Thanos is a villainous character from Marvel Comics who also serves as a major antagonist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A mighty intergalactic warlord, Thanos has committed countless atrocities across the galaxy, invading and conquering many worlds. With each planet, he slaughters half the population, proclaiming that these genocidal acts are done in the name of bringing balance to the universe. Considering the resources of the universe to be finite, Thanos believes that populations need to be kept in check, preventing overpopulation and the extinction of all life through over-consumption of resources leading to starvation. Because of this philosophy, most beings throughout the cosmos fear and despise Thanos, dubbing him the Mad Titan.
Thanos has been portrayed throughout the MCU by Josh Brolin. He first appears briefly in Avengers Assemble, and later makes minor appearances in Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron. He serves as the primary antagonist in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Born on the planet of Titan, Thanos was a member of a race of powerful beings regarded as gods by lesser species. However, like many other worlds, Titan suffered from overpopulation which led to over-consumption of the planet's resources. To prevent the collapse of his world and his race's extinction, Thanos proposed to Titan's leaders a culling, a random and dispassionate slaughter of half the planet's population, thus sparing their people from dying off due to starvation. Thanos was declared insane by his people and his proposal was rejected. He was exiled from Titan, never to return, but his warnings of ecological and societal collapse would ultimately be proven true. In the decades to come, Titan was reduced to a lifeless wasteland, leaving Thanos as the last of his kind.
After witnessing the decline and extinction of his own race, Thanos became convinced that a universe teeming with life was a universe doomed to self-destruction. Believing the resources of the universe to be finite, the Titan concluded that life could not be allowed to swell and expand unchecked, otherwise all life would inevitably destroy itself in the same way his own people had. Over the centuries that followed, Thanos would amass many resources and followers as he waged a campaign of interstellar population control in order to bring balance to the universe. Aided by alien armies such as the Sakaarans and the Chitauri, he invaded and conquered many planets, slaughtering 50% of their inhabitants while allowing the remainder to live. With fewer people to feed, the societies that Thanos conquered would prosper for longer as they would not be consuming their worlds' resources so rapidly.
For nearly a thousand years, Thanos carried out genocide after genocide in the name of balance. He became feared and hated across the known universe for his great power and the acts of slaughter he committed. The Mad Titan, as he came to be known, also employed like-minded individuals to his cause, forming the Black Order. He adopted a number of these beings as his children, training them in the arts of warfare, assassination and espionage. Such individuals included his two daughters, the Zehoberei Gamora and the Luphomoid Nebula.
Making alliances[]
Over the course of his crusade to bring balance to the universe, Thanos realized that his work was too grand in scale to accomplish by himself. He would make various alliances as he sought to track down the Infinity Stones: six ingots that each represented a different fundamental aspect of the cosmos. At some point, Thanos was able to acquire the Mind Stone, which could bestow great intelligence or outright control the minds of others. In 2012, he made contact with the renegade Asgardian Loki and made a deal with him; granting Loki the Mind Stone contained within a sceptre, Thanos wanted the adopted son of Odin to obtain the Tesseract, an object of immense power that served as a vessel for the Space Stone. The Tesseract was located on Earth, which Loki would be allowed to conquer and rule with the Chitauri at his command in exchange for the cube. However, Thanos' investment would not pay off as hoped as Loki and the Chitauri were defeated by Earth's mightiest heroes, the Avengers. Due to their interference, Thanos lost both the Mind Stone and the Tesseract.
Thanos had also made an alliance with the rogue Kree, Ronan the Accuser. In exchange for an artifact known as the Orb (which was, in fact, a vessel for the Power Stone), Thanos had promised Ronan that he would annihilate the planet of Xandar, which was once an enemy of the Kree Empire. However, the Orb would fall into the hands of the Ravager known as Star-Lord in 2014. While Ronan was able to obtain the Orb later on, instead of giving it to Thanos, he kept it for himself and attempted to destroy Xandar and the Nova Corps. He was ultimately defeated and killed by the newly-formed Guardians of the Galaxy, who left the Power Stone in the custody of the Nova Corps. With his allies proving to be inept at securing the Stones, Thanos decided to take matters into his own hands and hunt for the Stones himself. But in order to wield the Stones all at once, he would require a suitable vessel for them. He attacked the Dwarven forge of Nidavellir and forced the Dwarves to build him the Infinity Gauntlet which he would fit the Stones to once he found them. With all of the Stones in hand, Thanos could simply snap his fingers and unleash their power across the entire universe instantaneously, wiping out half of all life everywhere. Though the Dwarves finished the Gauntlet, Thanos did not spare them and slaughtered their entire population, save for their king Eitri.
