In previous storylines, Thanos had been killed. He was resurrected by Death with the sole purpose of wiping out half of the universe. While researching a way to complete the task of Death whom he is in love with, he stumbles upon the information about the Infinity Gauntlet and the Soul Stones. He thinks if he can gain the stones he'll become a God and be an equal to Death. Getting her permission he begins his difficult task of retrieving the stones from the powerful beings who possess them.
After several encounters, Thanos returns to Death's sanctum with the six Infinity Gems in his possession, excited by the thought that he was Death's equal. Ready to spend eternity pleasing her. Death continues to use an intermediary to spek to him and Thanos is enraged. Every ordeal he went through to acquire the stones was in an effort to be Death's equal. When Thanos demands that Death address him personally as her mate, she points out to him, again through her minions, with his newly achieved status of omnipotence, Thanos is not her equal, but her superior, and that it would therefore not be fitting for her to address him directly. Thanos destroys the minion in a fit of anger and stalks from Death's throne room, trying to comprehend his miscalculation, and finally wondering, while shedding a tear, how becoming a god could prove such a hollow victory.
Author's Note: Death's a cold piece... She brought home-boy back to life knowing he was sprung on her like a lab monkey and when he found a way to not only server her better and have power to achieve ANYTHING she wanted, she got all butt-hurt and threw homie to the curb... Cold man. Cold...
Still aching from Death's rejection, Thanos decides there has to be a way to please her and make things right. He realizes that he has forgotten the main reason Death had brought him back and with a snap of his fingers half of the living beings in the universe disappears. The catches the attention of Earth's mightiest heroes lead by Adam Warlock who used to be in possession of one of the Infinity Stones (The Soul Stone).
After the Infinity Gauntlet is stolen by Thanos' granddaughter Nebula, he helps the remaining heroes in defeating her. Warlock ultimately obtains the Infinity Gauntlet and uses its power to undo the death and destruction caused by Thanos.
When hero Adam Warlock takes possession of the Infinity Gauntlet, he removes the good and evil sides of his being to become a totally logical man, who can therefore use the Gauntlet wisely. This act recreates his "evil" persona and old foe the Magus, who desires universal conquest and revenge against Warlock and the Titan Thanos. Adam is brought before a "jury" of the cosmic powers and voluntarily surrenders his godhood once he is found to be "guilty" of being unworthy.
The Magus collects five cosmic containment units (another name for the Cosmic Cubes), and with the power gained incapacitates the cosmic entity Eternity; creates an interdimensional realm and an army of evil "mirror" images of Earth's superheroes.
After investigating the energy of the containment units, Thanos discovers the Magus and retreats to warn Warlock. Galactus and several of Earth's heroes also investigate and then attempt to revive Eternity, as the entity will be required to petition the Living Tribunal, who has decreed that the Infinity Gems can no longer be used in unison in the Earth-616 universe. The rationale is that if the Gauntlet can be reactivated, then the Magus can be removed from existence. The Magus sends the doppelgängers to Earth to distract the heroes, and the evil version of Mister Fantastic detonates a gamma bomb when the heroes assemble at Four Freedoms Plaza. However, the Invisible Woman contains the blast while Thunder God Thor directs the radiation into space, and a surprise attack by the Magus and the doppelgänger of Thanos has the heroes believing the two characters are now allied.
The story climaxes at the Magus' base: a group of heroes free those who were replaced by doppelgängers; cosmic adventurer Quasar arrives with the Ultimate Nullifier (with Thanos goading Quasar to use it against the Magus knowing that Quasar would also be destroyed) and villains Kang the Conqueror and Doctor Doom appear, hoping to harness the source of the powerful energies detected.
Warlock and the still inactive Gauntlet are captured by the Magus, and both attacked by Doom and Kang. Warlock is defeated and the Magus is severely weakened in the battle and attempts to use the containment units but discovers they have been stolen. Doom betrays and stops Kang, and then demands the Gauntlet from the Magus. Eternity, however, has just been revived and has requested the Gauntlet be reactivated, which the Living Tribunal agrees to. An apparently omnipotent Magus easily defeats Doom and dissolves Quasar, who arrives with the Ultimate Nullifier. Thanos defeats his doppelgänger and distracts the Magus, allowing Warlock to grapple with the villain for the Gauntlet. Warlock releases from the Gauntlet a being that is a composite of the entity Eternity and his twin, Infinity. The being incapacitates the Magus, allowing Warlock to absorb the Magus into the Soul Gem. The experience places Warlock in a coma.
