Thanos is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

The character, created by writer/artist Jim Starlin, first appeared in The Invincible Iron Man #55
(cover dated February 1973). Thanos is one of the most powerful villains in the Marvel Universe and
has clashed with many heroes including the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Fantastic
Four, and the X-Men.
The character appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, portrayed by Damion Poitier in The
Avengers (2012) and by Josh Brolin in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of
Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019) through voice and
motion capture. The character has also appeared in various comic adaptations, including animated
television series and video games.

Origin
Writer-artist Jim Starlin originally conceived of Thanos of Titan during college psychology classes.
As Starlin described:
I went to college between doing U.S. military service and getting work in comics, and there was a
psych class and I came up with Thanos ... and Drax the Destroyer, but I'm not sure how he fit into it,
just anger management probably. So I came up to Marvel, and editor Roy Thomas asked if I wanted
to do an issue of Iron Man. I felt that this may be my only chance ever to do a character, not having
the confidence that my career was going to last anything longer than a few weeks. So they got
jammed into it. Thanos was a much thinner character and Roy suggested beefing him up, so he's
beefed up quite a bit from his original sketches ... and later on I liked beefing him up so much that he
continued to grow in size.[1]
Starlin has admitted the character's look was influenced by Jack Kirby's Darkseid:
Kirby had done the New Gods, which I thought was terrific. He was over at DC at the time. I came up
with some things that were inspired by that. You'd think that Thanos was inspired by Darkseid, but
that was not the case when I showed up. In my first Thanos drawings, if he looked like anybody, it
was Metron. I had all these different gods and things I wanted to do, which became Thanos and the
Titans. Roy took one look at the guy in the Metron-like chair and said: "Beef him up! If you're going to
steal one of the New Gods, at least rip off Darkseid, the really good one!"[2]

Publication history
Thanos' first appearance was in The Invincible Iron Man #55 (February 1973), featuring a story by
Jim Starlin that was co-scripted by Mike Friedrich. The storyline from that issue continued
through Captain Marvel #25–33 (bi-monthly: March 1973 – Jan. 1974), Marvel Feature #12 (Nov.
1973), Daredevil #107 (Jan. 1974), and Avengers #125 (July 1974). He returned in an extended
storyline that spanned Strange Tales #178–181 (Feb.–Aug. 1975), Warlock #9-11 (Oct. 1975 – Jan.
1976), Marvel Team Up #55 (March 1977), and the 1977 Annuals for Avengers and Marvel Two-in-
One (Thanos does not actually appear until the end of Warlock #9). He was also featured in a short
backup story in Logan's Run #6 (June 1977) and had a small role in the Death of Captain
Marvel graphic novel (April 1982).
The character was revived in Silver Surfer vol. 3, #34 (Feb. 1990) and guest-starred until issue #59
(November 1991), while simultaneously appearing in The Thanos Quest #1–2 (Sept.–Oct. 1990)
and The Infinity Gauntlet #1–6 (July–Dec. 1991). After an appearance in Spider-Man #17 (Dec.
1991), Thanos had a recurring role in Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1–42 (Feb. 1992 – Aug.
1995). This was followed by crossover appearances in Infinity War #1–6 (June – Nov. 1992), Infinity
Crusade #1–6 (June – Nov. 1993), Silver Surfer vol. 3, #86–88 (Nov. 1993 – Jan. 1994), Warlock
Chronicles #6–8, Thor #468–471 (Nov. 1993 – Feb. 1994), Namor The Sub-Mariner #44 (Nov.
1993), Secret Defenders #11–14 (Jan.–April 1994), Cosmic Powers #1–6 (March–July 1994),
and Cosmic Powers Unlimited #1 (May 1995).
Thanos appeared in a connected storyline in Ka-Zar vol. 2, #4–11 (Aug. 1997 – March 1998), Ka-Zar
Annual (1997), and the X-Man and Hulk Annual (1998), before featuring in Thor vol. 2, #21–25
(March–July 2000) and the 2000 Annual. The character was next used in Captain Marvel vol. 4,
#17–19 (June–Aug. 2001), Avengers: Celestial Quest #1–8 (Nov. 2001 – June 2002), Infinity
Abyss #1–6 (Aug.–Oct. 2002) and Marvel: The End #1–6 (May–Aug 2003).
In 2004 Thanos received an eponymous title that ran for 12 issues. In 2006, the character played an
important role in Annihilation: Silver Surfer #1–4 (June – Sept. 2006) and Annihilation #1–6 (Oct.
2006 – March 2007). The character was re-introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, #24–25
(April–May 2010) and played a major role in The Thanos Imperative: Ignition (June 2010) and The
Thanos Imperative #1–6 (July–Dec. 2010).
The character returned in Avengers Assemble #1 (March 2012).[3] A mini-series titled Thanos: Son of
Titan by Joe Keatinge was planned for publication in August 2012, but was cancelled.[4]
The character's origin was expanded in the five-issue Thanos Rising miniseries by Jason
Aaron and Simone Bianchi which was published monthly beginning in April 2013.[5] Later that same
year, Thanos played a central role in the Infinity miniseries written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn
by Jim Cheung, Jerome Opeña, and Dustin Weaver.
In May 2014, Jim Starlin and Ron Lim worked together on the one-shot Thanos Annual, which is a
prelude to a new trilogy of original graphic novels. The first, Thanos: The Infinity Revelation, was
released the following August.[6][7] Beginning in February 2015, Starlin also penned a four-issue
miniseries titled Thanos vs. Hulk, which was set prior to the graphic novels. The second installment
in the trilogy, Thanos: The Infinity Relativity, was released in June, 2015.[8] The third graphic
novel, Thanos: The Infinity Finale, as well as the connected mini-series The Infinity Entitywere
published in 2016.[9]
At the same time Starlin was writing these graphic novels and tie-ins, the character also appeared
in New Avengers #23–24 (Oct–Nov 2014),[10] Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, #18–20 (Oct–Dec
2014), Legendary Star-Lord #4 (Dec 2014), a six-issue miniseries titled Thanos: A God Up There
Listening (Dec 2014), Avengers vol. 5, #40–41 (Mar–Apr 2015), and Deadpool vol. 3, #45 ("#250")
(Jun 2015). Thanos also played a major role in the five-issue miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet vol. 2,
(July 2015 – Jan 2016), a tie-in of the cross-over Secret Wars (2015).

