History Comicbook / Thanos

Written by Creator/ChristopherCantwell with art by Luca Pizzari. Mistress Death has returned to Earth in the guise of a mortal woman named Roberta Marshall, and Thanos is obsessed with reclaiming her. It's up to a new incarnation of the Illuminati, comprised of Iron Man, Blue Marvel, Mr. Fantastic, Dr. Strange, and White Queen, to protect the Earth from the Mad Titan's rampage.

* ''Samaritan'' - Written by Keith Giffen with art by Ron Lim. Six months after ''Epiphany'', Thanos begins to question his quest for redemption after he is faced with the return of Mistress Death and co-op of former victims who still have a bone to pick with him.

* ''Epiphany'' - Written and drawn by Creator/JimStarlin. Thanos is in a self-imposed exile when he is found by his old adversary, Adam Warlock. With Warlock's help, Thanos undertakes a quest for redemption, which pits the two former enemies in a cosmos spanning adventure which pits them against [[Characters/MarvelComicsGalactus Galactus]] and a new adversary known as Hunger.

[[redirect:Characters/MarvelComicsThanos]]

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->''"I am Thanos of Titan. I have conquered worlds. I have bent reality around my will. Men cower at the mere mention of my name. And now... now you have imprisoned me... mocked me... disrespected me. And here you stand, ready to take advantage to my condition. Ready to finish me. Well, if I am to fall, I will die showing you all that Thanos will not be disrespected. Thanos is still a conqueror. Thanos is still a warrior. Thanos is still a ''god.'' And you will either bow or be broken."''
-->-- '''Thanos''', ''Thanos'' vol. 2, #6

The Mad Titan. [softreturn]
The Avatar of Death. [softreturn]
[[Film/AvengersEndgame The inevitable]]. [softreturn]

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 ComicBook/DoctorDoom and ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, Thanos proves to be a constant threat to, well, the entire universe. Yes, all of it.

Born on Titan, moon of planet Saturn, home to the Titans, a faction of [[ComicBook/TheEternals Eternals]] that left the Earth thousands of years ago. Thanos is one of two sons of 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.

Claimed his first victim at the age of eight, which first introduced him to the love of his life, [[Characters/MarvelComicsCosmicEntities Mistress Death]]. Infatuated, it became Thanos's obsession to win over her black heart, which generally resulted in more killing. The Titans naturally didn't take kindly to this, and exiled him after he tried and failed to kill his dad and take over the throne. They probably regretted not giving him his wish and uniting him with his one true love later since after traveling the Universe and claiming all power within his reach, he returned to Titan and let them have a taste of [[NukeEm his nuclear revenge]], killing all but a few survivors — his mom being among the dead.

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 ComicBook/AdamWarlock, the ComicBook/SilverSurfer, 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 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.

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.

[[HeelFaceTurn Arguably giving up his old ways]], Thanos made peace with Adam Warlock and joined the Infinity Watch in order to guard one of the gems, trusted to do so specifically because Adam knew that Thanos' experience with them showed him that possessing the Gauntlet would not give him what he wanted. They worked together and with others to fight against Adam Warlock's [[EnemyWithout good and evil sides]], Magus and Goddess.

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.]]

But of course, you can't keep a good megalomaniac villain like Thanos down for long, and he's [[ComicBook/{{Infinity}} returned]] once more anyway.

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

In other media, Thanos has also shown up in the ''WesternAnimation/SilverSurfer'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperHeroSquadShow'' animated series, though with Death being replaced by Chaos in the former. He also appears as the BigBad of Season 2 in ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'' and the ''WesternAnimation/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' animated series.

In the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, Thanos made a surprise appearance in TheStinger of ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', where he was revealed as [[TheManBehindTheMan the mastermind behind]] Loki's plan to conquer Earth (portrayed there by Damion Poitier). He was subsequently deemed the GreaterScopeVillain and eventual BigBad of what would be dubbed "The Infinity Saga", comprising Phase One, Phase Two, and Phase Three of the MCU. He then appeared in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', and ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', portrayed by Creator/JoshBrolin.
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!Notable comics with Thanos:
* ''The Life and Death of Captain Marvel'' (1973-1982)
* ''Warlock by Jim Starlin'' (1975-1977)
* ''Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos'' (1990)
* ''Thanos Quest'' (1990)
* ''The Infinity Saga'' (1991-2003):
** ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet''
** ''ComicBook/TheInfinityWar''
** ''ComicBook/TheInfinityCrusade''
** ''Infinity Abyss''
** ''Marvel Universe: The End'' (Not in continuity according to Marvel's executive editor Tom Brevoort)
* ''Celestial Quest''
* ''Thanos Vol. 1'' (12-issues limited series, 2004-2005)
* ''ComicBook/{{Annihilation}}'' (2005-2007)
* ''ComicBook/TheThanosImperative'' (2010)
* ''ComicBook/ThanosRising'' (2013)
* ''Comicbook/{{Infinity}}'' (2013)
* ''Thanos: A God Up There Listening''
* ''The Infinity Revelation''
* ''The Infinity Relativity''
* ''The Infinity Finale''
* ''Thanos Vol. 2'' (2016-2018)
* ''The Infinity Siblings''
* ''The Infinity Conflict''
* ''The Infinity Ending''

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, played by Creator/JoshBrolin
** ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' (cameo)
** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy''
** ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' (cameo)
** ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''
** ''Film/AvengersEndgame''

[[AC:{{Novel}}s]]
* ''Thanos: Death Sentence''

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom Series'':
** ''VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroes''
** ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom2''
** ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomInfinite''
* ''VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroesWarOfTheGems''
* ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance'' (cameo)
* ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance3TheBlackOrder''
* ''VideoGame/SuperHeroSquadOnline''
* ''VideoGame/LEGOMarvelSuperHeroes'' (DLC)
* ''Videogame/MarvelAvengersAlliance''
* ''VideoGame/MarvelFutureFight''
* ''VideoGame/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyTheTelltaleSeries''
* ''VideoGame/SpiderManUnlimited'' (as part of an event tied into ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'')
* ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' (as part of an event tied into ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' and later returned for a tie in for ''Film/AvengersEndgame'')

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SilverSurfer''
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperHeroSquadShow'' as the BigBad of Season 2, voiced by Creator/JimCummings
* ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble''
* ''WesternAnimation/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy''

----

[[foldercontrol]]

!Thanos provides examples of:

