In the case of Infinity Gauntlet, it’s suggested Thanos didn’t actually believe he deserved the power the Gauntlet gave him. He’s supremely ambitious and arrogant, but also secretly believes he is unworthy.

A key aspect of the character as Starlin conceived him is that he provides the own method for his defeat. In a world in which the MCU is most often criticized for lacking interesting villains, Thanos truly has the potential to be a game-changer on the big screen. “With the next series, which was the Infinity War, I had everybody trying to get their things into the books, because the crossover books that they did sold so well,” says Starlin. That attitude changed after the book became a runaway success, spawning follow-ups Infinity War (1992) and The Infinity Crusade (1993). “A number of editors up there, there were about six of them, were very hesitant about letting me use any of their characters, especially the X-Men, which were extremely popular at that time,” says Starlin, who was granted use of just Cyclops and Wolverine from the team of Mutants. Perez, unable to juggle duties on both Gauntlet and DC’s War of the Gods, left in the middle of the run - and Starlin was limited by what characters he could use in the battle against Thanos. The startling move to kill half the universe didn’t receive much pushback from Marvel editorial ( Starlin recalls editor Craig Anderson wasn’t showing much of their work around the office), but the ambitious project did hit a few speedbumps. Thanos‘ first act of godhood? Killing half the sentient life in the universe to impress his ladyfriend Death - an act that galvanized Earth’s remaining heroes into teaming up to stop him in a massive adventure Starlin crafted with artists George Perez and Ron Lim. “I tried to up Thanos‘ game every time he appeared.”Īnd up his game Starlin did.

“I had worked on Thanos, created him back even before I started working at Marvel,” recalls writer Jim Starlin.

Infinity gauntlet by jim starlin