in the universe!"
Titan Physiology: Thanos possesses much of the same physical constitution and abilities from his extinct species. He possesses incredible superhuman strength, speed, and reflexes that allow him to overpower and severely injure larger beings as strong as Hulk, but even smaller and highly agile individuals as well, such as Thor, Vision, Loki, Spider-Man, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Iron Man in his Mark L Armor and Captain America wielding Mjølnir.
"Yeah, but this is Thanos we're talkin' about... he's the toughest there is."
Superhuman Strength: Thanos has displayed immense levels of superhuman strength, being capable of crushing the Tesseract to reveal the Space Stone, destroying Doctor Strange's magical shields with a kick, and snapping Loki's neck with a single hand. During the Battle of Wakanda, Thanos slammed Black Panther with enough force to cause his Panther Habit's nanites to overload with energy and expel a kinetic pulse. Thanos was able to overpower Iron Man's Mark L armor, tearing away pieces of the armor with his bare hands, and overwhelmed Captain America with a single hand. Upon waking from Mantis' forced slumber, Thanos was able to swat Mantis and Drax away and regain the Infinity Gauntlet from Spider-Man. While restrained by the hundreds of Eldritch Whips from Doctor Strange's replicas, Thanos was able to activate the Infinity Gauntlet to break free. Notably, Thanos was able to rip the Mind Stone from Vision's body, tearing through the vibranium housing with ease, and ultimately overpower Hulk during his acquisition of the Tesseract. While fighting against Thor, Iron Man and Captain America, Thanos was able to kick Thor with enough force to break a concrete stone and throw Rogers away. He was also able to raise Iron Man with his hands and make him receive the Mjølnir blow thrown by Thor, as well as throw Thor against a group of stones, hit him repeatedly and when Thor tried to call the Stormbreaker to his hand, he caught it in the air and was almost able to impale it on Thor's chest. Later, he freed himself from the attempts of Captain America and Thor to prevent him from taking the Iron Gauntlet. As a testimony of his power, Thanos, by using his Double-Edged Sword, was able to break Captain America's nigh-indestructible shield with mere brute force. He was also able to hold his own while grappling with a fully-powered Captain Marvel and threw her across the battlefield as well, although a direct headbutt from him ultimately did not faze her and forced Thanos to use the Power Stone to amplify his might and beat her.
Superhuman Durability: Thanos has almost incalculable levels of resilience and durability, rendering him capable of easily handling the Infinity Stones without being harmed and wielding the power of the Infinity Gauntlet without strain. Hence, despite the combined efforts of Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos remained completely uninjured by the force of their attacks, even mocking Iron Man for his effort to draw a small cut on his cheek. Thanos withstood three powerful blows from Captain America with no visible injury. Thanos withstood the surprise attacks by Hulk, having a massive pillar dropped on him, and colliding with a Necrocraft at full speed. He was also able to withstand the energy attacks from Scarlet Witch, as well as a powerful lightning blast from Stormbreaker. Thanos also withstood blows from a full-powered Captain Marvel on two separate confrontations. Notably, he survived a blow to the chest from Stormbreaker even after Thor pushed on the axe to exacerbate the wound, though it did cause him to briefly enter a catatonic state. Thanos himself mocked Thor for failing to target his head, indicating that such a blow is what it would take to kill him. However, it was only after Thanos had been severely weakened by the destruction of the Infinity Stones that Thor was finally able to decapitate him with his axe.
Superhuman Speed: Thanos, despite his massive size, is exceptionally fast, capable of effortlessly outmaneuvering and beating Hulk in close combat within seconds and swiftly pummeling Iron Man in his Mark L Armor in close quarters combat. He instantly prevent Loki from attacking him by simply using the Space Stone with no difficulty whatsoever.[1]
Superhuman Agility: Despite his great size and muscle mass, Thanos moves with incredible grace and speed in the battle, being able to easily overcome the attacks of fast enemies like Thor and Captain America. Thanos was able to jump high from a piece of debris into the air to dodge Doctor Strange's fiery rays and then land perfectly on his feet without any problems.