[[folder:A-F]]
* AboveGoodAndEvil:
** As a firm believer of moral nihilism, he is less concerned with good and evil and more with "How many can I murder to get Death to love me"?
** More like "Outside Chaos And Order". Thanos' actions are clearly evil, [[NeutralEvil but attempts to place him in either camp fail]] because Thanos is always an individual.
* AbstractApotheosis: 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.
* AbusiveParents: ''Infinity'' claims he has (well, ''had'') dozens of kids out there, and spends his time hunting them down to murder them all. And then there's Nebula, who claims to be his granddaughter. Thanos takes malicious glee in mutilating her, then killing her, then resurrecting her as a zombie with ''just enough'' consciousness to know what's happening to her.
* AchillesHeel: Oddly enough, he's probably his own weakness - for all his ambition, he subconsciously knows he doesn't ''deserve'' to win. This prevented him from keeping the omnipotent powers he would gain for more than a few issues.
* AcidTripDimension: Thanos sent Drax into one of those, during their BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind, by using the Time Mind Sync Warp.
** Jim Starlin loves this trope. Trippy reality warping dreamscapes tend to pop up frequently in his Thanos stories.
* ActuallyADoombot: [[http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Thanosi The Thanosi]], identical (but varying in power from less to more powerful) clones Thanos created of himself. They were cooked up by Jim Starlin as a way to [[HandWave explain away]] any out-of-character moments Thanos had suffered under other writers. Jim Starlin further stated that there are actually three Thanos in the Marvel Universe: the 1970s Thanos from the Marvel Universe, before he got the Infinity Gauntlet. Then there are the Thanos stories he is telling. And finally, there is the Thanos that appears in the mainstream Marvel stories. All three seem to coexist easily enough.
** In his first appearance, Thanos is seemingly defeated...but it turns out to be a robot duplicate.
** Silver Surfer once seemingly killed him, only for the end of the issue to reveal that he'd actually killed a member of Nebula's pirate crew who'd been surgically altered to resemble Thanos.
** In ''Thanos Quest'' he sent a robot duplicate of himself to fight the Grandmaster in a dangerous virtual reality game.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the Cinematic Universe, he is a full-on WellIntentionedExtremist who kills in the name of avoiding an {{overpopulation crisis}}, instead of being in love with Death or wanting to take over the universe.
* AdaptationalWimp: In the game ''Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series''. In the comics, especially the ones written by his creator, Jim Starlin, Thanos is strong enough to quickly subdue powerful hero teams like the Avengers and the Annihilators even without the use of mystical Macguffins and he also prefers using his cunning than just brute force. In the game he struggles fighting the Guardians, has a sloppy and unrefined fighting style and [[spoiler:he's killed by Rocket's laser cannon]].
* AesopAmnesia: Thanos was ostensibly supposed to have stopped being a genocidal villain at the end of ''Infinity Gauntlet'', when he learned that Death will never truly love him and that not even omnipotence will make him happy, but in some future stories not written by Starlin, he seems to have completely forgot about that. See CharacterDevelopment below.
* AffablyEvil: He always speaks in a well-reserved manner, and towards people he is fond of (like Drax for [[DeathSeeker killing him]], [[FriendlyEnemy Adam Warlock]], Gamora, [[WorthyOpponent Captain Marvel]] and of course Mistress Death), he shows some honest PetTheDog moments.
* AGodAmI: Used to have a God Complex during his days of universal conquest and delivered some pretty delusional (but [[EvilIsHammy awesome]]) speeches when he got ahold of the Cosmic Cube and the Infinity Gauntlet.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Thanos ends up appearing as this when confronted with universe ending threats like Akhenaten, Annihilus, Lord Mar-Vell and God Emperor Doom to the point the heroes are willing to team up with him in order to save the universe.
* AloofAlly: After Infinity Gauntlet, he often played that role to Adam Warlock's Infinity Watch, Silver Surfer and the Secret Defenders.
* AlternateCompanyEquivalent[=/=]{{Expy}}: To {{ComicBook/Darkseid}}. [[WordOfGod According to Jim Starlin]] Thanos was inspired by the ComicBook/NewGods - but originally he looked like the character Metron. [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2010/06/24/comic-book-legends-revealed-266/ Editor Roy Thomas told Starlin]]: "If you’re going to steal one of the New Gods, at least rip off Darkseid, the really good one!". Although Thanos' [[CoolChair Space Thrones]] can be seen as a nod to Metron's Mobius Chair.
** However, as [[http://whenwillthehurtingstop.blogspot.it/2013/04/sir-thanos-rising-1-marvel-made-mistake.html this article]] points out, the similarities between Darkseid and Thanos as characters are only superficial as Starlin developed Thanos with different motivations and personality.
** The 2016 series introduces the God Quarry; a place at the edge of the universe that offers god-like power but petrifies those who fail to achieve it, with all the failures on display. It's largely comparable to the Source Wall.
** The Ultimate Universe on the other hand runs headlong into the Darkseid parallels; giving him despotic control over civilizations with his children and brainwashed enemies as his main enforcers as he seeks an artifact of ultimate cosmic power to subjugate the universe. He even gets expies of New Genesis and the Forever People to oppose him.
* AMindIsATerribleThingToRead: Monica Rambeau once ended up inside his mind. The sheer horror she experienced in there drove her back out again.
* AndIMustScream:
** His first death, which involved him being turned into solid granite by the spirit of Adam Warlock. Master Order even remarked that Thanos would be forced to spend the rest of eternity lamenting his wasted life and silently weeping over his failure to win Death's love.
** Threatened with eternal life by being stuck at the bottom of a gravity well when he came back to life but couldn't be killed and started attacking the Guardians of the Galaxy. It was enough to snap him out of a weeks-long state of UnstoppableRage.
** At the end of ''Comicbook/{{Infinity}}'', he was trapped in a state of "living death" by Thane.
* AntagonistAbilities: On paper, Thanos is the perfect antagonist for a large scope cosmic story and a variety of powerful heroes. In addition to his great strength and durability that rivals the likes of The Hulk, if not more, he has a very sharp intellect that allows him to outsmart the heroes and even cosmic entities when melee combat isn't a suitable option, in a similar style to Doctor Doom. He then becomes pretty much a HopelessBossFight when he gets some cosmic macguffin like the infinity gems.
* AntagonisticOffspring:
** [[http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Rot The Rot]], the main antagonist of ''Avengers: Celestial Quest'', the child of Thanos and Lady Death, and EldritchAbomination extraordinaire, though Thanos wasn't aware of its existence at first and he sent one of his Thanosi clones to help Death and the Avengers to deal with it instead of meeting it in person.
** ''Infinity'' introduced Thane, Thanos' half-Inhuman son. After harnessing the power of the Phoenix Force, Thane managed to depose his father and take over as the new ruler of the Black Quadrant for a time.
** Thanos himself is one to his father Alars/Mentor of Titan. He goes around the cosmos committing atrocities partly to hurt his father, at least before he finally killed him.
* AntiVillain: Post ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet'', some would argue that for a while he became somewhat of a NobleDemon or even an AntiHero. [[note]]However, even at this time, he slaughtered a planet of warriors for sport.[[/note]] This varies wildly depending on who is writing him, as many writers still depict him as a traditional EvilOverlord.
* ArchEnemy: To Drax the Destroyer, Moondragon, Captain Marvel, and sometimes, ComicBook/AdamWarlock. And maybe the ComicBook/SilverSurfer too. He's also a fairly constant foe of the entire MarvelUniverse... including [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption himself.]]
