Marvel-Verse: Thanos

Marvel-Verse

by Jim Starlin, Mike Friedrich, Steve Englehart

Collects Iron Man (1968) #55, Captain Marvel (1968) #33, Silver Surfer (1987) #45, Spider-Man (1990) #17, Ka-Zar (1997) #11, material from Marvel Holiday Special (1991) #2.

Thanos is one of the deadliest villains in the Marvel-Verse - and these are some of his greatest tales of conquest! Thanos' sinister debut leads Iron Man into battle with Drax the Destroyer! Then, join Thanos in cosmic conflict with his arch-enemy, the legendary Kree warrior Mar-Vell! The Mad Titan takes on the demonic Mephisto as secrets of the Infinity Gems are revealed - but can Spider-Man triumph over Thanos and escape the afterlife? And what chance does Ka-Zar, lord of the Savage Land, have against the Mad Titan's world-conquering plans?! Plus, a holiday tale like no other starring Thanos and his "daughter" - the deadly Gamora!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Marvel, Superheroes, Fantasy, Action

120 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 29, 2019

About the author

James P. "Jim" Starlin is an American comic book writer and artist. With a career dating back to the early 1970s, he is best known for "cosmic" tales and space opera; for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock; and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters Thanos and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Death and suicide are recurring themes in Starlin's work: Personifications of Death appeared in his Captain Marvel series and in a fill-in story for Ghost Rider; Warlock commits suicide by killing his future self; and suicide is a theme in a story he plotted and drew for The Rampaging Hulk magazine.

In the mid-1970s, Starlin contributed a cache of stories to the independently published science-fiction anthology Star Reach. Here he developed his ideas of God, death, and infinity, free of the restrictions of mainstream comics publishers' self-censorship arm, the Comics Code Authority. Starlin also drew "The Secret of Skull River", inked by frequent collaborator Al Milgrom, for Savage Tales #5 (July 1974).

When Marvel Comics wished to use the name of Captain Marvel for a new, different character,[citation needed] Starlin was given the rare opportunity to produce a one-shot story in which to kill off a main character. The Death of Captain Marvel became the first graphic novel published by the company itself. (

In the late 1980s, Starlin began working more for DC Comics, writing a number of Batman stories, including the four-issue miniseries Batman: The Cult (Aug.-Nov. 1988), and the storyline "Batman: A Death in the Family", in Batman #426-429 (Dec. 1988 – Jan. 1989), in which Jason Todd, the second of Batman's Robin sidekicks, was killed. The death was decided by fans, as DC Comics set up a hotline for readers to vote on as to whether or not Jason Todd should survive a potentially fatal situation. For DC he created Hardcore Station.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sort of a mixed bag of Thanos related Marvel comics from his first appearance in Invincible Iron-man, to Captain Marvel, Silver Surfer, Spider-man, and Ka-zar. I would say the best story of the trade was the Silver Surfer issue ( in which the Surfer barely even appears ) which I would deem more of a Thanos meets Mephisto story.
The Spider-man story almost read more like a "What If?" story and the last Ka-zar one was only part of a story and didn't really hold together enough by itself in a trade and ends with a cliff-hanger.
I was always a fan of Thanos pre-Marvel cinematic universe and have read better appearances by the big guy, but this trade is probably more of a 2 1/2 star effort. The coloring by Starlin in the Captain Marvel story was not good at all IMHO.

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice collection of Thanos related comics.

Iron Man #55 is the story of Thanos' introduction to the Marvel universe (as well as Drax the Destroyer)

Captain Marvel #33- Marvel must fight Thanos and the Cosmic Cube

Silver Surfer# 45- Mephisto and Thanos team up

Spiderman #17- This wasn't very good, Spiderman confronts Thanos and Mistress Death

Marvel Holiday Special #2- An interesting tale of Thanos as a father figure

Ka-Zar #11- this was a bad one, Ka-Zar fights Thanos in the Savage Land.

So a good collection, save for two bad ones, of Thanos stories. A nice little addition to my collection.

[Petergiaquinta · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bizarre mix of the sacred and profane, this Thanos anthology from the Marvel-Verse series is far better than the lame Shang-Chi collection I recently read and prolly right there middlin' at three stars with the Loki anthology I read a couple of months ago.

The sacred? Well, things kick off with Thanos's first appearance in Iron Man #55 from 1972 followed by a geriatric Mar-vell's defeat of Thanos when he smashes the Cosmic Cube a couple of years later in the pages of Captain Marvel #33. And mebbe even Mephisto's introduction to Thanos in Silver Surfer #45 can be considered a landmark in the lead-up to the Infinity Gauntlet storyline (which is not here in this anthology). So Drax, Mar-vell, Mentor, Mantis, the Surfer, Death, Mephisto, that's all pure cosmic gold, especially the cover of SS #45.

