#ComicBytes: The history of the Mad Titan in comics
Thanos was the most powerful villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But why was he so determined to destroy lives across the universe? While the movies did give an 'Inferno-ish' explanation for this madness, they never gave a proper origin story of the Mad Titan. So, before MCU introduces a new villain, we are going to dive into the origin of this cosmic being.
His design was partly a rip-off of DC's Darkseid
The idea of Thanos took a proper shape during creator Jim Starlin's psych class. However, his design was inspired by Darkseid in Jack Kirby's Fourth World saga in DC comics. Thanos made his debut in Iron Man #55. When Kirby came back to Marvel, he created a Fourth-World-like pantheon of Gods called the Eternals, and Thanos was retconned into being an Eternal.
His Deviant gene made him a purple giant
Thanos, the son of the Eternals A'Lars and Sui-San, was born with purple skin and a massive body due to his Deviant gene. This mutation augmented the powers he inherently possessed, which made him the most powerful being on Titan. By the time he was a teenager, Thanos excelled academically and learned faster than others. But then, things started to go wrong.
He fell in love with the physical embodiment of Death
Thanos began to vivisect creatures to find an answer to his abnormal genetic makeup. As his experiments grew, he met Mistress Death, the physical embodiment of death. Eventually, Thanos' relationship with Death became a dark romance. Inspired by her, Thanos started practising the Black Arts and accepting his killing urges. After he went on a killing rampage, his father expelled him from Titan.
Thanos' actions were fueled by his obsession with Death
Fueled by his obsession with Death, Thanos started to amass even more knowledge, skill, and power via mysticism, meditation, and bionics during his century-long isolation. He then returned to Titan to ravage the planet and began his journey to regain Death's affection. This included his first quest to find the Infinity Gems to annihilate planets as a gift to Death.
Thanos and his incredible powers, backed by his Eternal DNA
As mentioned before, Thanos was born strong. But, the absorption of cosmic rays combined with his own Eternal DNA made him super strong. Additionally, he was exceptionally intelligent. Even without the Infinity Gems and Gauntlet (which gave him omnipotence), Thanos possessed mind control, telepathy, and teleportation in certain comic book storylines. Although he died in MCU, his comeback is not entirely impossible.
