Tag Archives: Thanos

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Infinity War – Comparative Opinions S.2 E.10

Welcome to the Comparative Opinions podcast! It’s deep spoiler territory time: Avengers: Infinity War! Join hosts David and Holly for about an hour of talk about he film, including disappointments, speculation, and more!

Comparative Opinions is a weekly half-hour-ish podcast hosted on ComparativeGeeks.com. Subscribe for new episodes every Sunday, or for our weekly news podcast, Week in Geek. It’s on hiatus until July!

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Music is by Scott Gratton: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Gratton/Intros_and_Outros

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Thanos’ Black Order

Hello! With Avengers: Infinity War putting the Black Order onscreen, I thought I could help with a bit of an introduction on these characters. They’re very recent additions in the comics, introduced in Jonathan Hickman’s 2013 Infinity crossover event. They are the generals of Thanos, in the film seemingly fellow “children” of Thanos (like Gamora and Nebula). They’re quite powerful, and quite as mad as their Titan leader.

Corvus Glaive, the leader and Herald of Thanos. Proxima Midnight, his wife. Black Dwarf, the bruiser. Ebony Maw, the talker. And Supergiant, the omnipath. So here’s some info about them from Infinity.

On the one hand, I’m sad that they’re only adapting 4 of the characters – but the 5th, Supergiant, has incredible mental powers and the MCU is simply not prepared for that. In the comics, most of the telepaths are mutants. Just look at how devastating Kilgrave was. Also, they changed Black Dwarf’s name to Cull Obsidian (in the comics, another name for the Black Order). They’re named for stars, but it’s fine.

When the Black Order first arrive on Earth, they split up. Most of the Avengers are off in space fighting a war on a second front (sounds familiar…), so the Black Order hits where there are heroes left – the X-Men, attacked by Corvus Glaive and Supergiant, Atlantis & Namor attacked by Proxima Midnight, Wakanda attacked by Black Dwarf, and Doctor Strange taken over by Ebony Maw.

We see, in the trailers, two of these four playing out: Black Dwarf (Cull Obsidian) is easily visible attacking in Wakanda (he’s huge), and Ebony Maw definitely brings Doctor Strange low. Let’s take another look at both.

Here’s from a later fight… it takes a lot to bring Black Dwarf down. Granted, Black Panther and Shuri are able to beat him, but he’s a tough one. But he’s also just a simple bruiser. He is the one hardest pressed to get Thanos’ respect. This may all play out pretty similarly.

This is not from the core Infinity comics, but from New Avengers… Ebony Maw is the most frightening of them. Unlike Black Dwarf, who is all punches, Ebony Maw doesn’t throw a single punch. He’s ideas. Words. Lies. Secrets. Thanos puts up with him – because he gets results. Looks like this will play out similarly as well!

Corvus Glaive meanwhile we have seen very little of – but in the comics, he’s the one we see the most of. Thanos’ right-hand man. His Herald.

He has supreme confidence, and speaks from a place of supreme power – not his own, but his master’s. There’s more to it than that, though. So let’s look at he and Proxima Midnight together – both with their super-powerful weapons. Very comic book. We’ll see to what extent either of these weapons get translated into the film – might be a good idea for them to be downplayed.

Okay… Glaive that cuts atoms, check. Spear that holds within it the power and density of a star, check. The latter in particular sounds quite a bit like Mjolnir. However, we also see it thrown in a trailer – and Captain America catches it. So maybe it’s just a spear in the movie.

Oh, and reverting Hulk to Banner… huh. Who knows!

But there’s one more power in Corvus’… glaive… and that is that, as long as it is still whole, he regrows from it. So later in the comics, he’s back, because Proxima grabbed it up and brought it along here. Will we see anything like that in the film? There’s not a whole lot of time for him to die and come back. Maybe between this film and the next?

Alright, that has been a bit of an introduction to these characters. Powerful, effective, but all still fairly new and only so much to them – Infinity War is going to add quite a bit to their characterization. But it looks like it will also be borrowing from some of their establishing elements from early on here. I’ll be interested to see their similarities and differences!

Oh, and one more image, just for fun. Hope you enjoy Infinity War! And remember, #ThanosDemandsYourSilence!

