It was retconned that Mentor and people of Titan were actually Eternals and his brother was their leader Zuras (father of Thena, who was played by Angelina Jolie), not the god Zeus. Back in history, the Eternals had made a deal with the Greek gods that they could impersonate them which is why so many of the names are similar.
As retcons go, that's a fairly minor one and does a good explaining why Titans are deities. I do wonder why Uranos wasn't made Thanos' grandpa instead of uncle. Just say he's the father of Mentor's wife.
Oh, a look at the comic history of Thanos? Now this is a surprise. Looking forward to see how this plays out. The first I ever heard of Thanos was in the Capcom video game Marvel Super Heroes, loosely based on the Infinity War story where Thanos was the final boss. I hadn’t heard much of Thanos since then but he has made an impression on me. Then cue the 2012 MCU Avengers movie where I was one of those that geeked out upon seeing Thanos in the end credits and realizing what was to come.
I learned about him from the Silver Surfer animated series, which is pretty rad, but at the time it was pretty boring. Lil too cerebral for me. Also where I first saw Adam Warlock, and quite possibly where he got his coolest design.
I've read the Carol Danvers Captain Marvel and this run is almost the polar opposite of this run. No attempt to build a rogue's gallery, Carol constantly gets power-ups rather than character moments, and fights are always resolved by Danvers one-shoting them.
"Even the man who created _Howard the Duck_ thought Madame McEvil was too stupid of a name to use." That is kind of hilarious, in a pity laughter sort of way.
I wasn’t that bothered by itsince tessaract is just another name for a 4D cube. And the idea the power cosmic being 4 dimensional was fine with me. It always bothered me more that they got the colors of the infinity stones wrong. And now they’ve gone more than too far into the silliness.
Honestly, seeing these vids makes me wish SFdebris would cover the recent guardians of the galaxy game it s so damn good and filled with callbacks to the early versions of the characters.
a good comic book game is a rarity, hell these days a comic book game at all is unheard of except that one giant AAA spider-man game, and the odd fighting game. why haven't I heard of this? it should be big-ass news.
@@KairuHakubi oh, because it came from the same publisher as the craptastic live service avengers game right after avengers had almost no marketing and what little marketing was there was absolutely garbage and completely mis-sold what the game is like. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (the full game title) is an awesome action RPG-lite think a more linear and focused mass effect, with absolutely great writing, going deep into marvel cosmic lore and featuring what many (me included) now consider the DEFINITIVE version of the guardians of the galaxy. You play exclusively as Starlord/Peter Quill, who is an amalgamation of the classic and MCU version (similar things being done for most of the cast) but you give commands in battle to the rest of the guardians and to solve puzzles in the environment. there are dialog choices which do have (usually minor consequences, with some very good notable exceptions) and just generally great writing and character chemistry. Also a kickass soundtrack filled with 80 and 90s classic rock, as well its own original rock album from a fictional starlord band (look it up, the songs from it are great) If it sounds like I am trying to sell the game its because I am... thanks to the crap marketing and the indirect association with Avengers and the MCU, game sold like crap and Square considered it a failure, which is completely unfair with how good the game really is.
@cyberninjazero5659 Ewing? The guy who had Thanos saying he loves nothingness and fight the Ultinates instead of teaming up with them against the First Firmament? Thanos was supposed to have stopped being a villain after Infinity Gauntlet.
maybe that was taken somehow the worst part to me, is that comics use all-caps fonts, so you lose that slightly cool aspect of Mac names where you get a capital letter in the middle of a name.
19:07 😂 oh god, she's even wearing the typical evil costume. Why do they always have the popped collars that are way too high and is little more than a runway fashion bikini? I like her earrings though.
I think that was just in Spidey Super Stories, the co-production with Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) show The Electric Company (not to be confused by the namesake show by the same company in 2009). It was a comic that featured characters from the show's skits alongside Spider-Man as Spider-Man was appearing in that show. In other words fun as it is I don't think it's canon. Now Squirrel Girl beating Thanos with nothing more than a group of squirrels...that's totally canon! Uatu himself confirmed it.
