How can you beat Thanos?

Avengers: Infinity War truly shows how powerful Thanos is. The 'Mad Titan' is perhaps one of Marvel's most powerful beings whose powers aren't into the reality warping scale like that of Franklin Richards or Scarlet Witch. This begs the question: how can you beat Thanos? Today we'll answer that question but we'll make it interesting. We won't be using reality warping abilities - we can't just get Molecule Man to turn him into a chocolate teapot or Scarlet Witch to teleport him to the surface of the sun. We'll also be basing our version of Thanos from the Earth-616 (the mainstream) universe in a pitched battle. 

What are Thanos' powers?

Thanos defeating Thor

Even before he wielded the Infinity Gauntlet Thanos was, and still is, extremely powerful. The Nova Corps even counts him as a Category 1 Life Ender, something he ended up actually doing in the Infinity Gauntlet story. Thanos is a Deviant Titanian, a mutated member of the Titanians from Titan, which gave him enhanced abilities to an already powerful species. Titanians already had enhanced endurance, strength, speed, and agility and as a Deviant these abilities were amplified. As a result Thanos can move at fairly quick speeds despite his immense size, (quite paradoxically his reflexes are actually average for a member of his species), and withstand intense pressure. In Infinity #4 Thanos stood against Black Bolt shouting - to show how powerful this is a whisper from Black Bolt can cause powerful earthquakes. Thanos even was hit by Thor who was wielding the Power Stone and just got a nosebleed! He has intelligence to match his physical abilities as well. His mind is perhaps his most powerful weapon. Thanos is extremely intelligent, most of the ships and devices he uses he made himself, and his intelligence passes that of Earth's smartest heroes, like Bruce Banner. He is a skilled tactician as well. Mid-battle Thanos can form expert plans to change how he fights. Thanos is also a telepath, can manipulate matter and energy, and may even be able to use magic. Overall, even without the Infinity Stones Thanos is extremely powerful.

Thanos has minions as well. For our case study we'll focus on the ones shown in the new movie: the Black Order. A while back I looked at the Black Order here and I would recommend reading it to just know their powers, I will go over some of their abilities later though. Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Black Dwarf, Ebony Maw and Supergiant (who is not featured in the movie) are all powerful individually and can prove to be a huge challenge before we even get to Thanos.

Fighting Thanos

Corvus Glaive about to kill Hulk

Thanos has been beaten and killed several times - once even against Squirrel Girl but we'll ignore that as she's an intentionally jokey character. First we'll have to defeat the Black Order. For this scenario we'll have to fight the Order and then Thanos although the best way to be to eliminate the Order beforehand and even then individually. The best way to do this would be to eliminate the two non-fighting members of the order: Supergiant and Ebony Maw. Supergiant is a powerful telepath being able to control several individuals at once and even consume their mind; meanwhile, Ebony Maw can manipulate minds and even manipulated Dr Strange into releasing the demonic Shuma-Gorath into the world. For reference it should be impossible to manipulate Strange's mind. These two can defeat our heroes before we even get to Thanos. An easy solution to this is to get someone like Hawkeye to put an arrow through their eyes, or get Cyclops to render them unconscious although these are unlikely to work. Instead we'll have to use magic and telepaths. Dr Strange, Professor X, Jean Grey and Emma Frost can be used to distract these two and then we may be able to get someone like Hawkeye in if possible. Despite their intense mental abilities they are mortal - Supergiant was blown up with bombs for example. Black Dwarf is quite simple to beat. He can be described as the Black Order's version of the Hulk or the Thing. He is slow and his head is a weak spot. In Infinity Black Dwarf was defeated by Black Panther and the Dora Milaje so we can simply use them. Like with Maw and Supergiant Glaive and Midnight will be difficult. At the end of Infinity the two for a while, (and with little input from Thanos), held their ground against the Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Captain Marvel and Hyperion (Marvel's version of Superman). In the end they didn't really defeat Midnight - both she and Thanos were betrayed by Maw and that is how they were defeated. To defeat these two we just need one thing: luck. Midnight's spear never misses a target and through sheer luck in Infinity it hit Captain America's shield which made it rebound and hit Glaive. This in turn gave Hyperion an opening to vaporize Glaive. We would to hopefully replicate that ideally hitting Midnight instead. The final one would still be a challenge but would be far easier to defeat - ideally if Maw or Supergiant (or both) were taken out the ones fighting them could intervene or could distract Thanos.

