Why i don't like Thanos Rising

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

This. I had this exact same conversation when Thanos Rising first came out. Starlin specifically stated in SS #37 how Thanos killed his mother when he was young. Here's the panels in question. Why do people keep ignoring this?

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Doesn't invalidate my other points about the story though.

[TheManInBlack]

Problem is, she was always depicted as a silent hooded figure Who doesn't like wanton violenze in Starlin stories. This story turns her into an outright villain and a annoying bitch

While not Starlin, most people generally like Keith Giffen's Thanos, and in his version Death was young and spoke long before Aaron did Thanos Rising. People love to rag on Aaron, but he actually did a lot of research for this book and despite myself being a Starlin fanatic, I'm familiar enough with Marvel's cosmic continuity to know that most of Aaron's Thanos Rising story fits with the bits and pieces that come before it.

Edit: Why are my images coming out so small lately? Here's a link: http://berkeleyplaceblog.com/2015/02/08/thanos-7-2004/

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[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

While not Starlin, most people generally like Keith Giffen's Thanos, and in his version Death was young and spoke long before Aaron did Thanos Rising. People love to rag on Aaron, but he actually did a lot of research for this book and despite myself being a Starlin fanatic, I'm familiar enough with Marvel's cosmic continuity to know that most of Aaron's Thanos Rising story fits with the bits and pieces that come before it.

Edit: Why are my images coming out so small lately? Here's a link: http://berkeleyplaceblog.com/2015/02/08/thanos-7-2004/

IMG_8487.jpg

Except she wasn't an evil manipulative bitch in Giffen's Samaritan.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

I firmly maintain that Keith Giffen's Thanos arc, especially Samaritan, is the best thing to happen to Thanos post-Starlin.

Annihilation was cool and a okay ending for the character, i still think Marvel Universe The End was the best ending for Thanos, but Thanos Imperative was the beginning of the downfall of the character. They even could have said "well when we brought Thanos back in Imperative, he was brought back incomplete and less intelligent, i.e. without the years of character development).


My opinion on this is that 2013's Marvel editors didn't know how the hell to adapt anything Starlin did as far as character work on Thanos for the MCU. They needed him to just be the big bad purple guy that would snap his fingers and kill half of everyone.

I believe that the Thanos part of Infinity was a Marvel mandate as it does absolutely nothing for Hickman's story. The part about the war with the builders makes sense as part of his overall narrative, but I don't think that was supposed to be an event. I may be wrong (and I probably am) but as a reader looking in, it almost feels Marvel went to him, said "We need an event to bring the Inhumans to the forefront as a middle finger to Fox and include Thanos!" Thus, he needed a kid to 'search for' which was setup with Rising. But after the Terrigen bomb, you'll notice the Inhumans aren't really used in Hickman's story again except for Blackbolt and Thanos might be present, but there's nothing exactly Thanos about him, he could have easily been replaced by any other powerful bad guy. Even in Secret War, Thanos wasn't there for any reason other than to get killed off by Doom to show how powerful Doom was... like we didn't get that already from everything else?

[Wall-Crawler]

Completely agree, this story is an insult to the character, and the saddest part is that many readers new to the character will look up how to catch up on Thanos and this piece of **** will be listed in most places as his origin story, so they will read it and think that's the Thanos we know and love, and that could not be farther from the truth.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

Completely agree, this story is an insult to the character, and the saddest part is that many readers new to the character will look up how to catch up on Thanos and this piece of **** will be listed in most places as his origin story, so they will read it and think that's the Thanos we know and love, and that could not be farther from the truth.

Glad to see that me and that Tegan O'Neill guy are not the only ones who dislike this depiction of Thanks and Death.

[stingray]

Completely agree, this story is an insult to the character, and the saddest part is that many readers new to the character will look up how to catch up on Thanos and this piece of **** will be listed in most places as his origin story, so they will read it and think that's the Thanos we know and love, and that could not be farther from the truth.

Exactly. This take on Thanos made me sick to my stomach. A disgusting murdering bastard. Bullseye with incredible powers. Starlin's Thanos was a multi-faceted, incredibly interesting character.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

Exactly. This take on Thanos made me sick to my stomach. A disgusting murdering bastard. Bullseye with incredible powers. Starlin's Thanos was a multi-faceted, incredibly interesting character.

This. I was never a fan of modern thuggish Thanos. If you don't write Thanos like Starlin then your Thanos is a faulty clone. I stand by that untill the big crunch. The character should have stopped appearing After The End or Annihilation.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

Completely agree, this story is an insult to the character, and the saddest part is that many readers new to the character will look up how to catch up on Thanos and this piece of **** will be listed in most places as his origin story, so they will read it and think that's the Thanos we know and love, and that could not be farther from the truth.

The sad part is Aaron Is probably gonna do more character assasination on Mistress Death in the next issue of Valkyrie.

[Cronus]

When I first read Thanos Rising, I wasn't as up to speed on Thanos' continuity as I am now. You get the impression Aaron was doing a cosmic level Hannibal Lechter origin story and at the time, sounded kind of cool. But having read your review of the books, it's astounding to see all of the errors and inconsistencies. Well done and agreed. Starlin should handle all Thanos related stuff for Marvel. I'm not a fan of how Jim Shooter...related...to his staff at the time he was EIC, but I appreciate his tighter grip on what Marvel was spitting out at the time. After Quesada it was pretty much "anything goes".

