Thanos – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com The best place on earth for nerds. Sat, 23 Jan 2021 15:45:59 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://nerdsonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/cropped-nerds_head_thumb2-100x100.png Thanos – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com 32 32 All the podcasts from NerdsonEarth.com, under one umbrella. We create short run podcasts for nerds, covering D&D, Marvel, Starfinder, and more! You vote for your favorite shows and they just might get a second season. Thanos – Nerds on Earth false episodic Thanos – Nerds on Earth jason.sansbury@nerdsonearth.com podcast All the podcasts from NerdsonEarth.com, the best place on Earth for nerds. Thanos – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/noe-podcast-logo.png https://nerdsonearth.com/blog/ The Thanos Imperative: An Out of this World Overview of 5 Glorious Years of Marvel Cosmic Comics https://nerdsonearth.com/2020/04/thanos-imperative/ Thu, 23 Apr 2020 12:00:00 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=29518

The Thanos Imperative is some of the best Marvel Comics cosmic content out there. We provide a primer on the event, plus detail all that leads up to it.

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The Thanos Imperative is a 6 issue mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2010. I love it and want to tell you about it, but to do that, I’ll need to take you back in time to 2006, plus take you on a journey across the entire Marvel Universe.

The journey to The Thanos Imperative begins with Annihilation, the gloriously entertaining Marvel cosmic crossover that was written primarily by Keith Giffen but had writing contributions from the tag team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, who went by DNA.

I did a full reading order for Annihilation, so I’ll point you there if you want an issue-by-issue look. Let’s just sum up here:

Marvel’s Annihilation

Annihilation was a 6-issue miniseries published in 2006 that sprawled into a 30 issue behemoth with the inclusion of several accompanying 4-issue minis that featured solo supporting characters.

The core 6-issue is EXCELLENT. The plot goes thusly: A wave of Annihilus’ minions invade the Marvel 616 from the Negative Zone, a realm that traces its origins back to Stan the Man. Nova forms an army to oppose the Annihilation Wave, an army that includes Drax, Gamora, Ronan the Accuser, the Heralds of Galactus, and Peter “Star-Lord” Quill.

As if that isn’t enough, the story includes Thanos. It’s *ahem* cosmic in scope.

As I mentioned, that’s just the 6-issue core miniseries, so take that deep dive if you want to know which of the 4-issue solo character series are skippable. Just don’t skip the Nova mini, nor Nova (vol 4), the ongoing series that spins out of it. Fans of the New Warriors will recognize Richard Rider, but this is him all grown up and serving in the Nova Corps. That is where the writing team DNA cuts their teeth on Marvel cosmic titles and hoo-boy are you in for an exciting journey across the galaxy at light space!

Marvel’s Annihilation: Conquest

I’ve seen a thousand movies where a botoxxed action hero jumps out of a speeding car onto the hood of another speeding car while shouting “Take the wheel!” toward the passenger seat. Marvel had aspirations to reestablish their cosmic characters and they shouted at Abnett and Lanning to take the wheel, promoting them from writing the Nova series to driving the rocket ship that was Annihilation: Conquest.

Marvel again published a 6-issue miniseries that was supported by several 4-issue character-driven miniseries. Here is a deep dive that goes through each series.

The Phalanx are the primary enemy of Annihilation: Conquest, as they use the confusion of the Annihilation Wave to take control of the Kree army through their techno-organic virus. The swift and sweeping invasion by the techno-organic Phalanx leaves a war-weary galaxy reeling. The same heroes from the Annihilation are present, but they are overwhelmed, sidelined, or simply suffering post trauma.

Worse, the universe itself is impacted. Back-to-back wars damaged the fabric of the universe, threatening to open up a tear that Star-Lord calls “The Fault.”

As a lead in to The Thanos Imperative, definitely read the core 6-issue Annihilation: Conquest (2007) plus the Nova regular series, both written by DNA. Annihilation: Conquest Starlord #1-4 by Keith Giffen is also excellent and leads to a monthly Guardians of the Galaxy (vol 2) series that is a must read.

Unless you are a completionist, skip the rest and let’s set our thrusters toward The Thanos Imperative.

Marvel’s War of Kings

Nova was reestablished as a cosmic force and the Guardians of the Galaxy had been successfully reimagined and would soon appear in the MCU. But Marvel wanted to shoehorn in the X-Men.

