Thanos (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

:NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Thanos from the Marvel Cinematic film series. The mainstream version can be found here: Thanos (Marvel).
Thanos is one of the main antagonists of the , serving as the main antagonist of the Infinity Saga and the posthumous overarching antagonist of the Multiverse Saga.
He is an extremely powerful Titan warlord who seeks out the Infinity Stones in order to wipe out half of all life in the universe to save it from overpopulation. He commanded three massive armies, the Chitauri, the Sakaarans and the Outriders, as well as a small group of his most powerful lieutenants and fanatical followers whom he takes as his adoptive children known as the Black Order. He was the adoptive brother of the Eternal Starfox, the archenemy of both the Avengers, especially Iron Man and the Guardians of the Galaxy, and one of the biggest threats in the entire universe.
Thanos formed an alliance with Loki to invade the Earth, and later forged a partnership with Ronan the Accuser to destroy Xandar - both in exchange for the deliverance of two powerful Infinity Stones, only for the pair to end up failing their tasks before they betrayed Thanos afterwards. Thanos was also indirectly responsible for the creation of Ultron, as his supplying of the Mind Stone to Loki was what gave Ultron free will to rebel against humanity in the first place.
He later obtained all six Infinity Stones, fought with the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, and successfully wiped out half the life in the universe. His actions would ultimately be undone, however, after the Avengers successfully retrieved the Infinity Stones through time travel. Soon after, an alternate version of Thanos from the past time traveled to the present in an effort to destroy the Avengers and erase the whole universe in order to create a new one, but was defeated and erased from existence once and for all before he could carry out that plan. However, even after his demise, Thanos' actions still haunted the Avengers and their allies.
In The Avengers, he was portrayed by , who also played Kaita in Pair of Kings and The Incapacitator in Lab Rats vs. Mighty Med. For the rest of the MCU, he was portrayed and voiced by in motion capture, who also played Dr. William Block in Planet Terror, Tom Chaney in True Grit, Derek Bates in Into the Blue, and Cable in Deadpool 2. In the Japanese version, he was voiced by Banjo Ginga.
==Roles==
He serves as the overarching antagonist of , and , a mentioned antagonist in both and Season 5 of , the unseen final antagonist of both and and the main antagonist of both and .
He is also the posthumous overarching antagonist of , and and a posthumous antagonist in , , , , , and . His Earth-838 variant also serves as a posthumous antagonist in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Multiple variants of Thanos appear in varying capacities in :
*As a supporting character in the second episode "", having been redeemed thanks to T'Challa and becoming part of the Ravagers.
*As a background antagonist in the fifth episode "", having been turned into a zombie and possessing five of the six Infinity Stones.
*As a minor character in the eighth episode "", where Infinity Ultron easily kills him and acquires his Infinity Stones.
*As a posthumous antagonist in the ninth episode "", having been killed by Gamora.
==Appearance==
Thanos was an extremely tall, bulky, and muscular male Titan with no hair, small blue eyes, and a disproportionately huge chin. Unlike other Titans, he had purple skin with scar-like markings on his chin, shoulders and arms. He usually wore golden armor, underneath which he wore a dark purple tank top.
==Personality==
Although considered by many to be the ultimate embodiment of cruelty, madness and destruction, Thanos was actually a more complicated and tortured soul as he became who he was due to his traumatic past, genuinely believed that he was right, and that his actions of wiping out half of all life would benefit the whole universe. Towards his enemies, Thanos can be ruthless and cruel and he is relentless as seen by his gathering of children from across the galaxy to take as his own while murdering their families so he can raise them as assassins and aid him by tirelessly searching for the Infinity Stones.
Joe Russo noted, however, that Thanos' belief was delusional and self-righteous due to the fact that he would force his belief on the whole universe. Thanos proved that by not sparing even the species that he had once halved or were already dwindling, as shown with the Asgardian refugees, killing half of them for the Tesseract and again after executing the Snap, which resulted in them becoming even less in number. He also actively ignored less extreme options such as increasing and adapting the resources for everybody in the universe. Thus, his goal of halving the universal populace was really to prove that it could have saved his people, who rejected his idea, from extinction.
He also called himself "generous" when he discussed the traits that Gamora inherited from him and even referred to himself as the embodiment of destiny, describing his plan for the universe as "salvation" and his plans as being inevitable, which was a further sign of Thanos' delusions. Indeed, when his past self learned that the Avengers utilized time travel (through the usage of the Quantum Realm) in order to retrieve the Infinity Stones and undo the damage that he did in the original timeline, Thanos realized that the remaining half of the universe's populace wouldn't accept the future that he envisioned whether he succeeded or not, because they could never forget about the losses of their loved ones he killed - thereby proving that his beliefs were wrong.
However, rather than coming to acknowledge that he was wrong, Thanos instead believed that the universe was ungrateful for his deeds. It was then Thanos decided that he would use the Stones to destroy the entire universe and recreate it in his own image so that everyone would be grateful for his actions. As a result of this, Thanos ended up being more depraved and ruthless than his deceased, future self; as he abandoned his ideals of balance, honor, and empathy for the sake of his own twisted ambitions. Furthermore, he became more arrogant and sadistic when it came to challenging the Avengers - as he simply dismissed them as "unruly wretches" and later gloated to them that he would personally enjoy tearing the Earth apart out of spite against them for interfering with his plans.
Being possibly the most notorious warlord in the universe, Thanos was overly assertive as he merely smiled when The Other told him that challenging the Avengers was like courting Death. He even was unfazed when Ronan threatened to kill him with The Orb, despite knowing well that the Kree was already very powerful even without the Stone, and displayed only anger over his betrayal. Thanos also confidently smiled when he decided to collect the Infinity Stones personally. He was also extremely brave, never showing any sign of fear or cowardice, even when he knows he was about to be killed. Beside this, Thanos had an extraordinary will and mental strength, as evidenced by Mantis struggling to hypnotize him despite her ability to make Ego, another very powerful being, falling asleep almost instantly simply with a touch, with her thus pointing out that the Titan was "very strong".
Thanos was extremely unforgiving and intolerant of failures, with a loathsome nature and tendency to torturously punish any failure, that made him an exceptionally intimidating figure. The Other warned Loki that he would know a new kind of pain if he did not give them the Tesseract, something which visibly scared the God of Mischief and made him more determined than ever out of fear of Thanos' power. Even though Thor did not know about Thanos, he could still sense Thanos' easy control over Loki as being absurd due to Loki's arrogance. That side of his was shown further when Thanos furiously threatened to bathe the stairways in Ronan's blood if he failed to deliver the Orb, something which scared one of the strongest Kree into submission, and forbade Gamora from rescuing Nebula when the latter fell into a trap while on a mission in the Cloud Tombs of Praxius. He even arranged for Nebula to be painfully tortured in order to coerce Gamora into revealing the location of the Soul Stone. Even Ebony Maw, his most loyal and faithful child who have never failed him before, fears his possible "judgement" if he fails to bring the Time Stone in time and attached to the necklace of Strange to Thanos. Despite his charisma and leadership skills having allowed him to rule the Chitauri and Outriders unchallenged, Thanos showed little to no regard for his followers, as he showed absolutely no concern when Ronan killed The Other and, even though Corvus Glaive pointed out their army would be caught in the crossfire, ordered a bombardment to save himself from a vengeful Scarlet Witch.
Thanos was also manipulative and hesitant to trust: he sent Ronan to retrieve the Orb for him and did not tell him that it contained an Infinity Stone. Thanos was surprisingly patient, kept a low profile, lurked in the shadows, and made others do his work for him. However, after both of his alliances backfired thanks to the Avengers and the Guardians, Thanos showed that he was fully capable of taking action himself, as he decided to hunt for the Infinity Stones himself. During his hunt of the Infinity Stones, Thanos was described by the Russo Brothers as becoming almost a "holy warrior" who only killed when necessary. That was shown by the fact that while Thanos did ruthlessly kill Loki for failing him and attempting to kill him, he gave him a rather merciful and quick death despite having earlier threatened him and spared Thor nothing more but a brief grin and didn't bother to show outright mock when he cruelly announced Loki's true death. While Ebony Maw stated that Thanos would like to "have his fun" with the Hulk when the Gamma Beast attacked him on the Statesman, the Titan remained focused when he fought and beat the Hulk. That was later displayed repeatedly when Thanos merely incapacitated his opponents when he fought on both Titan and Wakanda. He also massacred nearly all of the Dwarves in order to put their king, Eitri, in a trauma after he crippled his hands.
For all of Thanos' arrogance, he never lets this hamper his intelligence, displaying the ability to swiftly recover from unexpected and debilitating setbacks and calmly handle the situation without the usual anger over being outplayed like most villains did. Those who attempted to use his confidence against him swiftly found themselves failing, which has proven to be a saving grace for Thanos several times: Loki attempted to use Thanos' confidence that the God of Mischief was too afraid to attack him to assassinate him, only for Thanos to instantly see through it, having fully knew from the beginning what Loki would do and not counting Loki's fear as being sufficient, and hence effortlessly thwarted and killed Loki, for good. Instead of going into a rage on the heroes at Titan for reminding him of his sacrifice of Gamora, he promptly tactically broke the planet's moon to pieces and blasted it in order to separate his enemies.
When Thor severely wounded him, instead of panicking and cursing at the God of Thunder, Thanos instead took advantage of Thor's desire for cruel revenge by convincingly feigning he was about to die until he mockingly revealed that Thor's blow was in the end insignificant to stop him and caught him completely off-guard, allowing him to complete his goal while leaving Thor completely helpless and finally when the Gauntlet was damaged rather than continuing to be astonished or taking too much time to mock Thor, Thanos swiftly left the Earth to escape death after only giving Thor a mocking smirk when he furiously questioned what he did. Additionally, rather than arrogantly believing the Avengers would give up after his defeat of them, Thanos calculated they would persist and never give up and would target him to get the Infinity Stones to reverse his Snap and thus destroyed them, which left the Avengers utterly defeated for five years. However, it was shown that he wasn't always like this, as displayed by his 2014 self: Upon defeating Iron Man, rather than checking if the Nano Gauntlet still had the Stones, Thanos instead taunted him over his failure and simply snapped only to learn that Iron Man had already obtained the Stones and used them to disintegrate Thanos and his army at the cost of his own life. Unlike last time, Thanos was so shocked he didn't try to prevent the snap even though he could have, leading to his ultimate demise.
