Thanos Facts

Are you a fan of The Mad Titan? Well, we got One Dozen Thanos Facts!

1. Thanos' creator Jim Starlin originally came up with Thanos during a psychology class in college. He intended on the character being lean and similar to Jack Kirby's New Gods character Metron, but editor Roy Thomas urged Starlin to beef him up like Darksied. Starlin not only wrote Thanos' most character defining stories, but also wrote issues of Captain Marvel, Adam Warlock, and Silver Surfer, making him one of the many contributors to Marvel's cosmic stories.

2. Ironically, due to Thanos being so similar to DC's Darksied, Starlin created a Superman villain for DC Comics in 1980 named Mongul. Mongul is a muscular, imposing galactic warlord who fancies himself a God.

3. Thanos' father is named Mentor, and he is an Eternal. The Eternals were a race of human-like beings created by The Celestials to safeguard Earth. Despite this, Mentor and his family lived on Saturn's Moon, Titan. Mentor was responsible for the creation of Drax The Destroyer, as he was a human on Earth killed by Thanos. Mentor put the man's soul inside an indestructible alien body and began Drax's mission of vengeance. Mentor's wife Sui-San was also an Eternal, but Thanos was born with The Deviant Gene, essentially a mutation among Eternals which causes various physical and psychological admiralties.

4. Thanos chose his own name after becoming a cosmic criminal, originally his name was Dione. Recent versions of Thanos' backstory have stated his name "was going to be" Dione.

5. Thanos' brother is the Eternal Eros, also known as the superhero Starfox. Not to be confused with the video game series by Nintendo. Starfox's Eternal powers allow him to manipulate pheromones. This has allowed Eros to charm many women over his life, weasel his way out of fights, and, accidentally, gift Thanos his love of death. When Thanos and Eros were children, Thanos accidentally killed his pet. Seeing Thanos' sadness and frustration, Eros mistakingly used his pheromone powers to make Thanos love the concept of death so he wouldn't feel bad. This event led to Thanos' deadly fascination with death.

6. In his efforts to wed Mistress Death, Thanos has killed countless people, used the power of The Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out half the life in the universe, and even earn himself an immunity to dying. However, he was gifted immortality by Mistress Death herself so that he would never be eternally bound to her. For a time, when he was dead, he served as a guide to the afterlife. Thanos helped the original Captain Marvel find his way to death when Cap died of cancer, and he almost pulled Spider-Man to the other side when a canister of gas almost killed Spidey.

7. Despite his advanced, Mistress Death has had closer romantic relationships with the likes of Wolverine and Deadpool. The latter led to a miniseries called "Deadpool vs Thanos". Thanos has also co-starred in similar series like "Thor vs Thanos" and "Hulk vs Thanos".

8. During "Infinity War" Thanos is cloned by Adam Warlock's evil future-self The Magus. Years later, when Squirrel Girl defeated Thanos in a one-on-one battle, Uatu The Watcher showed up and made it a point to tell her that was the real Thanos and not a clone.

9. In the universe of "Earth X" Thanos used The Ultimate Nullifier to destroy Mistress Death for tricking him. In the "Ultimate Universe" Thanos is the father of Ronan The Accuser and rules many planets. In the story mode of "Marvel vs Capcom Infinite" Thanos uses a machine created by the heroes to absorb the dark energy called Satsui no Hado from Street Fighter's Ryu and, in the end credits, uses the Gahodouken to attack Mistress Death.

10. Thanos' experience as a space pirate has given him the leaderships skills necessary to successfully work with Earth's heroes on rare occasions, lead groups of villains, and put together his own team of intergalactic criminals called The Black Order. They originally consisted of Black Dwarf (their muscle), Corvus Glaive (their general), Ebony Maw (their strategist), Proxima Midnight (their hand-to-hand specialist), and Supergiant (their mind-controller). In the MCU, this original team (with the exception of Supergiant) are the children of Thanos. Thanos' other kin include his adopted/kidnapped daughters Gamora and Nebula. Thanos' last born son is Thane, the child of Thanos and an unnamed Inhuman. Thane himself is an Inhuman who was gifted with the ability to heal people, but after exposure to Terrigen Mist he found one hand could render someone in a state of "living death" by trapping them in amber (which he did to his father once) and the other could alter reality. Thane has also obtained the powers of The Phoenix Force for a short time.

11. In a series called "Spidey" from the 1970's, Spider-Man and Hellcat defeat Thanos in New York before he obtains a Cosmic Cube. This story also featured the one-and-done vehicle for Thanos called The Thanoscopter. A yellow helicopter with Thanos' name on the side.

12. In 2010's "Thanos Imperative", Thanos is sought out by The Guardians of The Galaxy and an alternate universe version of Captain Marvel named Lord Mar-Vell. Lord Mar-Vell comes from The Cancerverse where Death is nonexistent and the universe suffers from an overpopulation of life. Mar-Vell wants to kill Thanos because of some prophecy stating Mar-Vell is the avatar of life and Thanos is the avatar of death. The Guardians try to bring Thanos into the Cancerverse so that his connection to death can slowly kill off everyone in the Cancerverse, but Thanos surrenders during a fight with Mar-Vell so that he can be killed. Mistress Death appears after Thanos is killed, but his death triggers the slow destruction of the Cancerverse. Thanos expects Mistress Death to be impressed by his plan, but she still rejects him. Thanos is revived and he and Nova remain in the Cancerverse until the universe is destroyed.

Thanks for reading!

What would you do with an Infinity Gauntlet?