Although I attempted a deep dive, the reading order for War of Kings is an absolute mess. You can read the core 6-issue story written by DNA but it doesn’t bring much to The Thanos Imperative other than let a reader know that the Inhumans and Shi’ar are now engaged in cosmic affairs.

Do keep up with the Nova solo series and the Guardians of the Galaxy monthly title however, as they are incredible as well as critical to your enjoyment of what’s to come.

Marvel’s Realm of Kings

Just keep up with Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy unless you really want the full scope of Realm of Kings, as the Inhumans and Imperial Guard series don’t add much.

Here’s what you need to know: The events of War of Kings was finally too much for the Fault, meaning a giant time-space tear has been created. Our heroes learn that the Fault leads to another universe described as the Cancerverse.

The Thanos Imperative

I realize it’s frustrating to go 600 words only to just now properly get to The Thanos Imperative. But the excellent Nova monthly series ends its run at issue 36, which is a tie-in directly to The Thanos Imperative. Guardians of the Galaxy does likewise at issue 25.

The two primary protagonists in The Thanos Imperative are Nova and Star-Lord, so those two series provide incredible context for the events to come. Simply reading those – plus the core Annihilation series, if you wish – are not quite required reading but they are close. Besides, both series are incredible.

Now: The Thanos Imperative. It is again a 6-issue miniseries, but this has very little tie-in issues, only Thanos Imperative: Ignition and Thanos Imperative: Devastation.

The first issue opens with a flashback on Nova and Star-Lord that goes back to Annihilation. If you’ve read DNA’s Marvel cosmic all the way through to this point, the payoff is incredible. You’ve journeyed with these characters and you will be fully invested in The Thanos Imperative.

Imagine an alternate universe where the entity Death has died, so life runs rampant, spreading like a cancer. But also imagine that life has been corrupted by Cthulhu-like influences. That’s the Cancerverse and the previous wars have allowed it an entry into the Marvel 616 universe.

Cosmic beings like Galactus must make a stand at the Fault to prevent beings from the Cancerverse from pouring in. And in an interesting reimanging of the classic Death of Captain Marvel, there are dark avatars of Earth’s Greatest Heroes trying to push into the Marvel Universe as well.

But who despises life more than Thanos, so Star-Lord makes a devil’s pact.

The Thanos Imperative is EXCELLENT. It is among the most entertaining comic books I have ever read. Standing alone, it is exciting, energetic, action-packed, and engaging. If you read it on the heels of Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy it picks up an extra layer of character depth that is among the best in comics.

DNA did a masterful job in rebooting the cosmic corner of Marvel Comics. If he wasn’t before, Nova will become one of your favorite characters and the mythos of the Nova Corps shines.

The Guardians of the Galaxy were established as a critical part of Marvel and the character work that was began here was further on the big screen as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I half hope you didn’t absorb a word of this article and you only skimmed the headline, which inspired you to give all of this era of Marvel cosmic a read. It’s so good, I’d love for more comic book fans to discover it as unspoiled as possible. I hope I whetted your appetite.

You can get The Thanos Imperative here. The whole enchilada is available via Marvel Unlimited or you can scan through my previous deep dive articles to find the appropriate trades in print. For now, I’ll point you to Nova and the Guardians:

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Comic Characters You Should Know: Thanos’ Black Order https://nerdsonearth.com/2018/06/thanos-black-order/ Mon, 04 Jun 2018 12:00:02 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=18292

Get to know a little bit about Thanos' Black Order from their comic book appearances.

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The Black Order is a collection of nasty, nefarious knaves that serve Thanos. Also known as the Cull Obsidian, these despicable, depraved henchmen raze worlds, gathering tribute for Thanos or are tasked along with Thanos’ Outriders with gathering Infinity Stones.

So who are the members of the Black Order? Let’s get to know them.

Comic Characters You Should Know: Thanos’ Black Order

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Corvus Glaive

Corvus Glaive is a master strategist and tactician who servers the right-hand man of Thanos to lead his armies into battle. His signature weapon is a big ‘ole glaive, if you didn’t figure that our from his on the nose name.

But what is interesting about Corvus’ glaive is that Corvus can not be killed while he is holding it, granting Corvus immortality as long as the blade stays intact. Once, when Corvus had failed him, Thanos snapped Covus’ glaive in two and gave him the option to either kill himself or Thanos would do it for him. Corvus opted to kill himself, but since it is comics, he got better after a short death.

Additionally, Corvus has the standard array of superhero speed, strength, endurance, and durability.