** 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.
** He has become this to the Guardians of the Galaxy since ''Thanos Imperative''.
* ArchnemesisDad: To his adoptive daughter Gamora and his biological son Thane.
* ArtEvolution: [[http://www.comicbookherald.com/essential-captain-marvel-volume-2-review-thanos-first-appearance-cosmic-cube-war/ As seen on this page]] Thanos was much slimmer in his earliest appearances.
* 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.
* AssimilationPlot: A multi-arc plotline written by Jim Starlin had Thanos being controlled by his future self to use a CosmicKeystone to absorb every cosmic entity, including Death and the Infinity Stones, and become all that is. The threat is serious enough that the Living Tribunal gets involved, unlike with the Infinity Gauntlet.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Tends to gather information about heroes and villains before fighting them, like when he cracked Tyrant's computers to reveal his backstory as a rogue creation of Galactus, and also when he sent a few of his Thanosi clones after Ka-Zar, Thor and Mantis' son Quoi to test their abilities before deciding that the clones were too dangerous.
* AuthorAppeal: Starlin really likes to put weird and trippy creatures and dimentions in his Thanos stories along with various reterences to New Age philosophy.
* AxCrazy: DependingOnTheWriter.
* BadassArmfold: A frequent pose of his.
* BadassBoast:
** "You address omnipotence. Tread carefully."
** Another one, from ''Infinity Crusade'': "Even devils should beware when bargaining with Thanos of Titan."
** He tried this towards Doctor Doom at the end of ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015''. Doom responded by relieving him of his spine.
* BadassBookworm: Being the son of the leader of a ProudScholarRace has led Thanos to become an expert in many scientific fields as well as being adept in mysticism.
* 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.
* BadassTeacher: Regardless on how he treated Gamora throuought her childhood and teenage years, he still trained her into becoming the Deadliest Woman in the Galaxy.
* BadFuture: In his 2016 miniseries, there is one possible future where he succeeded in wiping out all live in the universe and crowning himself as King Thanos, the ruler of nothing. The few living survivors are Silver Surfer (now dubbed the Fallen One), an elder Incredible Hulk that has been enslaved and abused by Thanos, and Frank Castle who has been turned into a Ghost Rider and later a Herald of Galactus. When present-day Thanos is brought into this world and forced to kill his elder counterpart, he becomes disgusted with the way he begs to be killed so he can be united with his beloved Death that Thanos goes back in time and vows to never allow this future coming to pass, erasing King Thanos out of existence.
* BaldOfEvil: Theres no single hair on his purple head.
* BashBrothers: He and Adam Warlock are frequently fighting together when theres a big cosmic threat.
* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: Back in the 70's, in Captain Marvel, he had one with Drax the Destroyer and Moondragon. With [[https://dorkforty.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/cosmic-baby-cosmic-jim-starlins-thanos-saga-part-one/#prettyPhoto rather mind-screwy]] effects.
* 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''.
* BigBad: One of the biggest in the entire Marvel Universe. When he's scheming, you know for sure a catastrophe is about to follow. More then once, the entire MU (including [[EnemyMine the villains]]) has teamed up to stop him.
* BigDamnVillains: During Starlin's Adam Warlock story, when all hope seems lost for the titular hero to stop Magus and become him in the future, Thanos enters the scene to help Warlock defeat Magus, not for any benevolent intention, mind you, but for a pragmatic desire of eliminating a powerful threat to his plans.
* BloodKnight: He's more subtle about it than most examples but its there. He never misses the opportunity of fighting a cosmic heavyweight like Tryco Slatterus AKA the Champion of the Universe, Tyrant or even Odin himself. He often fights with a slasher smile on his face and pretty much the reason he decided to help the space heroes fighting Tyrant is because he got bored fighting an army of aliens by himself.
* BornWinner: Eternals tend to be born winners with their lifespans of thousands of years and mystical abilities, but Thanos takes it even further thanks to his mutation.
* BrainyBaby: Cosmic Ghost Rider shows he was fully cognizant as an infant. Enough to talk and act on his own.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: A single panel in "The Infinity Ending" where Thanos is describing his omniscience and omnipresence shows someone reading "The Infinity Ending" comic.
* BreakoutVillain: It might be hard to believe, but Thanos was originally something of a FillerVillain. Jim Starlin was offered to do an issue of ''Iron Man'', and he introduced Thanos as the villain of a story that was self-contained but also open-ended. When Starlin went on to write other comics he brought back Thanos and eventually made him into what he is today.
* 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 defeating 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 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:
-->'''Come and get me!'''
* ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth: Both Ahkenaten and his own doppleganger became butterflies after he slew them.
* ByronicHero: A villainous variation from Marvel like Doctor Doom and Magneto. After the Infinity Gauntlet affair and other bids for absolute power, Thanos often broods on the circumstances that led him to failure and plans his next attempt to take over the universe, destroy it, and woo the Anthropomorphic Personification of Death herself or become a morally ambiguous hermit who occasionally helps his FriendlyEnemy Adam Warlock saving the universe. He's also an outcast from his homeworld, he's intellectually gifted and he doesn't care about anything beyond his private passions.
* CainAndAbel: The Cain to his Brother Eros/Starfox's Abel, not that [[TheHedonist Eros]] [[ReallyGetsAround is a great example of virtue]] though.
* CallToAgriculture: Has confessed a certain fondness for the simple life of a farmer, and sometimes indulges in this after his more grandiose schemes unravel.
** In a ''What If'' issue, this is Thanos' final fate after losing the Infinity Gauntlet.
*** It's implied several times that this will always be his final fate. At the very end of the universe he is alone, tending a small farm until oblivion finally takes everything.
** Thanos has two endings in ''VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroes'', and the player gets to decide if he goes on to conquer the universe, or give it all up and just be a farmer.
* ChallengeSeeker: The reason why he went after Tyrant in the Cosmic Powers miniseries.
* CharacterDevelopment: At least in theory. Jim Starlin, the creator, had Thanos abandon his Universal conquest/genocide plans long ago, but other writers usually [[TheThemeParkVersion tend to ignore this]]. One of the reasons why those instances are mostly retconned whenever Starlin returns to the character.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In his earliest appearances, he's more of a GalacticConqueror with Death at his side than the true nihilist he later became; it's only after "she" abandons him following his first defeat that he begins actively seeking her favor with schemes to change the ratio of life and death in the universe. Heck, Death was only introduced in Thanos's second appearance.
* TheChessmaster: On a galactic and sometimes ''universal scale''.
* CombatPragmatist: When he is outclassed by his opponents, he oftens comes up with other ways to win, for example in his battle with the [[DumbMuscle Champion of the Universe]]. He provoked him, and made him accidentally destroy the planet they were fighting on in the end, which left him helplessly floating in space.
* TheComicallySerious: Mostly when he interacts with Pip the Troll.
* CompleteImmortality: He gained this after becoming an avatar of Death. Even Drax vaporising him didn't stick for more than a minute. It's worn off after his return in 2012.
* ColdHam: Thanos when he's written by Starlin talks with grandiloquent and poetic words while also using the reserved tone and manners of a professor talking to his students.
