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Thanos, The Mad Titan quests across the universe in search of the Infinity Stones, intending to use their limitless power for shocking purposes.
- In Comics Full Report
Thanos' most storied attempt at subjugating the entire...
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During his push to acquire the Infinity Stones, Thanos...
- On Screen Profile
The Mad Titan Thanos quests across the universe in search of...
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- In Comics Full Report
A gallery of images of the Mad Titan Thanos .
- 3 min
- Overview
- Biography
- Personality
- Powers and Abilities
- Equipment
- Facilities
- Relationships
- Trivia
―Thanos
Thanos was a genocidal warlord from Titan, whose objective was to bring stability to the universe by wiping out half of all life at every level, as he believed its massive population would inevitably use up the universe's entire supply of resources and perish. To complete this goal, Thanos set about hunting down all the Infinity Stones, being confident that the combined force of the Stones would grant him sufficient power. Thanos forged alliances with Loki and Ronan the Accuser in order to track down some of the Stones. However, both alliances cost Thanos much of his resources, including the Mind Stone and the loyalty of his daughters, Gamora and Nebula. Fed up with all his subordinates' ongoing failures, Thanos made the decision to seek and procure the Stones himself, and he began by forcing Eitri to create the Infinity Gauntlet for him so that he would be able to wield the power of the Stones safely.
Early LifeQuest for the Infinity StonesQuest for the OrbInfinity WarCost of VictoryLegacy―Thanos
Thanos was usually seen by everyone else as the ultimate personification of sadism, cruelty, megalomania, infinite destruction, death, power, and madness, with his search for the Infinity Stones seen by others as his plot to gain dominion over all the civilizations in the universe. In reality, Thanos was a more complex and tortured soul given that his traumatic past and obsession with completing what he perceived as his destiny had led him to commit horrible actions all in the name of saving the universe even at a great personal sacrifice to himself. He desired to use the Tesseract to look beyond the known worlds to find greater ones that it would unveil. He was also relentless, as seen by his gathering of children from across the galaxy to take as his own so he can raise them as assassins and aid him by tirelessly searching for the Infinity Stones. In addition to this, Thanos had extraordinary willpower, as evidenced by his absolute refusal to succumb to Mantis' sleep-inducing touch despite its ability to usually make her victims docile almost instantly through but a simple touch, with her thus remarking that the Titan was "very strong" in his mental fortitude.
He was extremely intimidating and often unforgiving of failures. The Other once warned Loki that he would know a new kind of pain if he did not give them the Tesseract; this was proven true when he ruthlessly murdered Loki for his failure in retrieving the Tesseract for him and when he tried to kill Thanos. Even though Ebony Maw had never failed Thanos, he still feared his master and father enough that he did not dare go to Titan without having fully taken the Time Stone from Doctor Strange. Thanos threatened Ronan the Accuser that he would bathe the starways in his blood if he failed to deliver the Orb, visibly terrifying Ronan. He even forbade Gamora from rescuing Nebula when the latter fell into a trap whilst on a mission in the Cloud Tombs of Praxius. He had little to no regard for his subordinates, as seen by him showing absolutely no empathy when Ronan killed The Other. Regardless of his disregard for his minions, Thanos was shown to be an extremely skilled and charismatic leader, having been able to inspire fierce loyalty from the Black Order, as well as command the Chitauri and the Outriders, both being highly savage and powerful creatures, unchallenged.
He was extremely confident to the point of arrogance and appeared almost impossible to intimidate, smiling when The Other told him challenging the Avengers would be like courting Death. He was even unfazed at the idea of Ronan, who was strengthened by the Power Stone, coming after him despite knowing full well that Ronan was already very powerful even without the Stone and the fact that he was backed up by Nebula who had betrayed him, displaying only anger. He also smiled confidently after deciding to hunt for the Infinity Stones himself.
He was also manipulative and mistrustful, sending Ronan to retrieve the Orb for him and not telling him that it contained an Infinity Stone, while also sending Nebula and Gamora to monitor him. He is surprisingly patient, as he kept a low profile, lurking in the shadows and making others do his work for him even after centuries of failure. He did not make a move for the Infinity Stones directly nor did he openly show that he possessed an Infinity Stone until he was finally ready to collect the stones himself in rapid succession, presumably because he knew possessing one or more of the Infinity Stones would draw unwanted attention, prompting others to attack him and impede his preparations before he was finally ready. Thanos' actions, despite their brutality, were so low that even Doctor Strange, who kept a watchlist of beings that may be a threat to Earth had never heard of Thanos, before Dr. Banner told him who the former was.
Despite Thanos' ruthlessness during the early days of his conquest, he was not without compassion, especially when it came to children. When he met the young Gamora during his invasion of her planet, in stark contrast to the claims of Gamora that Thanos killed her parents in front of her, he 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. He especially loved Gamora, calling her his "favorite daughter"; he even hoped that she would be the one to inherit his throne, in spite of her repeated proclamations of hatred, forgave her treachery of not telling him the location of the Soul Stone and allowed her to keep the façade for years before finally deciding to retrieve the Infinity Stones himself and openly made it clear to Ronan that costing him Gamora as being one of the reasons he was angry with him.
