Thanos is a more complicated villain than he tends to be given credit for. As a huge and imposing, powerful figure, fans tend to just think of him as this destroyer with a God complex and unquenchable thirst for power.
Those things are parts of his character, of course. However, there’s much more to Thanos than just that. Hopefully audiences around the world will be able to realize that when Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters.
While he might be the Mad Titan, Thanos has not always been an entirely bad guy. In his goal of cosmic balance and his need to impress Death herself, Thanos has actually found himself allying with the Avengers and other heroes fairly often.
However, that doesn’t make him a great guy, either. When Thanos chooses to be cruel, he can be unbearably, unrelentingly cruel. This is a man who has literally destroyed entire sections of the cosmos with a snap of his finger, after all.
In this list, we’ll be counting down both the best and worst things Thanos has ever done throughout Marvel’s history. Any incarnation of Thanos or alternate universe storyline will count.
Here are the 8 Best (And 7 Worst) Things Thanos Has Ever Done.
15. Best: He Stopped Thor After the God of Thunder Was Driven Mad
In the Blood and Thunder storyline, Thor was driven mad and became hell-bent on wreaking chaos and destruction.
He first sought to destroy his own home of Asgard, with his own people trying desperately to stop him.
Seeing the potential devastation that Thor could reach beyond the borders of his kingdom, the Silver Surfer intervened to attempt to stop him.
However, the power-hungry, crazed god proved too powerful for even the Surfer, one of the strongest characters in the Marvel Universe.
With no other option, the Surfer called in Thanos to help. To his credit, Thanos did not take this as an opportunity to strike a vulnerable Asgar.
While he fought Thor simply for the joy of fighting Thor, he did do his part to bring the crazed god down and was thanked for his efforts.
14. Worst: He Demolished Wakanda
When Thanos and his Cabal of villains were imprisoned on Wakanda, they sought to find a way out of their imprisonment by any means necessary, as they felt a larger threat was approaching that they genuinely needed to stop by destroying an alternate Earth.
They were treated as mad and when the time came to break free from imprisonment, that madness had definitely set in.
They laid waste to Wakanda, wreaking serious devastation across the country and destroyed hundreds of Wakandan warriors in battle.
With so much of Infinity War seemingly set in Wakanda, it will be interesting to see if a similar fight will occur or if the heroes will be able to hold Thanos and his forces back before things get to that point.
13. Best: He Led the Avengers
Although this did not transpire in the actual Marvel timeline, a recent issue of the Thanos solo series allowed the Mad Titan to see a glimpse of a world in which he was actually a great hero.
In this world, Thanos was the leader of the Avengers, proudly shouting the catchphrase “Avengers assemble!” as he ran into battle alongside the likes of Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, Daredevil and Vision.
Instead of being outright disgusted by this, as most villains would be, Thanos appeared to be almost envious of this world in which everyone looked up to and respected him.
Much like Superior Spider-Man, it shows a villain who would be a hero if he could, if only for the respect and admiration that would come with it.
Instead, in his own timeline, Thanos continues to only make alliances when it suits him.
12. Worst: He Ended The Life Of Gamora
Thanos saving Gamora’s life as a child is an act that’s completely undone by the fact that he ended her life as an adult.
As she grew up, Thanos imbued her with power and turned her into his ultimate assassin. Gamora grew to hate Thanos for what he had turned her into.
When she learned of his plan to wipe out half the universe to win the favor of Lady Death, she decided that this was the last straw. Gamora turned on Thanos and attempted to destroy him.
It did not go her way.
Thanos proved to be more powerful, especially when driven by ambition, and so he destroyed her before she even had much of a chance to put up a fight.
Obviously, this is Marvel, and Gamora did eventually come back, but the memory of knowing her adoptive father had no problem going to that lengths with her is something that lasts forever.
11. Best: He Gave Up His Quest For Power to Lead a Quiet Farmer’s Life
At the end of the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, Thanos was presumed dead. He had been defeated, he had lost the gauntlet and the universe had been restored to the way that it was before his near-complete destruction.