* ContinuingIsPainful: He has, to his detriment, been cursed with ResurrectiveImmortality which not only barred him from Death but caused him to agonisingly regenerate whenever he is killed or injured.
* CoolStarship: His personal H-shaped starship ''Sanctuary''.
* CuckoldHorns: His pointy cowl gives off this imagery as Death often tires of his desperate lovelorn nature and seeks intimacy with other beings, having once deeply kissed Captain Marvel upon his demise while they were ''right in front of Thanos''.
* CrazyPrepared: Comes with being a cosmic-scale Super-Genius.
* CurbStompBattle: With or without gaining some vast power, Thanos dishes out a number of these.
** A confrontation with the Silver Surfer led Thanos delivering a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.
** When the assembled heroes, and Doctor Doom, came to face him in "The Infinity Gauntlet" Thanos froze them in time before they could lift a finger against him. Even when cut himself off from the omniscence granted by the Infinity Gauntlet, they still only managed a couple hits on him before he killed them all.
** Dished one against the Avengers in "Infinity" with the aid the Black Order. Hulk attempting to attack Thanos gets him punched through several buildings. Thor hits Thanos a lightning strike, afterwhich Thanos '''dares''' him to hit him again. Thor keeps hitting him, but Thanos shrugs it all off before smacking him to the ground. He would have killed them if Thane didn't intervene.
** Beat ComicBook/BetaRayBill and Ronan the Acuser in quick succession. The latter attempted to strike him when his back was turned, but his hammer had [[NoSell no effect]], afterwhich Thanos broke it and pummeled Ronan.
* CursedWithAwesome: While his mutation led to him being treated like crap during his childhood, it also granted him power far superior to the other Titanian Eternals. He also had the good fortune of falling in love with an entity who couldn't really care less about looks (Death).
* DareToBeBadass: In ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'', Thanos gets himself captured and sent to the Shield, which he finds out to be Ben Grimm. He inspires the hero by revealing that he isn't serving GodEmperor ComicBook/DoctorDoom, he's being beaten by him by living on his knees. This is enough to rouse up the hero and take the fight to him.
* DarkseidDuplicate: Thanos was based on Creator/DCComics' ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} -- his creator has admitted it, though the two characters don't have much in the way of similar goals: Darkseid wants to rule the universe, while Thanos is generally only interested in killing everyone in it in order to impress Death.
** Jim Starlin's original intention was to base him on Metron, another one of Jack Kirby's New Gods, until editor Roy Thomas convinced him to rip-off Darkseid instead. There are a few elements of Metron, however, as the design of his original helmet and his [[CoolChair hovering throne]], similar to Metron's Mobius Chair.
* DeadpanSnarker: Thanos expresses incredulity that Adam Warlock allowed Pip the Troll a spot on the Infinity Watch and the Space Gem. Later, when they are relieved of their gems, Pip reveals that he hides it between his toes. Thanos comments that few would dare to look there.
* DealWithTheDevil: Thanos makes one with Mephisto in order to stop the goddess in Infinity Crusade. [[spoiler:Thanos eventually scams Mephisto at the end of the story. "You wanted a cosmic cube but didn't specify it had to be functioning..." This leads to a BadassBoast from Thanos: "Even devils must be careful when making a deal with Thanos of Titan."]]
* DeathIsCheap: One can not stay dead if Death needs them alive...
* DeathSeeker: If only because it's the best way for him to be united with his true love - which just happens to be Death herself. When he was brought back after ''Annihilation'', he was furious enough to wreck a planet in hours. When it was made clear he couldn't die at all afterward, he nearly went on an omnicidal rampage.
* DefeatMeansRespect: After being defeated by Captain Mar-Vell during the Cosmic Cube story, Thanos had genuine respect for the Kree hero, to the point of appearing in a vision to help him accept his Death by Cancer with one last fight.
* DeflectorShields: In addition to his already nigh-invulnerable body, he has invented several kinds of Force Fields to become even more untouchable, the most powerful version was durable enough to take 2 shots from Galactus himself until it broke.
** The Titan has other uses for his shield technology. At one point he used one to separate Beta Ray Bill from his mystical hammer by putting a small force field around it.
* DependingOnTheArtist: His size and proportions vary depending on who is drawing him. For instance, Mike Deodato draws him with a very squat, blocky physique and a towering height, while other artists like Ron Lim draw him with a size and proportions similar to those of a human.
* 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.
* DePower: [[spoiler:Thane uses the power of the Phoenix to do this to Thanos in Thanos #6]].
* {{Determinator}}: Thanos doesn't quit. Best shown in his fight with Odin. The two didn't get to finish but Thanos was the one who looked worse off by the end of the fight, but despite his injuries he still stayed on his feet.
* DidNotSeeThatComing:
** Every time he was winning he ended up getting undercut by his own arrogance or self-doubt. In the Infinity Gauntlet story, he didn’t take into account that his zombified niece Nebula could just take the Gauntlet off his body when he went astral and became God. Previously he had owned an omnipotent Cosmic Cube and threw it away when he thought he had drained it (he hadn’t), and it got destroyed by Captain Mar-Vell. Every time he was defeated Thanos was his own undoing, and eventually his enemy Adam Warlock realized the Mad Titan undercut all of his own plans due to self-doubt and anxiety.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: In the Samaritan miniseries, he managed to win against a female incarnation of the Beyonder. It was still a very difficult fight for Thanos though.
** Thanos was also instrumental in the defeat of Lord Mar-Vell and the Many-Angled Ones in ''ComicBook/TheThanosImperative''.
* DidYouJustScamCthulhu: Yes, even some cosmic entities aren't immune to his schemes. Just ask the In-Betweener and Mephisto.
* DisappearedDad: Often left the women he would sleep with in the middle of the night, leaving them with only the baby to take care of and the hope of him coming back. He eventually came back to them, but with a [[TheGrimReaper different woman]] [[WouldHitAGirl and]] [[WouldHurtAChild entrance]].[[note]]Meaning: He personally slaughtered all of his mistresses and offspring.[[/note]]
* DissonantSerenity: His response to getting his heart punched out by Drax? "Interesting."
* DistaffCounterpart: Believe it or not, Thanos uses the Infinity Gauntlet to create an AmazonianBeauty female version of himself in the form of Terraxia in an attempt to goad Death into jealousy (Death is unimpressed as usual). She apparently has all of his (non-Infinity Gauntlet) powers as well, in that she is easily able to slay Iron Man and Spider-Man. Of course, [[spoiler: Thanos forgot the RequiredSecondaryPower of breathing in space and she's killed when Nebula sends the two into exile in deep space just a few issues after he created her.]]
* 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.
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: The notion that killing people will ''never'' get Death to love him doesn't ever seem to have crossed his mind.
* TheDreaded: Given the things he's done, it's understandable that people freak out on seeing him.
* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: His usual cold and collected manners starts to go away once he gets powered up by an ArtifactOfDoom.
* DrunkWithPower: A downside to the Infinity Gauntlet is that omniscience can overwhelm the user, making them, to the very least, prone to errors in judgement. [[spoiler: This made him easier to manipulate, and fight the Avengers while voluntarily underpowered, allowing Adam Warlock to simply wait for him to raise his hand to buzz by with the Silver Surfer and simply grab the gauntlet off of him. Mephisto was doing essentially the same thing, but biding his time for an opportunity. Neither worked, but after the fight, Thanos recreated his mind as a cosmic entity, but leaving his body where he sat with the gauntlet still on. This allowed Nebula to simply take it off of him and become the new bearer. Omniscience was even harder on her, making her even more prone to lapses in judgment, but more than compensated by being all-powerful. When she first had it, Warlock was fearful that the power would be so overwhelming that she might be DrivenToSuicide, possibly ending the universe with herself, but it turns out his fears were unfounded]].