Powers
―Taryan to Glenn Talbot •Titan Physiology: Thanos possessed much of the same physical constitution and abilities from his extinct species. He possessed immense levels of superhuman strength and durability that allowed him to effortlessly overpower and injure similarly sized beings as strong as Hulk, but even smaller and incredibly powerful and super strong individuals as well, such as Thor, Vision, Loki, Spider-Man, Drax the Destroyer, Iron Man in his Mark L Armor and Captain America. •Superhuman Strength: Thanos managed to display incalculable levels of superhuman strength, being capable of lifting, moving or exerting a tremendous amount of force, such as quickly crushing the Tesseract to reveal the Space Stone, destroying Doctor Strange's Tao Mandalas with a kick, and easily lifting Loki and snapping his neck with a single hand. During the Battle of Wakanda, Thanos slammed Black Panther with enough force to cause his Panther Habit's nanites to overload with energy and expel a kinetic pulse, instantly broke out of Groot's vines with just a tug, and effortlessly overwhelmed Captain America with just a single hand, knocking him out with a punch. During the Battle of Titan, Thanos was able to easily punch Drax through several stones even with him blocking the attack with his knives, completely overpower Iron Man's Mark L armor, tearing away pieces of the armor with his bare hands and breaking out of any restraint put by Stark and upon waking from Mantis' forced slumber, Thanos was able to swat Mantis and Drax away and regain the Infinity Gauntlet from Spider-Man. While restrained by the hundreds of Eldritch Whips from Doctor Strange's replicas, Thanos was able to activate the Infinity Gauntlet to break free. Notably, Thanos was able to easily overpower Vision, lifting him with a single hand and swiftly ripping the Mind Stone from his body, tearing through the nearly indestructible vibranium housing with ease, and outmatched and severely beat both Thor and Hulk to a bloody pulp during his acquisition of the Tesseract. Despite being heavily injured by the atomization of the Infinity Stones, he was still able to slowly push against and overpower Captain Marvel's leg with his burnt and shriveled left arm until Bruce Banner assisted her with the Mark XLVIII armor. •Superhuman Durability: Thanos had tremendous levels of superhuman resilience and durability, rendering him to be highly durable. Indeed, he is capable of easily handling the Infinity Stones without being harmed, notably able to hold without any strain both the Space Stone and Power Stone in his hand, especially impressively suffering no harm from touching the Power Stone considering that it destroys almost anything organic that touches it and despite causing him some pain, the stone affect only his wrist and wielding the power of the Infinity Gauntlet without strain. Hence, when facing the combined efforts of Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos was able to effortlessly catch bare-handed knife slashes from Drax and the sword strikes of Doctor Strange's magical sword without any signs of pain, shrug off blows from the superhumanly strong Spider-Man, and even colliding with a Necrocraft at full speed as well as having a massive pillar dropped on him did no damage on him, simply getting up and continuing to fight as if nothing happened. The repeated assaults of Iron Man's powerful Mark L Armor did nothing but slightly scratch his cheek which Thanos even mocked him for. Thanos also effortlessly shrugged off attacks from Captain America with no visible injury and surprise blows from Hulk similarly barely affected him at all. He was also able to shrug off energy attacks from Scarlet Witch, as well as a powerful lightning blast from Stormbreaker. Notably, he survived a blow to the chest from Stormbreaker even after Thor pushed on the axe to exacerbate the wound and was still resilient enough to survive the power surge from using the full power of the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out half the universe, though it did cause him to briefly enter a catatonic state and his durability was not enough to stop him from suffering severe burns across his face. Thanos himself mocked Thor for failing to target his head, indicating that such a blow is what it would take to kill him. Even after Thanos had been severely weakened by the destruction of the Infinity Stones, he remained durable enough to quickly recover from attacks by Captain Marvel and Bruce Banner wearing the Hulkbuster, as well as endure the pain of Thor cutting off his Gauntlet-coated hand, until he was ultimately killed when Thor was finally able to decapitate him with his axe. •Superhuman Speed: Despite his size, Thanos could move at extraordinary speeds, being able to effortlessly overpower Hulk in hand-to-hand combat, easily dodging and countering all of his blows while simultaneously striking him multiple times, easily kick Thor aside after he had caught him off-guard and attacked him before he could attack him again and effortlessly grip Loki's neck before he could react moments after thwarting his assassination attempt. He was also able to easily punch aside Nebula after composing himself from her demands of Gamora's whereabouts and completely outmatch Iron Man's Mark L Armor in hand-to-hand combat, landing several vicious blows with Iron Man completely unable to defend himself, and after breaking the sword Iron Man attempted to stab him with, stab him with the piece before he could react, as well as easily punch Captain America before he could react while he was blocking Thanos' Gauntlet hand. •Superhuman Agility: Despite his giant size and vast muscle mass, Thanos moved with incredible agility in battle, being able to easily overcome the attacks of fast enemies like Thor and Captain America. Thanos was able to jump high from a piece of debris into the air to dodge Doctor Strange's fiery rays and then land perfectly on his feet without any problems. •Superhuman Stamina: Thanos could use a lot of energy before tiring himself out. As a result, he could exert as much energy as he can for a near indefinite period before he grows fatigued. Throughout his quest to find all Infinity Stones, Thanos was able to fight the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and other opponents in both short and prolonged battles with no fatigue until his victorious decimation of half of all life. •Superhuman Reflexes: Thanos, despite his size, possessed incredible superhuman reflexes, as he was able to effortlessly dodge