Thanos pining after a girl who has no interest in him is so much better than Thanos who doesn't understand economies of scale because he was written by socialists who refute economies of scale as "capitalist lies"
why doesn't this post have more upvotes i need at least six or seven more upvotes on this Hell nevermind the idiocy of modern hollywood, _he has a spaceship._ anyone capable of interstellar travel is _definitely beyond worrying about resource limitations._
She doesn't have "no interest" in him. I'm tired of this misreading. She's a cosmic entity she choses where and when she manifests there's a reason she's always hanging around Thanos. Which ultimately comes to a head in the Annihilation Saga where she talks to him and they kiss.
One thing that I want to note about the "Thanos/Death" relationship is that it isn't as completely one-sided as appearances might suggest especially this early on. Recall that Death is the literal embodiment of Death and a cosmic entity she choses where and when to manifest if at all. We are never given the indication that she is somehow held hostage or otherwise forced to manifest at Thanos side. It's a subtle element of reciprocity that no-one brings up about their relationship in favor of making the same tired jokes about Thanos simping, of course the relationship isn't entirely positive Death does laugh at his failure here after all, but as we see later on she doesn't discard him and toss him aside for it, he continues to be her agent
I remember after seeing the Thanos revel in the 1st Avengers movie came out, I was intrigued. I was aware of the character but only that he was a final boss in one arcade fighting game and that he was inspired from characters of Jack Kirby's Fourth World; but having I grown up loving the Fourth World stuff, first introduced to me through the DCAU and later from collected editions of New Gods and the Forever People, so hearing that this was basically Marvel's equivalent to that (along with the Eternals) so I was compelled to look into it (in addition to the fact that deities are my favorite fantasy/scifi/mythical creatures so I'm always eager to read more such stuff; hell its partly why Thor is my favorite Marvel superhero lol) So to my luck, in the same store where I found a collection of Jack Kirby's Eternals run, I found the books Thanos vs the Avengers, a collection of the storylines before the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, and also Infinity Gauntlet itself. I read both of those books in single summer day and by the end Thanos had became my favorite Marvel supervillain and contends with Lex Luthor and Darkseid for the spot of my favorite Supervillain period. So yeah look really forward to this series! So thank you and hope you are doing well!
It's still incredibly odd to me that *Thanos* of all characters made the leap to the big screen. As a kid, I kind of just saw Thanos as being the big bad of the Infinity Gauntlet mini series which... As a kid I thought was utter garbage (No disrespect to Jim Starlin, but it felt like he was spinning his wheels). Thanos was no Doctor Doom or Galactus. Hell, he wasn't even Doc Ock. He was so D List in my eyes that I kind of just shook my head. So the idea that he became one of the single most successful supervillain characters in movie history is STILL utterly baffling to me. I never bought it in the comics.