Fictional character biography

Thanos was born on Saturn's moon Titan as the son of Eternals A'lars and Sui-San; his brother
is Eros of Titan. Thanos carries the Deviants gene, and as such, shares the physical appearance of
the Eternals' cousin race. Shocked by his appearance and the belief that he would destroy all life in
the universe, Sui-San attempted to kill him, but she was stopped by A'lars. During his school years,
Thanos was a pacifist[11] and would only play with his brother Eros and pets. By adolescence, Thanos
had become fascinated with nihilism and death, worshipping and eventually falling in love with the
physical embodiment of death, Mistress Death.[12] As an adult, Thanos augmented his physical
strength and powers through his superior scientific knowledge. He also attempted to create a new
life for himself by siring many children as well as becoming a pirate. He finds no fulfillment in either
until he is visited again by Mistress Death, for whom he murders his offspring and his pirate
captain.[13]

Cosmic Cube and Infinity Gems

Wishing to impress Mistress Death, Thanos gathers an army of villainous aliens and begins a
nuclear bombardment of Titan that kills millions of his race.[14] Seeking universal power in the form of
the Cosmic Cube, Thanos travels to Earth. Prior to landing, his vessel destroys a nearby car as a
family witnesses his arrival.[15] Unbeknownst to Thanos, two of the family members in the vehicle
survive: the father's spirit is preserved by the Titanian cosmic entity Kronos and is given a new form
as Drax the Destroyer while the daughter is found by Thanos' father, Mentor, and is raised to
become the heroine Moondragon. Thanos eventually locates the Cube, and also attracts the
attention of Mistress Death. Willing the Cube to make him omnipotent, Thanos then discards the
Cube. He imprisons Kronos and taunts Kree hero Captain Marvel, who, with the aid of superhero
team the Avengers and ISAAC (a super-computer based on Titan), is eventually able to defeat
Thanos by destroying the Cube.[16]
Thanos later comes to the aid of Adam Warlock in a war against the Magus and his religious empire.
During the process, he ends up adopting Gamora in order to use her as his assassin and kill Adam
Warlock before becoming Magus.[17][18] During this alliance Thanos cultivates a plan to reunite with
Mistress Death, and secretly siphons off the energies of Warlock's Soul Gem, combining these with
the power of the other Infinity Gems to create a weapon capable of destroying a star. Warlock
summons the Avengers and Captain Marvel to stop Thanos, although the plan is foiled when Thanos
kills Warlock. The Titan regroups and captures the heroes, who are freed by Spider-Man and
the Thing. Thanos is finally stopped by Warlock, whose spirit emerges from the Soul Gem and turns
the Titan to stone.[14][19] Thanos's spirit eventually reappears to accompany a dying Captain Marvel's
soul into the realm of Death.[20]