and counter all of Hulk's blows upon composing himself after being briefly pummelled and easily reacted to Loki's swift attempt to kill him, effortlessly choking Loki to death before the latter could react. With just a single hand, Thanos was able to easily grab Gamora before she could strike him with Godslayer, and to even react to the extremely agile Spider-Man's attacks, eventually getting a grip on him and pinning Spider-Man down, as well as casually react to the highly agile Black Panther's full speed charge with a single hand. He also was able to easily block Iron Man's Mark L Armor's repulsor beam, catch its sword, break it and stab him with the piece before he could react. He could easily react to as well as outpace both Drax the Destroyer and Doctor Strange's moves even while his sight was hampered by web cotton and also managed to quickly overtake Nebula and deliver a powerful punch that sends her flying. While Thor was able to surprise and punched off a portion of Thanos' helmet, Thanos soon effortlessly kicked him away before he could react. Thanos was also able to easily react to the bullets of War Machine's Mark IV armor and Okoye's spear when she threw it at him, which allowed him to easily repel them with the Gauntlet's powers. Even after Thanos had been severely weakened by the destruction of the Infinity Stones, he was still able to react to and block Captain Marvel's photon blast. •Regenerative Healing Factor: Thanos' physiology possessed a powerful regenerative healing factor, which allowed him to quickly regenerate from his minor wounds, regardless of severity or blood loss. Upon arriving on Earth, all of the minor wounds he had received at the hands of Tony Stark had completely disappeared. By the time he had killed off half of the universe's population via a completed Infinity Gauntlet and sat down to "admire the sunset," Thanos had completely regenerated from Thor using the Stormbreaker to severely cut his chest open, even though he was still exhausted from previous fights with the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. However, Thanos' healing factor was not enough to recover from the wounds dealt from destroying the Infinity Stones, which resulted in his body visibly half-burned and his arm thin and shriveled. •Longevity: Thanos had lived for over a thousand years of age yet was still in his prime by the time of the Infinity War during the 21st century. The only known weapon with the power to kill Thanos was Stormbreaker, the most powerful weapon forged from Uru, and only if the attack was lethal.
Former Powers
―Bruce Banner and Doctor Strange •Infinity Gauntlet Capabilities: After equipping the Infinity Gauntlet onto his left arm, combined with his already extraordinary physical constitution and raw power, Thanos was granted the potential to safely harness the supernatural powers of all six Infinity Stones should he add them to the Gauntlet. The more stones Thanos inserted into the Gauntlet, the more power he gained and also acquired the stones' dominion over the necessary fabric of existence. Merely having two Stones was enough to make Bruce Banner call him the strongest being in the whole universe while Gamora said that with three Stones, Thanos would be too powerful to stop. Eventually, upon acquiring all six stones, Thanos became the most powerful being in the universe while gaining absolute control over the entire fabric of existence and also able to do almost anything he desired, to the point that even with a severe injury, he killed off half of life within the universe by just snapping his fingers. His power with the Infinity Gauntlet was so great that when Doctor Strange used the Time Stone to peer through over 14 million futures, he saw only one that ended in Thanos' defeat, and this future required Thanos to win. Presumably, due to having done thorough research on the Stones, Thanos displayed incredible understanding and knowledge of their powers and quickly as well as fully mastered all of them, which allowed him to use their dominion over the fabric of existence for combative purposes with extreme finesse, making him nearly impossible to defeat in battle. After the Gauntlet was completed and the Space Stone reached its full potential, it appears that the Space Stone allows the influence of the other Stones to reach the whole universe, which allowed Thanos to use the power of all Stones to wipe out half the universe. Thanos was able to destroy the Infinity Stones by turning their energies against them but this further damaged the already crippled Gauntlet and burned the left side of his body, fusing the Gauntlet to his arm and worsening his wounds. •Nigh-Omnipotence: With all six Infinity Stones in the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos gained nearly omnipotent levels of power, with control over all six aspects of existence, making him the most powerful being in the entire universe and wielding such near-limitless levels of power that allows him to do almost anything he desired. His power was so great that, even while considerably injured, he still was capable of wiping out half of the universe with a simple snap of his fingers. With this level of power, Thanos was almost invincible, to the point that the only way to subdue him was for the gauntlet to be removed, which would take away his powers or if a sufficiently powerful being wielding a sufficiently powerful weapon were to surprise Thanos, as Thor wielding the Stormbreaker managed to injure Thanos with Thanos himself admitting that Thor may have killed him had he aimed for Thanos' head. •Death Inducement: After the Gauntlet was completed and the Stones reached their full potential, Thanos gained the power to induce death on a universal scale at whim, using each of the Stones' control over the fabrics of existence to wipe out half the universe even after he had already been grievously wounded. However, using the Gauntlet at such a weakened state took a great toll on Thanos, while scorching the Gauntlet and Thanos' left arm. •Energy Manipulation: After inserting the Power Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquired complete control over the destructive force of the universe. Due to his strong understanding and familiarity with the Stone's powers, he was capable of manipulating the Stone's destructive energy for a wide plethora of versatile and dangerous capabilities, with the Stone becoming among his most versatile and often-used in combat methods for its destructive potential. Combining the Space and Power Stones, Thanos