Superhuman Reflexes: Thanos, despite his massive size, possess incredible superhuman reflexes, as he was able to effortlessly 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, and to even react to the extremely agile Spider-Man's attacks, eventually getting a grip on him and pinning Spider-Man down, as well as casually react to the highly agile Black Panther's full speed charge with a single hand. He was able to effortlessly punch Captain America before he could react while he was blocking Thanos' Gauntlet hand. He also was able to easily catch Iron Man Mark L Armor's sword and then break it and stab him with the piece before he could react. He could easily react to as well as outpace both Drax the Destroyer and Doctor Strange's moves even while his sight was hampered by web cotton and also managed to quickly overtake Nebula and deliver a powerful punch that sends her flying. While Thor was able to surprise and punched off a portion of Thanos' helmet, Thanos soon effortlessly kicked him away before he could react. Thanos has also able to easily react to the bullets of War Machine Armor: Mark IV and Okoye's spear when she threw it at him, allowing him to easily repel them with the Gauntlet's powers. He was also able to catch Stormbreaker in the air before Thor could use it against him.
Regenerative Healing Factor: Thanos' physiology possesses a strong regenerative healing factor, allowing him to regenerate from any of his wounds, regardless of severity or blood loss. Upon arriving on earth, all of the minor wounds he had received at the hands of Tony Stark had completely disappeared. By the time he had killed off half of the universe's population via a completed Infinity Gauntlet and sat down to "admire the sunset", Thanos had completely regenerated from Thor using the Stormbreaker to severely gut his chest open, even though he was still exhausted from previous fights with the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Additionally, Thanos' healing factor was not enough to recover from the wounds dealt from destroying the Infinity Stones.
Longevity: It's unknown whether Titans like Thanos possess an extremely long lifespan or is just immune to the aging process. However, it's known for a fact that the Mad Titan has lived for over a very long time and was roughly over a thousand years of age and still in his prime by the time of the Infinity War and the Battle of Earth during the 21st century.[16][17]
Former Powers
"He has the Power and Space Stones; that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands on all six Stones, Tony..." "He could destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of."
After equipping the Infinity Gauntlet onto his left arm, combined with his already extraordinary physical constitution and raw power, Thanos is granted the potential to safely harness the supernatural powers of all the six Infinity Stones should he add them to the Gauntlet. The more stones Thanos inserts into the Gauntlet, the more power he gains and he acquires the stones dominion over the necessary fabrics of existence. Merely having two Stones was enough that Bruce Banner called him the strongest being in the whole universe while Gamora said that with three Stones, Thanos would be too powerful to stop. Eventually, upon acquiring all six stones, Thanos becomes nearly infinitely powerful, the most powerful being in the universe, gaining absolute control over all the fabrics of existence and able to do almost anything he desires, to the point that even with a severe injury, he killed off half of life within the universe by just snapping his fingers. His power with the Infinity Gauntlet is so great that Doctor Strange's use of the Time Stone to peer through over 14 million futures saw only one that ended in Thanos' defeat, and this future required initially allowing him to win. Presumably, due to having done thorough research on the Stones, Thanos displays incredible understanding and knowledge of their powers and quickly fully mastered all of them, allowing him to use their dominion over the fabrics of reality for combative purposes with extreme finesse, making him nearly impossible to defeat in battle.
Nigh-Omnipotence: With all six Infinity Stones in the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos gains nearly omnipotent levels of power, with control over all six aspects of existence, making him the most powerful being in all of the universe and wielding such near-limitless levels of power that allows him to do almost anything he desires. His power is so great that, even while considerably injured, he still was capable of wiping out half of the universe with a simple snap of his fingers. With this level of power, Thanos is almost invincible, to the point that the only way to subdue him is for the gauntlet to be removed, which will take away his power or if a sufficiently powerful being wielding a sufficiently powerful weapon were to surprise Thanos, as Thor wielding the Stormbreaker managed to injure Thanos with Thanos himself admitting that Thor may have killed him had he aimed for Thanos' head.[1]
Terrain Manipulation: Combining the Space and Reality Stones, Thanos can manipulate the terrain at such a scale as to pull the surface of Titan itself to force Doctor Strange to him.
Energy Absorption and Transformation: Combining the Space and Power Stones, Thanos can manipulate and redirect outside energy, absorbing and channeling the explosive power of Iron Man's missiles into a concentrated beam of fire.
