A quick note: I am only using Infinity War and Endgame as source material here, not any other canon, comics, or MCU films.)
As a James Bond superfan, and someone who finds villains far more interesting than heroes, I have always wanted MI6 to face a mastermind with an honorable goal but unconscionable methods. It’s so easy to write a bad guy who wants to destroy the world, hold the world hostage, or skew the world’s economy in their favor. Why can’t we have a supervillain who wants to affect great change at any cost? A cost that is perhaps too great.
Well, Marvel gave us that supervillain in the Mad Titan, Thanos. Thanos wants to kill off half the population of the entire universe! But his motivation? Saving the universe: “It’s simple calculus—the universe is finite; it’s resources finite. If life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correction.”
And this isn’t fake news. Thanos’ home planet of Titan is a devasted, blown-out wasteland. Not from wars waged or battles fought. Overpopulation and consumption of resources destroyed his home. “Titan was beautiful…like most planets, too many mouths, not enough to go around. When we faced extinction, I offered a solution.”
Yes, it’s a Final Solution—but as planned by Thanos, the genocide of half the universe will be “random, dispassionate, rich and poor alike.” As he emphasizes throughout the film, he seeks to bring balance back to the world, and this is not some crazy problem invented for the movie. S This is a direct comment about our own planet Earth suffering the detrimental effects of overpopulation, suffocating pollution, deforestation, poisoned water, and climate change.
In the fictional world of the MCU, Thanos’ plan of culling half the population is a damn bitter pill to swallow, but it has already proven successful. Gamora’s home planet of Zen-Whoberi was “on the brink of collapse,” the people “going to bed hungry. Scrounging for scraps.” Thanos killed half the Zehoberei, and since then, “the children born have known nothing but full bodies and clear skies—it’s a paradise.”
To accomplish this, Thanos has so far waged brutal war. His armies bring unavoidable but unintentional terror and spill oceans of gore decimating populations. But Thanos doesn’t enjoy the murder and destruction of planet after planet after planet. He isn’t a madman, isn’t a bloodthirsty tyrant (again, as portrayed in Infinity War). “The hardest choices require the strongest will,” and Thanos has accepted the burden of saving the universe with no special consolations to the rich, the powerful, the holy. He doesn’t support oligarchies, aristocracies, meritocracies, neither capitalism nor socialism. Half the population, right down the middle. The toll it takes on Thanos is visible in his often-weary posture. Have you ever heard a supervillain sigh so much?
Thanos has discovered a way to save the universe without violence and pain and suffering. If he can harness the power of the six infinity stones, he can balance the universe with one peaceful, literal snap of his fingers.
We are meant to cheer for our Avengers as they take on Thanos, his ministers, and minions, but our heroes don’t spend a single second contemplating the benefits of the culling. Of course, they wouldn’t have allowed killing half the world, but they don’t have a conversation about the reality of the root problem? They had a “Civil War” over whether or not to answer to official oversight, but no one pauses to discuss that every system, every planet is destined to blow itself up or starve itself out just like Titan did. Thanos has a way to fix it, and it’s a damn bitter pill to swallow, but the Avengers do not have an alternate solution. Evidence throughout the film proves that when he’s done, “half of humanity will still exist. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.”
When Thanos ultimately accomplishes his balance, he does not build a palace and erect statues to tout his greatness. He does not rule with a dictator’s tyrannical hand. He does not plunder every planet. His only goal is to bring about a balance of people and resources, and when he finishes, he retires to a small cabin in the wilderness and destroys the stones.
So should Thanos be condemned as a supervillain? Or lauded as a hero?
Stay dark my friends.
As a James Bond superfan, and someone who finds villains far more interesting than heroes, I have always wanted MI6 to face a mastermind with an honorable goal but unconscionable methods. It’s so easy to write a bad guy who wants to destroy the world, hold the world hostage, or skew the world’s economy in their favor. Why can’t we have a supervillain who wants to affect great change at any cost? A cost that is perhaps too great.
Well, Marvel gave us that supervillain in the Mad Titan, Thanos. Thanos wants to kill off half the population of the entire universe! But his motivation? Saving the universe: “It’s simple calculus—the universe is finite; it’s resources finite. If life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correction.”
And this isn’t fake news. Thanos’ home planet of Titan is a devasted, blown-out wasteland. Not from wars waged or battles fought. Overpopulation and consumption of resources destroyed his home. “Titan was beautiful…like most planets, too many mouths, not enough to go around. When we faced extinction, I offered a solution.”
Yes, it’s a Final Solution—but as planned by Thanos, the genocide of half the universe will be “random, dispassionate, rich and poor alike.” As he emphasizes throughout the film, he seeks to bring balance back to the world, and this is not some crazy problem invented for the movie. S This is a direct comment about our own planet Earth suffering the detrimental effects of overpopulation, suffocating pollution, deforestation, poisoned water, and climate change.
In the fictional world of the MCU, Thanos’ plan of culling half the population is a damn bitter pill to swallow, but it has already proven successful. Gamora’s home planet of Zen-Whoberi was “on the brink of collapse,” the people “going to bed hungry. Scrounging for scraps.” Thanos killed half the Zehoberei, and since then, “the children born have known nothing but full bodies and clear skies—it’s a paradise.”
To accomplish this, Thanos has so far waged brutal war. His armies bring unavoidable but unintentional terror and spill oceans of gore decimating populations. But Thanos doesn’t enjoy the murder and destruction of planet after planet after planet. He isn’t a madman, isn’t a bloodthirsty tyrant (again, as portrayed in Infinity War). “The hardest choices require the strongest will,” and Thanos has accepted the burden of saving the universe with no special consolations to the rich, the powerful, the holy. He doesn’t support oligarchies, aristocracies, meritocracies, neither capitalism nor socialism. Half the population, right down the middle. The toll it takes on Thanos is visible in his often-weary posture. Have you ever heard a supervillain sigh so much?
Thanos has discovered a way to save the universe without violence and pain and suffering. If he can harness the power of the six infinity stones, he can balance the universe with one peaceful, literal snap of his fingers.
We are meant to cheer for our Avengers as they take on Thanos, his ministers, and minions, but our heroes don’t spend a single second contemplating the benefits of the culling. Of course, they wouldn’t have allowed killing half the world, but they don’t have a conversation about the reality of the root problem? They had a “Civil War” over whether or not to answer to official oversight, but no one pauses to discuss that every system, every planet is destined to blow itself up or starve itself out just like Titan did. Thanos has a way to fix it, and it’s a damn bitter pill to swallow, but the Avengers do not have an alternate solution. Evidence throughout the film proves that when he’s done, “half of humanity will still exist. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.”
When Thanos ultimately accomplishes his balance, he does not build a palace and erect statues to tout his greatness. He does not rule with a dictator’s tyrannical hand. He does not plunder every planet. His only goal is to bring about a balance of people and resources, and when he finishes, he retires to a small cabin in the wilderness and destroys the stones.
So should Thanos be condemned as a supervillain? Or lauded as a hero?
Stay dark my friends.
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