Thanos

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"The only matter I do not take seriously, boy, is you. Your politics bore me! Your demeanor is that of a pouty child. And apparently you alienated my favorite daughter, Gamora. I shall honor our agreement, Kree, if you bring me the orb. But return to me again empty handed and I will bathe the star-ways with your blood."

―Thanos^[src]

Thanos is a galactic warlord titan who allied himself with Loki of Asgard and Ronan the Accuser.

He sought the Infinity Stones, testing both the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy - eventually succeeding in his goal to wipe out half the universe in an apparent effort to save it.

Biography

Guardians of the Galaxy Prelude

Thanos took in and raised Nebula and Gamora. After finding the location of The Orb, he sent Nebula after it, but she failed as she fell on a trap. After Gamora found Nebula in the trap, Thanos told Gamora to leave Nebula behind.

Thor: The Dark World Prelude

Frigga, the adoptive mother of Loki, observed the meeting between Loki, Thanos and The Other.

The Avengers

Thanos is a powerful alien, a warlord who rules over a dead dimension. He allies himself with the exiled Loki Laufeyson, providing him with the deadly army of the Chitauri, who will help him in conquering Earth, in exchange for the Tesseract, a powerful energy source.

When Loki has arrived on Earth, Thanos is contacted by him, and the Other warns the God of Mischief of the price of failure and reminding him to not question the will of the master, declaring that if he fails in defeating the Earthlings, Thanos will make him know a new kind of suffering.

When eventually Loki is defeated, the Other complains that the Earth's inhabitants are not as weak as they were supposed to be and declares that challenging the Earth's heroes would be to court Death. To this, Thanos simply smiles.

Guardians of the Galaxy Prelude

"Of course, I always was a man with an eye for a bargain. I may be able to help. But there is always a price, is there not?"

―Thanos to Ronan^[src]

Sometime later, Thanos brokered a deal with his old ally, Ronan of the Kree, promising to lend a fraction of his forces in a genocide against the Xandarians in exchange for aiding in the search for the Orb. Ronan discovered the true location of the Orb on the planet Morag and attempted to deliver it to Thanos, but an unexpected turn of events ensued and the stone fell into the possession of human pilot Peter Quill and his allies. Unwilling to be denied another stone, Thanos ordered Ronan to pursue Quill and recover the stone, sending Nebula to aid the Kree in his pursuit.

Guardians of the Galaxy

"The only matter I do not take seriously, boy, is you. Your politics bore me. Your demeanor is that of a pouty child. And apparently, you have alienated my favourite daughter, Gamora. I will honour our agreement with the Kree, if you bring me the Orb. But if you return to me empty handed again... I will bathe the starways in your blood."

―Thanos, threatening Ronan over their initial agreement.

Upon learning of Gamora's imprisonment in the Kyln, Ronan was called to Sanctuary by The Other, who he quickly killed after a brief argument. Ronan then proceeded to call Gamora a traitor, prompting Thanos to finally speak and intimidate Ronan into retrieving the Orb and Gamora, over Ronan's life.

After Ronan retrieved the Orb, he immediately contacted an enraged Thanos, informing him that he was out of the deal, promising that he would destroy Xandar himself before coming for the warlord himself. To this, Thanos simply responded by cutting the transmission in anger.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

"Fine, I'll do it myself."

―Thanos^[src]

Thanos opened a vault to a stoneless Infinity Gauntlet and put it on his left hand deciding he will collect the Infinity Stones and destroy the Earth himself.

Avengers: Infinity War

"This does put a smile on my face."

―Thanos^[src]

To be added

Avengers 4

To be added

Character traits

Thanos is usually seen by everyone else as the ultimate personification of sadism, cruelty, megalomania, infinite destruction, death, power and madness, with his search for the Infinity Stones seen by others as his plot to gain dominion over all the civilizations in the universe. He desired to use the Tesseract to look beyond the known worlds to find greater ones that it would unveil. He is also relentless as seen by finding children to take as his own so he can raise them as assassins while forcing them to watch as he murders their families and tirelessly searching for the Infinity Stones.