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: He had a much slimmer build in his first appearance, and [[EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference sported a different costume]] that looked way more like ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}'s. His brother and father also had purple skin like his, implying that this appearance was normal for Titans. It was only later established that Thanos' purple skin was a mutation caused by his Deviant genes.
* EnemyMine: He isn't above teaming up with his foes against other enemies as long as it situation suits him. He was even a member of the [[Comicbook/TheDefenders Secret Defenders]] for an arc.
* EnemiesWithDeath: Those who are, are enemies with ''him''. The [[EldritchAbomination Many-Angled]] [[ComicBook/TheThanosImperative Ones]] discovered this the hard way. So did Death-God Walker, who desired to take her role.
* EnergyAbsorption: A trait common to all the Eternals of Titan. Thanos has just managed to master this power to a level beyond that of even his kin.
* EnfantTerrible: Didn't become one until after his traumatic event in the cave he went in with his friends. Before that, he was a kind child with a creepy fascination with corpses but would get sick when dissecting organisms for study.
** Though Cosmic Ghost Rider shows his first reaction to a stranger in his room as a baby is to jump out of his crib with a knife aimed at their head.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: He may be the harbringer of death and her lover but he is not okay with [[OmnicidalManiac Omnicidal Maniacs]] that [[ComicBook/{{Annihilation}} want to destroy everything so they can be the only ones living]].
* EvenMoreOmnipotent: The six Infinity Gems assembled into the Infinity Gauntlet grants the wielder omnipotence when worn. More omnipotence than even, say, Eternity the Anthropomorphic Personification of the universe itself or all of the other Cosmic Beings of the setting combined. This becomes a plot point, because Thanos, the wielder of the gauntlet, is tricked into thinking that the only way to effectively dominate the universe is turn himself into the universe. But the second he does, Nebula takes the gauntlet from his now-abandoned body and becomes the new big bad.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: One of his biggest faults that keeps him from truly wooing Death: he can't comprehend that without life there cannot be death, and therefore she cares little for mass murder, so his attempts to woo her will never succeed. Ironically the one time he ''did'' understand it was one of the few times she actually gave him the time of day.
** {{Retcon}}: Later writers overlook or ignore the fact that Thanos wasn't trying to impress Death by killing half the universe. Death herself ordered him to do it. The reason she gives him the cold sholder afterwards is because of [[ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet how he did it]], not because she didn't want him to do it.
* EvilGenius: Let's see...mastered every science in the universe from an early age? Check. Centuries of dabbling in the occult? Check. Unlocked the DNA of Galactus[[note]]Who, as a being of pure energy, [[KudzuPlot shouldn't even have DNA]][[/note]] and made a hybrid clone of themselves, ''just to show he could''? Check.
* 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.
** Every year he makes it a point to [[https://m.imgur.com/gallery/t7adjni torment this random guy on his birthday]]. Y'know, for funsies.
** Seeing that Death was attracted to Deadpool, Thanos cursed Deadpool with eternal life to ensure he could never be with Death.
* EvilMentor: To his adoptive daughter Gamora of course.
* EvilOverlord: Yes and no. Under Starlin, Ron Marz and Keith Giffen, Thanos is never shown interested in ruling or conquering others aside for an army of mercenaries he had in the 70's. However, he has been written more like a straight example since Hickman's ''Infinity'' storyline.
* EvilPlan: All he ''really'' wants is the love of Mistress Death. However, this being Mistress ''Death''...
* EvilSorcerer: He is one of science and cosmic energy, but is obviously not a SquishyWizard.
* EvilSoundsDeep: In the MCU as he's played by Josh Brolin. Oddly averted in the Silver Surfer cartoon.
* EvilVersusEvil: He has fought against other cosmic villains like Magus, Tyrant, Walker and Akhenaten.
* EvilVersusOblivion: Thanos has occasionally teamed up with heroic characters to stop universe ending threats.
* ExactWords: Thanos always holds to a bargain. And if he has full faith that the other person making the bargain is going to treat him fairly (such as Adam Warlock), then he'll similarly uphold both the word and the spirit of the deal. However, [[EvilGenius he's no idiot]], and he'll readily stick to his very precise wording if he anticipates a trap of some sort. Most notably, Mephisto discovered this when he made a deal to get a Cosmic Cube from Thanos.
* ExpendableClone: Jim Starlin tends to retcon any perceived slights to Thanos' greatness at first opportunity through various clones to have suffered any defeats that Thanos experiences. Dan Slott has even gone so far as to [[FlipFlopOfGod debate the point with himself.]] In one story Slott let Comicbook/SquirrelGirl beat Thanos, with the Watcher confirming that it was the real deal, but in a later ComicBook/SheHulk story it was established that it might or might not have been a clone after all.
* EyeBeams: One of his more potent ways of channeling cosmic energy.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: He's doomed to never enjoy long-term success or satisfaction in anything since deep down, he doesn't believe he deserves it.
* FairyCompanion: Had a partner in Skreet the Chaos Mite for a time before being killed by Drax.
* FateWorseThanDeath: What he considers life. [[spoiler: At the end of ''Infinity'' he is immobilized in a state of Living Death, until Namor freed him.]]
* {{Foil}}: To his brother Eros, as he's handsome and a wise guy but not very strong while Thanos is deformed and a StraightMan but very powerful. Also Eros tends to hit on every super heroine he meets while Thanos is only faithful to Mistress Death. Eros is a C-list member of the Avengers at best while Thanos is one of the team's most fearsome foes. As one commenter puts it: ''It speaks a great deal about comic book creators' ideas that while Mr. Stony Faced Death Urge is a major character while Mr. Winning Smile Life Urge is a D-lister with a date-rapey undercurrent.''
* FormerlyFat: At some point in his teen years in ''The Infinity Ending'', Thanos is depicted as notably chubby.
* ForTheEvulz: Once orchestrated a situation where his brother was held for trial, and sent his clone with modified memories to convince everybody it was he who made Thanos fall in love with Death, thus making him responsible for all of Thanos's crimes. ComicBook/SheHulk traveled into the clone's mind to discover it was a lie and that he did all of it not because of revenge, but for pure entertainment. [[YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry It didn't go well for the clone.]]
* FriendlyEnemy: Adam Warlock has helped thwart Thanos' plans countless times...but may also be the only real friend he has.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Even though at an early age, Thanos was drawing pictures of the corpses of the creatures around him, he befriended and refused to eat any of the creatures in the cave he was stuck in for many days. [[spoiler:[[StartOfDarkness That is, until he found out that they killed and ate his Eternal friends who came with him to the cave and was blamed for it.]]]]
* 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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:G-L]]
* GalacticConqueror: His reputation as one can even intimidate entire planets into giving in to his demands, as shown in ''ComicBook/{{Infinity}}''.
* GambitRoulette: Deceiving and planning on the scale he's known for, especially where such pseudo-omniscient beings as Galactus and Eternity are involved, naturally requires this trope.
