History ComicBook / Thanos

* TheUnfettered: Whenever schemes, scruples are never a concern of his.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Oddly for all his cunning with everyone else, Thanos does this with his rival Annihilus. Annihilus is the supreme lord of the antimatter universe and has cosmic powers. Thanos knows enough that Annihilus is extremely dangerous and respects the big bug as a heavy-weight. However, he still keeps on underestimating Annihilus's ability to think outside the box and ends up getting a big unpleasant surprise such as when Annihilus turned Galactus into a WMD with Thanos's help and another time in the Hulk vs Thanos miniseries, Annihilus permanently ends up getting the Hulk's size and strength from right under Thanos's nose. Thanos almost did a facepalm, when he saw how Annihilus bulked up.

Recently, he has once again teamed up with his recently resurrected frienemy, Adam Warlock, to try to stop Annihilus and Mephisto from triggering the cessation of all of reality.

* NoSell: Against most opponents, [[ComicBook/GhostRider Ghost Rider's Penance Stare]] is enough to cause them to go mad, die in agony, or both. Against Thanos? [[https://imgur.com/gallery/KanH2CE Just some light contemplation before breakfast]].

Thanos is a {{supervillain}} appearing in comic books published by Creator/MarvelComics. First appearing in ''ComicBook/IronMan'' vol. 1 #55 (February 1973), Thanos the Mad Titan has become one of Marvel's most iconic - and dangerous - supervillains. Whereas the heroes of Earth have to put up with the likes of Doctor Doom and ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, Thanos proves to be a constant threat to, well, the entire universe. Yes, all of it.

* VillainDecay: Thanos was a recurring foe for Captain Mar-Vell and rhe Avengers, and was powerful enough to take on multiple teams of superheroes at the same time. Then during the 90's, he started getting [[TheWorfEffect Worfed]] by characters like Thor (who was never able to match Thanos one-on-one previously) and Ka-Zar (who is just a Badass Normal), as well as losing the character development he'd previously gone through and becoming a generic EvilOverlord. This led to Jim Starlin, Thanos' creator, retconning those past defeats and out of character moments by claiming they were simply clones, and that the real Thanos had been been biding his time in the shadows.

And then he died at the hands of Adam Warlock, staying dead between 1977 and 1990, when Death brought him back to life more powerful than ever in a mission to kill half of all life in the universe in the name of keeping the balance. Crafty as he was and eager to be Death's equal rather than her servant, Thanos put the six Soul Gems back together, renamed them the Infinity Gems, and created the Infinity Gauntlet in order to gain [[TheOmnipotent omnipotence]]. [[Irony Ironically]], this backfired by making him ''superior'' to Death, who then rejected him because of it. Driven to impress her, Thanos used the Gauntlet to try to prove himself worthy, eventually becoming the very personification of ''The Universe itself''. Which, ironically again, was what defeated him, since it left his body unoccupied and giving his remaining foes the opportunity they needed to reclaim the Gauntlet.

And then he died at the hands of Adam Warlock, staying dead between 1977 and 1990, when Death brought him back to life more powerful than ever in a mission to kill half of all life in the universe in the name of keeping the balance. Crafty as he was and eager to be Death's equal rather than her servant, Thanos put the six Soul Gems back together, renamed them the Infinity Gems, and created the Infinity Gauntlet in order to gain [[TheOmnipotent omnipotence]]. [[DramaticIrony Ironically]], this backfired by making him ''superior'' to Death, who then rejected him because of it. Driven to impress her, Thanos used the Gauntlet to try to prove himself worthy, eventually becoming the very personification of ''The Universe itself''. Which, ironically again, was what defeated him, since it left his body unoccupied and giving his remaining foes the opportunity they needed to reclaim the Gauntlet.