Thanos wiping out half the entire universe
Death Inducement: After the Gauntlet was completed and the Stones reached their full potential, Thanos gains the power to induce death on a universal scale at whim, using each of the Stones' control over the fabrics of existence to wipe out half the universe even after he had already been grievously wounded. However, using the Gauntlet at such a weakened state took a great toll on Thanos, scorching the Gauntlet and Thanos' left arm.
Energy Manipulation: After inserting the Power Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquires complete control over the destructive force of the universe. Due to his strong understanding and familiarity with the Stone's powers, he is capable of manipulating the Stone's destructive energy for a wide plethora of versatile and dangerous capabilities, with the Stone becoming among his most versatile and often-used in combat methods for its destructive potential.
Pain Inducement: Thanos is able to subtly use the energy of the Power Stone as a very effective form of torture by exposing an individual to the energy of the Power Stone to cause them to tremendous pain and can limit the amount of energy sent into the body of said being to avoid killing them. This was potent enough to cause a fully-empowered Thor excruciating amounts of pain, forcing Loki to cooperate with him. He can combine this with the other Stones to increase the torture's potency, with him thus brutally torturing Nebula with both the Power and Space Stones, electrocuting her with the Stone's energy while painfully ripping apart her cybernetics, all the while casually avoiding exerting too much force, thereby killing her.
Energy Detonation: Thanos is able to unleash the Power Stone's destructive energy to charge objects with unstable explosive energy with just a single gesture from the Gauntlet, causing them to overload and violently detonate. This ability proves to be the most commonly used out of all the diverse capabilities of the Power Stone due to its great versatility and combat potential thanks to his ability to control the time and size of the detonation, whether instantly or slowly or how devastating, allowing him to use it with devastating efficiency, as Thanos was able to cause the Stone to slowly overload and detonate the damaged Statesman after retrieving the Space Stone, giving himself time to teleport him and his Children out and later violently and almost instantly detonated a ruined spaceship fragment that was dropped on him by Iron Man. He can even exert so much powerfully destructive energy that he was able to rip apart the surface of Titan's moon with its sheer power.
Energy Projection: Thanos' primary usage of the Stone is to project it's explosive energy in many forms of extremely powerful energy attacks, showing much greater raw power and versatility than Ronan's use, that applied incredible amounts of powerful concussive force that are even potentially capable of outright destroying objects with its volatile power or incapacitating and greatly damaging even the most durable of individuals. He can directly concentrate the Stone's energy into destructively powerful beams easily strong enough to cleave through rocks, force back a shielded Iron Man and sending him flying with great force and damaging his armor. He was also able to unleash the energy wildly as a shockwave of energy that was easily potent enough to knock out Star-Lord, Drax and Nebula instantaneously despite their great superhuman resilience and displays being able to focus the energy into repulsive waves that were easily potent enough to effortlessly blast away the superhumanly strong and resilient Captain America and Winter Soldier and easily stop Okoye's spear in mid-air before flinging both it and her away, during the Battle of Wakanda. He also was able to use it as a powerful form of defense by conjuring a very strong force field of energy that was easily powerful enough to block Iron Man's repulsors even when the latter used both of his hands to emit two blasts at once. He was also able to charge his fist with the energy of the Power Stone and hit Captain Marvel with enough force to knock her unconscious.
Energy Conversion: After the Gauntlet was completed and the Power Stone reached its height of power, it appears that the Power Stone was able to convert the influence of the other Stones into energy to be unleashed upon the whole universe, as when Thanos snapped his fingers to wipe out half the universe, it caused energy to surge from the Gauntlet and cover the whole battlefield of Wakanda and caused ominous rumbling through the universe.
Space Manipulation: After inserting the Space Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquires the stone's complete control over space and due to his full understanding of the Space Stone's powers, is capable of expertly using the stone's dominion over space to achieve a wide plethora of potent and dangerous capabilities.
Portal Creation: With the Space Stone inserted inside the Gauntlet, the most useful power that Thanos acquires is the power to open Wormholes to any part of the universe, allowing him to effortlessly teleport himself to another location at will. As such, Thanos instantly warped himself to Knowhere, Titan and later Wakanda with ease. He can also take others with him, warping both himself and the Black Order out of the exploding Statesman and later teleported Gamora alongside him to the Sanctuary II and Vormir. 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. His control is very precise, as he was capable of using the Stone to selectively control what objects are transported, even removing the impaled Stormbreaker from his chest before teleporting away.