The Mad Titan, Thanos – A Throwback Thursday

With Infinity War on the heels of this post, it seemed appropriate to reflect back on some of my Thanos writing! This post is from late 2013, and I did a pretty good job of predicting where the MCU was going, if not the comics. My links at the end are also probably somewhat spoilers, in that they are clearly basing at least some of Infinity War on Hickman’s Infinity event! Enjoy, and remember, #ThanosDemandsYourSilence!

From The Infinity Gauntlet

From The Infinity Gauntlet

Marvel’s recent crossover event Infinity recently ended, and with all the events with “Infinity” in the title, this was a crossover that included the Mad Titan, Thanos, as the villain. In Infinity, he had to share the stage with the Builders, and was only one front of a two-front war. Nonetheless, his parts in Infinity tied in heavily to who he is as a villain, and what motivates him.

Of course, other Thanos events like the Infinity Gauntlet help inform us as to who Thanos is and what he’s up to, but Infinity drew from more than that. They did a limited-run, 5-issue series called Thanos Rising which explored the origin story of Thanos. It’s interesting, because with this story, it’s hard to tell where the previous Thanos events fit in. Nonetheless, the psychological underpinnings of the character are explored and revealed in Thanos Rising.

And what they lay out is that this is a mentally unbalanced, overly powerful character, willing – and wanting – to kill anyone and anything. Conquering or razing worlds because he can. So I’ve read the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos Rising, and Infinity, so let’s take a look at who this villain is! Spoilers to follow!

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Confirmed: The Black Company!

It’s been Disney’s D23 fan festival the last few days it seems, but today it was big Avengers: Infinity War news! For one thing, the film has finished filming (although surely there will be some re-shoots, which will be publicized because that just seems to be how movie news works these days). For another… some things have been confirmed!

“A bearded Captain America! Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers has facial hair in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR!” -https://www.facebook.com/MarvelCinematicUniverse/

Okay, bigger news than that.

Specifically, more about Thanos, the big bad that we have been waiting since at least 2012 and Avengers and definitely since Guardians of the Galaxy to finally confront in a movie! Big news especially for Holly and I, having read Hickman’s Avengers.

The Black Order!

An addition to the comics only a few years old – first seen in the Infinity crossover event – the Black Order were Thanos’ generals. His vanguard. His heralds. He is a conqueror, and they bring the good word of Thanos to a world, before it ends.

Thanos believes in death, at least in the comics. Well, in Death. Personified. Loves her, in fact. And his followers fanatically follow that charge. From left to right, that picture is Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Thanos, the Ebony Maw, and the renamed Cull Obsidian (Black Dwarf in the comics). Each are enough of a super-villain to be a significant challenge to our heroes on their own.

Even just their inclusion in the film tells me that the first part of the film, at least, will be heavily focused on the construction of the Infinity Gauntlet itself. They’ll have to get their hands on each part of it, which we know are currently scattered around the galaxy (though a bit focused around Earth). There will be war with the Avengers, and it’s not going to go well for our heroes, I don’t imagine.

Here’s a link for closeups on the Black Order: https://www.facebook.com/MarvelCinematicUniverse/photos/a.255014641181782.86037.217181691631744/1890944090922154/?type=3&theater

Their role is changing a little bit in the film, and that’s fine. They’re going to be “children of Thanos” like Gamora and Nebula. But they’re still just so cool. Ebony Maw has some of the most interesting application – in the MCU, he is kind of the more powerful and villainous version of Loki or Black Widow. Cull Obsidian might hold his own against the Hulk – and there’s confirmation that the Hulkbuster will make a showing. Proximy Midnight has a weapon that focuses the mass of a star, so it’s incredibly dense and heavy and can pin any opponent. And Corvus Glaive? Well…

He’s probably my favorite. So very, very evil. The voice of Thanos. The herald. And basically unkillable, as long as his glaive stays intact.

I’m just loving this! If this ends up, in relation to the comics, similar to Infinity? This is gonna be good.

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – Comparative Opinions Episode 46

Welcome to the Comparative Opinions podcast! This week, hosts David and Holly dive into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. They start with no spoilers and reactions from the trailers, and then head into the full movie with lots of spoilers. Then it bleeds into expectations for the upcoming Marvel movies, especially Infinity War since it’s going to include the Guardians!

Comparative Opinions is a weekly half-hour-ish podcast hosted on ComparativeGeeks.com. Subscribe for new episodes every Sunday!

https://www.facebook.com/ComparativeGeeks/

https://twitter.com/comparativegeek

Music is by Scott Gratton: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Gratton/Intros_and_Outros