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

When I first read Thanos Rising, I wasn't as up to speed on Thanos' continuity as I am now. You get the impression Aaron was doing a cosmic level Hannibal Lechter origin story and at the time, sounded kind of cool. But having read your review of the books, it's astounding to see all of the errors and inconsistencies. Well done and agreed. Starlin should handle all Thanos related stuff for Marvel. I'm not a fan of how Jim Shooter...related...to his staff at the time he was EIC, but I appreciate his tighter grip on what Marvel was spitting out at the time. After Quesada it was pretty much "anything goes".

I'm not sure about that. Starlin storytelling became redundant after the nineties even though i enjoyed The End and the first OGN trilogy but it's true that no one at Marvel writes Thanos in a nuanced, clever and compelling way like Starlin. Basically Thanos was replaced by Mongul disguised as Thanos in 2013.

[Alan2099]

I never took it as Death actually appearing to Thanos when he was a child in Rising.

I thought that's what Thanos thought he was talking to when in fact, Thanos was just mad. I like the idea of Thanos reaching godhood and cosmic status to try to appeal to something that was never more than a delusion of his adds somewhat to his tragic nature. At some point, everything he was doing in Death's name eventually caught the attention of Death. If you need a reason why she never corrected his assumptions... why would she? She said she's Death, not comfort, well, she's not enlightenment either.

[Cronus]

I never took it as Death actually appearing to Thanos when he was a child in Rising.

I thought that's what Thanos thought he was talking to when in fact, Thanos was just mad. I like the idea of Thanos reaching godhood and cosmic status to try to appeal to something that was never more than a delusion of his adds somewhat to his tragic nature. At some point, everything he was doing in Death's name eventually caught the attention of Death. If you need a reason why she never corrected his assumptions... why would she? She said she's Death, not comfort, well, she's not enlightenment either.

I suppose I interpreted it as Death was there from the beginning. I've heard it said somewhere, "the message a mother gives her child is the message that child in turn gives to the world", or something like that...I get the impression that's what Aaron was going for. I understood Sui-San to have been possessed by Death at Thanos' birth to attempt to kill Thanos, knowing full well she would be stopped. Later in his child hood, when getting ready to carve up Sui-San, Thanos says he even remembers his mother's attempt on his life in a recurring dream. Death continued appearing to Thanos throughout his child hood, prodding him at critical moments in his child hood, in essence helping to shape him into psychopath. Thanos' could always see and converse with Death. No one else could though. At least that is how I interpreted it.

[Cronus]

I'm not sure about that. Starlin storytelling became redundant after the nineties even though i enjoyed The End and the first OGN trilogy but it's true that no one at Marvel writes Thanos in a nuanced, clever and compelling way like Starlin. Basically Thanos was replaced by Mongul disguised as Thanos in 2013.

I will say, for Thanos to grow, Starlin needs to start exploring what it is that drives Thanos, otherwise like you say...Mongul. Or cosmic level Doom without a real purpose. On the other hand, maybe Thanos should sail off into the Gray Havens as it were, if there is nothing else for him to achieve.

[CaptainMar-Vell92 of the Kree]

I never took it as Death actually appearing to Thanos when he was a child in Rising.

I thought that's what Thanos thought he was talking to when in fact, Thanos was just mad. I like the idea of Thanos reaching godhood and cosmic status to try to appeal to something that was never more than a delusion of his adds somewhat to his tragic nature. At some point, everything he was doing in Death's name eventually caught the attention of Death. If you need a reason why she never corrected his assumptions... why would she? She said she's Death, not comfort, well, she's not enlightenment either.

Thanos most defining trait is his self-deception. He thinks he is a hardcore nihilist but he finds himself either losing ultimate power or saving the universe all the time.


Thanos is in love with Death but did you ever think about why Death doesn't love him back in Infinity Gauntlet? Thanos thinks that Death is a cruel mistress but that isn't true. Death is necessary for natural balance. Thanos starts busting planets and Death just turns away. And he doesn't get it. It is hilarious. Especially because Thanos thinks to know everything. And he listens to Mephisto, Lord of Lies, who tells him to be even more cruel and flex his muscles. This is also why he fails at the end: because whatever he does, how many reality warping macguffins he gets, it doesn't bring him closer to what he wants. He was destined to fail from the beginning. Only when he abandons his pseudo nihilistic ways, helps Adam Warlock save the universe a few times and goes to a pilgrimage to an ancient prison at the edge of the universe, Death talks to him for the first time, even taking his hand. Because at this moment, he really realized what all is about. The best Thanos stories are about philosophy and not about blowing stuff up and ''dem feats and power levels''.

This comic in particular was controversial because of how it flew in the face of Thanos's established lore for the sake of making him a more simplified and by the numbers villain, to say nothing of Aaron's inability to write cosmic characters different than characters from a street level thriller. Marvel Cosmic has always been fairly self-contained and internally consistent because after Kirby, only a handful of writers actually tackle it in the first place, and it ended up dividing a lot of people in the process. Was Starlin's take on Thanos a sacred cow that shouldn't be contradicted because he was the character's creator and his stories are classics, or is it okay to throw implications about Thanos's origin by the wayside in favor of an unreliable narrator approach that contradicts earlier authorial intent? That was what most of the discussion about this comic boiled down to. I'm firmly in the pro-Starlin camp of course.