Always trying to conquer the universe just to destroy the whole damn thing can become a stressful occupation after a while. Jim Starlin’s stony-faced Titan, Thanos, ponders his failure to win as the ultimate bad guy of all bad guys ever, and he has a change of heart. For the first issue of Thanos’ short-lived solo series, Starlin brings back his familiar cast of characters: Adam Warlock, Gamora, and Pip the Troll. Starlin’s story takes up the first half of this series, with Keith “Legion of Superheroes” Giffen picking up the script for the second half.
In Marvel Universe The End, Jim Starlin digs into his bag of tricks from the Metamorphosis Odyssey. In this second issue, we witness the partial origin of the bad guy of the series: Akhenaten, an Egyptian pharoah who gets super-powered by aliens. Starlin used a variation of this name and the Egyptian theme for Aknaton, one of the prime movers in the Metamorphosis Odyssey which would later become Dreadstar.
Akhenaten was, for those of you who fell asleep in Ancient Civilizations 101, a real-life ruler of Egypt whom historians still argue over. He also ruled under the name Amenhotep IV. His claim to fame was the alleged installation of sun-god worship as a monotheistic practice nearly 1300 years before the birth of christianity. Reportedly, his polytheistic people were not thrilled with the idea.
Dr. Doom and Thanos aren’t too pleased with Starlin’s version, either. Let’s have a look!
Ron Lim goes all out with cosmic fireworks for the final showdown of Infinity War. While we couldn’t get into this series at all, despite being fans of Starlin’s older work, we do like a good light show.
This series follows the events of Infinity Gauntlet. Jim Starlin brings back Thanos and Warlock for another struggle for the fate of the entire universe. Warlock’s evil other self, the Magus, intends to conquer everything. We would have preferred the Magus stay dead after all the trouble Warlock went through to make sure he never existed. But, these Warlock/Thanos events proved too popular for Marvel to let the dead rest. And who are we to begrudge Jim Starlin the opportunity to cash in at Marvel with characters he revitalized or created in the 1970s? After the Metamorphosis Odyssey, he’d certainly earned the artistic right to crank out several volumes of standard superhero fare for a mainstream audience.
In the third issue of Infinity Abyss, Jim Starlin uses one of his favorite themes: the psychic/mystic battle in which the two combatants appear to merge. Here we see the bodies of Doctor Strange and Moondragon appear as a single entity. Starlin uses this device to show antagonists struggling for ego supremacy. They fight to maintain their very identities while subsuming the identity of their opponent.
The final page of Infinity Abyss #3 recapitulates this struggle on the cosmic plane. The two beings Eternity and Infinity appear before Adam Warlock in a similarly merged being.
We’ve looked at Starlin’s use of the dual identity before in a psychic battle between Thanos and Galactus. Tomorrow, we’ll dig deeper into the Starlin archives for a scene from Dreadstar.
His name is Thanos. And when the nasty Chitauri alien warns him that to mess with the Earthlings “is to court death,” Thanos fans know exactly why that brings a sinister smile to Thanos’ face.
Why? Because Thanos is all about courting Death. We don’t mean living dangerously and playing extreme sports. Thanos loves Death. He wants to marry her. You can see why he might smile about courting her…
We offer you a guide to the most important comic book appearances of Thanos. Our links take you to anything you’d like to purchase. Are you ready for a Titanic Tour of Thanos Thrills? Then let’s rock this thing!
THE BEGINNINGS OF A TITAN
Artist extraordinaire Jim Starlin created Thanos. If you pay attention to the movie credits, you’ll see Starlin gets a mention with other comic book greats. Rather than tracking down all the individual issues, get the orginal Thanos epic collected in The Life of Captain Marvel TPB, orignally printed as single issues. It collects the first and arguably most important early Thanos story. You can also find a deluxe edition printed as Marvel Masterworks Captain Marvel #3. Thanos also appears in The Death of Captain Marvel, so you may opt to just get it all in one shot as The Life and Death of Captain Marvel!
The other early must-read Thanos – which also guest-stars the Avengers in the final showdown – was collected in Warlock Special Edition. Thanos became so popular that Marvel had to reprint the collection! Believe us, it’s a lot easier to buy the Special Edition than track down all the original issues. You’ll also find a deluxe printing of the Thanos parts in Marvel Masterworks Warlock Vol. 2. As we’ve stated in our prieview of Warlock, it’s one of our favorite Bronze Age stories and we can’t recommend it enough.
Thanos Holds the Cosmic Cube by Jim Starlin
SURFING TO INFINITY
When Jim Starlin took over Silver Surfer with artist Ron Lim in 1990, the first thing he did was resurrect Thanos in Silver Surfer Vol. 2, #34-52. Jim went on to bring in all his supporting cast from the earlier Captain Marvel and Warlock sagas. You can find the core story collected as The Rebirth of Thanos which includes the supplementary Thanos Quest.