Vortex Creation: Using the Space stone, Thanos can create powerful and devastating singularities capable of compressing and sucking anything in their path, as he generated powerful compression forces to throw back the fragments of the gateway to the Mirror Dimension sent at him by Strange in the form of a small but devastating vortex that gathered up everything in its path and sent it flying towards Doctor Strange. However, Strange was swiftly capable of transmuting it into a harmless substance.
Spatial Pressure Generation: Thanos shows being able to expertly use the Space Stone to warp the fabric of space to generate powerful spatial pressure around his surroundings, capable of crushing, pulling and freezing with tremendous force in a manner akin to telekinesis enable him to manipulate and move objects with just a single gesture of the Gauntlet, an ability that proved to be among Thanos' most often used. Thanos was able to use the Stone to casually freeze Loki's knife mid-stab in an instant, effortlessly crush the guns on War Machine's armor and ground it, and crush the wings on the Exo-7 Falcon to knock him down. The Space Stone's spatial induced telekinesis is so strong that Thanos was even able to use it to telekinetically pull the shattered fragments of Titan's moon across space to rain down on the attacking Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy during the Battle of Titan.
Intangibility: Thanos is even capable of using the Space Stone to phase and unphased objects out of space, rendering them incorporeal and just as easily make them corporeal again, as he easily made the Hulkbuster and Banner that was inside it, intangible when he tried to attack Thanos and then rendered it corporeal again to trap him in solid stone.
Force-Field Generation: Thanos can manipulate the Space Stone's energy reserves to manifest extremely powerful blue force-fields of energy capable of instantly vaporizing the bullets of War Machine's armor, and even blocking the energy of Scarlet Witch.
Global Influence Spreading: After the Gauntlet was completed and the Space Stone reached its full potential, it appears that the Space Stone allows the influence of the other Stones to reach the whole universe, allowing Thanos to use the power of all Stones to wipe out half the universe.
Teleportation: Using the power of the Space Stone, Thanos was able to teleport via portals and vortexes, capable of using the stone to transport himself to one location to another.
Reality Manipulation: After inserting the Reality Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquires complete control over reality. His skill in using the Reality Stone is more advanced, capable of skillfully warp reality more powerfully than Malekith's display of the Stone's power over reality, achieving numerous powerful capabilities.
Dimensional Negation: Having the Reality Stone also grants Thanos the power to nullify the warping of dimensions, as Thanos was able to prevent himself from being trapped inside the Mirror Dimension by a gateway to said dimension sent at him by Doctor Strange.
Illusion Conjuration: Thanos can use the Reality Stone to alter reality to create highly realistic and elaborate physical simulations and illusions of false realities over a wide range of influence, which he did to create a false illusion of himself interrogating the Collector in a completely deserted Knowhere, in order to fool the approaching Guardians of the Galaxy and mask the colony's true status as burning down and utterly ruined. Said illusion was so convincing that the illusion of himself was able to physically interact with the environment, as he was able to be engaged by and even killed by Gamora. He was also able to warp reality around Titan to show Doctor Strange how the planet once was beautiful.
Invisibility: With the power of creating illusions, the Reality Stone granted Thanos to make himself invisible, as upon unveiling the illusion, he initially talked to Gamora unseen before revealing himself.
Matter Transmutation: Thanos can use the Reality Stone to transmute and warp matter to anything he wants. This allows Thanos to effortlessly 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, transform and manipulate specific parts of the environment to use against his enemies, he transmuted the pieces of the ship that he destroyed when Iron Man threw it at him into a countless swarm of bats that he sent towards Iron Man, and also spawned a cage of stone pillars to trap Black Widow.
Biological Manipulation: The Reality Stone even makes Thanos capable of warping the bodies of a living organism, showing the power to release a ball of the Reality Stone's energy capable of turning his targets into pieces of themselves, 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. However, with the Infinity Gauntlet completed and the Reality Stone amplified to its full potential, it became so potent that it can actually destroy the body of others truly by disintegrating them to dust, something which Thanos used to wipe out half the universe with a simple snap of his fingers, with the Reality Stone turning all the victims bodies to dust.
Soul Manipulation: Thanos with the Soul Stone is able to manipulate the souls of his enemies, such as when he located the Doctor Strange true in the Battle of Titan or when he communicated with Gamora in the beyond.