could manipulate and redirect outside energy, absorbing and channeling the explosive power of Iron Man's missiles into a concentrated beam of fire. Thanos could unleash the Power Stone's destructive energy to charge objects with unstable explosive energy with just a single gesture from the Gauntlet, causing them to overload and violently detonate. This ability proved to be the most commonly used out of all the diverse capabilities of the Power Stone due to its great versatility and combat potential thanks to his ability to control the time and size of the detonation, whether instantly or slowly or how devastating, which allowed him to use it with devastating efficiency, as Thanos was able to cause the Stone to slowly overload and detonate the damaged Statesman after retrieving the Space Stone, giving himself time to teleport him and his Children out and later violently and almost instantly detonated a ruined spaceship fragment that was dropped on him by Iron Man. He could even exert so much powerfully destructive energy that he was able to rip apart the surface of Titan's moon with its sheer power. After the Gauntlet was completed and the Power Stone reached its height of power, the Power Stone was able to convert the influence of the other Stones into energy to be unleashed upon the whole universe, as when Thanos snapped his fingers to wipe out half of life in the universe, it caused energy to surge from the Gauntlet and cover the whole battlefield of Wakanda and caused ominous rumbling through the universe. •Energy Projection: Thanos' primary usage of the Stone was to project its explosive energy in many forms of extremely powerful energy attacks, showing much greater raw power and versatility than Ronan's use, that applied incredible amounts of powerful concussive force that were even capable of outright destroying objects with its volatile power or incapacitating and greatly damaging even the most durable of individuals. He can directly concentrate the Stone's energy into destructively powerful beams easily strong enough to cleave through rocks, force back a shielded Iron Man, and send him flying with great force and damaging his armor. He was also able to unleash the energy wildly as a shockwave of energy that was easily potent enough to knock out Star-Lord, Drax and Nebula instantaneously despite their great superhuman resilience and displays being able to focus the energy into repulsive waves that were easily potent enough to effortlessly blast away the superhumanly strong and resilient Captain America and Winter Soldier and easily stop Okoye's spear in mid-air before flinging both it and her away, during the Battle of Wakanda. Thanos also was able to use it as a powerful form of defense by conjuring a very strong force field of energy that was easily powerful enough to block Iron Man's repulsors even when the latter used both of his hands to emit two blasts at once. After acquiring all six Stones, Thanos could combine their powers to fire a concentrated beam of pure light and energy. •Pain Inducement: Thanos could subtly use the energy of the Power Stone as a very effective form of torture by exposing an individual to the energy of the Power Stone to cause them tremendous pain and can limit the amount of energy sent into the body of said being to avoid killing them. This was potent enough to cause a fully-empowered Thor excruciating amounts of pain, forcing Loki to cooperate with him. He could combine this with the other Stones to increase the torture's potency, with him thus brutally torturing Nebula with both the Power and Space Stones, electrocuting her with the Stone's energy while painfully ripping apart her cybernetics, all the while casually avoiding exerting too much force, thereby killing her. •Spatial Manipulation: After inserting the Space Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquired the stone's complete control over space and due to his full understanding of the Space Stone's powers, was capable of expertly using the stone's dominion over space to achieve a wide plethora of potent and dangerous capabilities. •Portal Creation: With the Space Stone inserted inside the Gauntlet, the most useful power that Thanos acquires was the power to open Wormholes to any part of the universe, which allowed him to effortlessly teleport himself to another location at will. As such, Thanos instantly warped himself to Knowhere, Titan, and later Wakanda with ease. He could also take others with him, warping both himself and the Black Order out of the exploding Statesman and later teleported Gamora alongside him to the Sanctuary II and Vormir. In addition to using the portals that he could open with the Space Stone as an instant means of transportation, Thanos could also use it to send attacks from other places, as he did to transport the pieces of Titan's moon that he crushed to use them against his opponents. His control was very precise, as he was capable of using the Stone to selectively control what objects are transported, even removing the impaled Stormbreaker from his chest before teleporting away. •Vortex Creation: Using the Space Stone, Thanos can create powerful and devastating singularities capable of compressing and sucking anything in their path, as he generated powerful compression forces to throw back the fragments of the gateway to the Mirror Dimension sent at him by Strange in the form of a small but devastating vortex that gathered up everything in its path and sent it flying towards Doctor Strange. However, Strange was swiftly capable of transmuting it into a harmless substance. •Spatial Pressure Generation: Thanos was able to expertly use the Space Stone to warp the fabric of space to generate powerful spatial pressure around his surroundings, capable of crushing, pulling, and freezing with tremendous force in a manner akin to telekinesis enable him to manipulate and move objects with just a single gesture of the Gauntlet, an ability that proved to be among Thanos' most often used. Thanos was able to use the Stone to casually freeze Loki's knife mid-stab in an instant, effortlessly crush the guns on War Machine's armor and ground it, and crush the wings on the EXO-7 Falcon to knock Falcon down. •Intangibility: Thanos was even capable of using the Space Stone to phase and unphased objects out of space, rendering them incorporeal and just as easily make them corporeal again, as he easily made the Hulkbuster and Banner that was inside it, intangible when he tried to attack Thanos and then rendered it corporeal again to trap him in solid