Thanos is extremely intimidating and unforgiving of failures, the Other once warned Loki Laufeyson that he would know a new kind of pain if he did not give them the Tesseract, this was proven to be true when he ruthlessly murdered Loki for his failure in retrieving the Tesseract for him and when the Frost Giant tried to kill him. Even though Ebony Maw had never failed Thanos, he still feared his master and father enough that he did not dare to go to Titan without having fully taken the Time Stone from Stephen Strange. Thanos threatened Ronan the Accuser to bathe the stairways in his blood if he failed to deliver the Orb, visibly terrifying Ronan. He even forbade Gamora from rescuing Nebula when the latter fell into a trap whilst on a mission in the Cloud Tombs of Praxius. He has little to no regard for his followers, showing absolutely no empathy when Ronan killed the Other and referring to Gamora as his "favorite daughter", even with Nebula present, as well as remaining calm even after learning the death of Ebony Maw and never once regarding the other Black Order members deaths, although he did acknowledge Maw's effort to complete his mission, implying he is not above respecting them should they truly prove to be worthy of it. He was even able to command the Chitauri and the Outrider armies, both being highly savage and powerful creatures, unchallenged.

Thanos is extremely confident, to the point of borderline arrogance and being almost impossible to intimidate. He was seen smiling when the Other told him challenging the Avengers would be like courting Death. He was even unfazed at the idea of Ronan powered by the Power Stone coming after him despite knowing well that Ronan was already very powerful even without the stone and the fact that he was backed up by Nebula who had betrayed him, displaying only anger at the betrayal. He also smiled confidently after deciding to hunt for the Infinity Stones himself.

A trait that makes him such an extremely worthy foe is his phenomenally immense levels of intellect, with which he has proven to far surpass all of his enemies, therefore constantly being the smartest man in the room. This was displayed in his always victory over the planets he desired to balance and also by his careful collection of intellect and ability to detect betrayals, keeping a low profile and sending others instead of hunting for the Stones personally to see if there are obstacles, knowing that Gamora had planned to betray him and hence allowed it so as not to force her until the time came, as well as having Nebula accompany Ronan, knowing that she would most certainly betray him so she would not be able to do any more damage in the inner side as well as so he could torture her for the Soul Stone's location as well as only coming out after it was proved only he could complete his goal himself. He also never lets his arrogance and rage becomes his weakness and not only does he always thinks many times ahead, even if a debilitating issue comes up, he will remain unfazed, instantly fully analyze the situation even in great stress and can immediately effectively cover his blunders and fix it through highly unorthodox but effective means to ensure success. Indeed, unlike Tony Stark, Loki Laufeyson, Peter Quill and Hela Odinsdottir respectively, whose arrogance and rage proved to cloud their judgement heavily and make them very shocked when they were overpowered or when their emotions get the better caused them to act recklessly, hence making Thanos far more formidable than them, despite their own genius intellect. This has been demonstrated repeatedly; when Loki attempted to use Thanos' confidence that the God of Mischief was too afraid to attack him to assassinate him, Thanos instantly proved him wrong, having fully knew from the beginning what Loki would do and not counting Loki's fear as being sufficient, and hence effortlessly thwarted and killed Loki; instead of using extreme methods on Gamora to force her to tell him on the Soul Stone, he instead simply tortured Nebula, knowing how Gamora would react, while also avoiding having to resort to violence to his beloved daughter; rather than blindingly attacking the heroes on Titan for reminding him of his sacrifice of Gamora, he promptly tactically broke the planet's moon to pieces and blasted it in order to separate his enemies; when Thor severely wounded him, instead of panicking, Thanos instead convincingly feigned he was about to die until he mockingly revealed that Thor's blow was in the end insignificant to stop him and caught him completely off-guard, allowing him to complete his goal before Thor could even make an attempt to stop him and finally when the Gauntlet was damaged, instead of continuing to be astonished or taking too much time to mock Thor, Thanos swiftly left Earth to escape death after only giving Thor a mocking smirk when he furiously questioned what he did.

While Thanos was able to inspire absolute loyalty into his Black Order children, he is not completely flawless in his ability to fake parental affection, as he is despised by his own "daughters", Gamora and Nebula. Raising them in a brutal way, Thanos would pit them against each other in the hope that Nebula would beat Gamora; however, when Nebula lost, he would remove parts of her in order to make her stronger, taking her apart piece by piece and replacing her with artificial limbs and organs so she would be able to defeat her sister. He proves he does not care at all for Nebula, as he had no qualms torturing her to get the location of the Soul Stone out of Gamora, and held her in a low regard, going as far as to coldly said he did not want to waste his time to kill Nebula. However, Thanos is not completely unable to love, as is it seen that he deeply loves Gamora as his own child. When he first met her, he quickly took an interest in her and cared for her enough to shield her from seeing the massacre of her people as well as sparing her from the half of the Zehobereis that he killed and adopt her as his own child.

