Marvel: 5 Times Thanos Was Right (& 5 He Wasn't)

Thanos has done some good in the universe and while he's often wrong that doesn't mean it's impossible for him to be on the right side of things.

Farmer Thanos at the end of Infinity Gauntlet and Thanos's Snap In Infinity Gauntlet
Thanos has become one of Marvel's most well-known villains thanks to the MCU. Even before that, Thanos was widely considered one of the Marvel Universe's greatest villains, a threat that almost ended everything more than once. An Eternal from the planet Titan, Thanos has been terrorizing the universe for ages, using his superlative intelligence and cosmic being level to endanger all of existence whenever he sees fit.

Thanos is one of the most terrifying villains around but that doesn't change the fact that sometimes, he's right. Thanos has done some good in the universe and while he's often wrong that doesn't mean it's impossible for him to be on the right side of things.

10 . Thanos Was Right: Battling King Thanos In The Future Was A Good Choice

Villains have to win sometimes in order to be a threat and the story "Thanos Wins", by writer Donny Cates and artist Geoff Shaw, showed a terrible future. Thanos had conquered the entirety of existence and was one of the last beings left alive but desired only one thing- death, both the being and as an ending. He brought the Thanos of the present into the future to kill him and eventually, the two came to blows.

While no one was saved by Thanos fighting his future self, it was the right thing to do and sparing the future despot's life was a step in the right direction for the Mad Titan, even if it was just to torture his future self and ultimately futile.

9 . Thanos Wasn't Right: Reacting To The Cruelty Of His Fellow Eternals With Genocide Was A Vast Overreaction

Thanos is undeniably cruel but in his mind, he has a good reason to be. Unlike his fellow Eternals of Titan, Thanos was ugly in comparison to the others. He was mocked by his fellows and it was intimated his true father was a Skrull because of his chin. This treatment stuck with Thanos and while it was terrible, he massively overreacted.

Thanos's personality was forged by this, as he embraced nihilism and hatred because of the way he was treated. These beliefs would cause to commit terrible acts of genocide against the universe and created a monster that would live for killing. It's safe to say this reaction was wrong.

8 . Thanos Was Right: Training Gamora Gave The Universe A Great Hero

Thanos has done a lot of evil in his time but sometimes, it turned out for the best. The training of Gamora was one of those times. Gamora would become known as the most dangerous woman in the universe because of Thanos's training, going on to save countless lives with Adam Warlock's Infinity Watch and later the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Thanos's decision to train Gamora turned out to be the right one and worked out much better for the people of the universe than anyone would have ever imagined. Gamora became a great hero and devoted herself to helping others, something Thanos couldn't have foreseen.

7 . Thanos Wasn't Right: His Methods Of Training Gamora Were Barbaric

While his training of Gamora would turn out to be wonderful for the countless billions of beings she would save, the way he trained her was undeniably terrible. Thanos basically tormented her throughout their time together, using moments of tenderness as a reward after long periods of unremitting cruelty. Thanos's training worked but there was a terrible cost to Gamora as a person.

People learn how to fight all the time without being brutalized and yet Thanos did it anyway. It's hard to argue with the results but Gamora was a young girl who was brutalized into becoming a killing machine. Thanos was undeniably wrong about that.

6 . Thanos Was Right: He Protected The Reality Gem Well And Never Used It

Thanos With The Reality Gem Cropped
Thanos can be a mystery at the best of times but one of the most incongruent times of his life came after he lost the Infinity Gauntlet. He would embrace a life of peace but occasionally leave his farm to help out in the great conflicts of the day. Adam Warlock, forced to split the Infinity Gauntlet by the Living Tribunal, entrusted the protection of the Reality Gem to him.

Thanos was able to resist the temptation to use the Reality Gem, one of the most powerful of the Infinity Gems, and kept it safe from all enemies. He proved to be a trustworthy individual, even with an object of amazing power, a big change from who he once was.

5 . Thanos Wasn't Right: Battling Squirrel Girl Was A Bad Idea

Thanos has done a lot of things that set him apart from the other villains of the Marvel Universe but he's made one mistake that's pretty common to them all. That common mistake was underestimating Squirrel Girl. For mighty Thanos, this was easy to do, of course; she is ostensibly just a girl with squirrel powers, after all, and he is the Mad Titan, a former god and Eternal.

Like other villains, Thanos didn't know about her other power, the one that allows her to defeat any villain she fights. Thanos, like so many before him, thought he could beat her and was completely wrong. This defeat was one of his biggest failures.

4 . Thanos Was Right: Torturing Nebula Was Wrong But It Led Somewhere Good

Nebula Infinity Gauntlet
During the seminal event Infinity Gauntlet, by writer Jim Starlin and artists George Perez and Ron Lim, Thanos gained ultimate power and decided to use it to hurt members of his family for enjoyment. He brought his brother Starfox and granddaughter Nebula to his specially constructed spaceborn palace and tortured both of them.

Ironically, this torment would lead somewhere beneficial. Though the torture was undeniably wrong it did lead to Nebula, taking advantage of Thanos when he took on the role of Eternity, pulling the Infinity Gauntlet off his prone form, and undoing everything he did, resurrecting the dead and stopping his terrible rampage as God.

3 . Thanos Wasn't Right: Falling In Love With Death Led Him Down A Terrible Path

Thanos Death Infinity Gauntlet
Thanos's love for Death is his defining characteristic in the comics. In a lot of ways, it's a stand-in for his nihilism and the ultimate expression of it. By falling in love with the embodiment of Death, Thanos rejected the regular world that pushed him away and abused him, using that "love" as an excuse to destroy as much as he possibly could.

Thanos's love for Death and his promise to her that he would destroy half the universe led him on quests for objects that would give him the power to do it efficiently. This led him to gaining the Infinity Gauntlet and killing half the universe.

2 . Thanos Was Right: Eschewing His Old Desires To Become A Farmer Showed Maturity

thanos farmer
Thanos was never truly redeemed but he did find peace and a measure of atonement after losing the Infinity Gauntlet. Retiring to a farm, he showed genuine regret for his actions, protecting the Reality Gem and helping his former foes like Adam Warlock and the Silver Surfer against the Magus, the Goddess, and Thor when he was in the grips of warrior madness.

Thanos preferred peace and working the land to fighting but still helped out when he needed to. He grew beyond the being he once was and became something better for a time, something akin to a hero or the closest he could become.

1 . Thanos Wasn't Right: Killing Half The Universe's Population Didn't Get Him What He Desired

Thanos defeated the Elders of the Universe and gained the Infinity Gauntlet for one reason, to kill half the universe so Death would love him. While he accomplished that goal of killing half of everything, Death was unmoved by act, proving the futility of loving a being like her. She would even turn against him with the rest of the cosmic beings during the ensuing conflict.

Thanos believed that by becoming God and destroying half of all life he would win what he wanted but was proven completely wrong. Not only did he not get the love of Death but she ended up battling against him.