However, it’s actually revealed at the very end that Thanos had survived. Stripped of his power and forced to look at his total defeat at the hands of Marvel’s heroes, Thanos actually took an inward look at himself.
Even if this was somewhat of a prison, he was free to sustain a quiet life here and that actually seemed to satisfy him.
For a while, at least. Eventually Thanos tired of this life and freed himself, returning to the cosmos to attempt his quest for the Infinity Stones again and again.
10. Worst: He Destroyed His Own Home Moon
There are rumors that the people of Titan did not even know the concept of destroying someone until Thanos invented it.
He had begun taking lives at a very young age, basically the cosmic version of a burgeoning killer. By the time he finished school he had already ended several people.
As an adult, sickened by his home world, Thanos decides to destroy Titan completely, taking off in a ship and nuking the moon from orbit.
He did just that, destroying thousands of people, including his own mother. Even worse is that he later returend to the scorched planet after the blast to end any and all people who happened to survive.
He spared only his father’s life, saying that he wanted him to live to see his son defile the cosmos.
This was one of the most extreme massacres ever pulled off by a villain in Marvel comic history, and it was the act that defines the kind of man Thanos would go on to become.
9. Best: He Saved Marlo Jones After She Became the Host for Death
Wife of Bruce Banner’s longtime sidekick Rick Jones, Marlo found herself in the middle of a dire struggle when she became the host for Mistress Death.
After being destroyed by a villain, Marlo became the host for Death without even realizing it— and thus quickly became terrified of this transformation.
At the same time, Death herself was attempting to hide from an entity known as Walker, a former lover of hers and one who sought to make her well and truly dead.
Thanos agreed to help in order to save Death, his lady love.
For this reason, helping Marlo was sort of a byproduct of his assistance and nothing he did out of the kindness of his own heart.
However, he still helped as he had been the one to encourage Death to hide in the first place.
8. Worst: He Created a Female Version of Himself to Make Death Jealous
This is, at the very least, just one of the downright creepiest things that Thanos has ever done. Many of the things Thanos has done, especially during the Infinity Gauntlet and Infinity War storylines have been done for the sake of seeking Mistress Death’s approval.
He had gone out of his way, even seeking to destroy the universe in order to impress her. When that didn’t work, Thanos decided to be much pettier and create a female version of himself in order to attempt to make her jealous.
He named her Terraxia and dubbed her “everything my soul longs for” while also pointedly stating that she is everything Death is not.
It’s absurdly weird and jealous but also perfectly representative of just how deeply Thanos’ insanity had set in by this point in time.
7. Best: He Fought Magus to Save Reality Itself
While Adam Warlock and Thanos have had a rocky relationship in the past, given that sometimes they’re rivals and sometimes they’re allies, it’s a relationship that’s always soured by the existence of Warlock’s evil half, Magus.
When that dark half of himself set in once again, Magus decided to essentially beat Thanos at his own game. He, too, was out to steal the Infinity Gauntlet.
Even though his good half was the one to break it apart, Magus planned to be the one to reassemble both it and the gems to restore it to its destructive potential.
Magus didn’t want to balance or control the universe, though, he wanted to end it. And not just this universe, but every universe.
He was out to destroy reality itself. Thanos sought to ally himself with the heroes attempting to stop Magus, but they didn’t trust him— for good reason.
Even still, having been where Magus was standing and failed many times, Thanos had some good ideas on how to take the villain down.
6. Worst: He Nearly Destroyed Asgard
When Thanos’ attempts to woo Mistress Death proved to have no effect, he decided to up the ante.
In one swift move, he wiped out several planets, entire worlds of souls, and destroyed millions of people.
In that sweep of devastation, Asgard took the hardest hit of all and wound up being wiped out of the universe. Things, of course, got better after that.
However, sadly, they didn’t get better for all that much longer as Asgard was once again destroyed later on in the Siege storyline which saw it get inter-dimensionally nuked by Norman Osborn.