Indeed, Thanos was known for favoring and holding Gamora's abilities at a higher regard than all his other children, being known for considering her his favorite daughter and openly telling her he considered his training to have molded her into the fiercest woman in the galaxy. He also seemed to consider her the only one worthy to inherit his throne, openly saying that he hoped still despite her hatred for the chair that she would sit on it one day. He expressed anger at Ronan for alienating Gamora and later on attempted to reconnect with his daughter, patiently and calmly talking to her despite her bitter rejection of all he believed and notably he did not torture Gamora to force the location of the Soul Stone out of her but instead Nebula. He was seen in shock and tears when he realized that to get the Soul Stone he had to throw "a loved one" off the cliff, knowing the only one he truly loved was Gamora and apologized tearfully and was visibly struggling to muster enough will to sacrifice her as she frantically screamed.

When Peter Quill asked where she was, Thanos was visibly crest-fallen and Mantis stated that Thanos was traumatized and in severe emotional pain from sacrificing Gamora, with even Nebula admitting that sacrificing Gamora must have been the only thing to caused him that much pain. The reminder of how he killed Gamora caused Thanos to finally became truly furious and also even more determined to fulfill his goal to honor her sacrifice. After finally achieving his goal, he went as far as to solemnly say that killing her caused him to lose everything.

Even though Thanos was shunned by his own people for a hideous mutation he bore, he loved them unconditionally and desperately sought to save them, going as far as to propose wiping out half of his kind so the other half may survive. His plan for saving his homeworld was rejected, leading to the fall of his race. This incident would have presumably turned him into the being he is now today with his desire to exterminate half of the population of every planet so as to save these civilizations from the same overpopulation tragedy which destroyed his home planet. This is why Thanos truly believes his cause for killing off half of everyone in all planets to be a righteous cause, seeing himself a righteous soul who is doing what is necessary to save all the civilizations of the universe, so they do not face the same tragedy as his home planet. As such, he stated that the Zehoberei did not suffer from environmental hazards, global hunger or any other form of violence anymore, due to him killing off half of their population.

Thanos has a dark sense of sadistic humor and is able to remain calm and unfazed in situations that would frighten and shock most others, as he remained fully composed even after thwarting Loki's assassination and mocked him for choosing the word "undying" and even was not at all angered by Loki defying him before dying by saying he will never be a god. He even remained unfazed after being badly injured by Thor and even mocked him for not striking him in the head.

Thanos has also proven himself to be surprisingly honorable. He does not go back on the end of the deal he made with others and would honor them even when angered, as he was still willing to destroy Xandar for Ronan should he retrieve the Orb even though he was angry by Ronan coming to him empty-handed and alienating his favored daughter Gamora. He extends this even to his enemies, as he did not kill Tony Stark after acquiring the Time Stone as he promised to Stephen Strange and instead simply left Titan. He also is capable of praising others should they prove worthy, as he said that he wished people would remember the heroism and will that Tony fought with if he was removed from existence once he used the Infinity Gauntlet and praised Steve for his mastery in the Mystic Arts to be able to single-handedly go up against him with the Infinity Gauntlet.