Thanos’ psychology is so well studied and developed by Starlin that it would take, I think, a proper psychology treatise to explain it. The nihilistic period (“I’m gonna kill all life to make Death love me”) ends after the Infinity Gauntlet saga; after that, it gets very complicated. The first thing to consider is that Thanos has always been extremely intelligent since he was a child. Born suffering the deviant syndrome, he has always been very different from the other Eternals, stronger, smarter and all alone. In those years those philosophical questions about the nature of reality began to arise in his mind which, in different measures, are basically present in all of us, and while thinking about it in an almost maniacal way, Thanos came to the conclusion that life, in its diversity and complexity, was essentially CHAOS. And it was that chaos that kept him from finding his answers and his place in the grand scheme. He began to hate the concept of life and fell in love with death. But it was only the first step in his evolution, the personality of Thanos could be defined as a "religious" type, he feels the action of forces beyond his control, forces that determine the course of his life and his destiny (his parents and to climb Kronos, Chaos and Order, Eternity, The Living Tribunal and ultimately God himself or as Marvel call Him: The One Above All) and it doesn't suit him, he wants to be free, he wants to be the master of his fate, he wants control, he wants freedom! And the only way to be free is by becoming omnipotent, to overcome those entities that determine everything or (its first solution) to destroy all life, since these cosmic entities act on life and by destroying it he could escape their influence making them impotents. The solution of everything in the annihilation of all life forms is an initial position on this path of his, for the realization of which Thanos has begun to accumulate knowledge of all kinds for centuries. Did you read that? I wrote knowledge, not power. Because that’s what Thanos truly values. THANOS FOLLOWS KNOWLEDGE, in all its forms, from genetics to engineering, from philosophy to arcane arts, etc... . everything. KNOWLEDGE IN ITSELF IS POWER. Or as Thanos himself once told Tyrant “knowledge is power and Thanos of Titan did not stop accumulate power yet”. Even the secret of the Infinity Gems was first discovered by Thanos by spending a lot of time contemplating the INFINITY WELL, a source of knowledge in the dimension of Death, and that way he was able to learn things that were hidden even to Eternity itself. In essence, THANOS THINKS. Always thinks, continuously, possibilities about possibilities, scenarios, hypotheses, schemes, experiments, projects.... Which, combined with the knowledge acquired from otherworldly and omnipotent experiences, places him on a purely cultural level above anyone else in the Marvel Universe. In fact Thanos treats basically all Marvel characters as morons, but not only from a power level’s point of view, but from a verbal/ideological point of view, no one is able to compete with Thanos in a "purely verbal" challenge, neither Thor, nor Silver Surfer, not even Reed Richards or Doctor Doom.... Thanos is always 3 steps ahead of everyone, that's why he is an unparalleled strategist (league above Doom... Doom is always defeated by Mister Fantastic, Thanos has come to conquer Eternity more than once. Doom wants the power of the Beyonder, Thanos did not care for the power of the Cosmic Egg, a construct created by the Goddess using 30 cosmic cubes put together. Doom failed to eliminate Akhenaten, Thanos managed to totally fool him and gains the power of the Heart of the Universe for himself). The only Marvel character that can match Thanos in a verbal and philosophical debate is Adam Warlock because the two went through a similar journey and share a similar knowledge about the true nature of the cosmos. All the other Marvel characters next to Thanos come out as nothing but uneducated simpletons. It’s not a matter of power, it’s a matter of knowledge and logic. Thanos arguing with the other Marvel characters is like watching Nikola Tesla trying to explain engineering and physics to a 5 year old child. So far more complex and culturally superior Thanos is compared to the other Marvel characters. The complexity of Thanos is then clearly seen when he actually reaches Omnipotence. Because there is also a part of him that hates himself, that does not consider himself worthy of divinity and true freedom, and it is in fact always Thanos himself who unconsciously lays the foundations for his own defeat. The only one who can keep up with him, as I said, is Adam Warlock, who shared a similar path (loneliness, philosophical questions, etc.) albeit with different solutions. And he is also the only one who has shared experiences of divinity and omnipotence and therefore has a grasp and understanding of reality similar to his own. Adam understand aspects of Thanos that are not clear even to Thanos himself and that is why he is the only one to stand up to him, to surprise him and put him in difficulty in discussions of a purely intellectual nature. And that’s why over times Adam is the only one that not only Thanos considers his equal but also his only friend. Thanos talks about Warlock in a way that he doesn't talk about anyone else. Even Gamora, who, is the first and one of the few beings that Thanos learned to sincerely love (like a daughter of course). So Thanos’ journey for greater power is much more than just a fanboy putting a character on a pedestal at the expense of other popular characters (like say: Jason Aaron writing Jane Foster ). It’s a deep and fascinating journey of a man (because like all Marvel and fictional characters Thanos is a metaphor for humanity in the end) that seeks to be free from the forces that control its life and its fate. Thanos is a metaphor for all those men costantly struggling against the system, against a life and a universe that is not going the way they’d like. I always thought of Thanos as Marvel’s equivalent of Lucifer Morningstar (Neil Gaiman and Mike Carey's version of course): not just because they’re both OP but because, at heart, they are both the ultimate rebels. They follow the ideal of John Milton’s Fallen Angel. An angel who lost Heaven because he questioned the AlMighty. And he is now forced to walk a path of insecurities, in search for answers. He is “a puppet that can see the strings”. Yes, just like Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan. But while Manhattan’s response to that knowledge was to isolate himself from all humanity and to become a heartless nihilist void of emotions, so that he did not have to suffer, Thanos’ response was to rebel against the system and to try to change it, at least for himself. That makes Thanos so much more than just a villain. He is his own tragic hero, the hero of his story that we read. A modern Ulysses or a modern Prometheus that pursues a knowledge that is forbidden to mere mortals and thus he’s doomed to fail because that’s what always happens at the end of the greek tragedy: mortals who challange the gods or fate itslef fails and get punished. Always. If that doesn’t make Thanos the most fascinating Marvel character ever created, I don’t know what else would.