In time, Thanos would return to his old ways and switch intermittently between hero and villain, until his next big appearance in the pages of ComicBook/{{Annihilation}}. Teaming up with Annihilus in his war against the Universe, Thanos was killed by Drax. Only to then be resurrected soon after for ComicBook/TheThanosImperative in order to save Death from the threat of [[EldritchAbomination the 'Many-Angled Ones']], interdimensional invaders from another universe known as the Cancerverse where nothing was able to die. A problem that, with Death's help, Thanos managed to fix. Naturally, he got angry after Death turned her back on him after it was all said and done, forcing ComicBook/{{Nova}} and [[Comicbook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy Star-Lord]] [[HeroicSacrifice to hold him back (with the help of a near-dead Cosmic Cube) to keep him from escaping back to their universe and killing everyone.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' (as part of an event tied into ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'')

* AbstractApotheosis: Thanos played this straight first in Jim Starlin's run on Captain Marvel where he absorbed the power of the Cosmic Cube and became a giant, transparent floating head in the sky and later in Infinity Gauntlet where he became one with the universe itself after defeating Eternity.

** He has become this to the Guardians of the Galaxy since Thanos Imperative.
* ArchnemesisDad: He has recently become this to his adoptive daughter Gamora and his biological son Thane.

* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: In Infinity Gauntlet, after defeating Eternity, who is the living embodiment of the universe, Thanos leaves his physical body to become an astral entity and one with the universe itself. This however gave Zombified Nebula the opportunity to take the Gauntlet with the Infinity Gems for herself.

* BadassFingerSnap: Thanos, at the very peak of his godlike powers, makes half the Universe's population vanish in Infinity Gauntlet by snapping his fingers. In some of the supplement comics, snapping his fingers is the most common way that he uses the Infinity Gauntlet also.

* BeyondTheImpossible[=/=]DeaderThanDead: After becoming an avatar of Death, he gained the ability to permanently kill creatures who are explicitly immortal, [[http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/15/150339/3070576-9958131210-Thano.jpg as shown]] in the Thanos Imperative.

* BreakTheHaughty: Pretty much Thanos' history from the 70's to the Infinity Gauntlet has been a long BreakTheHaughty phase for him. First he becomes an astral being after getting the power of the Cosmic Cube only for Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) to smash the unguarded Cube, thus depowering him and giving him the first humiliating defeat of his life. Then he gets turned into a crying statue by Adam Warlock, but he's much later brought back to life by Mistress Death, thus giving him the hope of winning her love by wiping out half of the population of the universe with the Infinity Gems. But getting the gems after defeatint the Elders of the Universe proved to be a hollow victory as Mistress Death still refuses to speak to him since he became superior to her with his new powers. In Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos still tries to convince Death to love him, but in the middle of the cataclysmic fight with the cosmic entities, she turns against him despite all the things he did for her and Nebula steals the gauntlet with the Infinity Gems from him, regressing Thanos back to square one and forcing him to team up with the heroes to stop Nebula, but not before being verbally owned by Adam, who tells Thanos that deep down he wants to be defeated because he doesn't deserve the immense power of the cosmic macguffins. And thus Thanos decides to give up his life of death and destruction in the pursuit of love and power, and he became a lonely farmer.
* BringIt: The cover of issue #4 of Infinity Gauntlet is simply Thanos standing in the middle of space saying:

** In a What If issue, this is Thanos' final fate after losing the Infinity Gauntlet.

* CompleteImmortality: He gained this after becoming an avatar of Death.

* DependingOnTheWriter: Jim Starlin portrays him as a great intellect who is greatly aware of the real workings of the universe; Ron Marz and Keith Giffen try to stay in line with his post-Infinity Gauntlet characterisation, writing him as a neutral force who acts out of curiosity and self-preservation; Jason Aaron's ''ComicBook/ThanosRising'', at the other end of the scale, suggests that he's simply a very powerful SerialKiller and even that his initial visions of death were ambiguously hallucinations rather than the real thing. Most other writers simply use him as an especially scary cosmic villain.

** Thanos was also instrumental in the defeat of Lord Mar-Vell and the Many-Angled Ones in TheThanosImperative.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The climax of the LooseCanon Marvel: The End involves a {{Deconstruction}} of DeathIsCheap. The multiverse (read: the writers) resurrects heroes because it needs them to safeguard against its end, problem is this phenomenon weakens the integrity of the multiverse hastening its eventual death. When Thanos achieves ultimate power over the entire multiverse he expends it all, along with his own existence, to correct this errors, making all deaths from then on permanent.

