After a $200 million debut and billions of dollars in revenue, I think it's safe to say that The Avengers was a success. Even a step further, The Avengers has become the epitome of what a comic book movie should be. With a perfect blend of character development, comedy, and action The Avengers has set a pretty high standard for future comic book movies, which I believe to be a double edge sword. Now those of you who sat through the credits saw a glimpse into the future of The Avengers films, and I'll be honest when I heard that iconic line "To challenge them is to court death" I literally had tears in my eyes and the butterflies of a giddy school girl staring at a Justin Bieber cut out. Then we see a smile, a malevolent smile that was sure to send any comic book nerd into euphoria. THANOS, THE MAD TITAN has set his sights on earth! Now for those of you who don't know, the character who smiled at the end of the mid credits scene is Thanos, the Marvel equivalent to Darkseid. A being with a love for lady death, and during the infinity gauntlet series had enough power to bend the fabric of reality to his very will. This man took Thor's biggest blow to the face, smiled, snapped his fingers, turned Thor into glass, and shattered him. To go even further, this man had Galactus(as well as every other major cosmic being of the Marvel universe)in a trophy case! I would be lying if I told you that The Infinity Gauntlet wasn't one of my favorite if not my single favorite story arcs in the entire Marvel catalog, so seeing this basically being adapted on the big screen has invoked the biggest comic book fan boy fever that I have ever experienced. Honestly I really cant wait to see him play a bigger roll and I have the up most faith that not only will they not only keep from ruining an iconic character (see Deadpool in Wolverine origins for example) but I truly believe that by the end of The Avengers film arc, Thanos' popularity will be catapulted into the stratosphere as one of the biggest if not THE BIGGEST BADDEST COMIC VILLAIN TO EVER TERRORIZE THE BIG SCREEN! Now that's a pretty bold statement, I know and believe me I've over analyzed every little fact and tidbit of information to come to this conclusion. So lets review!
So lets start off with how Thanos was portrayed during The Avengers. During the beginning of the film we already see Loki, the god of mischief, striking a deal and receiving a staff and army. Lets analyze this real quick. Loki is an Asgardian god. This man in his own right is a force to be reckoned with. Along with the fact that Loki is a FRAGGIN DEMIGOD his cunning and wits share no equal, he is truly a mastermind in the very word and it is clearly showcased in the film. Now with all his power and cunning this demigod holds, he actually had to strike a deal with Thanos so that tells me that for as badass as Loki is Thanos has to be that much more badass to not only give Loki more power than he already had but to have Loki kneeling before him as well. If that's not establishing early badassery at its finest i dont know what is!
Another negative i hear about Thanos in films is how hard its going to be to find an actor to accurately portray him. With the stain that is Topher Grace on the shirt of Marvel Films, i can definitely understand where they're coming from, but I have 3 words to alleviate that, C.G.I. One big sigh of relief from me was brought by the fact that he was C.G.I. in the ending scene. With how far C.G.I. has come, I have very little doubt in the ability for some group of C.G.I. nerds to read a few comics and accurately depict him on film.
Now for my biggest reason to believe that Thanos will shine brighter than any comic villain to grace the silver screen. How long has The Avengers been in the works? Ever since we caught the first of many end credit cut scenes during Iron Man in 2008? That's probably shaving a few years off considering that they had to plan that ending during production of the Iron Man movie but for the sake of not digressing we will just put it at 2008. So we have 4 years and several films to ultimately work on the story, design, and adaptation of Thanos in films. Once again I'm being generous because in reality all weve seen so far is some small cut scene. Now lets say Thanos doesn't show up till Avengers 2. We don't have a solid date but a lot of speculation pointing to a 2015 release date. That's 3 more years, so in total 7 years to work on accurately portraying the mad titan in films. Now I dont know how long the writing process is for a movie before its finally worked on but its safe to say that Marvel studios has invested what could possibly be the largest amount of time in creating what could possibly be the single greatest movie arc to ever hit tinsel town, and putting Thanos in position as a major antagonist and with pockets as deep as Disney's backing them, its not going to be surprising to see Thanos in all his glory decimate box office numbers and possibly become a cultural icon.
Now I know there's a lot I've left out here(are they going to go with the infinity gauntlet arc and if so how can they cram all of that action into a couple of movies?) which I will definitely write about in the future. Now none of what i stated is set in stone and who knows this could be the blunder of the century but i seriously doubt that Marvel would invest so much time, money, and effort into this and not come out firing on all cylinders ready to change the very foundation of not only comic book films but films in general, but then again, this is just a ninjas opinion!