Is there a reading order you found for these comics that lead into “Infinity Gauntlet”? Or did you research and ask Marvel historians etc. I’m asking because I would like to read these comics myself in this order
I thought that was the Ultimate Nullifier. Did he have to threaten Galactus more than once? If so, that's pretty impressive for a guy whose main power is stretching.
I don't understand what the point of the infinity gauntlet is if the cosmic cube is just as powerful and is so easy to make that AIM made one on aN earth Lab
If I remember correctly, while impressive it ain't as powerful as the Gauntlet with all the stones, especially when Thanos beats all the cosmic big guys and even when he takes one of their place, the Gauntlet is still shown to be more powerful when Nebula uses it.
Even UA-cam auto captions can't believe "Madame McEvil" is a real name it goes with "Madame McIver"
Madame Madeleine Mclver McEvil.
Look at these comic covers from the 70s. Man they are just awesome
It was retconned that Mentor and people of Titan were actually Eternals and his brother was their leader Zuras (father of Thena, who was played by Angelina Jolie), not the god Zeus. Back in history, the Eternals had made a deal with the Greek gods that they could impersonate them which is why so many of the names are similar.
As retcons go, that's a fairly minor one and does a good explaining why Titans are deities. I do wonder why Uranos wasn't made Thanos' grandpa instead of uncle. Just say he's the father of Mentor's wife.
Oh, a look at the comic history of Thanos? Now this is a surprise. Looking forward to see how this plays out.
The first I ever heard of Thanos was in the Capcom video game Marvel Super Heroes, loosely based on the Infinity War story where Thanos was the final boss. I hadn’t heard much of Thanos since then but he has made an impression on me.
Then cue the 2012 MCU Avengers movie where I was one of those that geeked out upon seeing Thanos in the end credits and realizing what was to come.
Man. I got to see it in a packed theater a week early. People lost their fucking minds.
I learned about him from the Silver Surfer animated series, which is pretty rad, but at the time it was pretty boring. Lil too cerebral for me. Also where I first saw Adam Warlock, and quite possibly where he got his coolest design.
I've read the Carol Danvers Captain Marvel and this run is almost the polar opposite of this run. No attempt to build a rogue's gallery, Carol constantly gets power-ups rather than character moments, and fights are always resolved by Danvers one-shoting them.
I thought as much
So One Punch Man without the humor?
Marvel comics had alot going for them between the 1970's and the 1990's.
Why do I get the feeling this is based purely in fantasy?
"Even the man who created _Howard the Duck_ thought Madame McEvil was too stupid of a name to use."
That is kind of hilarious, in a pity laughter sort of way.
"Madam McEvil" is about as serious a villain name as Dr. Evil, and Dr. Evil was a comedy villain.
Didn't we think the tessaraxt was the cosimc cube originally, renamed because film people hate comic silliness.
