With Avengers: Infinity War upon us, and to say it’s been hotly anticipated is an understatement. It’s the culmination of Marvel Studios shared cinematic universe. 18 feature films have all led to this moment.
Avengers: Infinity War sees the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and more facing off against Thanos, their greatest shared threat.
Why are two groups and a host of supporting players all afraid of one villain? Why is Thanos such a formidable opponent? Surely there’s strength in numbers?
Well, the truth is, just one Thanos is more of a menace than your average team of supervillains, because he’s one of the strongest and smartest bad guys in the entire universe.
How powerful you may ask? Well, we are about to break down all the many ways Thanos can easily defeat his greatest adversaries.
However, lest you think our Marvel heroes will inevitably face defeat against Thanos, take a deep breath. While he may be ridiculously powerful, he is still deeply flawed and vulnerable in several respects. In fact, some of his weaknesses may surprise you.
Here are 10 Superpowers You Didn’t Know Thanos Had (And 7 Weaknesses).
17. SUPERPOWER: HE’S AN ETERNAL
Thanos was born with Deviant Syndrome, a mutation that makes him resemble for a race of creatures that are opposed by the superhuman species The Eternals.
The problem is Thanos is an Eternal himself, and his affliction led his mother to try to hurt him. He wound up ostracized from his own kind on his home world of Titan.
Despite his appearance, Thanos shares all the powers of his fellow Eternals, including super-strength, invulnerability, flight, teleportation, advanced intelligence, force field generation and more. We’ll be getting to his most impressive Eternal powers further up the list. He can also survive for lengthy periods without food or water.
What’s more, his Deviant mutation makes him bigger and stronger than his fellow Eternals, and he’s enhanced his powers even further through bionic amplification.
16. WEAKNESS: DRAX THE DESTROYER
The first Guardians of the Galaxy film established that Drax blamed Thanos for ordering Ronan the Accuser to destroy his wife and child.
In the pages of Marvel Comics, Drax was actually physically created for the sole purpose of destroying Thanos.
Drax was once a human named Arthur Douglas, who saw Thanos destroy his family on Earth. In the aftermath, Kronos takes Douglas’s spirit and infuses it into a powerful new body (under the new moniker of Drax the Destroyer, naturally), built to take down the being who caused him so much pain.
Drax’s most brutal battle with Thanos occurred in the series Annihilation, where he punched through the villain’s chest and tore out his heart. While MCU films avoid graphic violence, there are lots of fans out there hoping that Drax is the one that finally takes down Thanos in Infinity War.
15. SUPERPOWER: PSIONIC AND COSMIC BLASTS
One of the most dangerous weapons in Thanos’s organic arsenal is the ability to project energy. He (like his fellow Eternals) emits energy through his hands and eyes. He can do everything from projecting infrared heat rays, to magnetic blasts and disruptor beams.
This can come in the form of concussive blasts (imagine Iron Man’s repulsor beam on steroids), or he can focus this energy expulsion to create an impenetrable force field.
If that wasn’t imposing enough, he has another neat trick up his sleeves– the ability to absorb any blast of energy sent his way and send it right back at the person who fired the opening shot.
How powerful are these blasts you may ask? They’re strong enough to knock the Hulk and Thor unconscious and to take the wind out of Galactus’s sails.
14. WEAKNESS: LADY DEATH
Even a being as cold-blooded and ruthless as Thanos has a romantic streak. He’s head over heels in love with Lady Death, the cosmic incarnation of mortality itself. To keep her in his good graces, he supplies her an ever-growing body count.
This becomes a problem however, with Thanos constantly having to outdo himself in the ways of mass murder and mayhem, endlessly trying to impress the subject of his desires.
This infatuation makes Thanos all the more dangerous and unstable.
There are few lines he won’t cross to feed the flames of his infatuation, which tends to further spiral out of control if she spurns his advances, sending him into a vicious cycle of rage and anguish that threatens the entire cosmos.
13. SUPERPOWER: NIGH INVULNERABILITY
While Thanos’s obsession with Lady Death has its downsides, it does have a few perks. When he was brought back to life, she gave him some upgrades in the invulnerability department. As a result, Thanos is a very hard person to hurt.
Being enhanced with nigh-invulnerability has allowed him to survive some serious scuffles.
He’s survived planet-destroying assaults, withstood power cosmic blasts from the Silver Surfer, and close range attacks from the likes of Thor, Odin, and Galactus, emerging with nary a scratch.
Perhaps most impressively, Thanos has survived three full screams (one at point-blank range) from the Inhuman Black Bolt, whose vocal powers can level mountains and destroy planets.