I am a servant of my master, Thanos-- a destroyer of worlds, a breaker of kings. I am one of the five, Corvus Glaive.

Corvus Glaive General of the Black Order

Proxima Midnight

Besides having the most metal sounding name in a team full of metal sounding names, Proxima Midnight might also be the most ruthless and unrelenting combatant of the Black Order.

The wife of Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight doesn’t have a glaive, she wields a simpler spear that is no less deadly. Crafted by Thanos himself out of a star/ supernova / black hole thingie. When thrown, Proxima is able to exert control over its density and never misses her mark. Once struck, a target is immobilized as if covered by a net and the spear also carries a lethal neurotoxin, which can kill just about anything within moments. It was powerful enough to bind the virtually limitless strength of the Hulk.

She also is nigh invulnerable, in addition to enhanced strength, speed, and reflexes.

Black Dwarf

Corvus Glaive also has a brother on the Black Order: Black Dwarf, the big bruiser of the team. Black Dwarf has super-strength, enhanced density, and impenetrable skin that can withstand a blow from even Ronan or Annihilus.

Sometimes wielding a maul, sometimes a battle-axe, Black Dwarf was forced to retreat when the defenses of Wakanda overwhelmed him.

Ebony Maw

Ebony Maw finally breaks from the martial combatant mold of the Black Order. Ebony Maw’s contribution to the Black Order relies on his supernatural abilities of persuasion. He is able to take hold of a person’s thought process and make them serve his own goals with nothing but his words. Even the strongest minds, like Doctor Strange, have fallen under Ebony Maw’s dark suggestions, as it has been said that Ebony Maw has a “black tongue that spreads mischief and evil wherever he goes.”

Supergiant

First appearing is Jonathan Hickman’s Infinity #1, Supergiant has the ability to read and control the minds of people of any race. Described as a “mental parasite”, Supergiant can control, steal, and devour the minds of her victims. Further, she can possess and control multiple individuals at once, even to the point of commandeering the host bodies of those she has taken over from a great distance away.

A psionic entity, Supergiant can phase through almost anything, including opponents and obstacles, making her immune to physical forms of damage.


The Black order has also included the following members in some iterations of the team.

Black Swan

Black Swan was pulled into Earth-616 from Earth-1365, and if that is confusing to you, it’s OK, cause it’s confusing to all of us. Just know alternative dimension and later recruited by Thanos for the second iteration of the Black oRder and you are OK.

As a result of traveling between alternate Earths, Black Swan is very knowledgeable about the multiverse and has the ability to speak in multiple languages, including some of Earth’s oldest languages. She has access to advanced technology and has displayed multiple powers including energy beams from her eyes, flight, super strength, the ability to generate holographic visuals from her hands, and also telepathy which she often keeps hidden in order to covertly glean information from others.

Coven

Coven is a group of three witches who were originally recruited by Corvus Glaive when he doubted the trustworthiness of Ebony Maw. Living on the edge of the universe, it turned out that Coven was rumored to be older than any god, so they ended up playing a role directly with Thanos himself.

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The Black Order is a relatively new creation as comics go, although their presence in Avengers Infinity War has further helped cement them as fan favorites.

Curiosity has grown toward them after they appeared on the big screen in Avengers Infinity War, and rightfully so. They are cool.

But they also get beat around a bunch and don’t have as large a presence in the comics as you might think. This is understandable. You want your heroes getting more page time, after all. Still, it’s a treat the the Black Order graces the comic page, as it was in their most recent appearance in Avengers: No Surrender.

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Life is Cheap as Far As Thanos is Concerned: A look at the Wave Attack in Infinity War https://nerdsonearth.com/2018/05/life-is-cheap-as-far-as-thanos-is-concerned-a-look-at-the-wave-attack-in-infinity-war/ Mon, 14 May 2018 12:00:26 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=17707

Avengers Infinity War saw lots of casualties. We're going to look at a few you may not have considered.

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One of the many action sequences of Avengers: Infinity War was the siege on Wakanda. Thanos–on his quest for the Infinity stones–tracks Vision to Wakanda in order to extract the Soul Stone from his forehead. He sends his Black Order–plus a seemingly unending number of alien servants called Outriders–to take Wakanda, and their formidable defense in the Dora Milaje and a force dome that covered the capital. Plus, the Avengers were present to hold the line.