However, Thanos once had a kinder and more benevolent side to himself in that he cared deeply for his planet and people even though he was shunned for being deformed, as he tried everything that he could to convince the governments of his planet to do what he suggested. The fact that they refused to accept his proposal and called him insane for it was what made Thanos who he was in the present with his desire to exterminate half of the population of every planet so as to save those civilizations from the same overpopulation tragedy which destroyed his home planet. That was why Thanos truly believed his cause for killing off half of everyone on all planets to be a righteous cause and saw himself a righteous soul who was doing what was necessary to save all the civilizations of the universe, so that they did not face the same tragedy as his home planet.
Despite everything he had gone through, Thanos was not without the ability to love: in spite of his ruthlessly strict treatment of “his children“, he has been shown to truly care for them. Though he was more than willing to kill children, the fact that he took in only children out of the inhabitants of the planet he balanced showed he had a soft side for them. The child he loved the most was Gamora, who he quickly became interested in after seeing her fight back against her captor and gently kept her from being a part of the random genocide of her people by giving her the task of balancing a blade he gave her and when her attention turned to her people's screaming, he gently reminded her to remain focused on her task. Over the years, Thanos considered Gamora his favorite daughter and was proud of her abilities, deeming her the only one worthy of having his throne and despite knowing of her hatred for him, he never stopped believing that she could one day be loyal again. He even forgave her lie of failing to find the Soul Stone and allowed her to keep the façade for years until he finally decided to hunt down the Infinity Stones himself. Thanos also admitted that he knew Gamora wanted to leave his side and yet allowed it, perhaps wanting to give Gamora her wish even if only temporarily, and despite her betrayal, he made it clear Ronan's alienating of Gamora angered him. Just before he captured Gamora, Thanos offered her a chance to come willingly, outright indicating he would leave her founded family, the Guardians, unharmed, and when he had her captive, he treated her more like a guest than a prisoner, not restraining her and instead giving her food and remaining patient and appealing, despite Gamora's anger and rather than torturing her for the location of the Soul Stone, he instead had Nebula tortured to make Gamora tell him. He 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 and was utterly heartbroken when he realized he had to kill Gamora to gain the power of the Soul Stone, to the point where he shed tears and sincerely apologized to her, his grief and pain being sensed by Mantis despite still going through with it as he believed it was for the greater good.
Even towards his other children, Thanos did have certain affection for them, as he stated that the loss of Maw was a heavy toll despite remaining calm and only being slightly somber over it and with the loss of all his children, he mournfully admitted he lost everything. Even towards Nebula, despite her betrayal, Thanos did not kill her after getting the information out of Gamora, although he outright shoved the fact that she was inferior to Gamora in his eyes in her face during their showdown and had no qualms fighting her. Likewise, before his present self's death, Thanos was genuinely grateful when she admitted that he wasn't a liar and showed regret that he treated her too harshly, which drove her to tears before she mourned him. It was later shown that Thanos wasn't always so critical of her and when she promised to make him proud, the 2014 Thanos was visibly pleased and stated he knew she would. Rather than killing her for her apparent betrayal, Thanos instead took her to his ship to be treated and checked. After listening to a recording of his future self regretting his treatment of her, Thanos took those words to heart and decided to treat Nebula better. That was demonstrated when he immediately releases the chain that Ebony Maw had around Nebula's neck and gave her the chance to prove her loyalty, despite learning of her eventual betrayal.
Thanos was also shown to have an honorable and respectable side, as even though he was angry for Ronan causing him to lose Gamora and returning empty-handed, he was still willing to fulfill his end of their deal by destroying half of Xandar's population in order to nab the Power Stone. Thanos even extended that to his enemies: he spared Iron Man when Doctor Strange gave him the Time Stone. In fact, though quite manipulative, Thanos was a person who never lied, something that even his abused daughter Nebula confirmed. Indeed, even though The Other stated that Thanos desired to use the Tesseract to look beyond the known worlds to find greater ones that it would unveil, it was later on shown that Thanos never intended to use the Stones' power for control over the universe and was quick to destroy them to avoid being tempted by their power. He proved capable of showing respect and empathy toward his opponents should they earned it. That was first seen when Star-Lord was able to will himself to attempt to kill Gamora due to the promise that he made to her, only for Thanos to thwart it wih the Reality Stone; it was then that Thanos said that he liked Quill for his willingness to kill Gamora when the situation called for it. Thanos also praised Iron Man (who was able to make him draw blood) for his bravery and tenacity, hoped the survivors of humanity would still remember him. When Scarlet Witch was forced to kill Vision in order to destroy the Mind Stone, Thanos, who had done the same with to Gamora to acquire the Soul Stone, actually sympathized for her loss, comforted her, and told her that he had experienced the same kind of sadness when he killed Gamora, but later reversed that with the Time Stone before he killed Vision and obtained the Mind Stone, much to Scarlet Witch's distraught. This side of Thanos also made him outright contemptuous of those who sought power for selfish gain and simply ruthless purposes, which he would not hide even if said individuals proved to benefit him. This was shown by how Thanos was dismissive of Maw's sycophant behavior, openly found Loki's greed to be pathetic and showed disgust over being told by Loki he would never become a god. He also made it clear he saw Ronan's personal grudge against the Xandarians as being distasteful as well as openly commenting how he found the Collector despicable for his value of possessing over all else in his illusion. He even took time to express his distaste for Thor letting his lust for revenge overtake him and cost his side victory by striking him in the chest, instead of the head despite the fact he would have been dead and lost had Thor did it. When his 2014 self fought Captain America he actually complemented him for putting up a good fight, as well as being willing to face Thanos’ high numbers.
Additionally, Thanos did not take his genocidal motives as a pretext to eliminate potential foes who could be able to exact revenge on him and did not went out of his way to kill the surviving members of the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy who had done everything they could to stop him, suggesting that in a way he respected their tenacity and chose to spare them for it. In fact, despite knowing fully well his surviving enemies would come for him to get revenge, Thanos chose to destroy the Stones even though keeping them would have allowed him to perhaps defeat his enemies and with his victory seemingly fully secured, seemingly finding their quest to kill him as being just, did not fight back against his enemies even though the Russo Brothers confirmed even in his weakened state, he could have still been able to defend himself against the Avengers and allowed himself to be at their mercy and calmly faced his fate. Even after all the depravity his 2014 self showed, he accepted his defeat with honorable dignity despite being visibly distraught by the ultimate failure of his plans.
==Powers and Abilities==
===Powers===
Power: As a mutated Titan, Thanos was frighteningly powerful; able to effortlessly intimidate, overpower, severely harm, and even kill beings as powerful as Loki, Ronan The Accuser, who was among the strongest Kree, Thor at full power, and Hulk. He ruled the Chitauri and Outrider army unchallenged and Korath fearfully said he was the most powerful being in the universe although Ronan was confident that he could kill Thanos with the power of the Power Stone. Nevertheless, Thanos displayed no sign of concern after Ronan threatened him. Gamora also blatantly told Nebula she doesn't know if killing Thanos is possible. Thanos was also shown to be fully confident in being capable of collectively harnessing the full power of all six Infinity Stones with the use of an Infinity Gauntlet, a feat that no other being has ever survived. This was proven correct when he was able to handle the use of all six after finally completing the Infinity Gauntlet.
*Superhuman Strength: Thanos was capable of easily wielding all six Infinity Stones with the Infinity Gauntlet, a feat that no other being survived, making him one of the strongest beings in existence. Thanos could effortlessly break the highly durable containers of the Infinity Stones as he casually crushed the Tesseract, which could endure being heated to 120 million Kelvin. He was also capable of effortlessly breaking out of Groot's vines and it took the combined efforts of Doctor Strange, Drax, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Star-Lord, and Mantis to keep him restrained and he still showed great resistance. Upon waking up, Thanos was quickly able to break out of the restraints and regain control of the Infinity Gauntlet. He was still casually able to clench the Infinity Gauntlet when restrained by countless Eldritch Whips by Doctor Strange's replicas. Thanos was so strong that beings of lesser but still higher superhuman strength and resilience pose no threat or challenge to him, such as Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Gamora, as Thanos proves by effortlessly stopping Black Panther's full charge with a single-handed choke hold and knock him out with a punch, overpowering Spider-Man with one hand casually and being able to effortlessly break out of his web and use it to pull him to Thanos, effortlessly restraining Gamora with a single hand and later throwing her off a cliff in Vormir with little effort. He also could overpower Iron Man in his nanotech Mark L Armor with little effort, with his strength being more than sufficient to easily tear apart the armor with his bare hands, and he was able to effortlessly break Iron Man's sword in half and then stab him with it. Even when Captain America used all his strength, which was vastly augmented by his determination, he was only just barely able to hold back Thanos' gauntlet hand and the Mad Titan proceeded to effortlessly knock the Super Soldier out with a single punch. Even beings of the highest levels of strength and resilience such as Hulk, Vision and Thor do not pose that much of a threat to Thanos, as the Titan easily beat Hulk and Thor to a bloody pulp, lifted Vision off the ground with one hand, who was powerless to break free, and quickly ripped the Mind Stone from the synthezoid's extremely durable Vibranium forehead. Despite being badly wounded by atomising the Infinity Stones, he was still able to slowly push against and overpower Captain Marvel's leg with his shrivelled and burnt left arm until Bruce Banner intervened with the Hulkbuster armor. Lacking the Infinity Gauntlet did not prevent the 2014 Thanos from being capable of overpowering Thor and Captain America in raw strength without much effort, as he was easily able to pummel Thor enough to cause him to severely bleed and bruised and steadily overwhelm him when he tried to use Stormbreaker to gut open his chest, with only Captain America's sudden mastery of Mjølnir preventing him from doing so and was firmly holding back Thor's attempts to stab him with Stormbreaker despite being electrocuted by the electricity surrounding the mighty axe. Even with Mjølnir further assisting Thor and Captain America restraining him, he was still able to overpower their combined might eventually. He even broke Captain America's Vibranium shield with mere brute strikes from his sword, easily knocked Mjølnir from Rogers's grasp with a single blow, lifted and sent him flying and, before Captain America was able to use Mjølnir, Thanos rendered him near entirely powerless, easily badly incapacitating him with a punch. Even Captain Marvel using all her cosmic power to augment her strength had to put it all to ensure Thanos could not close his fist and showed trouble overcoming him.