Thanos was also complimentary of Quill as he was going to kill Gamora, saying that he "liked him" for doing what would have been necessary in order to stop Thanos on his quest to obtain the Infinity Stones. He also displayed some empathy towards Wanda Maximoff's killing Vision despite the fact that she destroyed the Mind Stone, which was necessary for his goal, as he too had killed Gamora for the Soul Stone.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Titan Physiology: Thanos is an extraordinarily powerful Titan, quite possibly the most powerful in existence. His power is known and feared among many in the galaxy, with some such as Korath even deeming him the most powerful being in the entire universe and Rocket describing Thanos as the "toughest there is". His power is displayed by his ability to wield the power of all six Infinity Stones without harm, a feat that no other before him have survived.
- Superhuman Strength: Thanos possesses unmeasurable levels of superhuman strength, easily among the strongest, if not the strongest being in the entire universe. During his acquisition of the Tesseract, Thanos effortlessly overpowered both Hulk and Thor, beating Hulk to a bloody pulp and leaving him unconscious with only few punches and lifting the extremely weakened Thor like a rag-doll and even claiming he could crush Thor's head, and was able to crush the Tesseract effortlessly within seconds despite it's durability being able to withstand an Infinity Stone and after thwarting Loki's assassination attempt, Thanos effortlessly overpowered and lifted him off his feet despite his best struggles with no strain and swiftly and easily snapped his neck. Thanos was able to effortlessly restrain Gamora and later toss her off a cliff in Vormir to sacrifice her despite her best struggles with one hand. During the Battle of Titan, Thanos effortlessly overpowered and knocked out Drax through stones with a single punch, destroyed Dr. Strange's magic shields with a single kick, swiftly overpowered Tony Stark in his Mark L armor and tore apart pieces of the nanotech armor with his punches, easily pinned down Spider-Man one-handed and blew Nebula through the air with great force with a single punch. Although he was near silmutaneously restrained by a powerful binding spell of Dr. Strange, Gravity Mine, Drax, Spider-Man's webs and Iron Man, he was still able to force Dr. Strange, Drax and Spider-Man to use all they had to keep him restrained long enough for Mantis to briefly knock him out and once he woke, Thanos was able to swiftly break out of the hold, sending Dr. Strange flying several feet away, reclaiming the Gauntlet from Spider-Man, knocking out Mantis with a single headbutt, and swatting Drax away. During the Battle of Wakanda, Thanos easily completely stopped Black Panther's full-force charge and punched him with such force to overload the suit, swiftly broke out of Groot's vines, and very nearly overwhelmed Captain America with a single hand while barely exerting any effort before he soon overpowered him with a single punch. He also rendered Vision powerless upon lifting him with a single hand and easily ripped off the Mind Stone from him, leaving a large hole in his Vibranium casing. However, in his rematch against Thor (who was now at full strength) after he had received Stormbreaker, an enchanted axe-hammer; it amplify the asgardian king's physical strength to the point that the titan retreated, after he was seriously injured by Thor.
- Superhuman Durability: Thanos has incalculable levels of resilience and durability, rendering him capable of easily handling the Infinity Stones without being harmed and even wielding the power of all six Stones with Infinity Gauntlet without strain. Hence, during the Attack on the Statesman, Thanos was able to emerge out of a one-on-one fight with a mature Thor without sustaining any injuries while the latter was beaten almost to death and then remain completely uninjured and barely fazed by blows from Hulk, afterwards remaining unfazed by a blow from Thor. During the Battle of Titan, the combined efforts of Dr. Strange, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the Guardians of the Galaxy proved to be unable to do any significant harm on him, and Thanos displayed being able to take a slash to the leg from Drax's knives and Star-Lord's blaster shots while surprised and only flinched and he was able to effortlessly catch blows from Drax and Strange using their weapons. He was also almost instantly back on his feet after being exposed to a powerful stunning device implanted by Star-Lord and remained uninjured after having a massive pillar dropped on him and colliding with a Necrocraft at full speed. He was completely unharmed by all of Iron Man's Mark L armor weapon and repulsor attacks, even mocking Tony for drawing only minimal blood after all his efforts. He even remained completely unfazed and uninjured when Star-Lord furiously unleashed a barrage of shots and calmly warped himself out. During the Battle of Wakanda, he was completely unfazed by shots from Winter Soldier, remained uninjured and barely hurt by Captain America's collapsible shields blows, and was able to withstand the energy attacks from Scarlet Witch as well as a powerful lightning blast from Stormbreaker without harm. Thor needed to put in all of his power into the maul in order for it to severely injure him and notably, even that was not enough to kill him, even after Thor twisted the axe as deep as he could into Thanos, with Thanos retaining enough strength to activate and use the Infinity Gauntlet at the scale needed to wipe out half of the universe, surviving such vast display of power despite the severe injury, although it did cause him to briefly entered a catatonic state but he quickly recovered, even going as far as to mock Thor for not aiming at his head.