Even if Thanos does get the odd wound here and there, his extensive healing factor kicks in, making him as a good as new in a matter of seconds.
12. SUPERPOWER: INFINITY GAUNTLET
As if he wasn’t powerful enough, the Infinity Gauntlet gives Thanos the power to destroy the universe in multiple ways.
Why is it so dangerous? Because it houses all the most immense power sources in the MCU in one easily accessible source.
We recently covered the full extent of the Infinity Gauntlets power, but here’s a brief summary of each stone’s capabilities: the Mind Stone can control anyone’s mind, the Power Stone can destroy whole planets, the Space Stone can transport him anywhere in the universe, and the Time Stone facilitates time travel. The Soul Stone can bring back the lifeless. If that’s not enough to frighten his enemies, there’s always the Reality Stone, which changes any outcome so that Thanos always emerges victorious.
As as long as Thanos has the Gauntlet, all forms of intelligent life are in peril. Luckily there’s a solution, which we’ll discuss next.
11. WEAKNESS: LOSING THE INFINITY GAUNTLET
It sounds comical and a little too easy, but the best way to defeat Thanos is to take away his greatest weapon. As many Marvel Comics stories can attest, it’s not all that difficult to take it away from him before all hope is lost.
The reason? The Infinity Gauntlet allows Thanos to achieve the ultimate power: to become the living embodiment of the universe. Sounds pretty sweet, right?
It’s a lofty reward any supervillain would be proud to achieve, but that power comes with a cost.
During that transformative state, Thanos’s body becomes immobile, and his consciousness is more concerned with answering the questions of the cosmos instead of fighting superheroes. This makes it very easy to wrest the Gauntlet away while he’s distracted and totally zoned out, as we’ll illustrate further up the list.
10. SUPERPOWER: TELEPATHY
It’s always worth noting that Thanos’s intellect is just as imposing as his brute strength. His impressive mental gifts extends to his vast telepathic powers, which he has utilized in the past with terrifyingly impressive results.
Perhaps Thanos’ greatest psionic ability is turning his opponents against each other or, even more strikingly, against themselves.
He’s demonstrated this by making the Hulk attack his Avenger teammates or causing the Anti-Man to destroy his surroundings. Perhaps his most dramatic psychic assault happened when he drove one of the Priests of Pama insane with just a mere gesture.
In addition, Thanos’s telepathic abilities can also shield him from psychic attacks, successfully avoiding mind-control assaults from the likes of Moondragon and Mantis. This has led many to assume that he’s completely impervious from any form of mind control.
9. WEAKNESS: THE SOUL GEM
One after-credits segment in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hinted that Adam Warlock may soon make a visit the MCU, and if so that likely spells big trouble for Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.
In the comics, Warlock (and his villainous incarnations, including Magus and The Goddess) wields the Soul Gem, which can trap an organic being’s life energies and send them into a pocket universe.
Warlock has used the power of the Soul Gem to beat Thanos many times over the years, and his additional powers and abilities makes him one of Thanos’s greatest opponents. This gives us reason to hope he’ll show up to save the day in Infinity War. It would certainly mark a dramatic entrance for a character fans have been waiting for years to see on the big screen.
8. SUPERPOWER: MATERIOKINESIS
Thanos is also a master of Materiokinesis, which is basically just a fancy way of saying he’s skilled in the ways of matter manipulation.
This is another genetic gift he shares with his some of his fellow Eternals.
He’s used his ability to affect matter at the atomic level to awe-inspiring degree, most notably when he attacked Skragg, a Skrull who was at one time affiliated with Thanos’s mercenary group the Thanos-Thralls.
Unfortunately Skragg failed to impress his boss, and after he screwed up a mission, he was terminated from his position. Literally.
Thanos used his Materiokinesis powers to turn Skragg into stone. We’re curious to see if he’ll show his matter manipulation powers off in Infinity War, but we hope none of our favorite Avengers of Guardians of the Galaxy get turned to stone in the process!
7. SUPERPOWER: IMMORTALITY
As stated earlier, Thanos is an Eternal, and his race of people literally live up to the name. All Eternals are essentially immortal, immune from disease, infections, and the aging process.
His forever unreciprocated love affair with Lady Death carries another consequence: she once imposed a ban on Thanos, forbidding him from entering her realm, therefore insuring he can never pass on.
She eventually reconsidered her stance, and has since lifted the ban, but the bottom line is that Thanos is an extremely hard person to tale out thanks to his genetic predisposition. That being said, just because he’s immortal doesn’t mean he’s always successful in evading mortality, as we’ll discuss next.