**Super Jumps: Thanos' strength also extended to his legs, being able to jump a tremendous distance to avoid Doctor Strange's rays with a single leap and shatter his Tao Mandalas with a kick.
*Superhuman Durability: Thanos had incalculably extraordinary, godly levels of supernatural resilience and durability, to the point many believed he cannot be killed and even the best efforts of those of great power and tenacity seen capable of inflicting lasting harm on him, rendering him capable of easily handling the Infinity Stones with the Infinity Gauntlet without any strain or harm done to himself, even surviving the power of all six without harm, something that none who have attempted have ever survived. Regular gunshots understandably does absolutely no harm to him, as shown when he remained completely unfazed by shots from the Winter Soldier, with even firearms and melee weapons of among the highest caliber doing very little harm to him, with him only barely flinching after being shot by Star-Lord and slashed by Drax's knives and managing to parry Drax's knives and Doctor Strange's Eldritch Sword with his bare hands without suffering any damage. In addition, his skin and skeleton was also nearly impenetrable to both outside and inside interference as Doctor Strange decided against trying to use a Sling Ring to kill him as it wouldn't work fast enough to prevent Thanos' snap and if Ant-Man had tried to shrink himself, enter into his anus and then expand himself to kill the Mad Titan, the tough walls of Thanos' rectum would simply crush him to death. He was also able to effortlessly endure and shrug off attacks from beings of among the highest levels of superhuman strength as if it was nothing as he was completely uninjured by punches from Spider-Man, remained completely uninjured by full-powered blows from Iron Man's Mark L armor, with even the sharp blades of the armor only inflicting a slight cut on Thanos' face, with him going as far as to mock Iron Man for only being able to draw a little drop of blood, and he was even barely fazed and completely uninjured by blows from Hulk or a fully-empowered Thor. Indeed, Thanos' durability was great enough that it took an attack from a fully-empowered Thor wielding Stormbreaker, a weapon so powerful that it was considered the most powerful in Asgard's history, to finally wound and harm him when the blade got lodged directly in his chest and even though Thor caused Thanos visible pain by twisting the ax deeper, Thanos retained enough strength to activate and use the Infinity Gauntlet at the scale needed to wipe out half of the universe. He also survived such a vast display of power despite the severe injury though it did cause him to briefly entered a catatonic state but he quickly recovered, even going as far as to mock Thor for not aiming at his head. Even after being in a weakened state, Thanos was once again able to survive using the Infinity Gauntlet to destroy all the Stones, although it worsened his injuries. The 2014 Thanos was able to take blows from Captain America using Mjølnir, including lightning attacks, with no injuries despite being knocked around and staggered by them. In addition, he shrugged off Scarlet Witch's energy attacks despite her having grown even more powerful than last time and was even able to last long enough when Scarlet Witch used her full power to try to crush him for him to order his army to fire on her. After which, he was still able to take numerous attacks from Captain Marvel without any significant damage.
*Nigh Immortality: Thanos was alive for thousands of years with no apparent side effects.
*Superhuman Speed, Agility, and Reflexes: Thanos was fully capable of easily fighting and outpacing even the swiftest of enemies, including others of far smaller size and superhuman conditioning. He was able to easily dodge a few blows from Hulk, and then instantly struck him multiple times before Hulk had a chance to respond. Thanos also easily reacted to Loki's swift attempt to kill him, effortlessly choking Loki to death before the latter could react. While Thor managed to land a blow on Thanos after Thanos had just beaten Hulk, Thanos easily kicked the God of Thunder away before he could attack again. Thanos was even able to react to the extremely agile Spider-Man's attacks, eventually getting a grip on him and pinning Spider-Man down. He was also able to effortlessly pummel Iron Man in hand-to-hand combat within seconds, block his repulsor blast, break his sword and stab him before he could react. He casually caught Black Panther mid-charge with a single hand and could react to the extreme speed of the bullets fired by Winter Soldier and War Machine and Okoye's thrown spear to easily blast it away. The 2014 Thanos was able to easily keep pace with and even beat Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man, with him being able to move faster than Iron Man's strongest armor could react while blocking his repulsors and casually toss aside Rogers as well as swiftly pummel and disarm Thor before he could react. He also could catch Stormbreaker when it was summoned by Thor to use against him.
*Regenerative Healing Factor: Thanos displayed an extremely strong regenerative healing factor, capable of quickly recovering from even the most severe of wounds as long as his head was not cut off. Mere moments after being damaged by Iron Man slightly, he was completely healed upon arriving on Wakanda. Even when Thor dealt a severe wound to his chest with the devastatingly powerful Stormbreaker, by the time he was "admiring the sunset", he had completely regenerated, although the wounds of using the Infinity Stones would take a long period of time to heal and he did not manage to heal it at all until he was killed.
*Superhuman Stamina: Thanos displayed vast levels of superhuman stamina as he proved capable of exerting himself at full capacity for tremendous periods of time even while pressured, as shown when he endured fighting repeatedly in Titan and Wakanda against the likes of the Avengers, Guardians, Black Panther, and Okoye without once showing any signs of fatigue and even after being severely injured by Thor stabbing and then twisting Stormbreaker into his chest as deep as he could, Thanos retained enough stamina to activate the Infinity Gauntlet at the scale needed to wipe out half of the universe and although he was exhausted enough to enter a catatonic state briefly, Thanos quickly recovered and was still able to warp away and only moments later had fully recovered from any exhaustion he underwent. The 2014 Thanos was able to engage in a prolonged battle for the Infinity Stones, overpowering the efforts of any hero he had faced, and in the end only being stopped by Iron Man causing his death with the Infinity Stones.
*Superhuman Longevity: Like all Titans, Thanos himself was nearly immortal and had existed for a very long time. It had been confirmed that Thanes was roughly over one thousand years of age by the time Tony Stark decimated him with the power of the Infinity Stones during the Battle of Earth.
===The Infinity Gauntlet===
Supernatural Powers: After equipping the Infinity Gauntlet into his left arm, combined with his already extraordinary physical constitution and raw power, Thanos gained the potential to safely harness the supernatural powers and dominion over all aspects of existence possessed by all six Infinity Stones should he add them to the Gauntlet, with the more stones Thanos inserts into the Gauntlet, the more power he gains. Upon acquiring all six stones, Thanos becomes nearly omnipotent and even gained the power to force living beings to just die without hesitation or resistance no matter if they were powerful or not. This was seen when even with a severe injury, he killed off half of life within the universe with just a snap of his fingers, making him the most powerful entity in the universe. It is notable that Thanos seems to completely master all the powers of the stones just after only shortly acquiring them, apparently showing he had full understanding and knowledge of the powers of the Infinity Stones, making him nearly invincible as he can easily and seamlessly switch between the powers of the stones and can even combine them.
*Energy Absorption and Warping: Combining the Power and Space Stones, Thanos is able to absorb energies he was exposed to and transform them into something else, as he could absorb the explosive energy of Iron Man's missiles, and redirect it at the Avenger as a single concentrated beam of fiery energy.
*Terrain Manipulation: Combining the Reality and Space Stones, Thanos can manipulate the terrain at a great enough scale to be able to pull the surface of Titan in order to force Doctor Strange closer to him.
*Space Manipulation: After inserting the Space Stone into the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquires the stone's complete control over space. His mastery and understanding of its powers allows him to achieve a wide plethora of liberal but potent capabilities and is not limited to simply opening portals, although it remains the most useful ability that he acquired as he can now effortlessly travel to anywhere he desires without needing to use any other transportation, even able to achieve interdimensional travel without aid now, as he easily warped to Knowhere, Titan, and later Wakanda by casually opening a portal and he can also take others with him, as he warped not only himself but also the entire Black Order after having the Power Stone slowly blow away the Statesman and can also forcibly warp others along with him with ease, as he effortlessly took both him and Gamora despite her resistance to his ship and later Vormir, as well as being able to use the portals to influence other locations without directly being there, doing so to send the Power Stone's energies to the moon and then send the pieces through the portal, with his precise control over the portals even allowing him to remove an object attached to him if he so desires, as he removed Stormbreaker from his chest upon warping away from Wakanda. He could create compression forces strong enough to create singularities that sucks up anything within close proximity, as shown when he summoned a devastating vortex that gathered up all in it's path and sent it at Doctor Strange, which Strange could not block and was forced to transmute it into a multitude of blue butterflies to repel it, funnel the kinetic force of oncoming projectile attacks to make them harmless and then gather them and redirect them, as he harmlessly funnel the kinetic energy of Iron Man's projectiles before sending it back at the hero, create force fields that can easily disintegrate bullets, as he easily destroyed multiple shots from War Machine, and even has the sufficient skill to alter the space between molecules, allowing him to make others intangible and just as easily make them solid again, as he easily phased Hulkbuster through him and stone before making him solid again to trap him. Thanos was also able to skillfully use the Stone as a powerful form of telekinesis, warping the fabric of space around objects in order to manipulate and move them with a single gesture. He was able to instantly freeze Loki mid-stab with ease, effortlessly crush the guns on War Machine's armor, knock down Falcon, and produce force fields powerful enough to repel the energy of Scarlet Witch as a means of defense. His Space Stone induced telekinesis was so strong that he was able to telekinetically pull the shattered fragments of Titan's moon across space to rain down on the attacking Avengers during the Battle of Titan.
