Before we begin, I just want to say: SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. Spoilers for everything! Please keep that in mind before reading further as this is no longer a “Speculation Central” article and now a “Discussing Things We Can Prove” article.
As long as you are aware of this, don’t mind something being spoiled for “Avengers Assemble” and have seen this big blockbuster comic book movie people keep talking about, read on.
Last month, I wrote an article based on speculation about who the big bad in “Avengers Assemble” was. I laid out a few reasons as to why I think it led up to this one particular character, before finally revealing the only definitive evidence I had was lettering. If this was one of those cop drama shows, test results would come back from the lab with a 99.999% match: the Big Bad is Thanos, the Mad Titan.
Of course, if you’ve seen The Avengers, then you know that the big guy flashes you a grin during the first of two stingers. The scene is quite chilling and very well worded, with actor Damion Poitier portraying the Mad Titan (credited as Man #1) via some heavy CGI, similar to how Ruffalo actually played the role of the Hulk. And if you think about why “Avengers Assemble” exists – for fans of the movie to purchase a book with the main cast of characters and get an easy jumping on point for the Marvel U – suddenly putting Thanos in as the mystery bad guy makes sense.
I’ve heard multiple stories about this at this point (some from personal experience, some from postings on Twitter and Reddit, etc), but it’s all basically the same: a lot of people had no idea who that was. In my theater, a child rabidly jumped up and down, exclaiming to his father that this was “the red guy from Green Lantern.” I’ve also heard stories of people claiming that was Hellboy and that this was how they were going to make Hellboy 3, and I’ve heard him referred to as a Skrull, “Galacto” from Fantastic Four and more. While Marvel fans surely got the reference (and then freaked out about the “court death” line), the rest of the world is left to Google searches and Wiki reads.
So what does Marvel do? They give these people the option to read not only a book that takes its cues from the Joss Whedon-penned flick, but also introduces them to the bastard that is going to cause havoc for the Avengers in future films. It’s Comic Business 101, folks.
When we last actually saw Thanos in comics, he was trapped in the Cancerverse with Star Lord and Nova, assumedly in a battle to the death in the final issue of “The Thanos Imperative,” the culmination of four years worth of cosmic storytelling. There was seemingly no return from what happened, and if there was Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (the authors of the event) seemed to have no current interest in bringing the characters back. Then again, a new Nova has randomly appeared in “Avengers vs X-Men” (implausible considering Richard Rider took all the power of the Nova Force with him into the Cancerverse) and sometimes it’s just hard to keep a good villain down.
How Thanos came back from the Cancerverse will assumedly not be addressed, but the point of the comic and is very clear: Marvel is giving new readers with no idea of up or down in the 616 a 100% new-reader friendly book that plays with the concepts and places introduced in the film (how do you like that new Stark tower now?) and allows these people to explore the wider Marvel U if they so choose.
For those interested, we are planning an article for later this week talking about some of the titles you can check out for the various characters that appear in the film and where to read more about them, including Thanos.
The Avengers, at the time of writing this, has made almost three times its initial budget in worldwide box office and is currently holding several box office records. If Marvel didn’t make something for all of the people who think Hellboy is going to be the next Avengers film villain, that would be just plain silly at this point.