stone. •Force-Field Generation: Thanos could manipulate the Space Stone's energy to conjure an extremely strong force-field, capable of instantly vaporizing the bullets of War Machine's Mark IV armor and even blocking the energy blast unleashed by Scarlet Witch. •Terrain Manipulation: Combining the Space and Reality Stones, Thanos could manipulate the terrain at such a scale as to pull the surface of Titan itself to force Doctor Strange to him. •Reality Warping: After inserting the Reality Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquired complete control over reality. His skill in using the Reality Stone was more advanced, as he was capable of skillfully warping reality more powerfully than Malekith's display of the Stone's power over reality, achieving numerous powerful capabilities. Having the Reality Stone also granted Thanos the power to nullify the warping of dimensions, as Thanos was able to prevent himself from being trapped inside the Mirror Dimension by a gateway to said dimension sent at him by Doctor Strange. •Illusion Manipulation: Thanos could use the Reality Stone to alter reality to create highly realistic and elaborate physical simulations and illusions of false realities over a wide range of influence, which he did to create a false illusion of himself interrogating the Collector in a completely deserted Knowhere, to fool the approaching Guardians of the Galaxy and mask the colony's true status as burning down and utterly ruined. Said illusion was so convincing that the illusion of himself was able to physically interact with the environment, as he was able to be engaged by and even killed by Gamora. He was also able to warp reality around Titan to show Doctor Strange how the planet once was beautiful. With the power of creating illusions, Thanos used it to make himself invisible, as upon unveiling the illusion, he initially talked to Gamora unseen before revealing himself. •Matter Transmutation: Thanos could use the Reality Stone to transmute and warp matter to anything he wants. This allows Thanos to effortlessly transform weapons into harmless substances, as he instantly turned Star-Lord's ammo within his gun into a flock of bubbles before he had a chance to shoot and did the same with Gamora's switchblade when she attempted to kill herself, transform and manipulate specific parts of the environment to use against his enemies, he transmuted the pieces of a ship that he destroyed, when Iron Man threw it at him, into a countless swarm of bats that he sent towards Iron Man, and also spawned a cage of stone pillars to trap Black Widow. •Biological Manipulation: The Reality Stone even made Thanos capable of warping the bodies of a living organism, showing the power to release a ball of the Reality Stone's energy capable of turning his targets into pieces of themselves, as he easily turned Drax the Destroyer into pieces and Mantis into strips, although it was only temporary, as Drax and Mantis eventually returned to their original form. However, with the Infinity Gauntlet completed and the Reality Stone amplified to its full potential, it became so potent that it could destroy the body of others truly by disintegrating them to dust, something which Thanos used to wipe out half the universe with a simple snap of his fingers, with the Reality Stone turning all the victims' bodies to dust. •Soul Manipulation: After inserting the Soul Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquired complete control of souls, which allowed him to manipulate the souls of his enemies, such as when he located the true Doctor Strange in the Battle of Titan or when he communicated with Gamora in the Soulworld. Thanos used the Soul Stone in conjunction with the Power Stone on Titan against Doctor Strange when the latter ensnared him in Eldritch Whips with his magic duplicates. He first used the Soul Stone to identify the true Strange among the copies and proceeded to send energy from the Power Stone across the whips to vaporize each clone, leaving Strange surprised and ready to be taken. The Soul Stone contained a mysterious pocket dimension that contained the soul of Gamora, as she was the one he sacrificed to obtain the Stone. The dimension changes to fit the form that Thanos most wanted to see. After wiping out half of all life in the Universe, the sheer energy required to achieve such a feat overwhelmed a weakened Thanos and briefly sent him into a dream state, with the stone transporting his mind to a world consisting of a barren, infinite expanse of feet-high water under an orange sky. Within the Soulworld, Thanos saw himself as without the Gauntlet or the injuries he obtained from Stormbreaker. Before returning to his senses, he was briefly able to communicate with a reflection of his deceased daughter, Gamora, standing under a Zen-Whoberi gateway as she was when she was younger and when Thanos first met and adopted her, telling her of his final fulfillment of his lifelong goal. •Time Manipulation: After inserting the Time Stone into his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquired complete control over time, which allowed him to control time itself by manifesting mystical green runes of energy surrounding the user's arm and wrist before finally conjuring a green, circular mandala made of energy in the palm of his hand. He was able to be far more capable and familiar in using the Time Stone's powers than Doctor Strange. •Event Recreation: Thanos was capable of rewinding time to recreate certain events with a surpassing amount of finesse, enough to truly recreate destroyed objects, even those of great power while resurrecting beings and keeping some from being affected, as he was able to recreate the events where Vision died, to resurrect Vision and recreate the Mind Stone, even after Wanda Maximoff had destroyed both of them, while preventing his foes from getting rewinded to prevent them from attempting to stop him, whereas Doctor Strange could not truly recreate the stolen pages of the Book of Cagliostro. •Mental Manipulation: With the Mind Stone, Thanos was able to manipulate minds to his will. He had previously obtained the Mind Stone before the Battle of Earth when it was embedded in a Scepter. He gifted the scepter to Loki in his quest for power, but Loki ultimately lost the scepter. He then obtained it once again after he ripped it out of Vision's forehead. With its power, Thanos could manipulate minds and the mental state of the victim. He could mind control them to do what he wanted as well as help them fuel hatred for others.