I wasn’t that bothered by itsince tessaract is just another name for a 4D cube. And the idea the power cosmic being 4 dimensional was fine with me. It always bothered me more that they got the colors of the infinity stones wrong.
And now they’ve gone more than too far into the silliness.
oh boy a comic history on thanos awesome
Madame MacEvil definitely sounds like a computer came up with it.
Honestly, seeing these vids makes me wish SFdebris would cover the recent guardians of the galaxy game
it s so damn good and filled with callbacks to the early versions of the characters.
a good comic book game is a rarity, hell these days a comic book game at all is unheard of except that one giant AAA spider-man game, and the odd fighting game. why haven't I heard of this? it should be big-ass news.
@@KairuHakubi oh, because it came from the same publisher as the craptastic live service avengers game
right after avengers
had almost no marketing
and what little marketing was there was absolutely garbage and completely mis-sold what the game is like.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (the full game title) is an awesome action RPG-lite
think a more linear and focused mass effect, with absolutely great writing, going deep into marvel cosmic lore and featuring what many (me included) now consider the DEFINITIVE version of the guardians of the galaxy.
You play exclusively as Starlord/Peter Quill, who is an amalgamation of the classic and MCU version (similar things being done for most of the cast) but you give commands in battle to the rest of the guardians and to solve puzzles in the environment.
there are dialog choices which do have (usually minor consequences, with some very good notable exceptions) and just generally great writing and character chemistry.
Also a kickass soundtrack filled with 80 and 90s classic rock, as well its own original rock album from a fictional starlord band (look it up, the songs from it are great)
If it sounds like I am trying to sell the game its because I am... thanks to the crap marketing and the indirect association with Avengers and the MCU, game sold like crap and Square considered it a failure, which is completely unfair with how good the game really is.
Marvel Cosmic characters selling poorly is part of the course. They have always been Marvel's redheaded stepchildren.
These comic history videos are GREAT, so of course I'll go on this journey with you!
No one can write Thanos but Jim Starlin.
Al Ewing can. Jim Starlin used to be able to but he jumped the shark hard with Infinity Finale
The only other writers who did Thanos justice are Ron Marz and Keith Giffen.
@cyberninjazero5659
Ewing? The guy who had Thanos saying he loves nothingness and fight the Ultinates instead of teaming up with them against the First Firmament?
Thanos was supposed to have stopped being a villain after Infinity Gauntlet.
Thanos is a great villain for the superheroes to face.
I appreciate you viewing comics
I don't understand why someone would write 'Madame MacEvil', when 'Madame Macabre' is better in every way.
maybe that was taken
somehow the worst part to me, is that comics use all-caps fonts, so you lose that slightly cool aspect of Mac names where you get a capital letter in the middle of a name.
It really all started with Iron Man, didn’t it?
An old trunk? Or perhaps a long box in this case
19:07 😂 oh god, she's even wearing the typical evil costume. Why do they always have the popped collars that are way too high and is little more than a runway fashion bikini?
I like her earrings though.
Comment for the algorithm
Thanos had a helicopter with his name on it.
I think that was just in Spidey Super Stories, the co-production with Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) show The Electric Company (not to be confused by the namesake show by the same company in 2009). It was a comic that featured characters from the show's skits alongside Spider-Man as Spider-Man was appearing in that show. In other words fun as it is I don't think it's canon.
Now Squirrel Girl beating Thanos with nothing more than a group of squirrels...that's totally canon! Uatu himself confirmed it.
"Ramrod" is also noteworthy as a terrible name. 😆
wonder if the hole rick jones and mar vel swaping places thing had any influence ont he up coming marvels movie
Maybe? I always thought it was a riff on Billy Batson and the OTHER Captain Marvel.
No. The MCU already did Mar-Vell so dirty. I don't want them to ruin Rick as well.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that was an homage to Rick and Mar-Vell.
