Creator Jim Starlin Has Mixed Feelings Over Thanos’ Avengers: Endgame Popularity

Thanos creator Jim Starlin admits the character's popularity after Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame has caused some "little difficulties."

"Blessed, damned, it's a mixture. It depends on my time of my day," Starlin said at Niagra Falls Comic Con when asked about seeing the Mad Titan realized on the big screen.

"You know, we were quite comfortable being little cult characters, him and I, and so it's taken a little adjusting to becoming pop icon and his daddy. So it's surreal. It's opened up tremendous opportunities to me, at the same time, it's caused a few little difficulties, which I won't go into. But more often than not, it's been positive."

Inker Joe Rubinstein, who teamed with Starlin on The Infinity Gauntlet, said the two-part Infinity War and Endgame left him "delighted."

"They did a Wolverine movie from the [Chris Claremont and Frank] Miller mini-series I inked, and it was barely the same plot. It was the name of the characters, but it wasn't my story at all, which was very disappointing to me," Rubinstein added of 2013's The Wolverine, which centered around the metal-clawed mutant (Hugh Jackman) on a trek to Japan.

"When I saw the first movie of Endgame, and Thanos was beating up the Avengers, I was delighted. It was the closest I'd ever seen to the comic book I did come to life, and I was just sort of mesmerized watching it."

In Endgame, when making his final stand against Earth's mightiest heroes, Thanos wields a double-bladed weapon capable of shattering even Captain America's (Chris Evans) near-indestructible shield.

For Starlin, that "brought back the memory of the Thanos helicopter," he said with a laugh. "I'm never gonna forgive them for that [laughs]."

Though Starlin originally envisioned Arnold Schwarzenegger or Idris Elba portraying Thanos in a voiceover-only role, Starlin said in 2018 he "can't imagine anybody else playing that character" besides star Josh Brolin.

"No expectations, really, because I realized it was going to be a whole different thing than the comic book, because [there are] less characters [and] 18 movies' worth of continuity," Starlin said at ACE Comic Con. "So when I went over to the set and then saw the show, I went there with a blank slate to soak it all up."

Avengers: Endgame is available to own on Digital HD July 30 and on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray August 13.