- Superhuman Reflexes: Despite his size and muscular body, Thanos possess incredulous superhuman reflexes, as he was able to effortlessly dodge a few blows from Hulk and then instantly struck him multiple times before Hulk had a chance to respond. Thanos also easily reacted to Loki's swift attempt to kill him, effortlessly choking Loki to death before the latter could react. With just a single hand, Thanos was able to easily grab Gamora before she could strike him with Godslayer (which Thanos broke in the process) and to even react to the extremely agile Spider-Man's attacks, eventually getting a grip on him and pinning Spider-Man down, as well as casually react to the highly agile Black Panther's full speed charge with a single hand and effortlessly punch Captain America before he could react while he was blocking Thanos's Gauntlet hand. He also was able to easily catch Iron Man Mark L armor's sword and then break it and stab him with the piece before he could react. He could easily react to and outspace both Drax the Destroyer and Dr. Strange's moves even while his sight was hampered by a web cotton and also managed to quickly overtook Nebula and deliver a powerful punch that send her flying. While Thor was able to surprise and punched off a portion of Thanos' helmet, Thanos soon effortlessly kicked him away before he could react. He has also been seen to be able to easily react to the bullets of Rhodey's War Machine Mark IV armor and Okoye's spear when she threw it at him, allowing him to easily repel them with the Gauntlet's powers.
- Superhuman Speed: Despite his size and muscular body, Thanos possesses immense levels of superhuman speed; for example, he was able to outmaneuver and beat Hulk in hand-to-hand combat within seconds.
- Immortality: Thanos has been a galactic warlord for centuries. Gamora stated to Nebula that killing Thanos may not be possible, strongly implying that in addition to having an eternal lifespan, Thanos' immortality also makes him immune to most natural means of death.
Infinity Gauntlet: After equipping the Infinity Gauntlet into his left arm, combined with his already extraordinary physical constitution and raw power, Thanos is granted the potential to safely harness the supernatural powers of all the six Infinity Stones should he add them to the Gauntlet. The more stones Thanos inserts into the Gauntlet, the more power he gains and he acquires the stones dominion over the necessary fabrics of existence. Just having two Stones was enough that Bruce Banner called him the strongest being in the whole universe while Gamora said that with three Stones, Thanos would be too powerful to stop. Eventually, upon acquiring all six stones, Thanos becomes nearly infinitely powerful, the most powerful being in the universe, gaining absolute control over all the fabrics of existence and able to do almost anything he desires, to the point that even with a severe injury, he killed off half of life within the universe by just snapping his fingers. His power with the Infinity Gauntlet was so great that Doctor Strange's use of the Time Stone to peer through over 14 million futures saw only one in which Thanos is defeated. Presumably due to having done thorough research on the Stones, Thanos displays incredible understanding and knowledge of their powers and quickly fully mastered all of them, allowing him to use their dominion over the fabrics of reality for combative purposes with extreme finesse, making him nearly impossible to defeat in battle.
- Accelerated Healing Factor: With the Infinity Gauntlet completed, it's power can quickly regenerate Thanos of any wound regardless of severity and blood loss. Hence, upon it's activation, Thanos instantly healed and recovered from any injury he sustained from fighting the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy, with even the grievous wounds Thor dealt with Stormbreaker vanishing without any trace of it being there.
- Energy Projection: With the Power Stone installed inside the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos becomes able to project it's explosive energy in many forms of extremely powerful energy attacks, showing much greater raw power and versatility than Ronan's use, that applied incredible amounts of powerful concussive force that are even potentially capable of outright destroying objects with its volatile power or incapacitating and greatly damaging even the most durable of individuals. He can directly concentrate the Stone's energy into destructively powerful beams easily strong enough to cleave through rocks, force back a shielded Iron Man and sending him flying with great force and damaging his armor. He was also able to unleash the energy wildly as a shockwave of energy that was easily potent enough to knock out Star-Lord, Drax and Nebula instantaneously despite their great superhuman resilience and displays being able to focus the energy into repulsive waves that were easily potent enough to effortlessly blast away the superhumanly strong and resilient Captain America and Winter Soldier and easily stop Okoye's spear in mid-air before flinging both it and her away, during the Battle of Wakanda. He also was able to use it as a powerful form of defense by conjuring a very strong force field of energy that was easily powerful enough to block Iron Man's repulsors even when the latter used both of his hands to emit two blasts at once. In addition, he can also manipulate the energy reserves of the Space Stone to create force-fields strong enough to instantly vaporizing the bullets of War Machine's armor, and even blocking the energy of Scarlet Witch.