Now for Thanos. He can be beaten in physical combat but it is very difficult. With his strength, speed, agility and intelligence on top of his energy/matter manipulation it will be a challenge to personally fight him. It would take several heroes working together to take him down and even then there would have to be a mix. Strong, heavy hitting characters like Captain Marvel, Thor and Hulk would be needed, agile characters like Spider-Man, and telepaths/magic users like Dr Strange and Emma Frost. Thanos has a regenerative ability but it is not as powerful as that of the Hulk or Wolverine. During Annihilation Drax actually tore out his heart which killed him. We would need to do that but how we do that is difficult. Drax only managed to kill Thanos as he was distracted and Thanos was defeated during Infinity as at last minute he was betrayed and frozen in an amber like substance. Someone like Dr Strange would have to cast a spell to make it appear that someone, like Wolverine, has been defeated so Thanos would not be expecting them to fight back. Then when Thanos is fighting someone like Captain Marvel our surprise hero can spring out and land the blow. However, they would have one shot to do this. Despite not being an efficient regenerative ability it is still a powerful one so whoever does strike Thanos would have to make sure that they could hit the heart, brain or even decapitate him. Wolverine could be a good option; in an alternate reality What if? story Wolverine did cut of his arm. Wolverine has a chance of decapitating Thanos or cutting through his heart. Similarly, Captain Marvel could possibly punch her way through his body to get to his heart. It is difficult to do but not impossible.

Drax killing Thanos

What if Thanos had the Infinity Gauntlet?

Everything would change if Thanos had the Gauntlet and the simple answer is this: you don't beat him. During Infinity Gauntlet when Earth's remaining heroes go to fight Thanos he demolishes them: Wolverine's bones are turned to rubber, Thor is turned to glass, Captain America is killed by a backhand, Scarlet Witch's hex is reversed onto her, and Cyclops is suffocated when a glass block is placed over his head. Thanos' one hubris is the thing to bring him down. After the defeat of the heroes the Cosmic Entities including Marvel's devil Mephisto, the world-consuming Galactus, and the embodiment of Love all went to face Thanos and were turned to stone. One such beings was Eternity, the living embodiment of the universe, and with Eternity gone Thanos decided to become the new embodiment which meant that his soul left his mortal body. Nebula (currently in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie) then obtained the Gauntlet and reversed all that Thanos did. You do not defeat Thanos, you let him create his own weakness.

Thank you for reading. If people like this post I'll do others about how you defeat other comic book characters. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or get me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Comics Explained: Thanos

Thanos

Earlier this week the trailer for Avengers: Infinity War was released and one character is on everyone's lips: Thanos. Thanos has had a long history in Marvel and is one of the most powerful villains alongside figures such as Galactus. For this post we'll look at the real world origins of Thanos and go through some of the key stories which has shaped the character's history.

Real World Origins

Jim Starlin, Thanos' creator

Thanos was created by Jim Starlin for The Invincible Iron Man #55 in February 1973. Starlin originally thought up Thanos during a psychology class following him leaving the US military. He said:

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.

He has also commented why Roy Thomas wanted Thanos to be beefed up. Starlin was a fan of Jack Kirby's New Gods over at DC and really liked the design of Metron. Thanos was drawn and conceptualized to be like Metron: he would be superintelligent, sit in a chair, be thin, and be omnipotent. While Thanos would have these design traits Thomas said 'Beef him up! If you're going to steal one of the New Gods, at least rip off Darkseid, the really good one!' Thus, Thanos had the design which we know today. Although appearing in The Invincible Iron Man #55 it was not a proper appearance; he only appeared in a flashback. In this story two aliens, named the Blood Brothers, captured Iron Man, send him to Thanos' desert base on Earth, and later teamed up with Drax the Destroyer (who also made his debut) to destroy the base. 

Invincible Iron Man #55

Just a month later Thanos made his first physical appearance in Marvel in Captain Marvel #25-33 by Starlin and writer Mike Friedrich. In this series of comics Captain Mar-Vell faced his own friends who turned out to be Skrulls. However, the Skrulls turn out to be working for the mysterious 'Masterlord' who turned out to be Thanos. 