But the profane? The collection concludes with the ridiculous Kazar #11 from 1997...there are some characters in the Marvelverse who have no business showing up to a Thanos fight, and Kazar is somewhere near the top of the list. Along with Jubilation Lee. And maybe Daredevil, sigh. But thankfully neither of them are here.

I'm also not a big fan of Peter Parker interacting with cosmic characters, despite his being featured on the cover of the Avengers versus Thanos collection, but Anne Nocenti's 1991 Spider-Man #17 is pretty well done, although too quickly resolved, landing it in a sort of middle ground in this anthology's quality. Here Peter Parker meets Thanos and Death (spoiler, he's dead, gasp!), and it works for the most part and reminds me not just a little of a great storyline back in the '80s when Mephisto and the Beyonder were toying with Spider-Man a la the Old Testament's Job. But Nocenti takes no time to develop Peter's struggle with the consequences of his death, and it's over way too soon. Another in-between story that could go either way is Christmas with Thanos and a five-year-old Gamora published in a Marvel Holiday Special from 1993. Maybe it's corny and dumb. Or maybe it's a decent, touching tale from Gamora's past. Jim Starlin writes it and I liked it. But I could see how some folks might think it's total junk...However, it's also over and done way too fast.

[Anthony Kret · Rating 3 out of 5]

First comic book I ever read, to get hyped for my new Avengers pinball coming soon! It was nice to learn about Thanos origin story, but I was not too impressed.

[Poovy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd mix of Thanos stories, each taken from a different marvel hero's comic (Iron man, Captain marvel, Ka-Zar, a holiday special, Spiderman) so its not a collection of stories that are interconnected.
What's annoying is that you don't have context of what has been going on because the story might be plucked from the middle of an ongoing larger story (there are many Thanos schemes aside from the infinity gauntlet btw).
There some interesting ones but also some that are just bleh.

What was interesting for me was Drax the Destroyer's comic book origin and the artwork for the character because it is completely different to anything we've seen in the live action MCU so that was cool to read about but otherwise I wouldn't have this down as a 'must read' for Marvel fans.

[Andrei · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the less interesting Marvel-Verse books, for me. Includes the first appearance of Thanos which is in an Iron Man comic of all places (decent), an issue with Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) vs Thanos (decent), an issue with Thanos &/vs. Mephisto (good), one issue of Thanos vs. Spider-Man (meh, was rather disappointing), a holiday special with Gamora as a child (interesting), and an issue of Thanos vs. Ka-Zar (bad).

Not fun enough, and not really the best choice of issues to illustrate what Thanos is about.

[Robert Noll · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Six issues with Thanos across six different titles. The Spider-Man issue involving a second chance at life is an interesting take on the afterlife. The Marvel Holiday Special also features Thanos learning the true meaning of Christmas. The other four issues are random and hint at broader story arcs.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is fine for what it is, which amounts to a primer on Thanos with stories mostly, but not all, written by Jim Starlin. I didn't do my research here, as I'd thought that this was new material. I generally like Starlin's Thanos but this book is sort of a weird mix of stories, only some of which relate to each other. Enjoyable enough for a quick afternoon read though.

[Craig Lotter · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the better Marvel-Verse character primer anthologies in terms of page count, this outing actually features quite a nice selection of tales featuring Thanos. As always, the older tales don't quite hold up any more, but it was good to get a book with some decent quick stories starring Iron Man, Captain Marvel (Mar-vel), Mephisto, Spider-man, and Ka-Zar.

[G. Edweird Cheese · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cool collection of Thanos based comics. Including his introduction in Iron Man #55, to his battle with Captain Marvel, a run in with Spiderman in Mistress Death's realm and a few others, this collection shows why Thanos is called the Mad Titan, with good reason!

[Adam Gerekink · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed learning about Thanos originally. Was concerned the book did not provide the year of each publication: located on the rear cover in small print.

Loved watching the character interpretation evolve

[Jason Holtzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a very strong collection! Jim Starlin, both art and writing-wise, always delivers. The purpose of this volume is to give a good introduction to the character, and I think it does that well. Worth reading if you’re unfamiliar with and want to be introduced to Thanos.

[Nicholas Stahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Movie Thanos much thiccer imo

[Sam Schnurbusch · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to see the original origin story for Thanos, but the writing from the 60s was hard to get through. I found the more recent stories in the collection more interesting.

[Tyler Marsolais · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of fun comics!