Darkseid VS Thanos – Who is the Greater Villain and Would Win in a Fight?

In the universes of DC and Marvel, few beings are as feared as Darkseid, the Lord of Apokolips, and Thanos, the Mad Titan. Both villains serve as the big bads of their respective universes, with the power and ruthlessness to back it up. Darkseid first appeared in 1971 and has routinely sought to dominate all of existence. In response to Darkseid’s popularity, Marvel introduced in 1973 its own intergalactic villain, Thanos, hellbent on universal conquest. Darkseid and Thanos are both powerful individuals with some of the most extraordinary feats of villainy in their respective universes. So, if the two were to battle for supremacy, which one would stand victorious as the ultimate supervillain?

Darkseid and Thanos’ origins and power sets are very different. Darkseid is a New God, a species of all-powerful deities. Darkseid is the God of Evil and draws his strength from the Omega Effect, an endless power source of pure entropy and destruction. Thanos, in contrast, hails from Titan and is a member of a superpowered subspecies of humans known as Eternals, but was born resembling their grotesque counterparts, the Deviants. Thanos fell in love with Lady Death and has sought to kill as many people as possible to win her affection. To accomplish this task, Thanos has wielded some of the most powerful artifacts in the Marvel Universe, most notably the Infinity Gauntlet, which grants the user practical omnipotence.

Thanos’s Infinity Gauntlet Would Give Him the Initial Advantage Against Darkseid

Darkseid and Thanos are compelling villains who possess a near-infinite number of destructive capabilities and have effortlessly bested some of the strongest figures of their universes. Both can defeat gods and entire armies of superheroes, destroy planets, and reshape reality itself. However, while their initial clash would be of cosmic proportions, if Thanos wields the Infinity Gauntlet, then he would have the advantage over base-form Darkseid.

Darkseid is a nightmarish entity and is undoubtedly one of the strongest figures in DC Comics. Darkseid routinely defeats Superman, has killed Zeus, has fought the equally powerful New God Highfather for seven days straight, and much more. Darkseid’s durability is so immense that he shook off a hit by Green Lantern Alan Scott, who, at the time, was fueled by the infinite multiverse. Darkseid’s signature ability is his Omega Beams, which are deadly forms of heat-vision that can change direction and track down their targets before annihilating them. Darkseid also hosts a range of other abilities, including mind control, telekinesis, cosmic awareness, dimensional teleportation, size alteration, death loop traps, and more. However, even with these powers, base-form Darkseid is vulnerable to Thanos’ might.

While Thanos is powerful in his own right, the Infinity Gauntlet allows him to control the fundamental aspects of the universe. The Infinity Gauntlet channels the six Infinity Stones, which give Thanos dominion over souls, minds, power, space, time, and reality. With the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos has defeated numerous gods and abstract entities, including Galactus, the Stranger, and the omnipotent Eternity. Thanos also infamously used the Infinity Gauntlet to kill half of all life in the universe with the mere snap of his fingers, a power even base-form Darkseid wouldn’t be immune to. Unfortunately, even if Thanos manages to kill base-form Darkseid, he will still have to deal with the true Lord of Apokolips.

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True Darkseid is Far Beyond Thanos’ Power

Darkseid may seem like a mere galactic tyrant; the truth is, it’s only an avatar. The base form of Darkseid, the one who routinely battles the heroes of DC, is a mere puppet and a fraction of the true Darkseid’s might. As a New God, Darkseid is the essence of evil itself. He rests in the higher dimension of the Fourth World and molds weaker avatars to interact with the multiverse. Thanos would undoubtedly be able to reduce one of these avatars to dust, but he isn’t strong enough to fight the New God’s proper form. True Darkseid makes these weaker avatars because if he were to interact with the multiverse directly, he would destroy it as a mere side effect. Nothing Thanos has can match that level of power.

Although the Infinity Gauntlet gives Thanos the power to shape the universe, its power is limited to one universe. Once the Gauntlet enters another universe, the Infinity Stones don’t work, and Thanos is forced to rely on his raw strength, which at best can destroy stars. Even the gods that Thanos has beaten, while powerful, are still only multiversal beings. True Darkseid is an entity who exists above the infinite multiverse and isn’t bound by the rules of time or space, meaning that Thanos couldn’t even hurt him. True Darkseid could easily transport Thanos to the Fourth World or to another universe, where he is left without the aid of the Infinity Gauntlet. In contrast, true Darkseid has no limits as to where he can use the Omega Effect.

Darkseid has accomplished some of the most incredible feats in comics that put him far beyond anything Thanos has ever done. During Infinite Frontier, true Darkseid killed the entire Quintessence with a single shot. The Quintessence is a group of the most powerful entities in the DC Multiverse. Yet, still, Thanos struggled against Eternity and the combined forces of several gods, even when he had the Gauntlet. Darkseid’s scariest feat was when he was dying during Final Crisis. Deciding that he couldn’t rule everything, he would destroy everything; so, he allowed himself to fall from Fourth World downwards onto the infinite DC Multiverse. True Darkseid’s mere shadow over the multiverse plunged it into chaos. If he had impacted the multiverse, all of time and space would have ended at once.

Winner: Darkseid

Thanos is unquestionably one of the strongest and deadliest villains Marvel has to offer and would be able to match and even surpass an avatar of Darkseid. Despite this, the moment Darkseid reveals his true form and power, not even the Infinity Gauntlet would be able to protect the Mad Titan. Thanos is a universal and occasional multiversal threat. However, he is still very much constricted by the laws of his dimension. Darkseid, in contrast, is a god who exists on a plane of existence incomprehensible to mere mortals and always possesses an infinite wealth of destructive potential. Due to the limits of Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet, Darkseid would view the Mad Titan as a mere nuisance. Thanos may be inevitable, but Darkseid Is.

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