Why Thanos Is NOT The Best MCU Villain (But He's Close)

Why Thanos Is NOT The Best MCU Villain (But He's Close)

Many Marvel fans consider Thanos to be the very best MCU villain to date, and while his appearance in Avengers: Infinity War is impressive, his broader presence in the MCU impacts how I look at him.

Editorial Opinion
By DonDarren - Jun 21, 2018 11:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Avengers: Infinity War

“Thanos is the best! He’s the greatest villain ever! He’s so complex!”

If you ONLY saw Infinity War, I would agree with you. He’s empathetic and intimidating, a well-written antagonist to Tony, Steve and friends. But Infinity War is far from Thanos’ first appearance in the MCU.

That’s where Thanos as a character suffers slightly, despite his general badassery.

When fans first glimpsed the unmistakeable chin of proto-Thanos after The Avengers in 2012, the direction for the MCU was clear. The Infinity Gems (sorry, Marvel purist here) assembled into the Infinity Gauntlet That was May 2012. The next time audiences saw Thanos was August 2014 in Guardians of the Galaxy. What was Thanos up to for two years? Or better yet, why did he wait until 2012 to enact his sacred mission to wipe out half of the universe?

We don’t know and we probably won’t ever know. Maybe sitting in a floating throne all day isn't the best idea for a zealot like Thanos. Wait, why does he have a floating throne again if he has a giant ship (Sanctuary II) with a throne too? ...

We do know that Thanos made unwise decisions with his Stones. Sorry, his Infinity Stone. He gave the Mind Stone to Loki, so that God of Mischief could find the Space Stone and enslave humanity or something. Thanos entrusted one of the most powerful artifacts in the universe to a trickster god. All to collect another artifact with nigh infinite power. The plan didn’t work and Thanos lost both Stones. Big surprise.

Sure, Thanos underestimated humanity and their protectors, but he also underestimated Loki. Deception and betrayal define Loki. It’s who he is. He would steal those Stones and use them to serve his own mischievous ends. Thanos shouldn’t trust an angsty sociopath to wield and gather Infinity Stones!

Do Mad Titans ever learn? In 2014, he trusts another angsty sociopath (Ronan) to gather the Power Stone! He dispatches his to children watch over Ronan, sure, but Gamora betrays him and Nebula leaves before Drax’s massively-huge turds hit the fan. Couldn’t Thanos’ most loyal/brainwashed Children (of which he has many, if the MCU character follows his comic-book roots) to perform this sacred task most effectively from the start? Where were the Black Order? (I also don't know why he allowed Loki the opportunity to enslave all humanity and let Ronan wipe out ALL of Xandar. Doesn't that go against Grimace's "perfectly balanced" mission?)

It's in a post-credits scene after 2015's Age of Ultron when Thanos commits to “do it [him]self.” Three years after his initial MCU introduction. Three years is a long time for a Titan who lusts for galactic genocide on an unfathomable scale. He sat back and watched others fail hard.

If you believe Thanos is the best, totally understandable. He wrecks in Infinity War and now in Fortnite . Yet there are too many inconsistencies with Thanos in the broader MCU for me to think of him as the baddest baddie ever for all time. (I'll say Killmonger is my favourite, because Loki wasn't a true villain while he was SPOILER alive) The upcoming Thanos book may answer all these questions and more, but until then I’m unconvinced.

Thanos may wipe me from existence because I wrote that. Come at me, nutsack chin! Just kidding, I love you please don't turn me into bubbles or something.

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Killuminatic
Killuminatic - 6/21/2018, 9:00 AM
@DonDarren - The book has no canonical ties to the mcu. The article you linked has been corrected to mention this.
Cass
Cass - 6/21/2018, 2:48 PM
I remember seeing Avengers back in 2012 and afterwards having to convince my friends that it wasn't Hellboy coming to fight the Avengers.
LaserKing
LaserKing - 6/21/2018, 2:55 PM
Loki is still my number 1 but Thanos is very close.
MrDandy
MrDandy - 6/21/2018, 3:01 PM
Thanos is my #1 because his perspective makes sense, he's given a unique villain arc akin to what is usually reserved for protagonists, and he leaves the heroes broken and defeated in a way few villains on screen ever have.
Skwib
Skwib - 6/21/2018, 3:18 PM
I signed up just to comment.