*Reality Manipulation: Upon acquiring the Reality Stone and inserting it into the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquires complete control over reality, allowing him to warp the very fabric of reality itself to be whatever he desires, as he himself boasted to Gamora. He has shown to have a full understanding and mastery over the Reality Stone's powers, surpassing even Malekith, capable of using it to warp reality to such a degree as to create highly elaborate physical simulations and illusions of false realities over a wide range of influence, as evidenced when Thanos was able 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, which was so convincing that the illusionary self of Thanos can be physically interacted with, with Gamora being able to fight and even kill the false Thanos. He later conjured another illusion to Doctor Strange, showing the planet Titan in its peaceful prime, in a time before it became an uninhabited wasteland. He can make himself invisible using the Reality Stone, as he first spoke to Gamora unseen before revealing himself shortly after undoing the illusion. Thanos can also use the Reality Stone to warp and transmute matter and object into anything he desires, even being able to do this to living organisms, as he effortlessly incapacitated Guardians Drax and Mantis by temporarily warping their physical bodies, splitting Drax's body into pieces and turning Mantis into still-conscious strips of flesh. While he did this by sending a beam from the Reality Stone, he can also silently do this and without needing to fire a beam, as when Star-Lord reluctantly attempted to execute his teammate and lover, Gamora, to prevent her capture by Thanos, the Titan silently transmuted his Quad Blasters to harmlessly fire bubbles, before transforming the weapon itself into bubbles, and would later do the same to Gamora's dagger on Vormir to prevent her committing suicide. Thanos can use this very effectively in combat, as evidenced when he fought in Titan and Wakanda, transmuting a field of ship wreckage into a swarm of bats to attack Iron Man. He can also manipulate the earth with the stone, spawning a cage of stone pillars to trap Black Widow and pulling the surface of Titan itself to pull Doctor Strange into his hand. Upon completing the Infinity Gauntlet, thus reaching the highest level of power the Reality Stone can exert, he became able to warp reality to such an extent that he was even able to cause the bodies of others to turn to dust at a global scale, even while severely injured, causing the victims of his genocide to disintegrate to ashes, with just a snap of his fingers.
*Energy Manipulation: After inserting the Power Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquires complete control over the destructive force of the universe, giving him vast energy-manipulating powers. Due to his strong understanding of the Power Stone's capabilities, Thanos was able to use it for more diverse and versatile capabilities, with the Stone becoming one of his most versatile and often-used in combat for its destructive potential. Thanos' control over the energy of the Power Stone can allow him to infuse it into the Gauntlet, with it being strong enough to shatter a gateway to the Mirror Dimension sent to him by Doctor Strange. With a single gesture from the Gauntlet, Thanos is able to manipulate and specifically unleash the Stone's power to charge objects with unstable energy, causing them to overload and violently detonate. Thanos makes common use of this ability due to its versatility and combat potential, as he is able to control the time and size of the detonation, whether instantly or slowly as Thanos used 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 used the Stone's energy and versatile destructive powers to devastating effect, violently and instantly detonating a ruined spaceship fragment that was dropped on him by Iron Man. He can even exert such powerful energy that it was even powerful enough to rip apart the surface of Titan's moon with its sheer power. Thanos can also unleash tremendously powerful blasts or waves of the Stone's explosive energy, applying powerful concussive force or outright destroying objects with its volatile power. A wild shockwave of energy was able to knock out Star-Lord, Drax and Nebula instantaneously, with all three individuals having great superhuman resilience, while a few concussive waves were enough to effortlessly repel attacks and blast away the majority of the opposing Avengers during the Battle of Wakanda. The Stone's energy could also be concentrated into direct beams of power with enough power to be capable of cleaving through structures with ease, forcing back a shielded Iron Man, and heavily damaging the Avenger's armor with a single point-blank blast. Thanos could also use the stone for more subtle applications, such as exerting the energy upon others to torture them. During the Attack on the Statesman, Thanos utilized the Stone to torture an injured Thor, pushing the Stone into his head and causing the Asgardian excruciating pain using its energy. Used together with the Space Stone, Thanos also brutally tortured Nebula with its power, by telekinetically pulling her mechanical components apart while exposing her to the energy of the Power Stone. With the Power Stone, Thanos can also negate and redirect oncoming energy attacks, as he easily prevented Black Panther from using his kinetic energy pulse and redirected it to the earth when he struck the latter to the ground.
*Time Manipulation: After inserting the Time Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquires complete control over time. Quickly completely mastering the Time Stone's powers, while using it similarly to Doctor Strange's method, although he does not need Eldritch Magic and simply needs to clench the Gauntlet to activate the Time Manipulation Magic, causing the same symbol of the Eye of Agamotto to appear in the palm of his Gauntlet's hand and similarly conjuring said symbol as he uses it. His skill is shown to be far more refined than Doctor Strange's, as Thanos has the skill needed to rewind time with the level of finesse needed to truly recreate an object, even one as powerful as an Infinity Stone, while simultaneously resurrecting a being and keeping some from being affected by it, 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 also keeping the Avengers from being affected to prevent them from trying to stop him, whereas Doctor Strange could not truly recreate the stolen pages of the Book of Cagliostro with the Time Stone, although this may have been aided by the fact that the Time Stone was amplified by the Gauntlet already having 4 other Stones. At the height of the Time Stone's powers, with the Infinity Gauntlet having been completed, Thanos gains the ability to accelerate the time of living creatures at a global scale, even able to do this while badly wounded, with the victims of his genocide quickly aging and becoming decomposable brown corpses.
*Soul Manipulation: After inserting the Soul Stone into the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquires complete control over souls as well as life and death, giving him divine authority over souls and the right to decide who lives and who dies. With the Soul Stone, Thanos can detect and attack the souls of others, allowing him to identify the real one among mystical replicas of others and attack them, as evidenced when he was able to tell which one is the real Doctor Strange and disperse his duplicates with a single burst of energy, also pushing the sorcerer's astral form out of his body for a while. Upon completing the Infinity Gauntlet and greatly enhancing the Soul Stone's powers as a result, Thanos gained the ability to induce death by wiping the very souls of his targets at a global scale to the point that, even with a severe injury, he still was able to use the Soul Stone in conjunction with the other Stones to successfully wipe out half of the universe, erasing the victim's souls from existence. This catastrophic event even claimed the lives of most of the Avengers and all of the Guardians of the Galaxy, with the exception of Rocket Raccoon and Nebula. The Soul Stone also can conjure dreams for Thanos to recover from exhaustion and speak with someone he cherishes, as after wiping out half of all life in the Universe, the sheer energy required to achieve such a feat nearly overwhelmed Thanos, and briefly sent him into a dream state caused by the Soul Stone itself, transporting his mind to a world consisting of a barren, infinite expanse of feet-high water under an orange sky. Within the dream world, Thanos saw himself as without the Gauntlet or his injuries sustained 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 - in the form of the young child she was when Thanos first met and adopted her - telling her of his final fulfillment of his lifelong goal and admitting to her the great cost and sacrifices made to achieve it.
*Death Inducement: This ability is Thanos' most terrifying and yet the mightiest demonstration of his true power. After completing the Gauntlet, Thanos becomes able to use the powers of the Reality, Time, and Soul Stones at such a vast scale as to wipe out half of the universe with just the snap of his fingers, successfully achieving this even after being severely wounded by Thor using Stormbreaker. The victims of the universal genocide quickly aged before turning into a brown decomposing corpse, disintegrating them and erasing them from their physical existence.
===Abilities===
*Genius-Level Intellect: Even in his youth, Thanos was deemed a genius among his kind, despite his deformation. His long life allowed Thanos to refine his intellectual aptitude to the highest degree, making him exceptionally intelligent. Hence, due to Thanos' intellectual genius, he is among the most intelligent (if not the most intelligent) individuals in the universe. His intellect makes him incredibly lethal even without using his powers or fighting skills, as displayed by his ability to conquer many worlds. By simply using his manipulative and strategic skills, he indirectly causes the Battle of Xandar and Chitauri Invasion, both of which caused the formations of the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers to fight their respective battles. All the while, Thanos remained effectively anonymous, so much so that even the extremely intelligent Iron Man was completely fooled into believing that Loki had no aid during his invasion, and with Doctor Strange initially not having Thanos on his list of otherworldly threats. It was only after Thor received a vision on the Infinity Stones that he was able to figure out Thanos' involvement, with Thor admitting that Thanos had been using his intellect to play a very intricate game and has effectively used the Avengers as pawns without them even realizing it until Thor saw the vision. Thanos was even clever enough to be considerably superior to Loki himself, as he easily outsmarted him on more than one occasion - he not only successfully used Loki as a pawn without the latter realizing it for a long time, but he was later also able to successfully finish off the God of Mischief by easily predicting that he would attempt an assassination and countering it casually. Thanos also easily deceived the Guardians of the Galaxy into letting their guard down, thus allowing Thanos to incapacitate them and capture Gamora. Thanos is also highly perceptive, as he is not fooled at all by Loki and easily saw through Gamora's lies that she never found the Soul Stone. It was his intelligence that allowed Thanos to prevent his arrogance from becoming his weakness, always able to quickly rebound from and overcome unexpected setbacks. However, his 2014 self lacked this trait and got killed by letting his anger at the 2018 Avengers get the best of him after they proved him wrong as they gained the upper hand against him after their first fight with him, allowing Iron Man to outsmart him and finally defeat him, despite all this Thanos was still a fool to believe everyone would be grateful for all the pain and suffering he caused, which gave him a new idea to destroy everything in the universe and create it as his own.