The heroes return to Earth and the final page of the last issue reveals that the containment units have been stolen by Warlock's "good" persona, the Goddess. In addition to these developments, Eternity—who is apparently 'deputized' by the Living Tribunal to make such a decree—thereafter declares that the Gems on the Gauntlet will never be able to be used again as a single unit, no matter what future crisis befalls the universe.
Author's Note: This series was a bit crazy and I was kinda half and half, but what to note here is the positioning of Thanos. He actually played a good guy and saved A LOT OF LIVES.
During the events of the Infinity War, the Goddess stole the five cosmic containment units (also known as Cosmic Cubes) collected by the Magus. She eventually collected a total of thirty, and used them to form a "Cosmic Egg" capable of fulfilling wishes.
Using the Egg to create a planet called Paradise Omega, the Goddess kidnaps and brainwashes many of Earth's superheroes to act as her army. The heroes chosen are susceptible, as they are either especially religious, mystically inclined, or have had a near-death experience. The characters, led by the heroine Moondragon, are told to defend the Goddess while she meditates on how to rid the universe of all evil.
Heroes Mister Fantastic, the android Vision, and Iron Man investigate the disappearance of their allies and find Paradise Omega. They retreat when attacked by the brainwashed heroes, and contact Professor X, leader of the X-Men, who attempts to speak with Moondragon via telepathy. This results in a telepathic attack that leaves Professor X in a coma. The Titan Thanos is seen as a threat by the Goddess, and is her first target to be attacked, but is inexplicably saved by his enemy Adam Warlock. The Devil, Mephisto, offers his knowledge of the Goddess to Thanos and Warlock in exchange for one of the cosmic containment units, to which they agree.
Armed with Mephisto's information, Warlock and Thanos plan to defeat the Goddess. Thanos gathers the heroes of Earth and the Silver Surfer, who, while initially serving the Goddess, has shaken off her control. The Surfer destroys Paradise Omega's defences, enabling the heroes to land and battle their friends in what becomes a battle to the death. Thanos, boosting his own telepathic powers with those of the comatose Professor X, attacks the Goddess at the moment she activates her plan. Rationalizing that evil will continue to exist while sentient life exists, the Goddess uses the Egg to rewrite existence so that the universe is completely without sentient life.
This, however, proves to be an illusion created by Warlock moments before the Goddess acted to trick her, thus exposing her true goal to her army and depriving her of their loyalty - and the will needed to override the containment unit's safeguards against universal destruction. Caught off-guard, the Goddess is attacked simultaneously by Thanos, Warlock and Professor X, the three striking her on the spiritual plane as the units cannot affect the soul, and she is absorbed into the Soul Gem. The heroes return to Earth, with their battle undone by the Cosmic Egg before Thanos ordered it to destroy itself to ensure that its power could never be used by another. Thanos takes a cosmic containment unit for Mephisto and then destroys Paradise Omega. Mephisto receives his payment, but the unit is non-functional, as he failed to specify that the artifact must work.
Author's Note: Don't start no shit, won't be no shit... The Goddess attacked Thanos, pulling him into the fight. Again, we see Thanos playing a positive role and his superior intellect aiding the heroes. Also beating the devil at the deal was priceless!
The series centers on the Thanosi, five failed genetic experiments by the Titan Thanos, with each being a clone of his DNA and modelled on other beings, including the characters Professor X; Doctor Strange; Gladiator; Iron Man and Galactus. Obsessed with nihilism and a desire to end the universe, the five Thanosi – called X; Mystic; Warrior; Armor and Omega – attempt to kill the original Thanos by creating a black hole in space. X then impersonates Thanos and directs character Pip the Troll to kidnap a recovering Adam Warlock on an alien planet.
X requires information from Warlock, who previously made contact with an entity called the Anchor of Reality. By killing this being and preventing it from locating a successor, the Thanosi clones will therefore end the universe. The female mercenary Gamora locates the real Thanos, and with the aid of Warlock and heroes Doctor Strange; Spider-Man; Captain Marvel and Moondragon the Titan neutralizes four of the five clones. Omega arrives on Earth to kill the successor to the Anchor of Reality and to destroy the Earth, and is teleported with the heroes to a barren planet where they battle. Thanos transports the heroes back to Earth, and then has a fleet of alien mercenaries destroy the planet, killing the final clone. A human girl called Atleza is able to become the new Anchor of Reality unchallenged, ending the threat.