Abilities
―Bruce Banner to Tony Stark •Genius-Level Intellect: Even at his youth, Thanos was deemed a genius among his kind. His long life allowed Thanos to refine his intellectual aptitude to the highest degree, making him quite possibly the most intelligent being in the universe. Thanos was even clever enough to easily outsmart Loki himself on more than one occasion, he was not only successful in using Loki as a pawn without the latter realizing it for a long time, but he was also able to successfully predict his attempt of assassination and countering it. Thanos also easily deceived the Guardians of the Galaxy into letting their guard down, thus allowing Thanos to incapacitate them and capture Gamora. Being highly intellectually and emotionally perceptive, Thanos can easily see right through most lies and accurately deduce the truth and the character of most people, as he effortlessly deduced that Loki was planning to assassinate him behind his worshiping of him from having known his deceptive and manipulative nature and instantly knew that Gamora was lying when she said she never found the Soul Stone. He even accurately predicted that Titan would be destroyed by overpopulation. ―Thor •Master Tactician: Thanos was an extraordinarily formidable strategist with centuries of experience in tactical warfare and leading huge armies. Even without using his immense powers and combat skills, Thanos successfully conquered many worlds through just his tactical expertise and leadership of his army. Thanos is also extraordinarily skilled in manipulation, as without leaving his throne, he was able to easily and effectively manipulate other powerful beings, such as Loki, and Ronan the Accuser, into doing his bidding. His strategical ingenuity was shown by how he was able to instruct his pawns into performing extremely complex, effective and well-coordinated plans which gave the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy immense trouble, such as with the Chitauri Invasion and the Battle of Xandar. He was able to employ these strategies all the while remaining effectively anonymous, hiding his involvement in the invasion from the Avengers, and eluding Doctor Strange's list of otherworldly threats. It was only after Thor received a vision on the Infinity Stones that he was able to figure out Thanos' involvement, with Thor admitting that Thanos had been "playing a very intricate game," and has effectively used the Avengers as pawns without them even realizing it until Thor saw the vision. Thanos is even a far more superior tactician than Loki, who was famous for being a crafty genius in orchestrating cunning schemes, as he easily deceived the God of Mischief into becoming his minion and later easily predicted and outsmarted Loki's attempt to assassinate him. Thanos' strategical intuition also allows him to accurately predict incoming events and effectively manipulate said events to his advantage, as he was able to anticipate the Guardians going to Knowhere to retrieve the Reality Stone and arrived there before they could prevent him from taking it. Thanos even went as far as to set up a brilliant trap for the Guardians by casting an illusion to fool them into believing that he is still torturing the Collector for the Reality Stone while in actuality he had acquired the Reality Stone long before they arrived, all the while easily manipulating Gamora using illusions specifically seen in her mind to lure her into emotionally charging at Thanos, which worked to a great effect, catching Gamora and the Guardians completely off-guard, and allowing Thanos to successfully capture Gamora. Thanos can create effective strategies during 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 before 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 to prevent the Avengers from undoing the Snap, thereby securing his victory. Thanos won all but one of the 14,000,605 outcomes of the Infinity War foreseen by Doctor Strange, and even then, the single path to his defeat only occurred after his initial victory. Thanos, along with Helmut Zemo, was the only other strategist to successfully defeat the Avengers. ―Ebony Maw to Cull Obsidian •Master Combatant: Thanos was an extremely skilled and formidable hand-to-hand combatant, with more than a millennium's worth of fighting experience, making him one of the most dangerous and best fighters in the universe. Thanos' supreme combat skills supplemented by his physical prowess enable him to overpower even the strongest opponents. Under his tutelage, all of his adopted children, including Gamora herself, became extremely formidable fighters. He effortlessly beat Hulk to a bloody pulp, effortlessly restrained Gamora before she could react, swiftly overpowered both Doctor Strange using a sword made of Eldritch Magic and Drax the Destroyer with his knives, effortlessly slammed Spider-Man with only one hand, easily fought off and quickly defeated Nebula wielding her batons, and easily pummeled Iron Man in his Mark L armor. During the Attack on the Statesman, Thanos easily managed to single-handedly defeat and beat Thor. He even easily countered Black Panther's charge by choking him with a single hand and then pummeled him to the ground with a single punch, then knocked out Captain America with a single blow, despite the Avenger keeping Thanos occupied during the Battle of Wakanda. Only an attack from Thor using Stormbreaker was able to land a severe blow towards Thanos. •Sword Mastery: Thanos was extraordinarily skilled in wielding his Double-Edged Sword, which he used with great efficiency during the Massacre of the Korbinites.