@@MinscFromBaldursGate92Yes, they did dirty the character who is famous for dying. 🙄
It did. And like many things the MCU cribs from the comics, it was inconsistent and bad.
The Recommending Ones & Zeros apologizes for the devastating and overwhelming distress that must have happened while waiting on our blessing.
Thanos pining after a girl who has no interest in him is so much better than Thanos who doesn't understand economies of scale because he was written by socialists who refute economies of scale as "capitalist lies"
why doesn't this post have more upvotes
i need at least six or seven more upvotes on this
Hell nevermind the idiocy of modern hollywood, _he has a spaceship._ anyone capable of interstellar travel is _definitely beyond worrying about resource limitations._
Yeah, if you have absolute reality warping power just...use it to eliminate scarcity?
She doesn't have "no interest" in him. I'm tired of this misreading. She's a cosmic entity she choses where and when she manifests there's a reason she's always hanging around Thanos. Which ultimately comes to a head in the Annihilation Saga where she talks to him and they kiss.
There was nothing socialist about mcu thanos the writers just didn’t think about the actual consequences or logic of the snap
Spoken like true idiot who has no idea about anything and only pretends to be smart.
One thing that I want to note about the "Thanos/Death" relationship is that it isn't as completely one-sided as appearances might suggest especially this early on. Recall that Death is the literal embodiment of Death and a cosmic entity she choses where and when to manifest if at all. We are never given the indication that she is somehow held hostage or otherwise forced to manifest at Thanos side. It's a subtle element of reciprocity that no-one brings up about their relationship in favor of making the same tired jokes about Thanos simping, of course the relationship isn't entirely positive Death does laugh at his failure here after all, but as we see later on she doesn't discard him and toss him aside for it, he continues to be her agent
I'm not sure "I show up personally to rub your face in your failures' is the evidence for a healthy relationship you seem to be angling for.
@@boobah5643 no one said anything about healthy. I'm just noting that the idea that the relationship is one-sided misses the mark
In case there's anyone who doesn't know, the name "Thanos" is actually derived from the Greek word "Thanatos," which means "Death."
I remember after seeing the Thanos revel in the 1st Avengers movie came out, I was intrigued. I was aware of the character but only that he was a final boss in one arcade fighting game and that he was inspired from characters of Jack Kirby's Fourth World; but having I grown up loving the Fourth World stuff, first introduced to me through the DCAU and later from collected editions of New Gods and the Forever People, so hearing that this was basically Marvel's equivalent to that (along with the Eternals) so I was compelled to look into it (in addition to the fact that deities are my favorite fantasy/scifi/mythical creatures so I'm always eager to read more such stuff; hell its partly why Thor is my favorite Marvel superhero lol)
So to my luck, in the same store where I found a collection of Jack Kirby's Eternals run, I found the books Thanos vs the Avengers, a collection of the storylines before the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, and also Infinity Gauntlet itself. I read both of those books in single summer day and by the end Thanos had became my favorite Marvel supervillain and contends with Lex Luthor and Darkseid for the spot of my favorite Supervillain period.
So yeah look really forward to this series! So thank you and hope you are doing well!
This storyline made Captain Marvel Mar-vell one of my favorite superheroes.
Mine too. He became my most favorite hero in the entire marvel universe forever, even as we speak now.
Drax was originally human and the father of the young girl who'd become Moondragon (who's a hero or villain depending on the writer)..
Speaking of names, Rick Jones' girlfriend was Lou-Ann Savannah.
[The More You Know theme plays]
I...Moondragon's original name was Madame Macevil? I...what?
Pretty much my thoughts exactly.
Her birth name is Heather Douglas. Madame MacEvil was just her first supervillainous persona, pre-Moondragon.
It's still incredibly odd to me that *Thanos* of all characters made the leap to the big screen. As a kid, I kind of just saw Thanos as being the big bad of the Infinity Gauntlet mini series which... As a kid I thought was utter garbage (No disrespect to Jim Starlin, but it felt like he was spinning his wheels). Thanos was no Doctor Doom or Galactus. Hell, he wasn't even Doc Ock. He was so D List in my eyes that I kind of just shook my head.
