No Marvel Comics character has seen their profile increase more over the past few years than Thanos the Mad Titan – who went from being notorious only in comic book circles to being considered basically the Darth Vader of a new generation. Thanos’s appearances in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame made it all but inevitable that he’d become a staple of mainstream popular culture. Of course, those who read comics have been enjoying his exploits for decades.
As in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thanos is primarily an antagonist in the pages of Marvel Comics, albeit a complicated and nuanced one. The cosmic dictator’s motivations differ between the comics and the MCU, but both serve to humanize him – and even add some reasonableness to the supposedly Mad Titan.
In fact, Thanos’s most positive attributes have led him to team up with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes on a handful of occasions – though he always finds himself back on the side of villainy before too long.
1. Thanos Joins Marvel’s Heroes To Take The Infinity Gauntlet – From Nebula?
In the comic books, Thanos’s greatest moment of villainy comes during the events of Infinity Gauntlet. The storyline has many of the same trappings as the MCU’s Infinity War: The Mad Titan collects all six Infinity Gems (as they’re known in the comics), snaps half of reality out of existence, and clashes with the heroes of Earth. Despite all that evil, Thanos eventually finds himself on the side of the good guys – because he loses the Infinity Gauntlet to Nebula and has to help the Avengers and their allies get it back.
In the comics, Nebula is a fraudster who claims to be Thanos’s granddaughter rather than his adopted child. For that hubris, Thanos treats her cruelly in a form of “living death” for much of Infinity Gauntlet. When Nebula breaks the spell to snatch the gauntlet away from him, she’s quickly overwhelmed by madness. Thanos is forced to team up with everyone else to relieve her of omnipotent power.
With the help of the Mad Titan, the heroes succeed – though not before Thanos makes one last desperate bid at using the gems.
2. Thanos Fights Against The Magus In The Comic Book ‘Infinity War’
In the pages of Marvel Comics, the Infinity War storyline plays out differently than the film of the same name in the MCU. In the comics, the arc features the Magus – essentially an evil version of cosmic hero Adam Warlock – who wants to conquer existence with an army of nefarious doppelgangers.
This planned assault necessitates the entire Marvel universe uniting against the Magus – including such cosmic villains as Galactus, Kang, and, of course, Thanos. In the end, it is Warlock who defeats Magus, but he can’t do it without some serious help from the Mad Titan.
3. The Mad Titan Takes Part In An ‘Infinity Crusade’
Thanos has found himself in the middle of a lot of comic book stories with “Infinity” in their titles, but the Infinity Crusade might just feature Thanos at his most heroic.
This storyline has the Mad Titan and Adam Warlock teaming up with other heroes to defeat the Goddess, who is yet another malevolent manifestation of Warlock himself – though, in contrast to the Magus, the Goddess represents Warlock’s “good” side.
Thanos collaborates with Professor Xavier to boost his own telepathic powers and overwrite the manipulations of the Goddess. Towards the end of the plot, Thanos also tricks the devil himself – or at least Mephisto, the Marvel Comics version of the devil – to prevent the Infinity Crusade from spilling out into another conflict altogether.
4. Thanos Brings Down A Crazed Thor
Thanos the Mad Titan and Thor the God of Thunder have gone toe-to-toe plenty of times, and typically it’s Thor trying to prevent one evil plot of Thanos or another. In the crossover known as Blood and Thunder, however, it is the Asgardian prince who has been driven to violent madness – and Thanos who is called in to save the day.
When powerful heroes like Adam Warlock, the Silver Surfer, and Odin himself are unable to stop Thor’s rampage, they call in Thanos as an expert on the subject. The Mad Titan buys enough time for the others to cure the god of his “Warrior Madness.”
5. The Mad Titan Resurrects The Silver Surfer, Then Is Cursed With Immortality For It
Over years of Marvel Comics encounters, Thanos and Norrin Radd – also known as the Silver Surfer, former herald of Galactus – have developed a sort of love/hate relationship. They’ve joined forces on numerous occasions, but their most awkward team-up occurred in Cosmic Powers Unlimited #1. In this story,the Surfer informs Thanos that Lady Death – the physical embodiment of mortality and the object of Thanos’s obsession – has tried to make him her consort.
Thanos’s jealously causes him to take out the Surfer and deliver him to Death as a prize. However, the Mad Titan finds his would-be mistress unappreciative of his sacrifice, and so he frees Radd from her realm and brings him back to life.
Enraged at this betrayal, Lady Death curses Thanos with immortality in retaliation – ensuring the two of them will never be together.
6. He Rescues Spider-Man From Being Cruelly Treated By His Own Sentient Ship
The Spider-Man Team-Up series was created with the idea of pairing the wallcrawler with various other Marvel characters. By the second issue, he’s already teaming up with a couple of heavy hitters: the Silver Surfer and Thanos the Mad Titan.
Both Spidey and the Surfer find themselves held captive aboard the Sanctuary II, Thanos’s former ship whose artificial intelligence has since gained sentience. It is Thanos himself who shows up to free the two heroes. After reclaiming his old ride, he informs them that they now owe him a debt – one he intends to eventually collect on.
7. Thanos Accompanies The Guardians Of The Galaxy Into The Cancerverse
In The Thanos Imperative, a sequence of major cosmic events leads to a rift opening up to an alternate dimension known as the Cancerverse. Subjugated by Lovecraftian monsters, this realm has been corrupted by the elimination of mortality and is expanding into the mainstream universe. Thanos, who worships the embodiment of mortality, is thrust into an alliance with the Guardians of the Galaxy.
The Mad Titan proves particularly adept at dealing with the denizens of the Cancerverse, and the alliance succeeds in shutting down the rift. This time around, however, it’s the good guys who betray Thanos. Star-Lord, Nova, and Drax seemingly sacrifice their lives to trap him in the Cancerverse for good.
8. Thanos And Deadpool Team Up To Restore Death To The Universe
In comic book lore, Thanos has a long-held fascination with – and romantic interest in – the physical embodiment of mortality. Lady Death seldom reciprocates this interest. Instead, she has a major crush of her own on Deadpool. This inevitably leads the Merc with a Mouth into conflict with the Mad Titan, to the degree that Thanos curses Deadpool with immortality just to keep him apart from his would-be lover.
When Death briefly disappears from the universe, the two foes set aside their violent past in Deadpool vs. Thanos. The odd couple go on a cosmic journey to rescue her from her predicament.
9. He Takes On An Ancient Egyptian Threat At ‘The End’ Of The Marvel Universe
The events of Marvel: The End purport to show one possible future of the Marvel universe, in which Thanos features prominently in the plot. The first portion of the storyline involves Akhenaten, an ancient Egyptian who acquires extraordinary power and threatens all of existence – only to be defeated by the combined efforts of Thanos and Doctor Doom.
By the end of The End, Thanos finds himself once again in the antagonist’s role. Having usurped the Heart of the Universe from Akhenaten, the Mad Titan goes as far as to erase all of time and space. He makes one last face turn, however, by sacrificing himself to restore the universe in full. He then journeys into darkness with Lady Death one last time.