I think in 2012, Thanos was playing a bit of the long game. We don't know if he had the Black Order assembled by then. He may have also been consolidating his power, although it's clear he had a significant Chitauri war force at the time. However, I think at that point he was in "Big Boss" mode, essentially delegating and sub-contracting, so to speak, to get the Stones to not waste his own resources. So, starting with....

LOKI & THE MIND STONE:
At some point Thanos has only one Stone, the Mind Stone. He may have even used it to somehow enslave the Chitauri. We don't know. However, he stumbles upon this broken Asgardian god eager for power. He knows two of the Stones, the Space Stone and the Time Stone, are on Earth. His play here isn't just to get the Space Stone-- he needs a defeated Earth to get the Time Stone from the Sorcerer Supreme, so he's rolling the dice that loaning out the Mind Stone will get him THREE Stones back (Space, Mind, and Time), not just the Space and Mind Stones.

He's also aware that the Asgardians hid the Reality Stone in some little pocket dimension or whatever prior to Thor the Dark World. He might be figuring that Loki, with an enslaved Earth, could be enough to challenge Odin and Asgard, and planned to use Loki after the Earth was conquered to acquire the whereabouts of the Reality Stone. Since Thanos figured he might have three of the Stones by that point, Asgard would come crashing down and trickster Loki could fool Odin into revealing the whereabouts of the Reality Stone.

Meanwhile....

RONAN & THE POWERSTONE:
Thanos has no respect for Ronan. He's essentially an errand boy to him. Here Thanos' ego gets the best of him though in trusting that Ronan could finish his task, get the Power Stone, and be subjugated later by Thanos. Thanos is powerful, but he's also an insane nihilist and, like many a "Big Boss", makes dumb decisions. His plan doesn't work out. So....

I'LL DO IT MYSELF:
Plan A of managing and delegating to wacky subordinates didn't play out. So he decides he'll enter the battlefield. At this point, he either already has his Black Order, or spends the next four years assembling it. We don't know. Either way, he went from delegator to active participant out of necessity. "I'll do it myself" would fit these change of plans.

SUMMARY:
Yeah, on basic observation, handing Loki a Mind Stone seems a bad idea. But in a lot of ways, he's just playing the risky investor. Use resources now in calculated hopes of a bigger return of more resources in the future. Viewed in those terms, Thanos basically did what businesses and governments do all the time. It didn't work out, so he went to Plan B. His "Plan B" crushed the Avengers and half the universe. Most of the time, bad guys can't even get "Plan A" to work. Which is why Thanos is still at #1 for me.
WYLEEJAY
WYLEEJAY - 6/22/2018, 2:41 PM
Thanos is really old, so hes patient. Plays the long game, and he won because of it. All those failures still lead to his victory. That's bad ass.
ThunderKat
ThunderKat - 6/23/2018, 1:50 PM
Above all what makes a great villain is ego. He cannot be one dimensional. Who, of all the villains, would want to take on such a grand scheme w/o resistance to feed his ego once he wins? Sure, he'd achieve enslavement. However, he cannot pat himself on the back without the quashing of the galaxy's heroes.

Remember, Thanos is not pure evil. He worships death. Therefore, he believes he's righting nature's miscues.
kinghulk
kinghulk - 6/23/2018, 3:52 PM
regarding the mind stone in a deleted scene from avengers it's implied that the reason loki needed/was given the scepter was to control the chitauri.
Forthas
Forthas - 6/24/2018, 10:21 AM
25 Best MCU Villains

1) Loki
2) Killmonger
3) Hela
4) Vulture
5) Thanos
6) Ebony Maw
7) Alexander Pierce
8) Baron Helmut Zemo
9) Red Skull
10) Ulysses Klaue
11) Obadiah Stane
12) Ultron
13) Crossbones
14) Kaecilius
15) Ronan The Accuser
16) Laufey
17) Abomination
18) Surtur
19) Arnim Zola
20) Yellow Jacket
21) Aldrich Killian
22) Ego
23) Malekith
24) Whiplash
25) The Kursed
urnotaslave23
urnotaslave23 - 7/7/2018, 3:42 PM
Kilmonger is the worst part of BP. IMO.
marvel72
marvel72 - 7/11/2018, 4:05 PM
1st Thanos
2nd The Kingpin
3rd Hela
4th Loki
5th The Red Skull
View Recorder