Infinity War[]
In 2018, Thanos began traversing the starways with the Black Order in tow to find and obtain the six Infinity Stones. First he would acquire the Power Stone, which Ronan had failed to deliver to him, attacking the planet Xandar and decimating its population. A week later, he would attack the Statesman, a vessel carrying Asgardian refugees to Earth. After crippling the ship and slaughtering half of its passengers, Thanos obtained the Tesseract, which Loki surrendered to him. The Mad Titan cracked open the cube in his hand, revealing the Space Stone. Before departing the Statesman, Thanos was attacked by the Hulk who was aboard the ship at the time. Though the Hulk was known for being impossibly strong, Thanos overpowered him with little effort. The Asgardian Heimdall summoned the Bifrost to carry Hulk back to Earth while Loki attempted, in vain, to kill Thanos. Both Asgardians were murdered for their trouble and Thanos used the Power Stone to destroy the Statesman completely, killing many more Asgardians and scattering the few survivors across space.
Knowing that two of the remaining Stones were on Earth, Thanos sent his children Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive to obtain them. Meanwhile, he would visit Knowhere in order to acquire the Reality Stone, which had fallen into the possession of Taneleer Tivan - the Collector - after Asgard had entrusted it to him years prior. Thanos obtained the Stone easily, but expected interference. With the Reality Stone, he created a grand illusion with which to bait a trap for the Guardians of the Galaxy. When the Guardians arrived, Knowhere appeared to be in a state of normalcy, but that was the illusion; Thanos had actually razed Knowhere upon arrival and left it to burn. When confronted by the Guardians, Thanos used the Reality Stone's power to toy with them, turning Drax and Mantis into ribbons and altering Star-Lord's quad blasters to shoot harmless bubbles. He then subdued and captured Gamora, taking her back to the Sanctuary II with him. Once Thanos was gone, the effects of the Reality Stone wore off.
With his wayward daughter at his side once more, Thanos questioned Gamora about the location of the Soul Stone, which he had tasked her with finding the location of years ago. Gamora claimed that she hadn't discovered the location, but Thanos could tell she was lying. He brought her to a cell where Nebula was being held after she had attempted to kill Thanos some time ago. Tapping into Nebula's cybernetic memory module, Thanos revealed that Gamora had discovered a map to the Soul Stone's location, but had burned it. Thanos then began magnetically pulling on the cybernetics in Nebula's body, causing her tremendous agony until Gamora finally caved in and told him that the Stone was located on the desolate world of Vormir.
Thanos later arrived at Vormir, taking Gamora down to the planet with him. They reached a black, rocky peak where the Soul Stone was said to be located. There, they encountered a red-faced figure in a black robe who acted as the Stone's guardian who took them to a cliff edge facing a monolithic spire, stating that the spire held the Stone. In order to acquire the Stone, however, one must sacrifice that which they love. Upon this revelation, Gamora mocked Thanos, stating that he never loved anyone and that his prize would be forever beyond his grasp. Thanos turned to face her, tears in his eyes, revealing just how wrong Gamora was; Thanos did, indeed, love his adopted daughter, but considered his quest more important than love. Grabbing Gamora, Thanos dragged her over to the edge of the cliff and threw her over, sending her falling to her death. As the Mad Titan fell to his knees and wept over his daughter's sacrifice, the Soul Stone materialized in his hand.
With four of the Infinity Stones now in his possession, Thanos checked up on the Black Order's progress. He found that Maw's Q-Ship had crashed on his former home planet of Titan and travelled there via a wormhole that he conjured with the Space Stone. There, he encountered the sorcerer Doctor Strange, the keeper of the Time Stone. However, the doctor was not alone as Thanos was then ambushed by the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers Iron Man and Spider-Man. The heroes frantically battled the Mad Titan and attempted to remove the Infinity Gauntlet from his hand, but Thanos proved to be far too strong. Mantis was able to immobilize Thanos temporarily by using her empathic powers to tap into his mind. With the villain in place, the heroes tried to pull off the Infinity Gauntlet, but Star-Lord asked Thanos what had happened to Gamora. Mantis revealed that Thanos had killed Gamora, enraging Star-Lord. At that moment, Thanos overcame Mantis' power and freed himself. He managed to grab Iron Man and threatened to kill him if Doctor Strange did not surrender the Time Stone. Despite earlier claiming to Stark that he would gladly sacrifice any one of the heroes to protect the Stone, Strange ultimately could not follow through on that promise and yielded the Stone.
With five Infinity Stones now in his possession, Thanos opened a wormhole and travelled to Earth to obtain the Mind Stone. He arrived in Wakanda just after the Avengers and the Wakandan army had defeated the Black Order and their hordes of Outriders. Finding Wanda Maximoff and Vision before him, Thanos strode towards them, but the other Avengers attacked him. Thanos effortlessly fought off each of his attackers while Wanda used her telekinetic powers to extract the Mind Stone from Vision's head, then crush it. Unfortunately, Thanos could not be denied like this as he used the Time Stone to rewind time, restoring the Mind Stone and Vision. Casting Wanda aside, Thanos ripped the Mind Stone from Vision's head, killing the android and adding the last Stone to the Infinity Gauntlet. Just then, Thor charged at Thanos and embedded his new Stormbreaker axe in Thanos' shoulder. Still alive, Thanos told Thor he should have gone for the head before raising his gloved hand and snapping his fingers, unleashing the power of all six Infinity Stones. Thanos disappeared, having warped himself away, but seconds later, the effects of the Snap presented themselves. Across the battlefield, many of the surviving Wakandan warriors began to disintegrate into dust. This was occurring not just in Wakanda but all over the Earth and across the entire universe. Thanos had wanted to destroy half of all life, and that was exactly what he had done.