The residents of Asgard were forced to emigrate to Earth, something that was definitely set up in Thor: Ragnarok before Thor and and Loki came into contact with Thanos’ ship.
5. Best: He Became the Protector of the Reality Gem
After Thanos’ defeat in the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, Adam Warlock wound up wielding the gauntlet and controlling its immense power.
He went before the Living Tribunal, where it was decided that he was not worthy of godhood and thus would have to give the gauntlet up.
He decided to split the gems apart and give them to trusted individuals.
He gives one to Moondragon, one to Pip, one to Gamora, one to Drax, and one for himself, while not revealing the identity of the last person he gave a stone to.
It turned out that that person was none other than Thanos. Despite all he had done, Warlock believed he could trust the Mad Titan with an infinity stone, entrusting him with the Reality Gem.
For all his lust for power and death, Thanos has never wanted to unmake reality itself, so in that respect it was a solid plan.
4. Worst: He Destroyed Half the Earth With A Snap of His Finger
One of the most effective moments in the final Infinity War trailer is the scene in which Gamora is telling Iron Man about Thanos and setting up the stakes for the movie, explaining that if he gets all of the infinity stones, he could wipe out half the universe with the snap of his finger.
It’s a chilling moment, but also important because in the original comic series, that’s exactly what he does.
For the sake of impressing Death herself, Thanos grins with glee as he snaps his finger and destroys the lives of billions, including wiping out half of life on Earth.
With this being such a focus for the movie, it would be really interesting if the movie actually allowed this to transpire.
After all, it would make for some shocking visual sequences and the Earth did manage to be repaired by the end of that comic book storyline, once the gauntlet had fallen into Adam Warlock’s hand.
3. Best: He Rescued and Adopted Gamora
In the MCU, Thanos’ adoption of Gamora sounds entirely cruel and even though he refers to her as his favorite daughter, there’s little love between them.
In the comics, this is mostly true, except that Thanos legitimately did save her life and rescue her from certain doom.
Her people were wiped out by the powerful Magus. Thanos, seeing a version of the future in which Magus would become all-powerful and indestructible, sought to prevent this from happening.
Thanos saw Gamora as a chance to cause a change of flow in the timeline to prevent this from coming to pass.
He also thought that this would help him claim a degree of Magus’ power for himself. Even if his reasons were selfish and Gamora’s childhood was far from ideal, he did save her and take her under his wing.
2. Worst: He Ended The Life Of His Own Mother
Like many villains, Thanos seemed to blame his upbringing for his horrific actions, at least at first. He was born deformed and thus shunned by his family, never given the attention he felt he needed and constantly passed over in favor of his older brother, Starfox.
This explains much of his character, as so many of his actions are still driven by a need for attention, and his villainous plots are extreme ways of acting out.
When Thanos truly began his quest for power, he made the decision to free himself from all of his ties, all of his remaining emotional connections, toxic as they might have been.
He raised an army and led an attack on his home moon of Titan, destroying his mother during the invasion and eventually leaving only his father alive after all was said and done.
1. Best: He Teamed Up With the Avengers to Stop Nebula from Destroying the Universe
Some fans tend to forget that Thanos technically wasn’t the eventual villain of the Infinity Gauntlet story.
While he was hell bent on destroying the cosmos for Death’s approval in the first half of that arc, he was eventually defeated when all of Earth’s heroes band together, and he lost control of the gauntlet.
The gauntlet fell into the grasp of Nebula, his hateful adoptive daughter. After immediately flinging Thanos into space, she proved so inexperienced with the gauntlet that she became even more destructive because of her inability to control it.
Thanos agreed to help a small band of heroes led by Doctor Strange and exploited Nebula’s inexperience with the glove to use against her.
Ultimately, even Thanos himself looked on with genuine horror as he finally realized the monster he’d made of her.
Can you think of any other good things that Thanos has done? Can you think of any other bad things? Sound off in the comments!