* FateWorseThanDeath: What he considers life. [[spoiler: At the end of Infinity he is immobilized in a state of *Living Death*]]

* FutureMeScaresMe: He's never been fond of any of the "future" versions of himself that he's encountered as they've either strayed from his overarching goals or accomplished them in a way that has rendered them slovenly and wretched.
* GalacticConqueror: His reputation as one can even intimidate entire planets into giving in to his demands as shown in ComicBook/{{Infinity}}.

* KickTheDog: But off course.

* ManipulativeBastard: Thanos tends to be wise, strategic and cunning, manipulating many characters from earth heroes to some of the cosmic entities. This is especially true when Starlin writes him. Other Writers have him rely more on brute force.

* OpeningACanOfClones: As mentioned above, because he didn't like how other writers ignored Thanos development from villain to anti-hero after the Infinity Gauntlet, Jim Starlin introduced the Thanosi clones in Infinity Abyss to retcon Thanos purely villainous appearances in Ka-Zar, Thor and Avengers Celestial Quest

* TheQuest: The Thanos Quest that is.

* RageAgainstTheHeavens: His fight with the cosmic entities in The Infinity Gauntlet.

* SuperWheelchair: His space throne is capable of travelling through both space and dimentions has seen in Thanos Quest.

* VillainProtagonist: In the series that has him as a protagonist, including both his own self-titled series as well as, arguably, Infinity Gauntlet with Adam Warlock as the other main character.

* EvilIsPetty: Thanos once tracked down a flower that was the last of its kind, worshipped by locals as a source of hope, and killed it. Why? Because it brought people hope.
** During this he also tried to toss a mother and child off the mountain the flower was kept on, even though they were just bystanders.

In [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse film]], Thanos made a surprise appearance in TheStinger of ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', where he was revealed as [[ManBehindTheMan the mastermind behind]] Loki's plan to conquer Earth (portrayed there by Damion Poitier). He then appeared in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', and ''Film/Avengers4'', portrayed by Creator/JoshBrolin.

** ''Film/Avengers4''

Born on Titan, moon of planet Saturn, home to the Titans, a faction of Eternals that left the Earth thousands of years ago. Thanos is one of two sons of the the rulers of the Titans: Alars, also known as Mentor, and his wife, Sui-San. However, he was born a mutant, which gave him an appearance closer to Deviants, the Eternals' sister race and sworn enemies. This made his life miserable, gave others reason to bully him, while his brother, Eros, was loved by all. On the other hand, the mutation also granted him vast strength and durability, far greater than any of the other Titans; and his ability to wield cosmic energy was second-to-none.

After setting up shop on the nearby Earth, he would inadvertently create two of his life-long enemies, including his arch nemesis: Drax the Destroyer. After possibly being spotted by a human family, he killed them, only for the sole survivor to become Moondragon and her father to be turned into Drax. Imprisoning Drax, he caught the attention of Iron Man, who answered his calls for rescue. Earth has also provided him with a number of other of his regular foes, including Adam Warlock, the Silver Surfer, and ComicBook/CaptainMarVell ([[NamesTheSame not]] [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} that one]], mind you). These and more would be involved in stopping him from obtaining the Cosmic Cube and from using the the six Infinity Gems (Then known as the 'Soul Gems') in a quest to destroy all the stars in the galaxy in his latest scheme to win over the heart of Mistress Death.

** He also has a strong hatred of Comicbook/{{Deadpool}} [[TheFriendNobodyLikes (hey, who doesn't?)]] since he managed to actually attract Death's affections while he has always failed.

* IfICantHaveYou: Has admitted to being jealous of Death's other paramours. Jealous to the point that, after discovering she had developed feelings for {{Deadpool}}, he cursed him with [[CursedWithAwesome immortality]] just to keep him away from her.

* StalkerWithACrush: To Death. The entity even described him as a creepy stalker during the wedding of [[IncredibleHulk Rick Jones]].

* PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery: It could be argued that his obsession with Death stems from, as he described, how crappy his life turned out. Hated by his mother at birth, shunned by his family and people, he has no real reason to love being alive since life seems to constantly kick his legs out from under him.

[[caption-width-right:305: Are you really certain you want to stop him? What makes you think you ''can''?]]