Thanos

Thanos
Textless variant cover of Infinity #4 (October 2013) Art by Jerome Opeña and Dustin Weaver
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Invincible Iron Man #55 (February 1973)[1][2]
Created by	Jim Starlin Mike Friedrich
In-story information
Species	Eternal–Deviant hybrid
Place of origin	Titan
Team affiliations	Infinity Watch Black Order
Notable aliases	The Mad Titan
Abilities	Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, and agility Access to nearly all powerful mystical artifacts and weapons Superhuman physiology of Eternals Skilled hand-to-hand combatant Plasma energy projection Genius-level intellect Nigh-invulnerability Master tactician

Thanos is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-artist Jim Starlin, the character first appeared in The Invincible Iron Man #55 (cover date February 1973). An Eternal–Deviant warlord from the moon Titan, Thanos is regarded as one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe. He has clashed with many heroes including the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men.

In creating Thanos, Starlin drew inspiration from Jack Kirby's New Gods series for DC Comics, particularly the character of Darkseid. Thanos is usually portrayed as a villain, although many stories depict him as believing his actions to be justified. Perhaps the character's best-known storyline is The Infinity Gauntlet (1991), the culmination of several story arcs that see him gather the six Infinity Gems and use them to kill half of the universe's population, including many of its heroes, to woo Mistress Death, the living embodiment of death in the Marvel Universe. Although these events were later undone, the storyline has remained one of the most popular published by Marvel.

Debuting in the Bronze Age of comic books, the character has appeared in almost five decades of Marvel publications, as well as many media adaptations, including animated television series and video games.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character was first played by Damion Poitier in the film The Avengers (2012) and then by Josh Brolin in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and the first season of the animated series What If...? (2021).