* GenderBlenderName: His mother would have named him Dione had she not gone insane.
* GeniusBruiser: Right up there among both the brightest minds and strongest bodies in the MarvelUniverse.
* GreaterScopeVillain: In the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse (up until ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', in which he takes the role of the BigBad), and of the ComicBook/RedSkull in ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble''.
* GodzillaThreshold:
** His role in ''The Thanos Imperative'' is being escorted by the Guardians of the Galaxy to the Cancerverse, with the heroes being forced to help him since, as an avatar of Death, he's the only one who can defeat the Many Angled Ones. Peter Quill even remarks during their trip that unleashing Thanos on the universe couldn't really do anything worse to it than the locals already had.
** In ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomInfinite'', the heroes are forced to ask for his aid after it was demonstrated that ComicBook/{{Ultron}}-[[VideoGame/MegaManX Sigma]] was more of a danger than they could hope to handle.
* HandBlast: His most common method of channeling cosmic power. He can make them powerful enough to knock Galactus off his feet and break his helmet.
* HannibalLecture: Does one to Norrin Radd in ''Silver Surfer'' #50, exploring his past and claiming that deep down he's not a much better individual than he is due to Norrin being apathetic to his father's suicide.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Will ally himself with forces of good if it serves his own interests.
* HeroKiller: It's easier to name what heroes Thanos HASN'T managed to kill, considering he killed THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE once. [[spoiler: In fact, the events of ''ComicBook/CivilWarII'', including the conflict between ComicBook/IronMan and [[ComicBook/MsMarvel Captain Marvel]], are kicked off by Thanos killing ComicBook/WarMachine and critically wounding ComicBook/SheHulk.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: At the end of ''Marvel Universe: The End'', he restores the universe and wipes himself from existence in the process. He got better.
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Ultimately, Thanos can never make himself truly unbeatable no matter how much power he obtains for one simple reason: deep down he knows he's not worthy of ultimate power and subconsciously desires to lose, so he will always provide a way for him to be defeated.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Thanos gets so much power with the Gauntlet that he takes Eternity's place as the incarnation of the universe, but that also means his physical body becomes an empty husk that can be easily separated from the Gauntlet.
* IdiotBall: Under Starlin's pen, any hero, villain, or even cosmic entity, except Warlock and Mar-Vell, tends to suffer from this, to underline how awesome Thanos is.
* IfICantHaveYou: Has admitted to being jealous of Death's other paramours. Jealous to the point that, after discovering she had developed feelings for ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}, he cursed him with [[CursedWithAwesome immortality]] just to keep him away from her.
* InvincibleVillain: This only applies when Starlin writes Thanos, other writers tends to make him more vulnerable.
* {{Irony}}: In relation to the above, [[spoiler:Death did the same to Thanos]]. Temporarily.
** [[spoiler:After spending so much time being an OmnicidalManiac, Thanos ends up reviving the universe at the end of ''The End''.]] He even lampshades it.
* ItAmusedMe: Why did he side with Annihilus during ''Annihilation''? He was bored and wanted to see what would happen.
* JustToyingWithThem: At one point during the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, he turned off the sensory input from the Gems that provided any in order to give his opponents a tiny chance of success in order to impress Mistress Death.
* KarmaHoudini: Almost all the time under Jim Starlin. He killed over a hundred people on his own planet, razed several galaxies and then ultimately half the Universe, and didn't suffer any real consequences (if you don't count Death refusing to love him or being immensely fickle).
* KickTheDog: But of course.
* KlingonPromotion: During his tenure as a pirate, he became a leader when his predecessor tried to kill him for not murdering anyone in their many acts of pillaging. He cut him up to pieces without realizing it and was hailed by his fellow pirates.
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Due to his devious and calculating mind, Thanos knows when a risk or setback is too great and it's a better time to retreat. There are also certain opponents he would rather avoid, if at all possible (such as The Hulk); although he has the power to put of a fight or even defeat them, sometimes it's just not worth the time or risk. However, {{Pride}} or anger can sometimes get the better of him.
* KryptoniteFactor[=/=]ManOfKryptonite: Drax the Destroyer in his latest incarnation (since ''Annihilation'', to be precise).
* LargeHam: If the odd way his speech bubbles are drawn and his grandiloquent words didn't tell you.
* LaughablyEvil: In the infamous Thanoscopter story, where he acts like the villain of a Hanna & Barbera cartoon and ends up being arrested by two regular human police officers.
** His interactions with Mistress Death in Infinity Gauntlet are quite humorous.
* LonelyAtTheTop: Thanos attempts to impress Lady Death by collecting the six Infinity Gems, and with them becoming her equal so she will finally speak to him. However, after he succeeds she still remains silent, one of her servants explaining that by becoming all-powerful he is now her superior.
* LoveMakesYouCrazy / LoveMakesYouEvil: The lengths Thanos is willing to go to win Death's favor are truly mind-boggling. And every time she turns her back on him, it only gets worse.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:M-R]]
* MachiavelliWasWrong: Thanos once made a Christmas party for Gamora when she was a child in order to make her a more loyal and effective assassin.
* MadLove: What other trope could describe his relationship with Lady Death?
* MadScientist: He's not called "The Mad Titan" for nothing.
* 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.
* ManlyTears: At the conclusion of the ''Thanos Quest'' mini-series, after realizing his plan to win Death's love has backfired.
* MeaninglessVillainVictory: He gets all the Infinity Gems in ''Thanos Quest'', only to find out that Death still refuses to talk to him because with his new powers he's not her equal but her superior.
* MightyGlacier: {{Subverted}}; he looks like one, and he's as strong as one, but he has very fast reflexes and is an experienced fighter. Most of the time he just [[NoSell stands still and takes the attacks his opponents throw at him]], not because he ''can't'' dodge them, but because he [[NighInvulnerable doesn't need to]].
* {{Mutants}}: His mutation is the reason for both his physical deformities and his vast strength.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: His name is Greek for 'death'.
* NighInvulnerability: As an Eternal, he has complete control over every last molecule in his body and thus is very hard to hurt. A few feats of him include the following
** An attack from an angry Silver Surfer [[http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/10/103729/3554375-5658965161-27956.jpg directly to his face]] did accomplish next to nothing.
** He was completely unfazed by the effects of [[http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_super/5/53235/999959-878443_thanos_travels_thru_incoceivable_realities_super.jpg Reality Warping]].
** He's also able to take a full-blown shout from Black Bolt right in the face. Black Bolt's ''whispers'' can demolish buildings. All the shout did was destroy his armor and make him bleed.
** He even took blasts from Odin and Galactus and managed to live.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Is quite fond of delivering these. Just ask the [[http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/6/67877/2255509-c.p.u._1___0025.jpg Silver Surfer]].
* NonLinearCharacter: The Infinity Gems, specifically the Time Gem which has the power to see in the past and in the future, allowed Thanos to become this and being able to interact with his past self in the Thanos Annual.