**Master Tactician and Strategist: Thanos was an exceptionally accomplished strategist and tactician with centuries of experience in using strategies, quite possibly the best master of tactical warfare currently in the universe. Thanos' mastery and experience in using strategy and tactics allows him to create extremely complex and well-coordinated plans and execute them effectively, with the strategies he created and employed being so effective that he gave the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy great trouble all the while remaining anonymous. Thanos is even a far more skilled 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 and successfully finished him off. Thanos' strategical aptitude also allows him to accurately predict incoming events and effectively manipulate said events to his advantage, as he was able to anticipate the Guardians going to Knowhere to retrieve the Reality Stone and arrived there before they could prevent him from taking it. Thanos even went as far as to set up a brilliant trap for the Guardians by casting an illusion to fool them into believing that he is still torturing the Collector for the Reality Stone while in actuality he had acquired the Reality Stone long before they arrived, all the while easily manipulating Gamora using illusions specifically seen in her mind to lure her into emotionally charging at Thanos, which worked to a great effect, catching Gamora and the Guardians completely off-guard and allowing Thanos to successfully capture Gamora and escape from the Guardians uninjured. Thanos' strategical sense and abilities were honed enough to be used to devastating efficiency 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 situations, 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 was able to use Thor's vendetta against him to manipulate and fool him, as despite still being able to function enough to activate the completed Gauntlet, he let Thor vengefully gloat and attack him to convince him he was killing him 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. Before his death on the Garden, Thanos used the Infinity Stones' power against themselves to reduce them to atoms in order to prevent the Avengers from undoing the Snap, thereby securing his victory. The 2014 Thanos also displayed a similar aptitude for quickly forming strategies in the midst of combat, as he swiftly came up with a plan to have 2014 Nebula impersonate her future self from 2023 and infiltrate the New Avengers Facility, providing a target for the Sanctuary II. He also instantly devised 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, used his sword to destroy Luis' van to compensate his inability to get to Captain Marvel fast enough to prevent her from escaping, 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 Leader: Thanos was an extremely skilled leader with a large amount of charisma despite his intimidating persona; inspiring absolute loyalty in the violent and powerful armies of Chitauri and Outriders and members of the Black Order. He is known for having easily decimated dozens of species with his powerful army, killing the Zenohebrei and Luphomoid species.
**Master Polymath: Thanos was shown to be considerably well-versed in many subjects: His mathematic aptitude allowed him to accurately predict that his people and planet was about to be devastated due to overpopulation, which he claims to be a simple calculus to him. He was extremely brilliant in the fields of science and technology, having been able to develop what was among the most advanced technologies in the universe to be used by his army. He was also able to manipulate the energies of the Tesseract far away to allow Loki to invade Earth. Thanos was even aware that time-travel is possible, having educated Nebula in such practices, knowing that changing the past does not affect one's future and able to quickly compose himself after learning that the future Nebula carried a timestamp and recognize it as being caused by time-travel. He was also able to easily deduce from his knowledge of time-travel that the Avengers cannot stop what he would do in the future by defeating him in the past and their true goal was to undo what he had already did, as they can still retrieve usable duplicates of the Infinity Stones from before they were destroyed to reverse his Snap. His genius even allowed him to swiftly reverse-engineer the Pym Particles to travel to the future with help from Ebony Maw's magic, producing enough for his fleet to time-travel to the future.
*Master Martial Artist: Thanos wielded supreme fighting prowess and millennia worth of fighting experience, easily the deadliest fighter in the universe. His fighting style is brutal, relentless but extremely fluid and capable of adapting to suit the situation. He was able to easily fight off and quickly force back both Doctor Strange using a sword made of Eldritch Magic, and Drax with his knives while his right eye was blinded by a web cotton, easily fight off and swiftly pummel Spider-Man with only one hand while his other hand was restricted by the Cloak of Levitation) and easily defeat and grievously wound Iron Man (despite Iron Man's nanotech Mark L armor and sword, which he easily disarmed and used to land the severe wound), with only Doctor Strange's intervention saving Iron Man from death. Additionally, Thanos easily countered Black Panther's charge by choking him with a single hand and then pummeled him to the ground with a single punch, as well as effortlessly defeated and knocked out Captain America with a single blow. Most impressively, Thanos was even able to defeat and beat Hulk (the former undefeatable champion of the Grandmaster's Contest of Champions) to a bloody pulp with ease with well-coordinated attacks, something Iron Man could only do after a long battle and a moment of distraction, as well as defeat a fully-empowered Thor without much effort. It was only with a sneak attack that Thor, armed with Stormbreaker, was able to land a severe wound on Thanos, but even then the Mad Titan was able to quickly recover. The 2014 Thanos was able to easily repeatedly knock around Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man while also using his sword, with him not only easily downing Rogers and Stark unarmed but even overpowering Thor upon being disarmed of his sword when he was armed with Stormbreaker and soundly pummeling him. He was also able to surpass and ultimately defeat Captain Marvel and could overpower both Thor using both Mjolnir and his axe and Rogers ultimately. One should note, however, that he only beat Carol because he outsmarted her; not because he was the more skilled/powerful fighter.
*Master Swordsman: Thanos was an extremely skilled swordsman, using a double-edged sword as his main weapon with which he was able to easily fight off the combined assault of Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man, including the latter's lasers, even when powered by Thor's lightning, before being disarmed by Thor and near-entirely pressure Captain America into the defensive and soon gain the upper hand and break his shield. He was also able to use it skillfully to deflect energy projections from Scarlet Witch and nearly managed to defeat her, pushing the sword dangerously close to her neck, forcing her to use her powers to disarm him. He can throw it with dangerous accuracy, even able to achieve a boomerang-like effect, as he accurately threw it at Thor and it quickly returned to him after he missed, hit the superhumanly fast Black Panther in mid-air and even outpaced Captain Marvel to Luis's Van.
*Expert Torturer: Thanos was shown to be highly accomplished in many fields of torture, with his skills in torture being quite famous, as the Other implied Thanos can cause so much suffering to Loki that he would beg for pain itself. His mastery of torturing techniques allows him to inflict the maximum amount of damage without killing the subject, as when he tortured Nebula to make Gamora give up the location of the Soul Stone, Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to painfully pull apart Nebula's cybernetic implants, but he was casually able to avoid truly ripping the necessary implants apart in order to cause her severe pain without killing her. The torture was effective enough that Gamora fairly quickly gave in and told Thanos the location of the Soul Stone to spare Nebula from further torture.
==Equipment==
Being among the most powerful and notorious, if not, the most notorious, warlord in the galaxy, said to be the equivalent of Genghis Khan of the entire universe, Thanos had access to what was described as the greatest weaponry in the universe.
*Thanos' Armor: A golden battle suit forged from an incredibly strong metal that Thanos wore for extra protection in the battlefield. It is clearly extremely durable, as it was able to withstand what must have been extensive usage by it's master with no signs of damage, even taking blows from Thor and Hulk with no damage, the stick Thor used to attack Thanos's helmet even breaking from the impact of hitting it. He discarded it once he acquired the Space Stone but kept it and used it for the peaceful purpose of being a makeshift scarecrow after retiring. His 2014 self also wore the armor when going to the future and it proved useful to take blows from Captain America, even when he was using Mjolnir, with no damage, though he did suffer enough damage after repeated attacks that his helmet was broken, but was ultimately badly damaged by Scarlet Witch, though it remained functional enough to protect Thanos from Stormbreaker before it was ultimately destroyed when Iron Man disintegrated Thanos and his armies.
*Thanos' Sword: A double-bladed weapon that used to be Thanos' primary weapon before he acquired the Infinity Gauntlet. Capable of being used effectively by Thanos with his extreme physical power and skill, both as a melee weapon and as a throwing weapon that returned to Thanos' hands like a boomerang, it is said to have been forged out of Uru and proved to be superior to Mjolnir and at least comparable to Stormbreaker, both weapons being said to be masterpieces of the Dwarves and forged of the same metal, as it was able to effortlessly tank Iron Man's strongest armor lasers. match Stormbreaker when Thanos used it against Thor and even shatter Captain America's Vibranium shield, which Mjolnir couldn't even dent. However, it was ultimately sheared off in half by Scarlet Witch but the halves were functional enough to be used by Thanos to destroy the Quantum Tunnel, although destroying the half in process.
*Infinity Gauntlet & Infinity Stones: Six of the most powerful artifacts in the universe, the Infinity Stones were Thanos' most primary objective in his crusade to wipe out half the universe. Upon deciding to hunt the Infinity Stones himself, Thanos had the Dwarves create the Infinity Gauntlet to allow him to harness the power of the Infinity Stones, his extreme power allowing him to easily wield the Stones in the Gauntlet without strain. He likewise has proven himself to have mastered the powers of the Infinity Stones to a level beyond any previous user. Being forged of Uru allowed it to withstand having all six Stones embedded into it and Thanos ultimately succeeded in acquiring all the Stones in Infinity War and installing them inside the Infinity Gauntlet, at which point he then finally completed his goal, but severely damaging it, causing it to be quite badly burned but remained functional enough to allow him to escape and heal himself. To secure his victory, Thanos used the stones' collective power to reduce them to atoms and the Gauntlet, though surviving, was left even more heavily damaged and fused to his arm. It served no other purpose but as it has already been fused to his arm, Thanos continued to wear it, using it to pick up crops and lastly block Captain Marvel's Photon Blast before it along with his arm was cut off. The 2014 Thanos also got the chance to wield the nano-tech version of the Infinity Gauntlet made by Tony Stark temporarily, which proved to be enough to fend off Captain Marvel for a while, but before Thanos could complete his new goal to destroy and recreate the universe, Tony stole the Stones from the Gauntlet and disintegrated Thanos along with the gauntlet.