Weapons
•Switchblade: Thanos carried with him a two dual-bladed knife during the Massacre of the Zehoberei. Upon seeing the young Gamora fighting one of his soldiers, she gained the Titan's interest. He took her aside and used his red and silver switchblade to teach his beliefs on balance by symbolizing it with balancing the knife on his finger and asked her to do the same. Gamora kept the knife over the years and eventually used it against Thanos' illusion. •Scepter: When Thanos possessed the Mind Stone, he placed it inside the Scepter. He gave it as a weapon for Loki for his coming invasion to Earth. However, Loki lost possession of it during the Battle of New York; as such, Thanos lost an Infinity Stone that he could have just as easily kept. •Double-Edged Sword: Thanos used his Double-Edged Sword during his attack on the Korbinites in 2014. Following the massacre, he returned to the Sanctuary II where he placed the sword aside. •Infinity Gauntlet: An extremely powerful item that Thanos forced the Dwarves to construct to allow him to channel the power of all the six Infinity Stones. Masterly forged by Eitri from Uru, the strongest metal in the universe, it is tremendously durable, as it can withstand having all six Stones embedded inside it. He brandished it in the Infinity War, using the power of the Infinity Stones that he acquired to devastating effects against his enemies. He eventually completed the Gauntlet and used it to wipe out half of the universe, although he damaged the Gauntlet in the process due to doing so while grievously wounded but it remained functioning nevertheless. Three weeks after he fulfilled his plan, Thanos used the Gauntlet again, this time to destroy the very Stones themselves. The act severely damaged the left side of this body, and the resulting energy wave leads to the Gauntlet being damaged further and was fused to his left arm. With the Stones destroyed, the Gauntlet was deemed useless and served no further purpose. •Tesseract: Containing the Space Stone, Thanos sent Loki and his Chitauri army to invade Earth in order to collect it; however, the Avengers stopped the invasion. Years later, Thanos tracked the Tesseract in the Statesman, where Loki kept it secretly. By torturing Thor, Loki gave up the Tesseract to Thanos, who crushed it to abstract the Infinity Stone. •Corvus Glaive's Glaive: Following the massacre of all the remaining Asgardians, Thanos witnessed Heimdall drawing the last of his power to teleport Hulk back to the Earth. As punishment, Thanos borrowed Corvus Glaive's weapon and used it to impale Heimdall, killing him. •Infinity Stones: Six of the most powerful objects in the universe, they were Thanos' most primary objective in his crusade to wipe out half the universe. He would successfully acquire all the Stones in Infinity War and install them inside the Infinity Gauntlet, at which point he then finally completed his goal. To secure his victory, Thanos used the stones' collective power to reduce them to atoms. •Power Stone: Thanos was equipped with the Power Stone after reigning against Xandar for access. Once he gained the stone for his goal, Thanos had the power to augment his strength and project a dangerous amount of energy from his Infinity Gauntlet. Using the stone, Thanos was able to amplify his strength, achieving such feats as punching the Mirror Dimension with ease and punch Iron Man with a powerful blow that sent him backward Thanos has even been able to project an energy blast that can send a normal being away and detonate an entire half of the Statesman. •Space Stone: Given the Space Stone by hand, Thanos harnessed the power of the Space Stone and was able to control the fabric of space itself. Thanos demonstrated his power of the Space Stone by absorbing remains through a vortex portal and even create Wormholes that allow him to teleport from one location to another. •Reality Stone: Having taken the Reality Stone, Thanos utilized its power to control the fabric of reality that can mislead his opponents. Taking the Reality Stone to its great effect, Thanos was able to create illusions that surround his environment, transform certain beings and objects into different constructs, and even turn invisible. •Soul Stone: After completing his sacrifice on Vormir, Thanos was given the Soul Stone within his hand and harnessed its power. Thanos was able to contain the souls of his victims inside of a mysterious pocket dimension, such as Gamora's soul being in the dimension after she was sacrificed. •Time Stone: By taking possession of the Time Stone from Doctor Strange, Thanos was now able to harness the power of the stone to bend time itself to his will. Using the Time Stone, Thanos can reverse a particular event that he witnessed and recreate destroyed objects. •Mind Stone: By killing Vision to get the Mind Stone out of his forehead, Thanos harnessed its power and had gained the ability to shoot energy blasts as well as control the minds of other beings.
Other Equipment
•Battle Armor: Thanos utilized a Golden Armor during his days of conquest. The armor was resilient enough to resist damage from Hulk's blows. He discarded the armor upon acquiring the Space Stone from Loki, as he felt his power had grown beyond the need for it after acquiring two Infinity Stones. Thanos later recollected the armor and repurposed it as a scarecrow on the Garden following his victory on Earth. •Space Throne: Thanos' stationary home, he was accompanied by The Other until he was mercilessly killed by Ronan the Accuser.
Vehicles
•Sanctuary II: Thanos commanded a massive warship called the Sanctuary II. Using forces to invade the Zen-Whoberi, Thanos commands the hovered crafts above the capital city. Thanos was able to use the ship to track down the Statesman that was carrying the survivors of Ragnarök and destroying a part of it. •Q-Ship: Thanos also used these ships for his invasions and conflicts. In 2014 he met with Gamora and Nebula after the Massacre of the Korbinites, to tell them that Ronan the Accuser had just located the Power Stone. •Statesman: Thanos boarded this massive vessel along with the Black Order to obtain the Space Stone of the survivors Asgardians who were on the ship. After obtaining it, Thanos used the Infinity Stones to destroy the complete ship and transport themselves back to the Sanctuary II.
•Sanctuary:
Sanctuary is the asteroid field inhabited by the Chitauri. Being the domain of Thanos, Loki was captured and tortured by The Other to ensure his compliance and submission then trained by Thanos in the ways of mind control. After Gamora's betrayal, Ronan the Accuser traveled to Sanctuary where he met with Thanos in person and angrily berated him for not taking Gamora's betrayal seriously. Thanos entrusted both Ronan and Nebula with fixing that problem.