So the idea that he became one of the single most successful supervillain characters in movie history is STILL utterly baffling to me. I never bought it in the comics.
When did you start reading comics me 72
Thanos’ psychology is so well studied and developed by Starlin that it would take, I think, a proper psychology treatise to explain it. The nihilistic period (“I’m gonna kill all life to make Death love me”) ends after the Infinity Gauntlet saga; after that, it gets very complicated.
The first thing to consider is that Thanos has always been extremely intelligent since he was a child. Born suffering the deviant syndrome, he has always been very different from the other Eternals, stronger, smarter and all alone. In those years those philosophical questions about the nature of reality began to arise in his mind which, in different measures, are basically present in all of us, and while thinking about it in an almost maniacal way, Thanos came to the conclusion that life, in its diversity and complexity, was essentially CHAOS. And it was that chaos that kept him from finding his answers and his place in the grand scheme. He began to hate the concept of life and fell in love with death.
But it was only the first step in his evolution, the personality of Thanos could be defined as a "religious" type, he feels the action of forces beyond his control, forces that determine the course of his life and his destiny (his parents and to climb Kronos, Chaos and Order, Eternity, The Living Tribunal and ultimately God himself or as Marvel call Him: The One Above All) and it doesn't suit him, he wants to be free, he wants to be the master of his fate, he wants control, he wants freedom! And the only way to be free is by becoming omnipotent, to overcome those entities that determine everything or (its first solution) to destroy all life, since these cosmic entities act on life and by destroying it he could escape their influence making them impotents.
The solution of everything in the annihilation of all life forms is an initial position on this path of his, for the realization of which Thanos has begun to accumulate knowledge of all kinds for centuries. Did you read that? I wrote knowledge, not power. Because that’s what Thanos truly values. THANOS FOLLOWS KNOWLEDGE, in all its forms, from genetics to engineering, from philosophy to arcane arts, etc... . everything. KNOWLEDGE IN ITSELF IS POWER. Or as Thanos himself once told Tyrant “knowledge is power and Thanos of Titan did not stop accumulate power yet”.
Even the secret of the Infinity Gems was first discovered by Thanos by spending a lot of time contemplating the INFINITY WELL, a source of knowledge in the dimension of Death, and that way he was able to learn things that were hidden even to Eternity itself.
In essence, THANOS THINKS. Always thinks, continuously, possibilities about possibilities, scenarios, hypotheses, schemes, experiments, projects.... Which, combined with the knowledge acquired from otherworldly and omnipotent experiences, places him on a purely cultural level above anyone else in the Marvel Universe.
In fact Thanos treats basically all Marvel characters as morons, but not only from a power level’s point of view, but from a verbal/ideological point of view, no one is able to compete with Thanos in a "purely verbal" challenge, neither Thor, nor Silver Surfer, not even Reed Richards or Doctor Doom.... Thanos is always 3 steps ahead of everyone, that's why he is an unparalleled strategist (league above Doom... Doom is always defeated by Mister Fantastic, Thanos has come to conquer Eternity more than once. Doom wants the power of the Beyonder, Thanos did not care for the power of the Cosmic Egg, a construct created by the Goddess using 30 cosmic cubes put together. Doom failed to eliminate Akhenaten, Thanos managed to totally fool him and gains the power of the Heart of the Universe for himself). The only Marvel character that can match Thanos in a verbal and philosophical debate is Adam Warlock because the two went through a similar journey and share a similar knowledge about the true nature of the cosmos. All the other Marvel characters next to Thanos come out as nothing but uneducated simpletons. It’s not a matter of power, it’s a matter of knowledge and logic. Thanos arguing with the other Marvel characters is like watching Nikola Tesla trying to explain engineering and physics to a 5 year old child. So far more complex and culturally superior Thanos is compared to the other Marvel characters.