**Power Stone: The first of the Infinity Stones Thanos acquired after reigning against Xandar for access. The Stone representing the fabric of Power, it proved to be Thanos’ most frequently used, with Thanos proving himself to be a versatile user of the Stone, not only capable of projecting dangerously potent amounts of energy in the form of blasts and waves, which he can even focus to form protective force-fields and mimic telekinesis by pushing away his foes with the Stone’s energy, but even able to control the energy to enhance his strength, to the point of shattering a dimensional gateway to the Mirror Dimension, and charge and overload objects with it’s unstable energy, which he extends to being able to control the size and time of the detonation.
**Space Stone: The second of the Infinity Stones Thanos acquired after crushing the Tesseract upon Loki giving it to him. Gaining control over the fabric of space, while mainly using it to open portals to teleport from one location to another, allowing instant travel between planets without needing his ship anymore, which he also displayed the ability to precisely control the size and amount of attraction of the portals, Thanos’ mastery proved extensive enough to wield the Space Stone in combat liberally, able to skillfully generate powerful spatial pressure to crush, pull and freeze objects and even people, which was among Thanos’ most often used, and even effects such as making objects intangible, creating devastating singularities, and also manipulate the Stone’s energies to create forcefields.
**Reality Stone: The third of the Infinity Stones Thanos acquired from Knowhere after taking it from the Collector. Gaining control over the fabric of reality, Thanos proved capable of achieving esoteric effects with the Reality Stone, masterfully warping reality to mislead and disable opponents in unpredictable ways, able to create illusions and warp and transmute matter to transform the environment and even enemies weapons to his liking.
**Soul Stone: The fourth of the Infinity Stones Thanos acquired on Vormir after sacrificing Gamora. Due to its esoteric powers over the soul and cycle of life and death, it proved to be the least used Stone. Thanos only displayed the power to detect and attack souls as well as conjure a spiritual manifestation of the dead in its pocket dimension, in particular summoning Gamora’s soul that he sacrificed.
**Time Stone: The fifth of the Infinity Stones Thanos acquired from Doctor Strange. With it, Thanos was now able to bend time itself to his will, able to reverse a particular event that he witnessed, which even extended to being able to heal from fatal wounds by undoing the damage done to his body.
**Mind Stone: The last Infinity Stone Thanos acquired after killing Vision to get the Mind Stone out of his forehead, but he was never able to show his mastery of it.
==Relationships==
===Family===
====Gamora====
Thanos first met Gamora when he came to Zen-Whoberi to massacre half of the Zehoberei and seeing her bravery by shrugging off the soldier who had her captive quickly made him took a shine to her and he would gently distract her from seeing the massacre by instructing her on his views of balance and giving her a switchblade to practice balancing on before taking her in. Over time, Gamora became Thanos' most loved and favored children not only because she quickly proved herself exceedingly talented to where he considered her the most dangerous woman in the galaxy, but because he had truly came to love her as his daughter more than any of his children, to where he considered her the one worthy to inherit his throne, such that even knowing of her having actually found and destroyed the map to the Soul Stone's location, Thanos chose to let it slide and opted to make her tell him without using torture methods. Thanos evidently kept the most outlook on Gamora, being aware that she was planning on betraying him and wanted to live a better and happier life, and his care for her was such that he decided to allow her to leave his services temporarily, doing nothing to stop her despite knowing her intentions and even outright sending her to help Ronan knowing fully well she would exploit this. Even with Gamora having betrayed him, Thanos showed visible anger when Ronan alienated Gamora, who he still referred to as his favorite daughter. When they finally met as enemies, Thanos was genuinely pleased when he saw her grieve over the fact that she had killed an illusion of him and fondly admitted he always believed that despite her anger and hatred towards him, she still deep down loved him and offered to spare the Guardians if she came willingly, only restraining her when she attempted to attack him, and even after that, he chose to spare them anyway out of seeming respect for their relationship with her. He casually treated her like a guest, not only leaving her unrestrained but even offering her food and calmly reasoning with her and refusing to torture her but instead torture Nebula to get the location of the Soul Stone. He even showed a protective demeanor when he 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 and was utterly heartbroken when he realized he had to kill Gamora to gain the power of the Soul Stone, to the point where he shed tears and sincerely apologized to her, his grief and pain being sensed by Mantis despite still going through with it as he believed it was for the greater good. It was also shown by his 2014 self that Thanos' tolerance of Gamora extended to her willingness to show some defiance and concern for his goals, as he calmly assured her that he had no intentions to harm Nebula and ordered her to take her to his ship to be treated when Gamora tried to protect her and when Gamora seemed to show some doubts seeing how demoralized the Avengers were and apparent shock that he died in process, Thanos simply affectionately fondled her face to reassure her that he had succeeded in his goals.
Gamora's feelings towards Thanos are shown to be very complex as well, a mixture of bitter hatred towards him for his goals and the things she was forced to do at his command and residual love for him, as he was the only parental figure she ever had. Notably, though she made it clear she no longer saw Thanos as her father, the way she referred to him was noticeably less hate-filled than Nebula's, suggesting that apparently as she had never experienced the full brunt of Thanos' cruelty, her hatred for him was lesser than her adopted sister's, and she cried when she seemingly killed him.
====Nebula====
Thanos was known to be abusive and cruel towards Nebula, as her skills were never equal to that of Gamora's, to where he would ruthlessly and painfully alter and remove parts of her body and replace it with cybernetics to make her stronger. He also had no qualms torturing her in front of Gamora to make her confess the location of the Soul Stone. However, it is shown that Thanos does care for her to an extent, as he did reassemble her cybernetic body and when they fought, he treated her coldly but showed no inclination to kill her, simply disabling her non-lethally. When Nebula confessed that the Avengers efforts to find the Stones were futile once Thanos revealed he had destroyed them as her father was never a liar, Thanos sincerely thanked her and even showed genuine regret that he treated her too harshly. His 2014 self, even before learning of this, likewise showed he does have some love for Nebula, as when Nebula swore to make him proud, Thanos was genuinely pleased and even encouraged her to succeed and even when faced with the possibility that Nebula had betrayed him, Thanos did not immediately kill her, but instead had her brought to his ship to be examined and treated for whatever anomaly her synaptic drive was facing. When he finally heard his future self show remorse towards his treatment of Nebula and Nebula's defense of him, Thanos finally showed his more fatherly side towards her: He stopped Maw from executing Nebula and affectionately cradled her chin when she professed her loyalty to him and trusted her with the important mission to allow him and his army to go to the future and openly praised her when she succeeded. He also showed genuine concern when Nebula wasn't giving him the Stones as she had been killed by her future self.
Even though she was noticeably more open and volatile with showing her hatred towards Thanos, it was shown that Nebula, just like her sister, still had some love for him, as she was touched when Thanos showed regret over his harsh treatment of her and cried when he was killed and closed his eyes so he could rest. Likewise, it was shown that she wasn't always hateful of him, as her 2014 self worked for Thanos and remained loyal even though she had seen that she could have betrayed him and lived.
====Ebony Maw====
Ebony Maw was Thanos' most trusted lieutenant and he had a deep admiration for him and his extremist goals, speaking quite reverently of the Mad Titan as he announced their arrival on various worlds and prostrating himself deeply before Thanos when addressing him directly as well. He seemed almost sycophant but mixed with genuine loyalty to his adopted father and during the Battle of Earth's conclusion, his last act before dying was bowing to him. At the same time, Maw was also terrified of Thanos despite having never failed him to where he would sadistically torture Strange and show desperation at retrieving the Time Stone to not incur Thanos' wrath.
Thanos' feelings towards Maw seemed mixed: He clearly respected him for his competence, but showed disdain towards Maw's more sycophant behavior. Nevertheless, he seemed to have some genuine care for Maw, as when he figured out Maw had been killed, Thanos considered his death along with his sacrifice of Gamora as a heavy toll.
===Enemies===
====Former Allies====
=====Ronan=====
Although Ronan was one of Thanos' allies, he and Thanos' relationship was never based on mutual respect or concern, instead being a mutually tense and uneasy relationship, Ronan fearing Thanos' power and wrath and Thanos being distasteful of Ronan’s genocidal and zealot obsession with destroying Xandar.
Being far more powerful than Ronan, which both of them knew very well, Thanos never treated Ronan formally, constantly showing a condescending and controlling demeanor to where he made no attempt to hide the fact that he could and would not hesitate to kill Ronan not only if he betrayed him but even if he only failed and disapproved against him, as shown by him having no qualms sending Gamora and Nebula to watch over Ronan despite knowing his discomfort with it and even outright stated that he would not hesitate to kill Ronan himself if he dared protest and later on furiously dismissing Ronan as foolish, notably referring to him derogatorily by boy, when he protested Thanos’ apparent lack of concern for the setback of Gamora’s betrayal and proceeding to make it clear that if Ronan failed again, he would bathe the starways in Ronan’s blood. Even when Ronan overcame his fear of Thanos with the Power Stone and vowed to kill him next after he destroyed Xandar, Thanos showed no fear of Ronan, still believing himself much more powerful than the Kree correctly, and simply cut off contact with him.
Ironically enough, although Ronan was killed by the Guardians of the Galaxy before he could destroy Xandar, Thanos himself would later indeed attack Xandar but only for the Power Stone and he only decimated the planet instead of destroying it and killed half and not all of the Xandarians, indicating that even had Ronan actually lived up to his bargain, Thanos would still choose to stick to his usual balancing methods and only kill half of the Xandarians.
====Loki====
Thanos saved Loki when he arrived on his domain and trained him how to wield the Mind Stone and also how to use the Space Stone to invade Earth in order to retrieve the Infinity Stone. However, like Ronan, though to a lesser extent, Thanos never really got along with Loki, holding his selfish and greedy ambitions in contempt and not hesitating to threaten him an extremely painful death, while Loki himself feared Thanos’ wrath and power.