Family
•A'Lars - Father •Eros/Starfox - Adoptive Brother •Black Order - Adoptive Children and Subordinates •Ebony Maw † - Adoptive Son and Subordinate •Cull Obsidian † - Adoptive Son and Subordinate •Proxima Midnight † - Adoptive Daughter and Subordinate •Corvus Glaive † - Adoptive Son and Subordinate •Gamora † - Adoptive Daughter, Former Subordinate, Attempted Killer and Victim •Nebula - Adoptive Daughter, Former Subordinate and Attempted Killer
Allies
•The Other † - Subordinate •Chitauri - Subordinates •Leviathans - Subordinates •Chitauri Gorillas - Subordinates •Outriders - Subordinates •Sakaarans - Subordinates •Johann Schmidt/Red Skull - Situational Ally
Enemies
•Zehoberei •Gamora's Mother † •Luphomoids •Kylosians •Third Eyed King † •Korbinites •Ronan the Accuser † - Former Subordinate •Korath † - Former Subordinate •Dwarves •Eitri •Confederacy •Qovas † •Taryan •Estella •Crixon † •Magei •Joqo •Glenn Talbot/Graviton † •Xandarians •Nova Empire •Nova Corps •Irani Rael •Loki † - Former Subordinate, Attempted Killer, and Victim •Asgardians •Brunnhilde/Valkyrie •Heimdall † - Victim •Sif - Victim •"Loki" - Victim •Einherjar •Sakaaran Rebellion •Korg •Miek •Biff •Tasba •Roscoe † - Victim •Taneleer Tivan/Collector •Cosmo •Guardians of the Galaxy •Peter Quill/Star-Lord - Victim •Drax the Destroyer - Victim •Mantis - Victim •Groot - Victim •Rocket Raccoon •Avengers •Steve Rogers/Captain America •Tony Stark/Iron Man † - Attempted Victim •Thor - Attempted Victim and Killer •Bruce Banner/Hulk •Peter Parker/Spider-Man - Victim •James Rhodes/War Machine •Sam Wilson/Falcon - Victim •Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow † •Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch † - Victim •Vision † - Victim •Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel •Masters of the Mystic Arts •Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange - Victim •Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier - Victim •Golden Tribe •T'Challa/Black Panther † - Victim •Shuri - Victim •Dora Milaje •Okoye •Nick Fury's Crew •Nick Fury - Victim •Maria Hill † - Victim •Hank Pym - Victim •Janet van Dyne - Victim •Hope van Dyne/Wasp - Victim •Betty Ross - Victim •Thaddeus Ross - Victim •Laura Barton - Victim •Cooper Barton - Victim •Lila Barton - Victim •Nathaniel Barton - Victim •Erik Selvig - Victim •Jane Foster † - Victim •May Parker † - Victim •Ned Leeds - Victim •Michelle Jones - Victim •Flash Thompson - Victim •Betty Brant - Victim •Jason Ionello - Victim •Sue Lorman - Victim •Andre Wilson - Victim •Galaga Guy - Victim •Monica Rambeau - Victim •Yelena Belova - Victim •Wilfred Nagel † - Victim •Isaiah Sorenson - Victim •Isaiah Sorenson's Pet Cat - Victim •Karen Oggerton - Victim •Karen Oggerton's Patient - Victim •Phillip Carroway - Victim •Phillip Carroway's Wife - Victim •Jenae Jazrem's Husband - Victim •Theo Boskowtiz's Father - Victim •David Jerome - Victim •Big Harv - Victim •Cammie Conroy - Victim •Elijah Cortez - Victim •Billy Peskers - Victim •Hiro Kajimoto - Victim •Mary Livanos - Victim •Erika Denton - Victim •Nicodemus West - Victim
•In the comics, Thanos is a member of the Eternals, a race of superpowered beings that descended from a caste of humans genetically enhanced by the Celestials. Thanos himself is the son of A'Lars, the leader of an Eternal colony on Saturn's moon of Titan. However, Thanos was born with a rare Deviant syndrome which causes him to look more like a Deviant than an Eternal. Much of Thanos' villainous motivations in the comics revolve around his romantic feelings for the entity Death. In the famous Infinity Gauntlet storyline, he became the master of the Infinity Gauntlet, which he used to murder most of the universe's inhabitants in an attempt to impress Death. He is one of the Avengers' most historical foes.
•Since Thanos is an Eternal in the comics, he has innate cosmic and psionic abilities, such as energy projection.
•Thanos is one of the only seven main antagonists in the MCU to appear in more than one movie. The others are Abomination, Loki, Red Skull, Alexander Pierce, Scarlet Witch, and Ronan the Accuser.
•The name "Thanos" is based on the name of the mythological Greek figure Thanatos, meaning "death."
•Thanos' anti-expansionist philosophy is inspired by the Malthusianism of the economist Thomas Malthus.
•Thanos is one of the only two main antagonists in an MCU film (the other being Wanda Maximoff) to physically appear before becoming the main antagonist, as he appeared in The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron before he appears in Avengers: Infinity War and •Joe Russo confirmed that Thanos is one thousand years old in Avengers: Endgame.
During his push to acquire the Infinity Stones, Thanos commands a powerful foursome of galactic assassins: Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive, and Cull Obsidian, referred to as the Children of Thanos—to do his bidding across the galaxies.
Thanos' intellect is dedicated to enhancing his own powers and to the annihilation of all life. Thanos is a genius in virtually all known fields of advanced science and has created technology far exceeding contemporary Earth science.
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Nigh- invulnerability. Master tactician. Thanos is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-artist Jim Starlin, the character first appeared in The Invincible Iron Man #55 ( cover date February 1973).
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Thanos is a fictional character portrayed primarily by Josh Brolin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise, based on the Marvel Comics supervillain of the same name.