Aftermath[]
Having achieved his goal of bringing balance to the universe, Thanos had retired to a solitary planet where he had established a small farm, intending to live out the rest of his life in peace and isolation. Two weeks later, however, he was visited by the surviving Avengers who had come to take the Infinity Stones from him and undo the Snap. When the heroes ambushed him in his home, Thanos told them that the Stones no longer existed, that he had used their power to destroy them for the express purpose of stopping anyone from reversing his work. Enraged by this, Thor killed Thanos by using Stormbreaker to sever his head. This brought no joy or comfort to him, though. Thanos had murdered half the universe and there was now no way to restore those lives. All the Avengers could do was accept their defeat and live with the consequences.
Alternate incarnation[]
Five years after the Decimation, the surviving Avengers were able to devise a means of safely travelling back in time in order to obtain the Infinity Stones and undo the effects of the Snap. The way this worked was that the past timelines that the Avengers would travel to were actually alternate timelines accessed via the Quantum Realm, thus whatever they did in those timelines would have no effect on their present. With the help of Ant-Man and the research of Dr. Hank Pym, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner constructed a Quantum Tunnel, a machine that would allow them to access alternate timelines via the Quantum Realm. This way, they could obtain the Infinity Stones long before Thanos got a hold of them and bring them back to their timeline to undo the Snap.
The Avengers split off into multiple small teams, each one heading into a different timeline to acquire a Stone. Nebula and War Machine travelled to 2014 in order to get the Power Stone on Morag. However, their presence was detected by that timeline's version of Thanos, thanks to an unintended neural link between 2023 Nebula and 2014 Nebula. Thanos sent his Nebula to capture her future counterpart, in which she succeeded. Holding her aboard Sanctuary II, the Mad Titan accessed 2023 Nebula's memories, learning about his future self's success and how the Avengers were now attempting to undo his victory. Thanos came to the realization that bringing balance through killing half of all life wasn't enough, that as long as anyone survived, there would be those who would resist. To ensure his absolute victory, Thanos resolved to claim the Infinity Stones and use them to destroy the entire universe, remaking it in his image.
Thanos had Nebula disguise herself as her future incarnation, donning her Quantum Suit so that she could travel to the future and infiltrate the Avengers and gain access to the Quantum Tunnel. She succeeded and was able to lock onto 2023 Nebula's quantum signature, not only pulling her through the Quantum Realm but bringing Thanos, his ship and his entire army through as well. While the Avengers had acquired the Infinity Stones and Hulk had used them to undo the Snap, this did not matter to Thanos. The Stones were now all in one place and the strongest of the Avengers had been crippled from using them, and so the Mad Titan needed only to take them. But before he used the Stones to tear down the universe, he intended to destroy Earth the old-fashioned way, through fire and blood; and unlike his other conquests which were dispassionate and without malice, Thanos intended to savour and enjoy the misery he would dispense upon the Avengers and their world.
Fortunately, the Avengers who had originally survived the Snap would not be fighting alone as all the allies they had previously lost had been resurrected. Doctor Strange and Wong had gone about calling upon the displaced Avengers, the armies of Wakanda, the Masters of the Mystic Arts, the Guardians of the Galaxy and even Asgard's remaining warriors, transporting them to the Avengers' headquarters to do battle against Thanos and his forces. The battle was ferocious and epic, but ultimately it boiled down to the Avengers keeping the Infinity Stones out of Thanos' grasp and using them to settle the conflict quickly. Hulk had been left weakened after using the Stones to undo the Snap and could not fight, so it was up to someone else to don the Nano Gauntlet and end the battle.
Each of the Avengers did their part to keep Thanos away from the Nano Gauntlet, with the weapon being tossed among the heroes. Thanos managed to bring down Captain Marvel when she held the Gauntlet, taking it from her, but was intercepted by Iron Man. The two adversaries struggled for a moment, but Thanos overpowered Stark and tossed him aside before donning the Nano Gauntlet. With an evil smirk, Thanos declared his victory inevitable and snapped his fingers... only for nothing to happen. Looking to the Gauntlet, he saw that the Infinity Stones were gone. Aghast, he turned to find that Iron Man had removed the Stones and outfitted them to one of his armour's gauntlets. Iron Man then snapped his fingers, unleashing the full power of the Stones. Thanos looked around to see his ship and all his allies and minions suddenly turn to dust and vanish. Realizing that there was nothing that he could do, Thanos sat and solemnly accepted his defeat with quiet dignity as he, too, disintegrated into dust and disappeared on the wind.