Origins

Thanos' origins has been explored throughout his publication history, but most of what we know is found in 2013's Thanos Rising. Thanos came from Saturn's moon of Titan, and Titans are a member of the race known as Eternals. Thanos, however, is the Titan equivalent to Earth's mutants as he had the 'Deviant Syndrome' which made his skin a different color, act like hide, and made him abnormally strong. His mother even tried to kill him as an infant out of disgust showing how intense the stigma against 'Deviants' was. In contrast his brother Eros did not have the Deviant Syndrome. While Eros was carefree, womanizing, fun-loving Thanos was quiet, morose, and nihilistic. Through social exclusion Thanos could only play with Eros as a child and his one attempt at making friends ended in tragedy when they were killed in a cave-in for which he was blamed. Thanos started delving into dark arts and nihilism which brought him into contact with Mistress Death. Death is embodied in a female form, most often skeletal, and Thanos fell in love with her. Experiencing love for the first time Thanos wished to prove himself worthy to Death so augmented himself in order to seize political power and bring destruction. 

Thanos created an armada bringing death and destruction to the universe in order to woo Death. He performed some of the most unspeakable crimes on the worlds which he destroyed, including rape. Some of the people he raped were made pregnant by Thanos and years later he sought out his children to murder them, something which became part of the plot for Infinity. In Captain Marvel #29 it is revealed that Thanos returned to Titan and ravaged the moon killing 100 Eternals, including his mother. In order to enhance his powers he sought out a Cosmic Cube, called the Tesseract in the Marvel movies. Unlike the movies, there are multiple Cosmic Cubes and exist independently from the Infinity Stones. As a Cosmic Cube existed on Earth this is why Thanos came into contact with the Avengers.

Infinity Saga

Infinity Gauntlet

Thanos had been killed during the events of Avengers Annual #7 in 1977 but was resurrected in 1990's Silver Surfer Vol. 3 #34. In this story Silver Surfer encounters the spirit of Thanos whom Death plans to resurrect to 'correct an imbalance in the multiverse.' Thanos takes up Death's request and in order to correct this 'imbalance' he must wipe out half of all life in the universe. To achieve this goal he sought out the Infinity Gems (please see here to see their power). This is the plot to The Thanos Quest where he scours the universe searching for the Infinity Gems in order to become Death's equal. However, at the end he is angered to find that with the Gems he is not actually Death's equal, he is in fact her superior. With his quest successful this brings us to 1991's The Infinity Gauntlet. Upon immediately placing the Gems in his tailor made Infinity Gauntlet with a snap of his fingers Thanos wipes out half of all life in the universe. This even includes the Fantastic Four, most of the X-Men and Daredevil. He causes disasters on Earth as well including having the USA's West coast and Japan fall into the sea. When the heroes go to fight Thanos he fully utilizes the immense power of the Infinity Gems used in conjunction. He made a partner named Terraxia to make Death jealous who decapitates Iron Man and beats Spider-Man to death. Thanos himself backhands Captain America snapping his neck; disembowels Vision; disintegrates Quasar; turns Nova into Lego; suffocates She-Hulk, Namor and Cyclops in various ways; implodes Cloak; and turns Thor into glass.

Thanos turns Wolverine's bones to rubber

Eventually the Cosmic Entities including Galactus and the embodiment of the universe itself, Eternity, all come together to take down Thanos, only to be turned to stone. With Eternity destroyed the universe required a new embodiment and as the most powerful figure Thanos takes this role. However, to do so he left his physical body behind with the Infinity Gauntlet. Nebula, who you may recognize from Guardians of the Galaxy, takes hold of the Gauntlet and reverses all of Thanos' actions. The story ends with Thanos deciding to become a peaceful farmer as Adam Warlock claims the Gauntlet for himself. In the sequel, Infinity War, Thanos plays a smaller role (despite the title of the upcoming movie). Adam uses the Gems to purge the good and evil out of him to become a totally logical being in order to use the Gauntlet wisely. However, doing this enables his evil side to become personified accidentally in the form of the Magus who obtains Cosmic Cubes to create doppelgangers of various characters, including Thanos. This brings Thanos out of his farm life and into the fight. Finally, there is the Infinity Crusade where Adam's good half, called the Goddess, decides to attack Thanos after using Cosmic Cubes to create her own superhero army. 