Confronted with the force dome, the Black Order released the Outriders, hoping to overwhelm it through sheer ferocity and numbers. Movie goers watched the Outriders sprint toward the Avengers and Dora Milaje, War Machine’s gatling fire sizzling past them. The Outriders snarled their teeth as they continued to charge, undeterred that many of the numbers were being gunned down.

The Outriders wouldn’t kill anyone—that wasn’t the point. Their ferocity was meant to force the Avengers to scatter and break formation for a moment, buying the Black Order a brief second to sneak behind enemy lines.

A single Outrider’s glorious charge might last only three seconds before a Dora Milaje blade would spin around and slice into its side. But in doing so, their attention is drawn toward a single foe, as hordes and hordes more battered their lines. As hundreds of Outriders lay dead in the savannah grass of Wakanda, the Black Order grinds forward a few yards, while many more Outriders line up behind, just to do what others just did.

To Thanos, life is cheap. Yet he wasn’t the first one to utilize this tactic. It’s called a Human Wave Attack and it’s been utilized throughout history. It’s an offensive infantry tactic that bombards an enemy’s front lines with seemingly never-ending ground troops who rush in wholly unprotected.

A human wave attack is meant to quickly advance as many troops as possible into close range, hoping that the shock from a large swarm of attackers engaged in melee combat will force the enemy to fall back into disarray. The organization and the training of the attacking wave is irrelevant–they’re cannon fodder. It simply requires either courage or coercion for the attackers to advance into enemy fire.

If attackers are matched against modern weaponry such as automatic firearms, artillery, or air support, a human wave attack is an extremely dangerous and costly tactic. But what does Thanos care? His plan was to snap 50% of them out of existence anyway.

Remember, human wave attacks aren’t just something out of comic books, they’re a significant part of human history. Farmers armed seemingly with not much more than pitchforks rushing at British infantry as they hastily reloaded their muskets during the American Revolutionary War comes to mind, as does the Boxer Rebellion.

In fact, Thanos’ utter disregard for life could have been lifted straight from the history books, not from a comic panel. The last skirmish of World War I–Armistice Day–saw 10,000 casualties. Despite a cease fire scheduled at 11am on November 11th, 1918, General John Pershing was still ordering his American troops to advance, even as the people of Paris, London, and New York were celebrating the end of the war.

The Americans took heavy casualties, all because Pershing believed that the Germans had to be severely defeated at a military level to effectively ‘teach them a lesson.’ Private Henry Gunter was killed at 10:59, one minute before the scheduled end of the war, having been ordered to advance and take a German machine gun post. History tells us that the Germans – who, like Pershing, knew they were literally minutes away from a ceasefire – tried to signal the Americans to stop attacking. But when it became obvious that this had failed, they fired on their attackers and Gunter was killed.

When life is seen as cheap, one can only be left with regret. Pity the poor Outriders, genetically bred by Thanos to serve merely as compliant cannon fodder. Pity the poor Avengers, forced into a fight they didn’t ask for. And pity poor Thanos, so twisted in his morality that none of the life in the universe means anything to him, right down to using the the tactic of throwing lives at the Avengers in a ferocious wave.

Eh, but it’s just a comic book movie, even if it is a record-setting one. And you may be rolling your eyes at the mention of tactics in a Human Wave Attack—and for good reason. After all, this article began with a description of running headlong and recklessly into enemy fire. But it does have identifiable tactics, though clumsy and improvisational ones.

A human wave attack encourages attackers to push, to try and mob control points, and to overwhelm the enemy. It’s a sort of follow-the-leader mentality like you find in “Capture the Flag” style FPS games. The objective, to paraphrase Stalin, is to make the enemy choke on your dead.

But dismissing this mad rush as unstrategic misunderstands its nuance. These wave attacks operate by overwhelming the enemy, both literally and visually. When presented with multiple targets, defenders tend to focus fire on the most obvious few, letting the majority get closer.

These loud, obvious frontal attacks also make flanking moves extremely effective. Thankfully, the Avengers recognized this when the Outriders began to circle the dome. Rather than allow themselves to be flanked, the Avengers ordered a narrow opening in the dome, thereby creating a chokepoint. Although it allowed the Outriders to pour into the dome, it also contained and grouped them, allowing the Avengers to unleash AoE attacks.

Human wave warfare tactics work on collective effort rather than individual heroism. Killing the enemy wasn’t the goal of an individual Outrider, it was to soak up fire. And every Outrider helped with that, even if just for a few seconds. Apart from the occasional spectacular moment rendered as glorious action sequences for the big screen, it’s a high-casualty grind—one where small sacrifices add up to victory. There is little heroism to be found in human wave attacks because a soldier’s role is always a brief one.

