There’s never been a better time to catch up on the Mad Titan’s history!
The surprise appearance of Thanos at the end of last summersAvengersfilm caused something amazing to happen.
Thanos was created by Jim Starlin, in, of all places a Psychology class.
Inspired by ideas of repressed anger and obsession, Starlin doodled images of Thanos and Drax in his notebook.
Early in his career he was asked to fill in onIron Man#55.
What started as a lift from Kirby soon became something wholly unique.
Thanos name is derived from the Greek idea of Thanatos, the personification of death and oblivion.
Thanos would soon live up to his ominous moniker.
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Starlin tapped into one of Kirbys lesser known creations in constructing Thanos origin.
Thanos is a descendant of an offshoot of Kirbys Eternals.
Thanos was born with the Deviant metagene, effectively making him a mutant in his advanced culture.
With feelings of ostracism, Thanos became an outcast, and soon met the physical manifestation of Death.
Death became his mentor and set him on a path of rage and destruction.
Thanos was exiled from Titan because of forbidden and vile experimentation and quickly turned his thoughts to revenge.
Mentor and Eros escaped.
(Speculator ALERT!)
He was in love with Death and obsessed with the idea of oblivion.
At this point, Starlin and company added a little wrinkle to Thanos.
He always left the heroes an opening to defeat him.
Readers were challenged by a villain who was self-destructive and violent but in calm and controlled ways.
The heroes and their engrained altruism served as a perfect counterbalance to Thanos hopeless universal viewpoint.
Already with Warlock was Pip the Troll and Gamora, a deadly assassin already established as Thanoss adoptive daughter.
Gamora added another wrinkle and connection to Thanoss growingly complex character.
Who knew the random placement of Thanos inIron Man#55 would yield so much?
Gamora is killed and Pip is lobotomized before they can warn Warlock.
Alone, Warlock must turn to the Avengers and Captain Marvel.
Warlock was trapped in the Soul gem, but freed by Spider-Man.
Warlock turned Thanos to stone before returning to the gem.
Fans didnt see Thanos again for 25 years, but they remembered him.
He became legendary figure of villainy in the Marvel Universe.
When Thanos appeared, readers knew it was important.
TheInfinity Gauntletis the story that defined Thanos for a legion of new readers.
He also succeeds, in unforgettable fashion, in killing almost every Marvel hero.
This was Thanoss greatest moment, but not his last.
Thanos was everywhere now, which took a bit of the edge off the character.
Familiarity breeds contempt, particularly in a fickle marketplace.
Thanos led a team of Secret Defenders for three issues consisting of Rhino, Titanium Man, and Nitro.
At this time, all things cosmic were abandoned by Marvel until the right creative voices could be found.
This voice was delivered by the writing duo of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and their brainchild,Annihilation.
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