Thanos used the Soul Stone in conjunction with the Power Stone on Titan against Doctor Strange when the latter ensnared him in Eldritch Whips with his magic duplicates. He first used the Soul Stone to identify the true Strange among the copies, and proceeded to send energy from the Power Stone across the whips to vaporize each clone, leaving Strange surprised and ready to be taken.
Soul Containment: The Soul Stone contains a mysterious pocket dimension that contains the soul of Gamora, as she is the one he sacrificed to obtain the Stone. The dimension seems to change to fit the form that Thanos most wanted to see. After wiping out half of all life in the Universe, the sheer energy required to achieve such a feat overwhelmed a weakened Thanos, and briefly sent him into a dream state, with the stone transporting his mind to a world consisting of a barren, infinite expanse of feet-high water under an orange sky. Within the Soulworld, Thanos saw himself as without the Gauntlet or the injuries he obtained from Stormbreaker. Before returning to his senses, he was briefly able to communicate with a reflection of his deceased daughter, Gamora, standing under a Zen-Whoberi gateway as she was when she was younger and when Thanos first met and adopted her, telling her of his final fulfillment of his lifelong goal.
Time Manipulation: After inserting the Time Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquires complete control over time, allowing him to control time itself by manifesting mystical green runes of energy surrounding the user's arm and wrist before finally conjuring a green, circular mandala made of energy in the palm of his hand. He was able to be far more capable and familiar in using the Time Stone's powers than Doctor Strange.
Event Recreation: Thanos is capable of rewinding time to recreate certain events with a surpassing amount of finesse, enough so as to truly recreate destroyed objects, even those of great power, while resurrecting beings and keeping some from being affected, 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, while preventing his foes from getting rewinded so as to prevent them from making an attempt to stop him, whereas Doctor Strange could not truly recreate the stolen pages of the Book of Cagliostro.
Abilities
Genius-Level Intellect: Even at his youth, Thanos was deemed a genius among his kind. His long life allowed Thanos to refine his intellectual aptitude to the highest degree, making him quite possibly the most intelligent being in the universe. Thanos was even clever enough to easily outsmart Loki himself on more than one occasion, he was not only successfully used Loki as a pawn without the latter realizing it for a long time, but he was also able to successfully predict his attempt of assassination and countering it. Thanos also easily deceived the Guardians of the Galaxy into letting their guard down, thus allowing Thanos to incapacitate them and capture Gamora. Being highly intellectually and emotionally perceptive, Thanos can easily see right through most lies and accurately deduce the truth and the character of most people, as he effortlessly deduced that Loki was planning to assassinate him behind his worships from having known his deceptive and manipulative nature and instantly knew that Gamora was lying when she said she never found the Soul Stone. He even accurately predicted that Titan would be destroyed by overpopulation.
"Someone has been playing an intricate game and has made pawns of us."
Master Tactician: Thanos is a formidable strategist with centuries of experience in tactical warfare. Even without using his immense powers and combat skills, he succeeded in conquering many worlds relying purely on his tactical experience. Thanos' tactical ingenuity 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 immense trouble by causing the Battle of Xandar and Chitauri Invasion all the while remaining effectively anonymous easily fooling even the most intelligent human beings on Earth such as Iron Man and Bruce Banner from figuring out Loki had been aided by Thanos in his invasion, and eluding Doctor Strange's 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 "playing a very intricate game," and has effectively used the Avengers as pawns without them even realizing it until Thor saw a vision. Thanos is even a far more superior tactician than Loki, who was famous for being a crafty genius in orchestrating cunning schemes, 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' strategical intuition 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. Thanos is able to create effective strategies in the midst of combat, as he efficiently employed Titan's strong gravitational pull to separate much of his opponents by breaking and launching the pieces of Titan's moon at his enemies from the atmosphere and allowing Thanos to engage and overpower Doctor Strange and Iron Man, eventually culminating in Strange being forced to surrender the Time Stone to Thanos. Thanos can also swiftly think his way out of debilitating, as after Scarlet Witch destroyed the Mind Stone, Thanos was unfazed, due to now having the Time Stone, and swiftly reversed time prior to Vision's destruction while taking care as to not include the heroes in the time reversal to prevent them from attempting to stop him, thus allowing Thanos to finally complete the Gauntlet and render Vision's sacrifice in vain. Even after Thor severely wounded him, Thanos convincingly pretended that he was close to death before revealing that he will still live and can still accomplish his mission by mocking Thor for not aiming for his head, catching Thor off-guard and stunning him long enough that Thanos was able to snap his fingers before Thor could react. The 2014 Thanos also displayed similar aptitude for quickly forming strategies in the midst of combat, as he swiftly came up with a plan to subdue the Scarlet Witch after getting overpowered by her by having his armies fire at both himself and her, successfully freeing himself, and when briefly overtaken by Captain Marvel, Thanos was able to tactically remove the Power Stone from the Gauntlet to use it against her, finally besting her.