Annhilation and After

One of the last major stories which we're going to focus on is Annihilation. In this story the leader of the Negative Zone, (an antimatter universe), called Annihilus invaded the mainstream universe. Thanos decided to ally with Annihilus wishing to see how the universe would be changed by such a radical shift. Thanos would capture Galactus whom Annihilus would use to power his Annihilation Wave (Annihilus' army). However, Thanos found out that Annihilus never wished to conquer the universe: he merely wished to destroy all life in the Negative Zone and the mainstream universe. He decided to release Galactus but many opposed this - after all Galactus does consume planets for energy. As a result Drax the Destroyer was forced to punch through his chest ripping out his heart. Finally Thanos was dead.

Drax kills Thanos

However, Thanos would later be resurrected in 2010's The Thanos Imperative. Thanos was resurrected by Death for an unknown reason until another universe invades the mainstream universe. We find out that Thanos has become the avatar of Death while the one leading the invasion is the avatar of Life, Captain Mar-Vell. In this universe death has been vanquished and now life has become rampant like a cancer, hence its name of the Cancerverse. Mar-Vell now wanted to spread life throughout all realities. Thanos pretended to surrender to Mar-Vell only to run him through with a sword which summons Death. However, Thanos became enraged when Death spurned his advances. The Cancerverse started collapsing now that Death had returned so Star Lord and Nova remained in the Cancerverse to trap Thanos. Later the three would return to the mainstream universe through various means. Since then Thanos has been a semi-recurrent antagonist with him briefly courting Hela, the Nordic goddess of Death.

Reading List

For anyone wanting to read some key Thanos related stories here's a brief list:

-The Invincible Iron Man #55

-Captain Marvel #25-33

-The Death of Captain Marvel

-Avengers Annual #7

-Silver Surfer Vol. 3 #34

-The Thanos Quest

-Infinity Gauntlet

-Infinity War

-Infinity Crusade

-Infinity

-Annihilation

-Deadpool vs. Thanos

-The Thanos Imperative

Thank you for reading. For future blog posts we have a Facebook or you can catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. Feel free to leave a comment and I hope you enjoyed this post.

Comics Explained: The Infinity Gauntlet and Infinity Stones

The Infinity Gauntlet and the Infinity Gems

Since The Avengers the Infinity Stones (called Infinity Gems in the comics) and the Infinity Gauntlet have been teased throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Thor we see a right-handed Gauntlet in Odin's vault, they were first properly seen in Guardians of the Galaxy, in Avengers: Age of Ultron Thanos is seen wearing the left-handed gauntlet, and the recently leaked trailer for Avengers: Infinity War (which has now been taken down) shows Thanos using it. In the comics and movies the Infinity Gems are the most powerful items in the universe granting the wielder powers which can literally shape the universe. Today we'll look at the Gems and the Gauntlet.

The Infinity Gems

The Six Gems

The Infinity Gems first appeared in Marvel Premier #1 in 1972 where they were initially referred to as Soul Gems. There Adam Warlock was reborn by the 'Soul Gem' being fused to his forehead in the same way that Vision was created in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The Gems were created when the cosmic being Nemesis commit suicide whose energy was dissipated into the Gems. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe created their own backstory for them in Guardians of the Galaxy where the Collector explains that they are six singularities that existed prior to the Big Bang, and were compressed when the universe began. A very good Nerdist video, (please see here), theorizes that inside the Gems are small black holes. The first group/people to bring the six Gems together were the Elders of the Universe, a group comprising of the last members of powerful species, in order to destroy the world eating Galactus and then recreate the universe. This was to ensure that they would be the oldest and most powerful beings in the universe, (Galactus was the last survivor of a universe which was destroyed before the Marvel universe was created). In 1990's The Thanos Quest they are referred to as 'Infinity Gems' for the first time where Thanos beats the Elders one by one until he could obtain all six Gems. This acted as a prelude to The Infinity Gauntlet where Thanos created the Gauntlet in order to wield all the Gems at once which gives him so much power that with a snap of his fingers half the universe dies and allowed him briefly to supplant a being called Eternity as the embodiment of the universe. Currently five of the Gems were destroyed when Captain America used them to stop a parallel version of Earth from crashing into the main Earth. The only one which was not destroyed vanished. Now let's look at what each Gem does.