- Energy Detonation: Thanos is able to unleash the Power Stone's destructive energy to charge objects with unstable explosive energy with just a single gesture from the Gauntlet, causing them to overload and violently detonate. This ability proves to be the most commonly used out of all the diverse capabilities of the Power Stone due to its great versatility and combat potential thanks to his ability to control the time and size of the detonation, whether instantly or slowly or how devastating, allowing him to use it with devastating efficiency, as Thanos was able to cause the Stone to slowly overload and detonate the damaged Statesman after retrieving the Space Stone, giving himself time to teleport him and his Children out and later violently and almost instantly detonated a ruined spaceship fragment that was dropped on him by Iron Man. He can even exert so much powerfully destructive energy that he was able to rip apart the surface of Titan's moon with its sheer power.
- Spatial Pressure Generation: With the Space Stone installed inside the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos is able to expertly use the Space Stone to warp the fabric of space to generate powerful spatial pressure around his surroundings, capable of crushing, pulling and freezing with tremendous force in a manner akin to telekinesis enable him to manipulate and move objects with just a single gesture of the Gauntlet, an ability that proved to be among Thanos' most often used. Thanos was able to use the Stone to casually freeze Loki's knife mid-stab in an instant, effortlessly crush the guns on War Machine's armor and ground it, and crush the wings on the Exo-7 Falcon to knock him down. The Space Stone's spatial induced telekinesis is so strong that Thanos was even able to use it to telekinetically pull the shattered fragments of Titan's moon across space to rain down on the attacking Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy during the Battle of Titan.
- Portal Creation: With the Space Stone installed inside the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos is able to open portals to any part of the universe, allowing him to effortlessly teleport himself to anywhere he desires at will. As such, Thanos instantly warped himself to Knowhere, Titan and later Wakanda with ease. He can also take others with him, as shown when he warped both himself and the Black Order out of the exploding Statesman and later teleported Gamora alongside him to the Sanctuary II and Vormir. In addition to using the portals that he can open with the Space Stone as an instant means of transportation, Thanos can also use it to send attacks from other places, as he did to transport the pieces of Titan's moon that he crushed to use them against his opponents. His control is very precise, capable of using the Stone to selectively control what objects are transported, even removing the impaled Stormbreaker from his chest upon teleporting away.
- Intangibility: The Space Stone even grants Thanos the power to phase and unphase objects out of space, rendering them incorporeal and just as easily make them corporeal again,, as he easily made the Hulkbuster, and Banner that was inside it, intangible when he tried to attack Thanos and then rendered it corporeal again to trap him in solid stone.
- Event Recreation: Thanos is capable of rewinding time to recreate certain events with a surpassing amount of finesse, enough so as to truly recreate destroyed objects, even those of great power, while resurrecting beings and keeping some from being affected, as he was able to recreate the events where Vision died, so as to resurrect Vision and recreate the Mind Stone, even after Wanda Maximoff had destroyed both of them, while preventing his foes from getting rewinded so as to prevent them from making an attempt to stop him, whereas Doctor Strange could not truly recreate the stolen pages of the Book of Cagliostro.
- Soul Detection and Attacking: With the Soul Stone installed inside the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos is granted the power to detect and attack the souls of others, as when cornered by Dr. Strange's images of Ikonn, Thanos swiftly activated the Soul Stone and combined it with the Power Stone to instantly destroy all the false images and reveal the real one while also spiritually attacking Strange, forcing his Astral Form out of his body for a brief moment.
- Matter Transmution: With the Reality Stone installed inside the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos acquires the power to transmute and warp matter to anything he wants. This allows Thanos to effortlessly transform weapons into harmless substances, as he instantly turned Star-Lord's ammo within his gun into a flock of bubbles before he had a chance to shoot and did the same with Gamora's sword before she attempted to kill herself, transform and manipulate specific parts of the environment to use against his enemies, as shown when he transmuted the pieces of the ship that he destroyed when Iron Man threw it at him into a countless swarm of bats that he sent towards Iron Man and also spawned a cage of stone pillars to trap Black Widow.
  - Biological Manipulation: The Reality Stone even makes Thanos capable of warping the bodies of a living organism, showing the power to release a ball of the Reality Stone's energy capable of turning his targets into pieces of themselves, as he easily turned Drax the Destroyer into pieces and Mantis into strips, although it is only temporary, as Drax and Mantis eventually returned to their original form. However, with the Infinity Gauntlet completed and the Reality Stone amplified to it's full potential, it became so potent that it can actually destroy the body of others truly by disintegrating them to dust, something which Thanos used to wipe out half the universe with a simple snap of his fingers, with the Reality Stone turning all the victims bodies to dust.
- Vortex Creation: With the Space Stone, Thanos can create powerful and devastating singularities capable of compressing and sucking anything in their path, as he generated powerful compression forces to throw back the fragments of the gateway to the Mirror Dimension sent at him by Strange in the form of a small but devastating vortex that gathered up everything it's path and sent it flying towards Doctor Strange. However, Strange was swiftly capable of transmuting it into a harmless substance.