Master Manipulator: Thanos is an exceptionally skillful and cunning manipulator, far surpassing even Loki, the God of Mischief himself who was famous for his manipulation abilities. Without leaving his throne, he was able to easily and effectively manipulate other powerful beings, such as Ronan the Accuser and even Loki himself, 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.
Master Combatant: Thanos is the most extraordinary fighter, with a millennia worth of fighting experience. Thanos' supreme combat skills supplemented by his physical prowess enable him to overpower even the strongest opponents. Under his tutelage, all of his adopted children, including Gamora herself, became extremely formidable fighters. He effortlessly beat Hulk to a bloody pulp, single-handedly defeated and beat Thor, effortlessly restrained Gamora before she could react, casually fought off both Doctor Strange using a sword made of Eldritch Magic and Drax the Destroyer with his knives, effortlessly slammed Spider-Man with only one hand, easily fought off and quickly defeated Nebula wielding her batons, and easily pummeled Iron Man in his Mark L armor. He even easily countered Black Panther's charge by choking him with a single hand and then pummeled him to the ground with a single punch, then knocked out Captain America with a single blow.[1] Only an attack from Thor using Stormbreaker was able to land a severe blow towards Thanos. The 2014 Thanos, while not having the Infinity Gauntlet, displayed his extraordinary fighting skills by being able to fight off Thor, Captain America and Iron Man at the same time with the help of his sword, easily knocking off their initial attempts before easily defeating Iron Man and Captain America and overcoming Thor with Stormbreaker quickly even after he had been disarmed of his sword. Although initially matched by Steve Rogers using Mjølnir; however, Thanos was able to turn the tides against him, forcing him back and disarming him of the hammer. He later managed to fend off Thor using both Mjølnir and Stormbreaker and even could break free of Steve's attempts to restrain him while also forcing back Thor. He was also able to surpass Captain Marvel during his first confrontation in the final battle and, although he was momentarily overcome by Marvel in his second confrontation, he was able to easily overpower her.
Sword Mastery: Thanos possesses extraordinary skill in the use of his double-blade sword in battle, capable of easily fighting off coordinated assaults from Thor, Captain America and Iron Man, with him having been able to spin it with enough efficiency to block Iron Man's repulsors when it was powered by Thor's lightning while simultaneously overcoming it and block an attack from Thor using Stormbreaker after just having thrown it and failed to hit him, although he got disarmed, as well as quickly overwhelm Captain America armed with both Mjølnir and his shield and stab his leg before near-entirely dominating and destroying his shield. Thanos also was able to face Scarlet Witch with it, having managed to easily cut through the projectiles she launched at him as well as block her energy shots and nearly managed to defeat her, pushing down on her with his sword, thereby forcing her to use her powers to disarm him. Thanos was also able to throw it with such skill as to achieve a boomerang-like effect. His precision was enough to be able to hit and knock down Black Panther when the latter was moving at super speeds as well as explode Luis' Van so as to prevent Captain Marvel from escaping with the gauntlet. Thanos also readily used Corvus Glaive's glaive to impale and kill Heimdall.
Equipment
Weapons
Switchblade: Thanos carried with him a two dual-bladed knife during the Massacre of the Zehoberei. Upon seeing the young Gamora fighting one of his soldiers, she gained the Titan's interest. He took her aside and used his red and silver switchblade to teach his beliefs on balance by symbolizing it with balancing the knife on his finger and asked her to do the same. Gamora kept the knife over the years and eventually used it against Thanos' illusion.
Scepter: When Thanos possessed the Mind Stone, he placed it inside the Scepter. He gave it as a weapon for Loki for his coming invasion to Earth. However, Loki lost possession of it during the Battle of New York; as such, Thanos lost an Infinity Stone.
