Thanos Creator Endorses MCU’s Changes For Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame

In creating Thanos, Jim Starlin unleashed one of Marvel’s most notorious and powerful villains of all-time. His impact and storylines would go on to become some of the most memorable in the publisher’s history, only bolstered by the box office juggernaut now known as the Infinity Saga. Of course, in adapting the Mad Titan to the big screen, Marvel Studios made a few changes to the character and his motivations, which have certainly earned Starlin’s blessing through Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

“I wanted to personify that Freudian concept of Thanos and Eros, which was the darker and light side of humanity,” Starlin told ComicBook.com of his goals in creating Thanos. “It was something I got in a psych class during college after I got out of the service and it was just that was the main force. I wanted a character who was uncontrollable appetite that couldn’t be satisfied.”

The cinematic version of Thanos is driven by a desire to wipe out half of the living beings in the universe as a means to make life better for the fifty percent which would remain. In the comics, Thanos was driven by an obsession with what was basically his imaginary girlfriend, Death, and the desire to earn her love. Such a concept might not have been widely accepted in a cinematic format which could be what prompted the change.

“Only a fool comes in thinking that you’re going to get a carbon copy of what they put on the page,” Starlin said. “I mean, billions of dollars in the budget, they get change a few things. It should be that way. Basically I think [Christopher] Markus and [Stephen] McFeely wrote an excellent story for this character.”

Still, Starlin was able to spot moments in the movies which were adapted straight from his books. “As far as the story, when I went to the first movie, Infinity War, going, ‘Their scene, my scene. Their scene, my scene,’” Starlin explained. “There was a lot more of my stuff in there than I would have thought would have made it and I am very pleased by that.”

The Marvel writer who was made the Infinity Gauntlet back in the early 90s still thinks some of the original elements of Thanos’ story could come to the big screen. “There’s an embargo on the abstract entities right now,” Starlin explains. “I think that’ll change with a couple more Doctor Strange movies.” The quest for Lady Death on the big screen is not lost, yet!

Avengers: Endgame is now playing in theaters.