Mind Gem

Mind Gem

The Mind Gem gives the wielder the ability to control the minds of others. For a non-psychic person it grants the wielder the ability to use psychic powers whereas it augments the psychic abilities of someone who has those powers. These powers include telepathy, telekinesis and feel empathy for other beings. When used in conjunction with the other Gems the Mind Gem can link the wielder with the minds of every being in the universe at once. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe the Mind Gem was located in Loki's scepter, which he used to control people, and was later used by Ultron to create Vision.

Power Gem

Power Gem

The Power Gem gives the user the ability to use all the energy that exists in the universe, (and by default all energy that will ever exist), and can give the wielder enhanced strength or durability. Of course this depends on how much the user draws from the Mind Gem. Through this it allows the user to replicate any superhuman ability therefore making anyone who can properly use it practically invincible. When used with the other Gems it can drastically enhance the abilities of the other Gems. In the MCU the Power Gem was the first of the Gems to be formally introduced (although the color of the Gem/Stone was changed), in Guardians of the Galaxy where Ronan wished to use it to destroy Xandar. It now remains with the Nova Corps. 

Time Gem

Time Gem

The Time Gem, in my opinion, is the second most powerful Gem. This Gem has the ability to travel through time, slow down/speed up time, accelerate or slow down ageing, and see through time itself. This includes the future where the wielder can possibly see multiple possibly future timelines. When used with the other five Gems it can allow the user to exist in every point in time. When the other five Gems were destroyed the Time Gem was the only one not to be destroyed. In the movies the Time Gem is currently located inside the Eye of Agamotto where Doctor Stephen Strange used it to trap Dormammu inside a time loop. In the comics the Time Gem and Eye of Agamotto are two separate items. Quite likely Kevin Feige wished to reduce the number of powerful objects in the MCU so the final battle with Thanos would be a lot less equal. 

Space Gem

Space Gem

The Space Gem allows the wielder to manipulate space anyway the user sees fit. This is largely done my manipulating the motion and trajectory of objects. However, the most common use is teleportation. At its full potential the Space Gem can alter the Laws of Physics allowing the wielder to appear in several places at once and even change the distance between two or more objects. In the MCU the Space Gem was located inside the Tesseract, called the Cosmic Cube in the comics, which served as the main McGuffin in Captain America: First Avenger and The Avengers. Currently in the movies it is located in Asgard.

Soul Gem

Soul Gem

The Soul Gem was the Gem given to Adam Warlock to grant his rebirth. This Gem allows the wielder to basically manipulate the soul of another being. This involves the user being able to see the soul of another being, attack or even steal their soul. It can even revert beings to their original state. For example, in the comics Adam Warlock came into conflict with an artificially created group of humanoid animals called the New Men. He uses this to revert them to their pre-evolved animal forms. Unlike the other Gems the Soul Gem is sentient and actively desires the souls of other beings. As it steals souls it desires further souls. Currently the Soul Gem is the only one not to appear in the MCU and could likely appear in Thor: Ragnarok although we don't fully know yet.

Reality Gem

Reality Gem

The Reality Gem is, in my opinion, the most powerful of the six Infinity Gems. This Gem allows the user to change the very fabric of reality regardless if it breaks all laws of physics and logic. If someone wants two plus two to equal five it can do that, if they want black to be white it can do that. Regardless of the absurdity or impossibility of the request it can do it. To give you some perspective resurrecting the dead is a minor task for the Reality Gem. More powerful wielders can even create entirely new alternate realities immediately. In the MCU the Reality Gem is referred to as 'the Aether' which instead converts matter to anti-matter and vice versa. At the end of Thor: The Dark World the Asgardians took it to the Collector but after the events of Guardians of the Galaxy it's fate is unknown.

Infinity Gauntlet

The Gauntlet

The Infinity Gauntlet first appeared in Silver Surfer Vol. 3 #44 in 1990. Thanos created the Infinity Gauntlet as a way for him to wield all six Infinity Gems at once and fully utilize their power. During the Siege event, where the Green Goblin who was then leading a warped version of SHIELD attacked Asgard, Tony Stark became the first human to use the Infinity Gauntlet. After the first use of the Infinity Gauntlet, and Thanos' defeat, a being named the Living Tribunal declared that the Infinity Gems should never be used in conjunction. The Living Tribunal is a cosmic entity who exists outside the universe monitoring all realities in the Multiverse enforcing balance whose power dwarfs that of the Infinity Gauntlet. However, Thanos managed to get the Living Tribunal to reverse this decision. When the five Gems were destroyed the Gauntlet went with them.

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