6. WEAKNESS: MYSTERY ILLNESS
We just established that Thanos is immortal, but in his recent self-titled comic series, the alien despot has faced his greatest foe: his own failing body.
This obviously negates his aforementioned protection against disease, but hey, it’s Marvel, and rules on the extent of a character’s powers are made to be broken, and never set in stone.
He’s besieged by an unnamed disease, which first simply makes him weak, before exhibiting more seriously detrimental effects.
He turns to his estranged scientist father A’Lars for a cure, but proves unsuccessful in finding a way to stop the mysterious ailment.
Adding to Thanos’ plight, once word gets out about his grave condition, every other cosmic baddie who longs for ultimate power tries to strike him down while he’s at his weakest.
5. SUPERPOWER: MAGIC
Perhaps the most unexplored aspect of Thanos’ power is his magic abilities. Yes, it’s true. On top of every other ridiculously impressive power he has, he can cast spells too.
How far do these capabilities go? We’re not quite sure, but we hope to see them explored further in Avengers: Infinity War. We’d certainly love to see him go toe to toe with Dr. Strange, which we’re guessing will happen at some point.
It’s also one reason we’re keeping our fingers crossed that Thanos and Deadpool cross cinematic paths one day, because Thanos’ used his spell-casting powers to make it impossible for Deadpool to pass on.
Why did he curse him, you ask? Thanos became jealous after he discovered Lady Death was attracted to Wade Wilson. By making Wade immortal, he can keep them apart forever.
4. WEAKNESS: HIS SON
Gamora, Terrax, Super-Skrull - there are many who are known as the “children of Thanos,” but that’s in name only, as they share no DNA with the subject of this article.
Thanos has sired several flesh and blood offspring, and his most infamous is his son Thane.
Thane is a true a chip off the old block. He shares little affection with his father, but one thing they do have in common is a ruthless desire to dominate the galaxy. Thane is completely obsessed with beating his dad at his own game.
This has led father and son to face off against each other on many occasions, including a memorable encounter where Thane imprisoned Thanos in “the living death,” an amber cell that kept him in a state of suspended animation.
3. WEAKNESS: HIS EGO
The only thing bigger than Thanos’s stature and range of power is his immense ego, something that often proves a thorn in his side during his megalomaniacal campaigns of terror.
Whether its’ showing off to impress his lady love, or lording around the Infinity Gauntlet like a trust-fund kid showing off his sports car, Thanos just cant help but let his smugness derail his plans for success.
Lt’s face it, no one likes a braggart, which has garnered Thanos no shortage of enemies over the years, making his already dangerous presence all the more insufferable.
His sense of self remains his Achilles heel, and invariably leads to his continual defeat.
It’s important to note, however, that even Thanos is prone to self-doubt and insecurity, which we’ll explore more further up the list.
2. SUPERPOWER: COSMIC CUBE
The Infinity Gauntlet isn’t the only insanely powerful weapon in Thanos’s arsenal. The Cosmic Cube is arguably just as impressive, and perhaps even more so.
Whereas the Infinity Gauntlet needs every Infinity Stone to function at full capacity, he Cosmic Cube is one-stop-shopping, giving the wielder complete control over all forms of matter and energy, essentially making them the god of the universe.
Anyone who wields a cosmic cube must be well-practiced and knowledgable in how to use their powers.
As we’ve established, Thanos is more than qualified to use one to accomplish his evil deeds. That’s not to say that all cubes are wholly cooperative with their owners however– cosmic cubes have evolved to have a degree of sentience and can refuse to comply to any orders they fully object to.
1. WEAKNESS: THE DESIRE TO LOSE
While Thanos has an ego bigger than the galaxy, even the most obnoxiously confident and conceited among us are covering up deep-seated insecurities, and he is no different in this regard.
Deep down inside, even a being as powerful as Thanos feels he isn’t deserving of his plans to rule the cosmos. Take the events in the pages of The Infinity Gauntlet mini-series, where he easily allowed his grandniece Nebula to swipe the dangerously powerful glove from his clutches, handing it over to Adam Warlock and ending the conflict.
Warlock state to Thanos that the villain “subconsciously supplied the means to your own defeat,” and Thanos’s pained expression revealed the truth in those words. His own self-loathing makes him feel that he is ultimately unworthy of victory. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that plays out over and over again, to the relief of all who have faced him.
What other superpowers and weakness could Thanos display in Avengers: Infinity War? Let us know in the comments!
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Release Date: 2023-05-05 Avengers: Infinity War Release Date: 2018-04-27