* NoManShouldHaveThisPower: Unconsciously, he doesn't believe he deserves the power provided by the various Macguffins he gets, as explained by other tropes on the page.
* 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://i.redd.it/t5zt2tof27q11.jpg Just some light contemplation before breakfast]].
* NotSoDifferent: When Thanos and Annihilus met, they both realised they had common ground (their relationship with Death).
* ObviouslyEvil: Large, towering, almost entirely dark eyes, worships Death, called ''Thanos''? Yeah. Actually gets pointed out by Maximus the Mad during a team-up.
* OddFriendship: With Adam Warlock since the end of ''Infinity Gauntlet''.
* OffingTheOffspring: Sui-San, his mother, tried to kill the newborn Thanos the first time she laid her eyes on his deformities, seeing in them his future of being an OmnicidalManiac. A'Lars, Thanos' father, prevented her from doing so, seeing great potential in him as a mutant Eternal. Thanos has also hunted down and murdered the many children he sired across the galaxy [[spoiler:and the primary reason he attacked Earth during ''Infinity'' was to kill Thane, his [[Comicbook/TheInhumans Inhuman]] son.]]
** When Nebula claimed to be Thanos' granddaughter, he responded by trying to kill her.
** He also helped Warlock, Gamora, Spider-Man and Genis-Vell destroying the Thanosi clones he created.
* OmnicidalManiac: Includes his days as wielder of the Infinity Gauntlet and prior to them. He returned to this mindset after being brought back to life during the "Cancerverse" invasion, and has switched back and forth depending on the writer ever since.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Could give Reed Richards a run for his money on this department.
* OneManArmy: With the super strength and strategic tendencies that he has, it's no wonder he can defeat large numbers of enemies by himself, as shown in the first issue of the Cosmic Powers miniseries where he effortlessly wiped the floor with an army of alien warriors.
* 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''.
* OtherMeAnnoysMe: Doesn't get along with himself very often. In keeping with the above flaw that prevents him from holding onto power, any potential future self that is exponentially more powerful than he presently is often erase themselves by involving him in their plans by informing him of his future. He very often cannot stand how his future turns out and invariably schemes to make sure it doesn't happen.
* PetTheDog: Has at least some fondness for his adopted daughter, Gamora. She was a means to an end against the Magus however, and Thanos was perfectly willing to kill her.
* PhysicalGod: More so than his fellow Titan Eternals thanks to the mutation that granted him a Deviant-like appearance. Even without powerful artifacts like the Infinity Gauntlet and the Cosmic Cube he is still one of the most dangerous beings in the Marvel verse.
* PurpleIsPowerful: He's purple and he has beaten plenty of Marvel's heavy hitters.
* TheQuest: ''The Thanos Quest'' that is.
* QuirkyMinibossSquad: The Black Order, and prior to them, Zodiac.
* RageAgainstTheHeavens: His fight with the cosmic entities in ''The Infinity Gauntlet''.
* RealityWarper: Became this when he had the Cosmic Cube, the Infinity Gems and the Heart of the Universe.
* ReallyGetsAround: In his younger years. Not for the pleasure, mind you, but to find satisfaction in the act of love along with many other goals to find his purpose in life. That is, before he settled with Death.
* RedBaron: The Mad Titan.
* RememberTheNewGuy:
** ''Comicbook/{{Infinity}}'' introduced the Black Order, the top generals in Thanos' army. Despite this, they're treated like they've always been there, with Supergiant even mentioning that she first encountered Thanos when she was in an orphanage as a young child. The ''A God Up There Listening'' mini-series also depicted them in a flashback story, showing them fighting alongside Thanos against Ego the Living Planet.
** The 2016 Jeff Lemire introduced the Black Quadrant, Thanos' moon stronghold. Again, it's treated like it was always there, even though it'd never been seen or mentioned before this.
* {{Retcon}}: Because he didn't like what other writers did with Thanos, Jim Starlin has often done this. See {{Actually A Doombot}} above.
* ResurrectedForAJob:
** In ''Silver Surfer'' #34, after 8 years of absence in comics, Mistress Death resurrects Thanos to ask him to fix a cosmic inbalance by killing half of the population of the universe.
** And again in ''The Thanos Imperative'', where Death brought him back as a BatmanGambit to destroy the Cancerverse.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:S-Y]]
* {{Sadist}}
* ScienceWizard: Thanos is a genius in virtually all known fields of science having augmented his own physiology and created devices such as a chair capable of time travel and interstellar flight. He has also displayed some knowledge of the mystic arts which - among other things, he once cursed Deadpool to never die so Deadpool could never be with Death whom Thanos was in love with.
* SelfMadeOrphan: Kidnapped and vivisected his mother as a young man in ''ComicBook/ThanosRising'', and [[OneHitKill killed his father with a single blow]] years later in the 2016 ''Thanos'' series.
* SelfMadeSuperPowers: Thanos uses his considerable intellect to argument his powers through bionic modifications.
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: He ''thinks'' he's the Manly Man to Adam Sensitive Guy, even revealing to him during the Infinity Trilogy that he always believed Warlock to be "a dandy," but while his rival does spend a lot of time brooding, Thanos is the more overtly emotive and mercurial of the two.
* SerialKiller: In his younger years, mostly as practice for his omnicidal tendencies as an adult.
* SlasherSmile: with shades of SmugSmiler.
* SlidingScaleOfVillainEffectiveness: Thanos is in the High category, as he usually gets portrayed as the biggest and baddest bad of all {{Big Bad}}s in the Marvel Universe. This is ''really'' true when Jim Starlin writes him, as Starlin portrays Thanos as a character who is, for all intents and purposes, unstoppable--except for a ''subconscious'' desire to be defeated.
* SmugSuper: And unfortunately for the cosmos, he has the power and wits to back it up.
* TheSociopath: Apathetically butchered over a hundred people on Titan.
* SpaceElves: The Eternals of Titan tend to fit the trope: Long-lived, scholarly, reclusive, ancient, mystical, powerful and usually robed.
* SpacePirates: Was a member of a crew of them during his youth.
* StableTimeLoop: ''Thanos Annual'' #1 reveals how Thanos survived his crushing defeat at the end of his first encounter with Captain Marvel and the Avengers. It turns out a despondent Thanos was taken to Mephisto's realm and nearly destroyed, only for a future avatar of Thanos (created during the period where he had the Infinity Gauntlet) to arrive and rescue him. The avatar then showed Thanos glimpses of the future and what was in store for him, instilling in him a subconscious drive to rebound from this defeat and set his sights on the Infinity Gems.
* StalkerWithACrush: To Death. The entity even described him as a creepy stalker during the wedding of [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk Rick Jones]].
* StealthMentor: Peter David's Captain Marvel run reveals that Thanos previously attacked Ka-Zar and Thor to actually test them to see if they are good enough to help him in his battle against the death god Walker and he teamed up with Mangog because he wanted to study a being powered by a large number of souls like Walker.
* StoryBreakerPower: You think him with the Infinity Gems was bad? The Heart of the Universe is even worse. The difference between that and the Infinity Gems is minor but huge at the same time as it allowed him to absorb the entire universe into one singularity and then recreate it after having a change of heart.
** [[spoiler: The Astral Regulator is a step beyond even the Heart of Universe, allowing Thanos to absorb The One-Above-All himself and become everything and everyone in existence.]]
* StrawNihilist: He is a nihilist in most incarnations, believing that Life is only suffering and dissapointment while Death is the most honest and peaceful thing there is.