Which, in the cruel warfare of Thanos, is exactly as it should be.

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Thanos and the Great Malthusian Imperative https://nerdsonearth.com/2018/05/thanos-and-the-great-malthusian-imperative/ Wed, 09 May 2018 12:00:03 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=17635

***This post contains major Infinity War spoilers. No joke: Stop RIGHT HERE if you haven’t seen the movie yet. You have been warned!*** Marvel’s latest extravaganza, Avengers: Infinity War, ends with the most gut-wrenching twist since The Empire Strikes Back. Thanos, the Mad Titan, destroys half of all life in the universe, including most of […]

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***This post contains major Infinity War spoilers. No joke: Stop RIGHT HERE if you haven’t seen the movie yet. You have been warned!***

Marvel’s latest extravaganza, Avengers: Infinity War, ends with the most gut-wrenching twist since The Empire Strikes Back. Thanos, the Mad Titan, destroys half of all life in the universe, including most of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Nick Fury, Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Doctor Strange.

With a snap of his fingers, Thanos throws the universe—and most of the norms moviegoers have grown to expect over the past decade of Marvel films—into chaos, all for the sake of balance.

Thanos’ idea of dropping the hammer.

Balance, according to Thanos, involves removing half of all life in the universe. Our heroes—the various Avengers outfits, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther and the warriors of Wakanda—are horrified by Thanos’ pursuit of death at any cost. At one point in the film Gamora, arguing with her adoptive father over his cruel methods, reminds Thanos that he took her from her home planet and eradicated half the population in the process.

Scoffing at her nostalgia, Thanos replies, “Going to bed hungry, scrounging for scraps? Your planet was on the brink of collapse. I was the one who stopped that. You know what’s happened since then? The children born since have known nothing but full bellies and clear skies. It’s a paradise.”

Thanos is cut from a different cloth than other villains in the Marvel films. Most of them desire power, control, wealth, revenge, or some other selfish goal. They are easy to hate, easy to root against, and easy to forget. But Thanos is seemingly untouched by such base emotions, moving through the film and cutting down superheroes to achieve his stated goal of bringing the universe into his idea of “balance.” Life requires resources (food, water, fuel, and the like), but these resources are finite; in the words of the Mad Titan, “It’s a simple calculus…if life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correcting.”

Thanos and the Great Malthusian Imperative

This is terrible, mind-boggling arithmetic to play with life itself, especially considering that Thanos could unwittingly destroy himself in the pursuit of his goal. But this isn’t a theory cooked up by the most twisted writers’ room in Hollywood; Thanos’ beliefs come straight from an eighteenth-century Englishman named Thomas Malthus.

In the 1700s scientists, explorers, and philosophers were expanding humanity’s horizons in every direction. Nothing seemed impossible; between the Enlightenment, the first stirrings of the Industrial Revolution, and the gradual rise of democracy, humans seemed to be on a perpetual upward path. Malthus, an Oxford-educated preacher in England, asked a simple and terrible question: What if we can’t go any higher?

Thomas Malthus: Thanos without the chin-stripes. Image: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Malthus argued that resources (particularly food) cannot increase beyond a certain rate; once that maximum rate is reached, any population growth that outstrips it will suffer. Given enough time on this track, society will devolve and the planet’s population will plummet precipitously.

He wrote throughout his life on this theory, with the main idea boiled down to this: “By nature human food increases in a slow arithmetical ratio; man himself increases in a quick geometrical ratio unless want and vice stop him. The increase in numbers is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence.”

If humanity’s growth grows unchecked, Malthus predicted that natural disasters would check that growth for us: “Famine seems to be the last, the most dreadful resource of nature…in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and tens of thousands…gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world.” These Malthusian disasters have loomed large in the collective consciousness of humanity ever since in the forms of dire warnings of “population bombs,” kaiju, disaster movies (2012, The Day After Tomorrow), and Malthus’ most maniacal purple disciple: Barney Thanos.

Scholars and laymen alike have split over Malthus’ theories for over two hundred years. Some still argue that the inherently pessimistic view is correct; as Thanos says, it’s “a simple calculus” to see that resources are finite and can’t be magically manufactured out of thin air. Taking that line of thought to its logical, awful conclusion, population must be controlled through natural or artificial means. For Thanos, the only way to save the universe is with the deadliest, Infinity Gauntleted finger snap in history.