Abilities

Genius Level-Intellect: Even in his youth, Thanos was deemed a genius among his kind, despite his deformation. His long life has allowed Thanos to refine his intellectual aptitude to the highest degree, making him exceptionally intelligent. Hence, due to Thanos' intellectual genius; he is quite possibly the most intelligent individual in the entire universe, proving to be considerably intellectually superior to even the likes of Tony Stark, Loki Laufeyson, Stephen Strange and Bruce Banner respectively, as Thanos was able to easily completely fool them.
Master Tactician: Thanos is an exceptionally accomplished tactician, with centuries of experience in using strategies. Thanos' mastery and experience in using strategy and tactics allows him to create extremely complex and well-coordinated plans and execute them effectively, with the strategies he created and employed being so effective that he gave the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy great trouble all the while remaining anonymous. Thanos is even a far more skilled tactician than Loki, who was famous for being a crafty genius in orchestrating chunning schemes, as he easily deceived the God of Mischief into becoming his minion and later easily predicted and outsmarted Loki's attempt to assassinate him.
Master Manipulator: Thanos is an exceptionally skillful and experienced manipulator, far surpassing even Loki, the God of Mischief himself who was famous for his manipulation abilities. Without leaving his throne, he was able to manipulate other powerful beings, such as Loki, into doing his bidding. His manipulation ultimately caused both the Chitauri Invasion and the Battle of Xandar. As noted by Thor, Thanos has effectively manipulated the Avengers for his own goals.
Master Leader: Thanos is an exceptional leader, as he was able to lead the Outriders and Chitauri armies, despite their savagery and inspire absolute loyalty into his Black Order children. Thanos' outstanding leadership was displayed by the fact that he was known for having led his forces with such efficiency as to having easily decimated many species and killing half of said species during his mission to re-balance the universe.
Master Hand-To-Hand Combatant: Thanos is an exceptionally skilled hand-to-hand combatant, with millennia of fighting experience. He was able to casually fight off and quickly force back both Dr. Strange who was using a sword made of Eldritch Magic, and Drax with his knives, easily fight off and swiftly pummel Spider-Man with only one hand and to easily defeat and grievously wound Iron Man in his Mark L armor. Thanos easily countered Black Panther's charge by choking him with a single hand and then pummeled him to the ground with a single punch and effortlessly quickly gaining the upper hand over Captain America, who struggled to deflect a single blow from him, eventually knocking him out with a single blow. Thanos's most impressive feat is that he was even able to defeat and casually beat Hulk into a bloody pulp (despite the superhuman's amazing levels of strength) as well as defeating Thor relatively easily, who is a master hand-to-hand combatant and martial artist in his own right.
Intimidation: As a galactic warlord, Thanos commands an intimidating presence to the point where many of his enemies across the universe fear him, even Loki Laufeyson, Ronan and Bruce Banner/Hulk respectively are terrified of Thanos.

Weaknesses

Decapitation: According to Thanos himself, the only way to permanently kill him, is to cut off his head from his body; after Thor nearly killed him with Stormbreaker, Thanos stated that he should have gone for the head.

Former Weaknesses

Arrogance: Due to him being a galactic warlord for centuries, Thanos has developed a ego, however, his is not as bad as Tony Stark's; as unlike the latter, Thanos not only has complete control over his arrogance, but he is also capable of seeing past his own ego, as his arrogance and egotistic traits can never cloud his judgment; making it completely impossible for Thanos' opponents to utilize his arrogance and ego against him.

Relationships

Loki Laufeyson - Ally turned enemy.
The Other - Vizier; deceased.
Chitauri - Subordinates.
Leviathans - Subordinates.
Avengers
- Steve Rogers/Captain America - Enemy.
- Tony Stark/Iron Man - Enemy.
- Bruce Banner/Hulk - Enemy.
- Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow - Enemy.
- Clint Barton/Hawkeye - Enemy.
- Sam Wilson/Falcon - Enemy.
- Vision - Enemy.
- James Barnes/Winter Soldier - Enemy.
- Scott Lang/Ant-Man - Enemy.
- Peter Parker/Spider-Man - Enemy.
- T'Challa/Black Panther - Enemy.
- Stephen Strange/Dr. Strange - Enemy.
- Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch - Enemy.
- James Rhodes/War Machine - Enemy.
Guardians of the Galaxy - Enemy.
- Peter Quill/Star-Lord - Enemy.
- Gamora - Adopted daughter turned enemy.
- Drax - Enemy.
- Rocket Raccoon - Enemy.
- Groot - Enemy.
- Nebula - Adopted daughter turned enemy.
- Mantis - Enemy.
Ronan - Ally turned enemy; deceased.
Korath - Ally turned enemy; deceased.