Next, Starlin takes Thanos on three epic missions to destroy the entire universe. He still thinks this will make Death happy! This chapter of Thanos’ life begins with Infinity Gauntlet (also in single issues.) The sequel is Infinity War. The madness continues unabated in Infinity Crusade. But, things don’t go well for Thanos. Once he becomes god (again), he becomes disillusioned with his quest to win Death’s love.
Thanos therefore loses his taste for “total stellar genocide.” Unfortunately, he built some freaked-out clones of himself that are still hell-bent on destroying all reality. Thus begins Starlin’s fourth cosmic “Infinity” adventure: Infinity Abyss. (Also in single issues.)
Afterwards, Thanos regrets always trying to kill everything and everyone everywhere. So, he sets out to do some good deeds. Crazy, we know – but Starlin writes a good story in the short-lived Thanos series, collected in rare (and expensive) TPBs as Thanos: Epiphany and Samaritan. (Keith Giffen takes over from Starlin for the Samaritan story in 7-12.) We have a preview of a trippy confrontation between Thanos and Galactus from this era.
Eventually, Jim Starlin’s “nice guy” Thanos gets embroiled in another heinous plot involving the destruction of the universe. Although he’s on the good side, Thanos ends up destroying the dang universe in Marvel Universe: The End! (Also in single issues.) We enjoyed this one more than the other Infinity books. For one, the superheroes don’t do a damn thing but get wiped out – and we always figured that’s what really should have happened. Second, Thanos is more than a threat or a co-star. This is really his book.
Thanos Confronts Galactus by Jim Starlin
ANNIHILATION
With Annihilation, Marvel re-charged all their Bronze Age “cosmic” characters for a new generation. Fans loved it, and Thanos made a return from the oblivion of The End to wrap up the action. Annihilation forms such a star-spanning saga that collecting it can be a part-time job. This handy infographic will help you! You will find dozens of Annihilation paperbacks.
But – don’t stress. The whole deal climaxes in The Thanos Imperative, a Thanos extravaganza collecting in a single set The Thanos Imperative, Thanos Imperative:Ignition, Thanos Imperative: Devastation, and the Thanos Sourcebook. If collecting Annihilation seems daunting, this trade may be a good way for you to get your Thanos kicks without breaking the bank!
ULTIMATE THANOS ROCKS
Last but not least, Thanos appears in two intergalactic tales of the “Ultimate” version of Fantastic Four. They are collected in the affordable trades Ultimate Fantastic FourTPB #7 and TPB #10. Although Jim Starlin is a huge favorite of ours, these two totally intense non-Starlin Thanos stories deserve a place in the collection of any Thanos fan.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE TESSERACT?
In many of these stories – Captain Marvel, Warlock, and Ultimate Fantastic Four – Thanos obsesses with the Cosmic Cube. The Avengers movie calls it the Tesseract. You may be interested in knowing a little more about the comics history of this device.
The Cosmic Cube originally gave Captain America a hard time as a weapon of the Red Skull in Tales of Suspense #79. The story runs two more issues in T.O.S. #80 and #81. In fact, Captain America #186 details how the Red Skull created Cap’s buddy The Falcon with the Cosmic Cube even though The Falcon had been starring with Cap for quite some time by then.
More recently, the Cosmic Cube played a major role in the first few arcs of Ed Brubaker’s Captain America, which deserves your shelf space now!
Thanos Being Huge and Evil by George Tuska
As a postscript, we’d like to direct you to previews of complete Thanos stories on the king of 1970s comics blogs: Diversions of the Groovy Kind. If you dig around in Groove’s archives, you’ll find plenty more Warlock and Captain Marvel stories from the Bronze Age. The Death of Thanos The Final Flower
Life of Captain Marvel reprints the complete Jim Starlin stories from his legendary epic that kick-started his career at Marvel Comics. Reprinted on high-quality glossy paper with a few special extras, Life of Captain Marvel is a fine companion piece to Jim Starlin’s Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel. Marvel put both the Life and Death into one single omnibus in 2002, The Life and Death of Captain Marvel.
Rock out to these portraits of Thanos, Captain Marvel, The Controller, and the Avengers. You can find these on the back covers of the Life of Captain Marvel. See the rest of our Captain Marvel Gallery!
Life of Captain Marvel reprints the complete Jim Starlin stories from his legendary epic that kick-started his career at Marvel Comics. Reprinted on high-quality glossy paper with a few special extras, Life of Captain Marvel is a fine companion piece to Jim Starlin’s Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel. Marvel put both the Life and Death into one single omnibus in 2002, The Life and Death of Captain Marvel.
Jim Starlin‘s take on Galactus isn’t an imitation of Jack Kirby at all, but it’s still radically cosmic! In this scene from Thanos, Jim pits his old stand-by Thanos against the Ravager of Worlds in a truly mind-warping vision of the telepathic plane. WOW!
Collector’s Guide: From Thanos #3; Marvel Comics. Reprinted in the Thanos TPB #4; 2004.
Mars Will Send No More 