The complexity of Thanos is then clearly seen when he actually reaches Omnipotence. Because there is also a part of him that hates himself, that does not consider himself worthy of divinity and true freedom, and it is in fact always Thanos himself who unconsciously lays the foundations for his own defeat.
The only one who can keep up with him, as I said, is Adam Warlock, who shared a similar path (loneliness, philosophical questions, etc.) albeit with different solutions. And he is also the only one who has shared experiences of divinity and omnipotence and therefore has a grasp and understanding of reality similar to his own. Adam understand aspects of Thanos that are not clear even to Thanos himself and that is why he is the only one to stand up to him, to surprise him and put him in difficulty in discussions of a purely intellectual nature. And that’s why over times Adam is the only one that not only Thanos considers his equal but also his only friend. Thanos talks about Warlock in a way that he doesn't talk about anyone else. Even Gamora, who, is the first and one of the few beings that Thanos learned to sincerely love (like a daughter of course).
So Thanos’ journey for greater power is much more than just a fanboy putting a character on a pedestal at the expense of other popular characters (like say: Jason Aaron writing Jane Foster ). It’s a deep and fascinating journey of a man (because like all Marvel and fictional characters Thanos is a metaphor for humanity in the end) that seeks to be free from the forces that control its life and its fate. Thanos is a metaphor for all those men costantly struggling against the system, against a life and a universe that is not going the way they’d like. I always thought of Thanos as Marvel’s equivalent of Lucifer Morningstar (Neil Gaiman and Mike Carey's version of course): not just because they’re both OP but because, at heart, they are both the ultimate rebels. They follow the ideal of John Milton’s Fallen Angel. An angel who lost Heaven because he questioned the AlMighty. And he is now forced to walk a path of insecurities, in search for answers. He is “a puppet that can see the strings”. Yes, just like Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan. But while Manhattan’s response to that knowledge was to isolate himself from all humanity and to become a heartless nihilist void of emotions, so that he did not have to suffer, Thanos’ response was to rebel against the system and to try to change it, at least for himself. That makes Thanos so much more than just a villain. He is his own tragic hero, the hero of his story that we read. A modern Ulysses or a modern Prometheus that pursues a knowledge that is forbidden to mere mortals and thus he’s doomed to fail because that’s what always happens at the end of the greek tragedy: mortals who challange the gods or fate itslef fails and get punished. Always.
If that doesn’t make Thanos the most fascinating Marvel character ever created, I don’t know what else would.
Is there a reading order you found for these comics that lead into “Infinity Gauntlet”? Or did you research and ask Marvel historians etc. I’m asking because I would like to read these comics myself in this order
Her name was given to her by her computer... That sounds about right. ChatGPT and other AI programs aren't very creative.
Somewhere, Paste Pot Pete, Kite Man, and Taserface are laughing at the name Madame McEvil. 😅
I always think of the Cosmic Cube as relates to Reed Richards using it as a threat to stop Galactus.
I thought that was the Ultimate Nullifier. Did he have to threaten Galactus more than once? If so, that's pretty impressive for a guy whose main power is stretching.
@@mikegates8993 I think you are right, and I'm misremembering.
@@mikegates8993 Funnily enough the Ultimate Nullifier does show up during Infinity Gauntlet
Been waiting for this a long time.😊
6:56
You'll have to be more specific there, Chuck. They have one of those on every day ending in Y.
I really like these comic rundowns.
:)
I don't understand what the point of the infinity gauntlet is if the cosmic cube is just as powerful and is so easy to make that AIM made one on aN earth Lab
If I remember correctly, while impressive it ain't as powerful as the Gauntlet with all the stones, especially when Thanos beats all the cosmic big guys and even when he takes one of their place, the Gauntlet is still shown to be more powerful when Nebula uses it.
Daredevil has at least 3 assassin exgirlfriends, Black Widow, Electra, and Echo. Echo is my favorite.