The prevailing opinion rejects these dire predictions, however, and I believe Infinity War 2: Electric Bugaloo will too. Malthus didn’t live to see the incredible fruits of the Industrial Revolution and all its by-blows (the Medical Revolution, Green Revolution, etc.); he didn’t see that humanity in fact can create solutions for resource management and other problems.

That’s where Thanos and the real-life Thomas Malthus got it all wrong: they account for humanity’s stomachs and bodies but fail to consider our most potent tools—our brains. I doubt that next year’s Avengers film will feature a lengthy debate on Malthusianism, but I’ll bet my bag of popcorn that one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (my bet’s on Tony Stark) will make a great speech along those lines to Thanos at some point.

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7 Potential Villains for Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe https://nerdsonearth.com/2017/07/7-potential-villains-for-phase-4-of-the-marvel-cinematic-universe/ Thu, 20 Jul 2017 12:04:34 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=13298

Marvel will need a new big bad after Thanos. Here are 7 potential villains for Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the most successful franchise of all time, so I’m guessing you’ve seen a couple of the movies. Hopefully you’ve stuck around for some post credits scenes.

By my estimation, Thanos has appeared in 12,421 post credits scenes, so I think Marvel is hinting that he’s going to be the big bad that the Avengers will square of against. Assuming Earth’s Mightiest Heroes prevail, Marvel will need a new Phase 4 villain. Here are 7 suggestions:

7 Potential Villains for Phase 4 of the MCU

7. Hela is making her appearance in Thor Ragnarok. Assuming the Odinson prevails, Hela will slink away to lick the wounds of her defeat, which she will do doubt take as personal, seeking revenge.

She looks like something straight up off a Gwar album, she is crazy powerful if she can crush Mjolnir in her bare hands, and she’s the scheming type. She is the type of villain who could absolutely carry several movies.

 

6. Sin is a character most casual movie goers won’t be aware of but would be an interesting call back for the movies.

Sin is the daughter of the Red Skull. Although the Red Skull was vanquished at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger, everyone knows that if you cut off one head of Hydra, another grow to take its place.

And Marvel loves wedging Hydra front and center in their stories. They’d need a comic book rationale for how she came to be in the MCU, but she’d make a great villain for Phase 4.

 

5. Dormammu was seemingly offered a stalemate in Doctor Strange, but who says he’ll honor the bargain?

Listen, you can’t trust a guy like Dormammu and while I trust Benedict Cumberbatch wholly and completely and with all my heart, we also know that Doctor Strange is going to lose the title of Sorcerer Supreme at some point. It’s only happened like 12,000 times in the comics.

So when Strange takes his Eye of Agamotto off the ball, Dormammu could creep back in for the MCU Phase 4.

 

4. Adam Warlock was introduced in a Guardians of the Galaxy post credits scene, but most folks won’t realize he has a shadow side: Magus.

Adam Warlock in the comics was meant to be a hero, a counterpart to Thanos, champion of Death. But GotG 2 has opened a really plausible scenario for bringing forth his Magus alternate version, which came forth in the comics after Adam Warlock was bombarded with dark propaganda, a process that turned him insane.

Now calling himself Magus, he established himself as a god, surrounding himself with followers called the Universal Church of Truth. He could bring a ‘holy war’ to the MCU.

 

3. Ultron was defeated once in the movies, but who really thinks he is gone for good? ’nuff said.

 

2. Molecule Man doesn’t seem like the typical big bad type. He’s a seemingly normal dude, yet one beset with nearly unlimited power. Molecule man could make for a more personal story of power that could make the villain a little more relatable, something that the MCU movies haven’t been known for.

But Marvel really excels at making personal, relatable characters and Molecule Man could show an interesting character arc as a seemingly everyday person who is driven slowly into villainy via tragedy over a few films. I’d watch that character arc.

 

1. Kang the Conquerer is a time traveling foe of the Avengers. And he is amazing. But does the MCU really want to introduce time travel and the whole can of worms that goes with that? Probably not, but darned if I wouldn’t be stoked for it anyway.

 

Things with Marvel are never simple. Who knows if some of the characters are tied up in studio usage right, after all? But we know Marvel needs a new big bad after Thanos.

But they won’t have just one. Even though the above might serve well as an overarching villain, individual movies will have smaller villains that serve those individual stories.

Or maybe we just wipe away the entire slate above and just let heroes fight other heroes. Marvel really likes to do that.

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