When he and Loki finally met for the last time, Thanos displayed openly his disgust and contempt of Loki, being visibly disgusted when Loki seemed willing to allow Thor to die in order to keep the Space Stone to himself and later on shoving the fact that Loki had failed him before easily stopping his attempt to kill him and proceeding to ruthlessly snap his neck, but not before once again expressing his disgust of Loki's power-thinking tendencies by giving a clear look of cold disapproval when Loki defiantly proclaimed Thanos would never be a god.
====Avengers and Guardians of Galaxy====
The Avengers and the Guardians of Galaxy are without a doubt Thanos’ greatest enemies and Thanos theirs in his own right. He first came into conflict with the Avengers when he sent Loki to Earth only to fail to retrieve the Space Stone due to them, which intrigued Thanos enough to do research on them. He seemed to have a mixture of respect and annoyance for them for their defiance of him, referring to them as unruly wretches that indicated both dislike of their thwarting of his attack on Earth and respect for their capabilities. Due to Thanos' genius and lack of personal assault on the Avengers, he was able to effectively prevent them from learning of his identity until it was too late. The Guardians, meanwhile, had a much more personal history with Thanos and were aware of him from the start: Rocket was afraid of Thanos while Gamora and Drax hated/opposed him for personal reasons, only Peter didn't seem to know and have any personal feelings towards Thanos from the start.
When Thanos finally started the Infinity War, they were the main forces who opposed his hunt for the Infinity Stones. Despite this, Thanos showed genuine respect of their spirit and capabilities that seemed to border on fondness, having no reservations complimenting them for any impressive success they were able to achieve against him, and avoided killing them when it wasn't necessary. He also not only didn't use the Infinity Gauntlet to just wipe the Avengers and Guardians out when he finally completed his goals and wiped out half of all life, the Avengers and Guardians killed being done in as random and dispassionate as his other victims, but despite predicting that they will eventually find and execute him, Thanos did not bother to built any defenses nor did he put up any struggle when they came to do so, simply and non-hostilely telling them that they would not be able to undo the Snap as he had destroyed the Infinity Stones and accepting his fate with dignity, possibly seeing their desire for vengeance as just. Meanwhile, Thanos' deeds instantly made him their most personal enemy, bringing out from them a dark, desperate and traumatizing new age especially as he was the only one to ever defeat them truly and completely.
However, the 2014 Thanos, after seeing how persistent the Avengers and Guardians were by even bending space and time to be able to undo his goals, came to resent them for their persistence in stopping him, going as far as to gloat and show pleasure in the prospect of destroying them once and for all. The Avengers and Guardians were more than happy to kill his 2014 self in return.
=====Iron Man=====
The man who contributed the most to thwarting his first assault on Earth, Thanos researched him along with the other Avengers and grew a special interest for him, seeing the man as being just as "cursed with knowledge" as him, respecting his awareness of an impending doom just like how he had foreseen the fall of Titan. When they finally fought, Thanos was impressed by Tony's determination and ability to injure him and acknowledged Tony had earned his respect and as he finally defeated him, he gently laid him down and was even willing to use all four Infinity Stones to execute him to show his respect for the man and when Doctor Strange gives the Time Stone in exchange for sparing Tony's life, he accepted the deal and left Tony alive. However, his 2014 self showed no such respect towards Tony, clearly knowing it was him who made the Time Heist possible, and was more than willing to kill him, though when Tony ultimately ended up killing him, he seemed to respect the man enough to acknowledge he had been defeated.
Tony meanwhile had always subconsciously feared that Thanos, as the one who made Loki's attack possible, would come to Earth himself, which left him with PTSD, and once Thanos revealed himself, he quickly became Tony's archenemy to where Tony showed a completely serious demeanor when dealing with him and wanted to defeat him to finally overcome his demons. Alas, this ended up failing miserably and Tony would instead cause Thanos to succeed as Thanos proved himself too powerful to be defeated by their side. Afterwards, Tony was so traumatized that he refused to get involved with fighting Thanos anymore. Years later, however, Tony finally showed he had learned his lesson and tempered his hatred towards the Mad Titan, to where he could mock Thanos in the face and simply gave Thanos a furious glare as Thanos revealed his true goals instead of charging blindly at the Mad Titan. This difference in demeanor ultimately allowed Tony to defeat Thanos: no longer counting on overpowering him, Tony used his intellect to steal the Infinity Stones from Thanos, counting on Thanos' newfound bloodlust and arrogance to impede his intelligence to allow the less cunning Tony to ultimately defeat him.
=====Captain America=====
Thanos and Captain America had little interaction in both times they came into conflict, though he along with Iron Man and Thor were the only ones to personally confront him. Thanos seemed to have some respect towards Captain America for his bravery, as he clearly looked impressed when he managed to briefly stop his gauntlet coated fist. His 2014 self showed complete dismissal of Captain America's clear disgust with his goals but appeared to show him more respect as Captain America fought him better than Thor and Iron Man with Mjolnir, choosing to take off his helmet and even summoning his army, despite being proven capable of killing Rogers himself before he even knew reinforcements would arrive seemingly to give Rogers a twisted chance to die an honorable death. As he was finally defeated, he looked at Captain America as if acknowledging him as the leader of the forces that opposed him and that the battle was his victory.
Unlike the other Avengers, Captain America seemed to be the most neutral in regards to opposing Thanos: He showed none of the fear and apprehension his fellow Avengers had towards him, proving his indomitable bravery, and simply acknowledged him when he arrived on Wakanda and proved to be the most stubborn threat out of the present Avengers, managing to temporarily hold him off, earning him clear respect from Thanos. Unfortunately, Captain America's efforts were in vain and he was defeated by Thanos quickly and unable to stop him from completing his goals. Even so, despite being one of the most haunted members of the Avengers over what Thanos did, Rogers remained the one who seemed to have the least amount of contempt and disdain for him: he showed no actual rage towards Thanos directly even as the 2014 self announced his true goals, maintaining a cool demeanor and simply pointedly reminding Thanos how his universe would be born out of blood, and when Thanos died, Rogers didn't seem particularly pleased to see the once great enemy of the Avengers die, looking melancholic and almost pitying towards the Mad Titan. This may be as he knew Thanos may very well be the last enemy he would ever fight and took no pleasure in dispatching him, knowing what was ahead of him would be an era of peace.
=====Thor=====
Easily, the Avenger who hated Thanos the most was Thor, as Thanos had not only defeated him before, but had also killed Heimdall, Loki and half of his people. His hatred was such that he wanted to not only kill the Mad Titan, but also torture him to death, which ironically lead to Thanos succeeding in his goals, causing Thor's rage and hatred to escalate even further, especially when it was revealed that Thanos had destroyed the Stones, leaving no chance of undoing what he had done and forcing Thor to forever live with his failure. This led to Thor killing Thanos but that brought him no peace and he would spend the resulting five years drinking himself bitterly, becoming out of shape and not looking after his people. He was able to snap out of it, however, after getting counsel from a past version of his mother Frigga, and when he confronted Thanos, he still raged at Thanos whenever he could but kept a calm demeanor and composure. Learning from his past mistake, Thor decisively tried to kill him and end his threat as quickly as possible, but due to his weakened state, he was no longer a threat to Thanos.
Thanos himself seemed to have literately no respect for Thor. He was unfazed by his threat to kill him and when Thor had the chance to kill him and claim victory for his allies but selfishly squandered that to gloat at him, Thanos's lack of respect for Thor was exacerbated even further, with him mocking Thor for aiming for his head before he snapped his fingers and leaving him with a mocking smirk. The 2014 Thanos later sadistically tried to kill Thor with Stormbreaker, though when Thor managed to temporarily corner him, he took him seriously to turn the tides, showing he still considered Thor a threat.
==Minions of Thanos==
===Agents===
*The Other
**Chitauri
***Leviathans
***Chitauri Gorillas
*Loki Laufeyson
*Ronan The Accuser
**Korath the Pursuer
**Sakaaran Mercenaries
*Black Order
**Ebony Maw
**Cull Obsidian
**Proxima Midnight
**Corvus Glaive
**Gamora
**Nebula
*Outriders
*Sakaaran Mercenaries
===Position===
*Emissary
**Alien Army
***Monster Army
***Monster Army
*Agent
*Agent
**Agent
**Alien Army
*Team
**Herald/Second-in-Command
**High-Ranking Member
**High-Ranking Member
**High-Ranking Member
**Assassin
**Assassin
*Alien Army
*Alien Army
===Status===
*Deceased
**Deceased
***Deceased
***Deceased
*Defected/Deceased (Defected/Alive (2012))
*Defected/Deceased
**Defected/Deceased
**Defected/Deceased
*Deceased
**Deceased
**Deceased
**Deceased
**Deceased
**Defected/Deceased (Defected/Alive (2014))
**Defected/Alive (Deceased (2014))
*Deceased
*Deceased
==Victims==
Victims killed by Thanos
*Dwarves (except for Eitri)
*Roscoe
*Heimdall
*Loki Laufeyson
*Gamora
*Vision
====Snap (revived by Hulk)====
*Avengers
**Spider-Man
**Scarlet Witch
**Falcon
*Masters of the Mystic Arts
**Doctor Strange
*S.H.I.E.L.D.