Author's Note: Thanos was sure that despite his good deeds he had done in the past, that sooner or later someone was gonna come knocking and as such, he created clones for protection. He didn't know his clones would escape and cause problems. He fixed the problem and even paid attention to small details like the human's home which had been destroyed and he recreated... Showing he cared even at low levels.
The Heart of the Universe is an energy source first discovered millennia ago by a group of alien explorers who learned to harness its great energy. Becoming the "Celestial Order", the explorers decided to use the power to attempt to forcibly bring peace to the universe, by appointing beings they deemed worthy of the Heart's power to rule sectors of the universe. The Order chose the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten as their agent on Earth.
The power, however, corrupts Akhenaten, who arrives on present day Earth and uses the Heart's power to conquer the world, killing most of Earth's heroes in the process. The villain Doctor Doom attempts to kill Akhenaten by traveling back in time and killing him while he was still human, but Akhenaten prevents this. The Titan Thanos, who has become aware of the Heart's power, gathers the last of the heroes, including the Defenders and Captain Marvel, in an offensive on the Order. Thanos successfully destroys the machinery that allows the Order to channel the Heart's power and then absorbs the power into himself. Using the power of the Heart, Thanos travels back in time and destroys the Celestial Order before they found the Heart of the Universe, and kills Akhenaten as he attempts to prevent Doom from killing his past self.
However, contact with the Heart of the Universe allows Thanos to learn that, due to a fundamental flaw, the universe is doomed to end very soon, and that this flaw could not be corrected even by the power of the Heart of the Universe. After a while, the Living Tribunal gathers a group of the most powerful cosmic beings (including Eternity, Infinity, Death, Galactus, and the Celestials) to stop Thanos. Despite their virtual omnipotence, the cosmic beings are unsuccessful, since Thanos had, by absorbing the Heart of the Universe, not simply become more powerful—as was the case when he wielded the Infinity Gauntlet—but had actually become one with everyone and everything; even the Living Tribunal had become no more than a "part" of Thanos.
Ultimately, Thanos learns that the only way for him to repair the flaw in the universe would be to destroy the universe and re-construct it. He is finally driven to mindless rage by the attempt of the cosmic powers to usurp his reign, and decides in one fateful, final moment to absorb the entirety of the multiverse back into himself, so that none might ever again threaten his reign. Thanos is thus able to use the Heart's power to absorb the cosmic beings into himself—and, in doing so, he absorbs the entire universe.
The cosmic hero Adam Warlock, who was outside the space-time continuum when Thanos absorbed the universe, appears to Thanos and explains to him what had transpired. Adam convinces Thanos to sacrifice himself to restore the universe. Lady Death herself, whom Thanos has long been in love with, also managed to escape. Lady Death caresses Thanos's cheek, kisses him for deciding to sacrifice himself, and disappears into the now empty void of space, leaving Thanos awe-struck. Thanos speculates that the whole scenario was created by a higher power to fix the universal flaw. Thanos then restores the universe but wipes himself from existence, a sacrifice remembered only by Warlock.
Author's Note: The ONLY thing that Thanos ever wanted was to be LOVED. He craved the same thing that we all do. And if you were to measure him by the deeds he did in these comics, I think you'll agree, in the end he was more a force for good than anything else. He was driven mad by love and as such I think the title of the MAD TITAN fits...
And that is how there's a major difference between the comics and the movies... The movies removed the primary motivation which relates to all living things. There is much much more to Thanos and his complex past filled with tragedy, death, sadness and more which ultimately lead him to become the "Mad Titan!" What does this mean for the movie? Well now we have our selves a pickle here. With the motive changed so drastically now we have a "pure" motive for the betterment of all remaining living things. They succeeded in creating an altruistic, ruthless, character driven by ideology and NOT love. This is a more dangerous character. One whom I respect for his unwavering dedication to a seemingly impossible goal which he's willing to sacrifice the one thing he loves above all else.
So in the comics, he's willing to sacrifice all for his love of Mistress Death. In the movie, he's willing to sacrifice everything for an idea.
It'll be interesting to see how they 'fix' this. Part of me is happy with the way the movie ended with the Mad Titan at peace with a smile on his face, knowing he accomplished what no one else could.
Next up we'll get down to spoiler review of the movie and what I think happend...
My boys asked some questions I didn't know. Thanks now they know. I knew something's but not like you
ReplyDeleteGlad I could help! :)
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