Appearances/Actors

Marvel Cinematic Universe (6 films)
- The Avengers (First appearance) - Damion Poitier
- Guardians of the Galaxy - Josh Brolin (voice/performance capture) and Sean Gunn (motion capture)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron - Josh Brolin (voice/performance capture)
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (Mentioned only)
- Avengers: Infinity War - Josh Brolin (voice/performance capture)
- Avengers 4 - Josh Brolin (voice/performance capture)

Marvel Cinematic Universe (3 comics)

Behind the scenes

Thanos' presence in the movie was kept top secret from the production until the release of The Avengers.
Damion Poitier was credited as playing "Man #1" in order to hide the identity of Thanos at the end of the film. It was later publicly announced after the film's release.
Kevin Feige has said that Thanos will likely be played by a different actor in future films; this has been confirmed with the casting of Josh Brolin as the voice of Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers: Infinity War, with a physical presence being provided by motion capture.^[1]
Joss Whedon has said that Thanos will play a major role in the "Final Act", referring to Avengers 3 as a whole, stating: "Well, Thanos is more powerful. He is so powerful he is not someone you can just try out and punch him. Like he did in the comics, you want him to threading through the universe and to save the big finale for ‘the big finale’. He is definitely a part of what I have got going on. The thing about the Avengers is that they are very powerful but not very stable. So, there will definitely be some people that will shake them up in the next installment (AoU)."
Kevin Feige has reiterated his statements about Thanos shaking things up for The Avengers, and what his role in the overall scheme of things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: "If you remember we had a tag scene in Thor: The Dark World where Benicio Del Toro showed up for the first time as The Collector, so that was our way of saying the Guardians and the other Marvel characters inhabit the same reality and the same universe. In particular, there's a villain in this film [Guardians], that comic fans know as Thanos, that moviegoers will begin to learn more and more about in the coming years. He appeared at the very end of the first Avengers film, when he turned into camera and smirked, and we realized he was the person behind the alien army that Loki teamed up with to terrorize New York City, and that the Avengers had to fight. going on to say "We see him again in this movie [Guardians], we learn a little bit more about him in this movie, and he - and his band of followers - is the biggest piece of connective tissue that will eventually lead us back into Avengers films in the future."^[2]
Kevin Feige had this to say about Brolin's inclusion as Thanos, as well as Brolin's excitement about the role: "We reached out to him and it was one of those things that does not happen all the time but when it does it’s very nice, where he was totally intrigued. He was a fan of what we did, he met with Jeremy Latcham in a hotel in London and learned about the characters a little bit. I spoke to him on the phone a few times. We ran it by James who loved it, ran it by Joss who loved it because Thanos is in this universe because of Avengers. Then we shot him and recorded for it." while also saying thos about his role in Age of Ultron: "We knew he was going to be in this movie (Age of Ultron). We wanted somebody to be more than just the voice. Josh did the performance as well. We were looking at a wish list of, “Wouldn’t it be great if names,” and his name was on it. And you look at his face and the performances he gives, he could be Thanos without any effects. He has that kind of face and that kind of gravitas to it."^[3]
James Gunn's brother Sean was a stand-in during filming, and Josh Brolin did both motion capture and voice for Thanos.
Josh Brolin's role in Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron was uncredited.
Thanos' look was changed for Guardians of the Galaxy; his skin was changed to a lighter lavender, and his eyes were darkened. His gloves were also removed, instead replaced with armored gauntlets. This was most likely because his initial appearance was more of an early model just for the post-credits scene, explaining his more elaborate appearance for a more prominent role.
- In an interview, Josh Brolin expanded on Thanos' relationship with Death, and confirmed that Death will be portrayed as a woman in the Cinematic Universe: "His relationship with Death, who is actually the woman, I love that. You can take Sin City (in which Brolin plays a man obsessed with a dark-hearted woman) and pump it full of steroids, and then you have Thanos. I like that he’s motivated by that — not just motivated by destruction or death or this or that. He’s motivated by a very identifiable, human trait.”^[4]

Trivia

In the comics, Thanos has no relationships with Loki Laufeyson nor the Chitauri, but he's nevertheless one of the historical foes of the Avengers.
In the comics, Thanos is the master of the Infinity Gauntlet, which he used in the eponymous series in an attempt to court Death. He was also one of the many users of the Cosmic Cube.
Thanos is one of few antagonists not to be killed in their debut appearance, others being The Other, Loki, Justin Hammer, The Abomination, Thaddeus Ross, Georges Batroc, Winter Soldier, Brock Rumlow, Helmut Zemo, Ulysses Klaue Adrian Toomes, and Johann Schmidt/Red Skull.
Rhomann Dey mentions Thanos as "The Mad Titan", as he is called in the comics.
According to Korath, Thanos is the most powerful being in the universe. Ronan suggests that he could kill him through use of the Orb, but whether he truly could is unknown.