Lmao @ the post saying Thanos is only a secondary villiain. The tears of envy are unreal.
Lmao @ the post saying Thanos is only a secondary villiain. The tears of envy are unreal.
I disagree. There's nothing wrong with someone snapping after the entity they built monuments of rejects them. Seems like a natural progression of the story.
I was talking in terms of quality, not in terms of plot.And no, we don't need another Infinity Gauntlet. That story was the climax of Thanos' character, it's not his entire shtick. The point of that story is Thanos Learning that mystical macguffins and over the top powers won't convince Death to love him. Bane syndrome I call that. You could be a great character with believable growth and a resolution to your character arc.
She wasn't always silent, and the whole point of the mini was to suggest Thanos had been having issues for many years even before he himself realised it. Nothing incompatible there, just an interesting story that you can take or leave. No point getting upset about it.
If you think that is how canon works you will never be happy with serialised fiction. Nothing in a so called 'official handbook' is official. Nothing a creator says in an interview is canon, and things characters say about events in old books are up for interpretation because no narrator within a story is totally reliable.
These are your interpretations, not the objective message of that book. You are choosing to make this assertion even when the book doesn't. It may be how you feel when reading the book but there are other interpretations possible that remain entirely compatible with canon. To choose contrary interpretations seems a little self defeating don't you think? Its like you are spoiling your own fun just because you would rather be unhappy.
Thanos IS a thug. Haven't you read the spider-man newspaper strip, where he gets cuffed by the cops?
The point of my criticism is that Thanos Rising is a very cliché story that de-mistifies a space fantasy character by making him like a psychopath from Earth. While Thanos is supposed to be more epic and mystical than being Space Jeffrey Dahmer.
Also i don't agree with your ''nothing is canon so stop whining about continuity errors'' attitude.
Thanos thought if he killed enough people a girl would love him. He IS a psychopath.The point of my criticism is that Thanos Rising is a very cliché story that de-mistifies a space fantasy character by making him like a psychopath from Earth.
Early you made a big old post about how Thanos really does have flaws and isn't perfect. Now you're acting upset because the story gave him falws and made him less perfect.
Thanos has always been The Mad Titan. Let him be mad.
Thanos thought if he killed enough people a girl would love him. He IS a psychopath.The point of my criticism is that Thanos Rising is a very cliché story that de-mistifies a space fantasy character by making him like a psychopath from Earth.
Early you made a big old post about how Thanos really does have flaws and isn't perfect. Now you're acting upset because the story gave him falws and made him less perfect.
Thanos has always been The Mad Titan. Let him be mad.
You got It wrong, Aaron doesn't give Thanos any particular flaw. What i mean is that Rising is a very stereotypical story that tries too hard to be a edgy thriller without using its cosmic setting in a creative way.
As for letting Thanos being the Mad Titan, after Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos was no longer a nihilist villain who collects mystical macguffins and destroys planets, as he learned that those things won't convince Mistress Death to love him and he became a reclusive farmer and explorer who would occasionally help Adam Warlock save the universe. Thanos grew up and changed under Starlin. His story ended and imo, he can't just suddenly become a thuggish cosmic potentate without ruining genuine character development. Of course, Marvel has a history of reverting certain characters back to square one. We are talking about the company that was okay with Spider-Man throwing his development into a mature adult out of the window with a faustian deal with Mephisto.
So today two issues were released that feature the Mad Titan heavily, so I think it's an interesting opportunity to revisit how his character is being handled directly in the context being criticized.
Aaron's Thor gave us a Thanos who was just there to severe ties. He cared not for the battle around him, not for the people involved except for mild amusement, he simply needed to give his message and leave. This actually seems pretty closely inline with the Thanos of old: a being who's goals were his own and really didn't care enough to get involved beyond that. Generally, I think it was a solid portrayal of the Titan, a powerhouse who's motives were still unknown, and was content to drift through the events happening around him as long as his own goals were being met.
Now In Infinity War 2, we saw "Thanos the narrator". It's not clear if Thanos simply exists beyond the physical or if Gamora is simply projecting a bit, but we see someone simply reminding Gamora of her place in the universe with the power she has: that it's hers to use as she will. Also a sense of pride that she's gathering that power as he's the one who raised and trained her. This Thanos is very different from the first, taking much more liberally from the MCU movie, and giving Thanos much stronger emotional ties to Gamora. It even goes as far as to justify that he's thought of his own mortality and has accepted that life only offers immortality by shaping your children in your image.
Between the two, I have to say I thought Aaron's version was a much better Thanos interpretation. Thanos nurturing his children was a step too far for me ... though one could argue Gamaora was really just unhinged and talking to herself the whole time. Or, like everything else, Thanos is just pushing her because it's part of his plan ... and once it's over he'll turn away as coldy as he did in Hel. But on the surface, I think Arron handled Thanos very well this time.
INFINITY SIBLINGS SPOILERS AHEAD
The first OGN of the new trilogy refreshed my belief that, with the exception of Ron Marz and Keith Giffen, nobody writes Thanos in a intelligent, introspective way like Starlin and I am not just saying because Starlin made him but because other writers usually write his dialogue and actions as a thuggish warlord in the style of Mongul or Blastaar, who just goes through the Marvel universe slaughtering and conquering everything on his path, or as a cosmic version of Derf Backderf's My Friend Dahmer with daddy issues (i'm looking at you Jason Aaron) and that's pretty much it.
Meanwhile Starlin has him do stuff like that in the seventies and early nineties but he just doesn't do it for power or just for the sake of conquest; he has ulterior motives and he is a master manipulator and quite machiavellian. Starlin's Thanos also has a personality other than scary angry evil dude (like he cares about Gamora and Adam Warlock but he's really incapable of being healthy about it).
Heck even when he's trying to impress Death I feel like there's more feeling and tragedy when Starlin writes him. It also helps that Starlin's Death returns Thanos' feelings (it's complicated) it kind of sells their relationship for me.
Even if I have enjoyed Cates' Thanos story I find that Thanos is my least favorite aspect about it (Cosmic Ghost Rider and me wanting to see where the plot was going is what kept me reading). Hell now that I read Infinity Siblings I could see what Starlin meant as to why Cates' story was similiar to his new Trilogy (has to do mostly with Thanos meeting a future upgraded version of himself and Death also being involved). While Cates' story had some cool moments I feel what I read from it doesn't really make me care much about Thanos (I felt for Hulk, Surfer, Frank,but not Thanos). I enjoyed the character in Starlin's Infinity Siblings, he finally gave Eros (Thanos' hedonistic douche of a Brother) some character development, not to mention it also dropped a huge "Oh ****" moment towards the end that made me eager to read the sequel.
I also liked that his Thanos cared for his father Mentor (who apparently in that continuity was killed during Rage of Ultron when Ultron took over Titan) in his own way. I dunno but it felt more true to Thanos than Lemire just having him kill Mentor in a violent way (which is just as bad as Kid Thanos vivsecting his almost naked mother).
That said I feel Al Ewing writes a decently good Thanos in Ultimates. I especially enjoyed his talk with Conner Sims and manipulating him which showed Thanos being cunning. I also liked the whole idea Ewing introduced about two Thanos running around in the Marvel Universe (that might have been him trying to make sense between Starlin's Thanos and the other writer's).
Well I don't think Mentor is dead in either instance. As a 1st generation Earth born Eternal, he is as powerful as Zuras, and certainly capable of regenerating and reconstituting himself from just about anything. One might argue that at least until his original body was turned to stone by Warlock, that Thanos was less powerful than his father.