**Nick Fury
**Maria Hill
*Guardians of the Galaxy
**Star-Lord
**Drax the Destroyer
**Groot
**Mantis
*Wakanda
**Black Panther
**Shuri
**Winter Soldier
**Numerous Dora Milaje Warriors
**Numerous Jabari Tribe Warriors
**Numerous Border Tribe Warriors
**Numerous Wakandan Royal Guards
*Half of the universe's population
**Betty Ross
**Thaddeus Ross
**Erik Selvig
**Jane Foster
**Lady Sif
**Loki Actor
**Galaga Guy
**Hank Pym
**Janet Van Dyne
**Wasp
**Laura Barton
**Cooper Barton
**Lila Barton
**Nathaniel Barton
**Ned Leeds
**Michelle Jones
**Flash Thompson
**Betty Brant
**Jason Ionello
**Sue Lorman
**Andre Wilson
**May Parker
**Monica Rambeau
**Wilfred Nagel
**Yelena Belova
**Nicodemus West
**Isaiah Sorenson
**Cammie Conroy
**David Jerome
**Elijah Cortez
**Karen Oggerton
**Billy Peskers
**Hiro Kajimoto
**Erika Denton
**Mary Livanos
**Phillip Carroway
**Big Harv
**Isaiah Sorenson's Pet Cat
**Phillip Carroway's Wife
**Karen Oggerton's Patient
**Jenae Jazrem's Husband
**Theo Boskowtiz's Father
**Roberto da Costa
===Indirectly===
*Half of the Zehoberei
**Gamora's family
*Half of the Luphomoids
**Nebula's family
*Drax's family
*Half of the Xandarians
**Nova Corps
***Nova Prime Irani Rael (presumed)
***Rhomann Dey (presumed)
***Nova Prime's Assistant (presumed)
*Half of the Asgardians
*Iron Man (sacrificed himself to kill Thanos)
==Quotes==
===Guardians of the Galaxy===
===Avengers Age of Ultron===
===Avengers Infinity War===
===Avengers Endgame===
==Other Appearances==
===Fortnite===
Thanos appears in the 2017 free-to-play game, Fortnite, where players get to play Thanos by obtaining the Infinity Gauntlet. He was first released back in 2018 as an event exclusive promote Avengers: Infinity War then later re-released in 2019 to promote Avengers: Endgame, along with a couple of new content in a patch.
Any of the players can become Thanos by picking up the Infinity Gauntlet and stay as him until victory or death upon which a different player can pick up the Gauntlet to become Thanos.
==Trivia==
*Thanos was originally much less of an openly malevolent villain than his comic book counterpart but in Endgame he began to display a personality much more akin to that of the comic book Thanos, including sadism and a desire to end the universe entirely after seeing that his ideal method to fix the universe would be rejected no matter how hard he tried - thus abandoning his previous ideals of "fairness" in regards to how he killed. There are contracting differences between the present and the past Thanos:
**Present Thanos was honorable, sympathetic and respectful of his enemies (mostly Star Lord, Iron Man, and Scarlet Witch), the past Thanos was more arrogant and disrespectful of them. However, it's unclear if Thanos's apparent affability was genuine or a front he maintained while he felt he was in control of the situation.
**2018 Thanos relied on the Infinity Stones to fight his opponents, while the 2014 one fought with raw skills and weapons.
**The present Thanos didn't take anything personally and insisted that his genocide was fair and random, while 2014 Thanos admitted that razing Earth for its defiance would bring him joy, unlike every other conquest.
*According to producer Kevin Feige, Infinity War would explore Thanos' plans and motives, even saying "you could go as far as to say he's the main character". In other words, Thanos would be both the film's Big Bad and Villain Protagonist.
*In the comics, Thanos was the master of the Infinity Gauntlet, which he used in the eponymous series in an attempt to court Death. He has no relationships with Loki nor the Chitauri, but he is nevertheless one of the Avengers' most historical foes. When he took a break from being a conqueror, Thanos was entrusted with the Reality Gem of the Infinity Gems.
**In the Amalgam Comics imprint, Loki's counterpart, L'ok D'saad served Thanos' counterpart, Thanoseid.
*The name "Thanos" is based on the name of the mythological Greek figure Thanatos, meaning "death", a reference to his obsession with Death.
*Thanos is clearly the Bigger Bad of the first half of the Avengers film series, as he is the one responsible for providing Loki with the Mind Stone and an army to invade Earth in the first film, and that the Mind Stone is what gave Ultron free will to rebel against the Avengers in the second film.
*Thanos is the only villain who has interacted with every major hero in the franchise; as he was responsible for the events depicted in The Avengers (which featured all the major heroes of Phase One) and is the mastermind behind Guardians of the Galaxy before going on to proceed in meeting them all in Infinity War.
*In Thor, which was released a year before The Avengers, the Infinity Gauntlet makes a cameo in Odin's vault. This one was for the right hand, but the one seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron was for the left hand. Producer Kevin Feige confirmed after the movie's release that there were two, and the one Thanos has is not the one from Thor.
**However, in Thor: Ragnarok, the Infinity Gauntlet in Odin's Vault was retconned to be a fake replica by Hela, Odin's firstborn daughter when she was walking through the vault, meaning that there truly is only one Infinity Gauntlet.
*The involvement of Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy was largely influenced by The Avengers director Joss Whedon; the early script by Nicole Perlman had Thanos appear as the Guardians' primary foe, but Whedon was convinced that he should be downsized. In addition, Whedon says that it was his idea to include him in The Avengers, but found him the most difficult character to write, ironically. He also helped Guardians of the Galaxy writer and director James Gunn cast Josh Brolin as the character.
*Josh Brolin based his portrayal of Thanos on the performance of Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now.
*The armor that Thanos wore in Guardians of the Galaxy and Age of Ultron looks a lot like the armor of his comic book counterpart. As of Infinity War, he wears a different armor that he mainly uses for combat.
*Thanos appeared in a drawing by Thor in the non-canon web series Team Thor, which serves as a cross-promotion for Thor: Ragnarok, on a wall of pictures and information in an attempt to deduce who "the man in the purple chair" is, noting that he's "big", he's purple, and "he doesn't like standing up".
*At 29 minutes, Thanos has the most amount of screen time of any character in Avengers: Infinity War, beating Gamora (19 minutes), Iron Man (18 minutes), and Thor (14 minutes).
*In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos massacres half of the Zenhoberi race and states they are now filled with "children that see clear skies with full bellies". However, in Guardians of the Galaxy, Gamora's rap sheet states she is the last remaining member of her people. When the Russo brothers were asked about this during a Q&A, they only asked in return whether you believe Gamora or Thanos, implying one of them is not telling the truth.
**Though it is possible that the rest of the Zenhoberi died after Thanos visited the planet.
*In 2019, to celebrate the release of Avengers: Endgame, Google implemented an Easter egg where, if Thanos was searched, users could click on an icon of the Infinity Gauntlet and make half of the search results vanish into dust. Clicking the Gauntlet again resulted in it using the Time Stone to bring all of the lost results back.
*Various promotional and conceptual artwork, as well as merchandises, depict Thanos with his original Infinity Gauntlet in Avengers: Endgame, despite not actually wearing it in said movie as it was damaged and left on Titan II.
**He does wear the Iron Gauntlet that was crafted by Iron Man, however, albeit for a short amount of time.
*Marvel Studios did a cross-promotion with the video game Fortnite, resulting in Thanos appearing as a playable character in the game. In Avengers: Endgame, Thor, Korg, and Miek play Fortnite.
*Thanos being beheaded by Thor is a reference to the recent death of Thanos in comics when Gamora beheaded Thanos in Infinity Wars Prime #1.
*Thanos being Iron Man's personal archenemy in the MCU lies on Thanos' original appearance as an Iron Man villain back in 1973.
*Thanos is also the derivation of a Abelisaurid dinosaur genus Thanos simonattoi described in 2018.
*Thanos is 8 feet tall, making him significantly larger than his comic book counterpart at 6'7.
*Thanos shares some similarities to Ego; They are both the last of their kind from powerful beings, sought after infinite power and ready to use their own children, and to sacrifice those they loved most to achieve their goals even if it hurts them. However, Ego's goal was motivated by his narcissism by assimilating all the universe while Thanos' goal was much more altruist, driven by his desire to save the Universe from overpopulation. While Ego hides his monstrous personality and intentions behind a cheerful façade, Thanos is genuinely polite and he says openly his acts are ruthless but necessary. Ego is gregarious while Thanos is more reserved. Thanos for all his faults has a sense of honor and respect for his enemies if they really impress him, while Ego saw all the other forms of life as under him, even his own son Peter being ultimately only a means to his end.
**Coincidentally, Thanos' 2014 plan in Avengers: Endgame to wipe out all life in the universe after realizing that his belief about killing only half to allow the survivors to thrive without the danger of overpopulation was wrong is fairly similar to what Ego's Expansion would have consisted of. However, the big difference is Thanos planned to rebuilt an universe teeming with independent life while Ego' potentials lives would just be extensions of himself.
*Thanos died twice in the same movie. He is also one of the many villains to be killed by the power he sought, the power he sought being the Infinity Stones in Avengers: Endgame.
*Thanos is a dark reflection of Iron Man as both see the end goal and willingly do anything for what they perceive is for the greater good supported from the fact Tony is the first hero of the franchise while Thanos is the main antagonist of the MCU's Infinity Saga. They are further entwined by: both using technology in battle, being the father figure for their respective sides especially for Spider-Man/Gamora, and Tony is also the only character that Thanos addresses by name seeing "Stark" as another individual who is "burdened by knowledge" and therefore he respects him. The only difference between them is that Tony continues to learn from each mistake he made while Thanos is unwaveringly committed to his cause and only vaguely regrets his decision after he's lost everything like sacrificing half of all life in the universe and Gamora. Avengers: Endgame hammers the point home as not only do both Tony and Thanos exploit Time Travel to ensure victory, but Tony actually gives Thanos a taste of his own medicine and uses the Nano Gauntlet (just like Thanos did with the original Infinity Gauntlet) to wipe the latter from existence along with all of his forces. This of course serves as laser-guided karma for Thanos’ actions in the previous movie. According to director Joe Russo, he states that they're connected symbolically and that they're futurists.
*Avengers Endgame was originally meant to feature a scene where Thanos travels through time and kills the 2014 Avengers before using Captain America's severed head to taunt the 2023 Avengers. However, the scene was cut due to it's gruesome nature.
*Many Internet memes have joked about Thanos' appearance, given the fact that his appearance (or at least his face) is somewhat similar to that of a grape.
==External Links==
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