** Thanos is also contradictory regarding being a StrawNihilist because he claims to be a hardcore nihilist and yet he loves Death. He also claims to love Death and calls himself her most humble servant but he has done so many things to defy her for his own personal reason. He's arrogant and postures himself as the greatest but he also has a lot of self-loathing. He's also neither completely a hero or a villain, He’s been the good guy as often as he’s been the bad guy so depending the story he can serve as both.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: Comes with being an eternal who descended from Kronos.
* SuperiorSuccessor: [[spoiler:His son Thane in all respects]]. One hand can [[RealityWarper rewrite reality]]. The other hand can trap anyone in [[AndIMustScream "living death"]] [[spoiler:including Thanos]]. And under the tutelage of [[spoiler:Ebony Maw]], he may very well become a worse monster than Thanos ever was.
* SuperStrength: You better believe it. He destroyed a planet as a ''side effect'' of his battle with Drax, he nearly beat the Silver Surfer to death, and managed to stand up to Odin for a little while before being beaten.
* SuperWeight: A level 5, who has defeated various heavyweights. With the Cosmic Cube he was a Level 6, and with the Infinity Gauntlet a high Level 6. With the Heart of the Universe (which is non-canon by now) he became an even higher Level 6, capable of even absorbing the Living Tribunal.
** [[spoiler: Thanos becomes a full-on Level 7 after absorbing both the Living Tribunal and the One-Above-All in Starlin's last comic, The Infinity Ending.]]
* SuperWheelchair: His space throne is capable of travelling through both space and dimentions has seen in ''Thanos Quest''.
* TakeALevelInBadass: This is practically his gimmick and outside of losing reality warping artifacts like the Infinite Gauntlet, he's typically not subject to PowerCreepPowerSeep. He started life off as an especially powerful Eternal from Titan, albeit a mutant freak version. This just meant he was bigger, stronger and a whole lot uglier than many others from that race. Using bionics and black magic, he became one of the rare Class 100 muscle-men in the Marvel universe. After he got his hands on a Cosmic Cube, he used it to have the strength to match an angry Hulk and his cosmic energy powers and invulnerability went up tremendously. And he never lost this level of power even after getting petrified and losing the Cosmic Cube. Later he becomes an Avatar of Death and gains true immortality (Eternals from Titan just have long life-spans, which is why his dad Mentor looks like a rancid old fart) and a further heightening of all his powers and stats. This largely stuck and allowed him to squish a squad of Thors in the ''Comicbook/SecretWars2015'' comic.
* TakenForGranite: His first death involved him being turned into solid granite by Warlock's spirit.
* {{Telepathy}}: To which offensive degree varies, but his defensive capabilities are almost unmatched. He has casually and repeatedly repelled telepathic assault from powerful psychics such as Moondragon, Mantis or Cosmo, sometimes even simultaneously.
* ThrowTheDogABone: [[spoiler: His decision to sacrifice his existence in order to restore the universe in ''Marvel Universe: The End'' is rewarded with the one thing he has always wanted - a kiss from Mistress Death]].
** Also later in Annihilation when [[spoiler: he gets to be together with Death after being killed by Drax]].
* TokenEvilTeammate: He was briefly part of Adam Warlock's Infinity Watch and was a member of the Secret Defenders for an arc.
* TrojanPrisoner:
** In ''Secret Wars 2015'', he let himself be taken prisoner at the Shield so he could convince Ben Grimm to attack Doctor Doom.
** In ''The Ultimates (2015)'', after his capture at the start of ''Civil War II'', he manipulated Anti-Man into freeing both of them, before trying to kill the team.
* {{Ubermensch}}: He sees himself above good and evil and thinks that everybody would be better off dead.
* 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.
* UnexplainedRecovery: At the end of ''The Thanos Imperative'', Thanos was stuck in a collapsing dead universe. When he reappeared, there was absolutely no explanation as to how he escaped, or indeed any for the next couple of years. It was finally explained during ''Comicbook/OriginalSin''.
* TheUnfettered: Whenever schemes, scruples are never a concern of his.
* UnholyMatrimony: With ComicBook/{{Hela}} as of ''Unworthy Thor #5''. She promises him [[DeathSeeker everything he has ever wanted]] in exchange for him helping her take back [[TheUnderworld her kingdom]] and the two share a passionate kiss.
* UnstoppableRage: Thanos did not take kindly to being resurrected. It took several days, and levelling an entire planet (with a population of several million) beforehand, to calm him down.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Despite his strange appearance, he had a loving father and many friends. He was also sickened when he was first made to dissect something.
* VillainBall: Several times has suffered from this at the verge of absolute victory. Adam Warlock theorized that he let himself be defeated, because [[HannibalLecture subconsciously he found himself unworthy of the absolute power he tried to claim.]]
* VillainousBreakdown: Had several during ''The Thanos Imperative'', mostly because he was unwillingly resurrected and afterwards confronted with a whole {{Eldritch Abomination}}-like universe filled to the brim with what he hates the most: [[DeathSeeker Life]].
* VillainDecay: Thanos was a recurring foe for Captain Mar-Vell and the 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.
** A similar example happened more recently in stories written by Brian Bendis. See InvincibleVillain above.
* 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.
* VillainRespect: He is very respectful of Adam Warlock, to the point of considering him his only friend. He also does this to Captain Mar-Vell and Captain America for their unbending bravery in front of impossible odds.
* [[WalkingTheEarth Walking The Galaxy]]: After Infinity Gauntlet, he's often shown wandering through space when he's not attending his farm. The best example of this is Keith Giffen's Samaritan miniseries that protrays Thanos as a sort of pilgrim.
* [[WhatTheHellHero What The Hell, Villain?]]: During ''ComicBook/TheInfinityCrusade'', Thanos gets called out for allying with Mephisto - not only for Mephisto being a devil (or maybe TheDevil), but because Mephisto already tried to betray Thanos during ''Infinity Gauntlet''. [[spoiler: However, it turns out that [[BatmanGambit Thanos already anticipated exactly how Mephisto would betray him and prepared everything to thwart Mephisto's plans]].]]
* WhereIWasBornAndRazed: One of his major villainous acts was dropping nuclear bombs on his homeworld of Titan.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: It makes it difficult to unite with his one true love - Death.
* WolverinePublicity: After his appearance in the stinger of The Avengers movie, he has been all over the place in comics, with varying degrees of quality. See DependingOnTheWriter above.
* TheWorfEffect: On both the giving and receiving end of this:
** His disembodied spirit blasted Silver Surfer through Death's temple with Surfer commenting that he never felt such power before.
** He manages to make a fool out of the Champion of the Universe, who, in his first appearance, defeated some of Marvel's strongest superheroes in a boxing match.
** He managed to stalemate Tyrant, who previously defeated powerful space heroes like Silver Surfer, Gladiator and Beta-Ray Bill.
** He knocked down Comicbook/{{Galactus}} and his helmet with a hand blast.
** He got reduced to a skeleton by God Emperor Doom in ''Secret Wars (2015)''.
** He gets smacked around by a Hulk-powered Annihilus for a bit in Jim Starlin's graphic novels.
* WouldHitAGirl: He has zero problems with hurting female characters. The most egregious example is when he ripped one of Moondragon's ears.
* XanatosSpeedChess: Is a frequent player of this, especially under Jim Starlin. Usually involves quick changes of alignments (or backstabbing). Even when it backfires, he usually comes out on top (such as during ''Annihilation''. Yes, he got killed, but by that he was finally at Death's side again).
* {{Yandere}}: When ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} got together with Death, Thanos cursed him with full immortality so he'd never see her again.
* YouCantFightFate: See FailureIsTheOnlyOption and HisOwnWorstEnemy above.
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''Who could have guessed that becoming God would prove to be such a hollow victory?''

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