Double-Edged Sword: Thanos used this sword as his primary weapon when he did not yet have the Infinity Gauntlet. It was extremely durable, being able to cut through vibranium like Captain America's Shield, but was ultimately sheared in half by Scarlet Witch.
Infinity Gauntlet: An extremely powerful item that Thanos forced the Dwarves to construct to allow him to channel the power of all the six Infinity Stones. Masterly forged by Eitri from Uru, the strongest metal in the universe, it is tremendously durable, as it is able to withstand having all six Stones embedded inside it. He brandished it in the Infinity War, using the power of the Infinity Stones that he acquired to devastating effects against his enemies. He eventually completed the Gauntlet and used it to wipe out half of the universe, although he damaged the Gauntlet in the process due to doing so while grievously wounded but it remained functioning nevertheless. Three weeks after he fulfilled his plan, Thanos used the Gauntlet again, this time to destroy the very Stones themselves. The act severely damaged the left side of this body, and the resulting energy wave leads to the Gauntlet being damaged further and was fused to his left arm. With the Stones destroyed, the Gauntlet was deemed useless and served no further purpose.
Tesseract: Containing the Space Stone, Thanos sent Loki and his Chitauri army to invade Earth in order to collect it; however, the Avengers stopped the invasion. Years later, Thanos tracked the Tesseract in the Statesman, where Loki kept it secretly. By torturing Thor, Loki gave up the Tesseract to Thanos, who crushed it in order to abstract the Infinity Stone.
Corvus Glaive's Glaive: Following the massacre of all the remaining Asgardians, Thanos witnessed Heimdall drawing the last of his power to teleport Hulk back to the Earth. As punishment, Thanos borrowed Corvus Glaive's weapon and used it to impale Heimdall, killing him.
Infinity Stones: Six of the most powerful objects in the universe, they were Thanos' most primary objective in his crusade to wipe out half the universe. He would successfully acquire all the Stones in Infinity War and install them inside the Infinity Gauntlet, at which point he then finally completed his goal. In order to secure his victory, Thanos used the stones' collective power to reduce them to atoms.
Power Stone: Thanos was equipped with the Power Stone after reigning against Xandar for access. Once he gained the stone for his goal, Thanos had the power augment his strength and project dangerous amount of energy from his Infinity Gauntlet. Using the stone, Thanos was able to amplify his strength, achieving such feats as punching the Mirror Dimension with ease and punch Iron Man with a powerful blow that send him backwards Thanos has even been able to project an energy blast that can send a normal being away and detonate an entire half of the Statesman.
Space Stone: Given the Space Stone by hand, Thanos harnessed the power of the Space Stone and was able to control the fabric of space itself. Thanos demonstrated his power of the Space Stone by absorbing remains through a vortex portal and even create Wormholes that allow him to teleport from one location to another.
Reality Stone: Having taken the Reality Stone, Thanos utilized its power to control the fabric of reality that can mislead his opponents. Taking the Reality Stone to its great effect, Thanos was able to create illusions that surround his environment, transform certain beings and objects into different constructs, and even turn invisible.
Soul Stone: After completing his sacrifice on Vormir, Thanos was given the Soul Stone within his hand and harnessed its power. Thanos was able to contain the souls of his victims inside of a mysterious pocket dimension, such as Gamora's soul being in the dimension after she was sacrificed.
By taking possession of the Time Stone from Doctor Strange, Thanos was now able to harness the power of the stone to bend time itself to his will. Using the Time Stone, Thanos can reverse a particular event that he witnessed and even regenerate wounds after getting impaled in the chest by Stormbreaker.
Mind Stone: By killing Vision in order to get the Mind Stone out of his forehead, Thanos harnessed its power and had gained the ability to shoot energy blasts as well as control the minds of other beings.
Stormbreaker: When Thor called Stormbreaker to his hand, Thanos was able to catch it before it reached Thor, and then used it to almost kill him.
Iron Gauntlet: A version of the Infinity Gauntlet created by Bruce Banner, Tony Stark and Rocket initially used to reverse the effects of the Decimation. Nearing the end of the Battle of Earth, Thanos wore the damaged Gauntlet and attempted to use it to enact his final plan, although he was intercepted by Captain Marvel. The replica Gauntlet proved to be just as useful as its Dwarven counterpart, being able to hold off Captain Marvel for a while before having to use the Power Stone to attack her. After a brief scuffle with Stark, Thanos boastfully attempted to use the Gauntlet, yet nothing happened as Stark was able to assimilate the Infinity Stones into his own armor. With Stark's will, Thanos turned to dust, with him still wearing the replica Gauntlet.
Other Equipment
Golden Armor: Thanos utilized a Golden Armor during his days of conquest. The armor was resilient enough to resist damage from Hulk's blows. He discarded the armor upon acquiring the Space Stone from Loki, as he felt his power had grown beyond the need for it after acquiring two Infinity Stones. Thanos later recollected the armor and repurposed it as a Scarecrow on Titan II following his victory on Earth. The 2014 version of Thanos still wore the armor while engaging the Avengers in 2023, where it was destroyed in the ensuing battle and his ultimate defeat.
Sanctuary II: Thanos commanded a massive warship called the Sanctuary II. Using forces to invade the Zen-Whoberi, Thanos commands the hovered crafts above the capital city. Thanos was able to use the ship to track down the Statesman that are carrying the survivors of Ragnarök and destroying a part of it.
Sanctuary: Sanctuary is the asteroid field inhabited by the Chitauri. Being the domain of Thanos, Loki was captured and tortured by The Other in order to ensure his compliance and submission; trained by Thanos in the ways of mind control. After Gamora's betrayal, Ronan the Accuser traveled to Sanctuary where he met with Thanos in person and angrily berated him for not taking Gamora's betrayal seriously. Thanos entrusted both Ronan and Nebula with fixing that problem.
Thanos' Farm: This farm became Thanos' home on Titan II following the end of the Infinity War. There, Thanos intended to spend the rest of his days peacefully, having brought balance to what he now saw as a grateful universe. However, the Avengers, the remaining Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel eventually tracked down Thanos to his farm, a search which culminated with Thanos' death at the hands of Thor, leaving the farm abandoned and vacant.
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, Helmut Zemo, Surtur and Loki are the only main antagonists whose plans were successful to an extent, as Thanos managed to collect all six of the Infinity Stones to wipe out half the universe as he planned.
While sitting down to rest at the end of the Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos' armor can be seen on display in front of his hut. This is a reference to Thanos using his armor as a scarecrow after the events of the Infinity Gauntlet storyline.
Thanos being beheaded by Thor is a reference to the comic Infinity War Prime Vol 1 in which Thanos is beheaded by Gamora, who took the name "Requiem."
In an interview with ComicBookMovie.com, Damion Poitier revealed that his casting as Thanos in The Avengers was partly because of his previous collaborations with Joss Whedon on his television series Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse, adding that at first, he believed he would be playing Super Skrull. He also commented that Thanos' casting was simple: "It was a pretty simple audition process. They just really wanted someone to stand up, turn around, and smile, which is what was necessary. It just so happens I know Joss and everyone, so things kind of [worked]".[18] However, Poitier was never intended to reprise the role according to Kevin Feige, as his casting was literally just for a one shot.[19]
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.[20]
While the writing process of Avengers: Infinity War was being developed, there were at least two different drafts for the film which ultimately went unused. One of them had Thanos as the narrator, utilizing a non-linear structure and providing the backstories of the Black Order members, and the second one had the film starting upon Thanos acquiring the Power Stone. However, the first one was dropped so the filmmakers could give more insight into Thanos' character and the second one was rejected as "it felt like he had too many Infinity Stones to start", giving Anthony and Joe Russo a "very tight script" to work with.[23]
Joe Russo states that: “What I think is interesting is he’s sort of a cult figure, Thanos. He’s a world-conqueror like Genghis Khan. 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".[25]
Executive producer Trinh Tran was the one who came up with the idea of having Thanos killed off in the first act of Avengers: Endgame when Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely started to have difficulty in factoring his post-Avengers: Infinity War character due already possessing all the Infinity Stones. Markus explained that Thanos' early death "reinforced Thanos’s agenda. He was done...it was like, 'If I’ve got to die, I can die now".[26]
Concept art sketched by Ryan Lang featuring a young Thanos and his Eternals family, drawn either for Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers: Endgame, seem to indicate that a flashback of Thanos' youth was supposedly considered to appear in one of these two movies yet hinting at the possibility of Thanos appearing in the upcoming The Eternals film.[27]
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