Viewer Log: The Punisher ep 7

Be very very quiet, he's hunting Colonels. Hahahaha.

It’s been a while since we last talk about Punisher, hasn’t it? Last time, Frank Castle reached out to his old pal Billy Russo, whom offered to get him out of the country. Frank blew off the rendezvous, which is good because Russo and Agent Orange were plotting together to kill him. So good call, Frank. Meanwhile, Lewis, the PTSD solider kid, was arrested, got out on bail and ended up murdering his buddy O’Connor. The old vet lied about his military service, claiming to be a Vietnam vet, when he didn’t join the Army until after that particular conflict was nearly over.

We open to Lewis cleaning himself off of blood. He rips down O’Connor’s shower curtain, to cover the body. Afterwards, he returns home. Shirtless with his gun in his pants. Nothing suspicious about that. His father is in the den, he’s rightly concerned about his son’s current mental state. He offers to give him some pills to help him sleep, believing his son is only suffering from some severe case of insomnia.

Think these guys miss being able to go out and not plot to
killing people?

Back with the dysfunctional duo, Frank and David are planning to hit a military base. They’re after Colonel Bennett, a liason between the Army and Cerberus. They’re planning on breaking into the base and grabbing Bennett, in the hopes he can lead them to Agent Orange. Or at least give them a name. They go over the details of the plan, David is pretty sure of their time table, as Bennett has dinner a private dinner with someone every Saturday night. He also wants to clarify that killing Bennett will be a deterrent to their goals, which kind of irks Frank. But he agrees anyway.

Back with Homeland, Madani gets a visit from Russo. Russo lies about reaching out to some old contacts about Frank, and them all coming back negative. Madani thanks him for his help, and he leaves. Stein comes in and is pretty pissed off to find out that Madani brought Russo in on their clandestine investigation without consulting him. Madani claims to trust him, based on instinct. And I’m sure the fact they were ‘romantically’ involved recently hasn’t colored her judgement even slightly. Ow, been a while since Sarcasm hurt like that. A short time later, Madani has a bit of an epiphany, and goes to talk with Stein again. Realizing the sheer impossible level of coincidence that Gunner Henderson, an off the grid living former special forces operative, was killed within hours of them going to speak with him, she concludes that her office must be bugged. Stein is slightly skeptical, but sees her line of reasoning.

Russo and Agent Orange, aka William Rawlins meet up at a CIA safe house. Well, they call it a safe house, it’s more like a safe mansion. They discuss the necessity of taking down Castle. “It’s for the greater good” blah blah “For the country” blah blah “if I go down so do you” blah. Russo has an interesting thought about Rawlins desire to kill Castle. He noticed back when they worked together in Cerberus that Rawlins really ‘enjoyed’ the moment when a captive realized their goose was cooked. And, that he saw that same “I am going to die” look on Rawlins when Castle flipped out, nearly beat him to death and permanently damaged one of his eyes.  He thinks Rawlins wants Castle dead as a means of erasing that moment from his mind. Rawlins just tells him to get to work. They know that he’s going to go after Col. Bennett, and that Bennett’s personality makes the ‘wait and see’ approach their best option.

In Bennett’s office, he seems to be having a nice dinner with a younger woman. Then said woman ends up pouring the wine on the floor and Bennett goes to lick it up. Yeah, turns out these Saturday night dinners are actually his weekly appointment with a dominatrix. It’s about as uncomfortable as it sounds. While that is going on, Frank and a drone piloted by David, break into the facility. Using David’s drone, Frank has a pretty uneventful trip to Bennett’s office. He arrives just before they do something involving clamps. It’s about as uncomfortable as it sounds. Frank grabs Bennett as the dominatrix runs off and starts wailing on him and demanding answers. This is in fact not the real plan, but a distraction to allow David to hack Bennett’s phone. Russo and company start storming in, having been warned by the Dominatrix screaming “he’s here.”

David warns Frank, and Frank drops some smoke grenades. He tells Bennett to stay still, stay quiet, and he might live through this. Woo. Frank easily dispatches the strike team, non-fatally I might add, and David finishes the hack. Frank makes a break for it, literally, by defenestrating himself. He makes it back to David, but is forced to injure a young soldier to make his escape. Back in Bennett’s office, Russo collects his guys and gives Bennett a script to say when people start asking questions.

Back with Lewis, he and his father watch a classic boxing match together. Muhammad Ali vs. George Foremen, I believe. Lewis’ Dad tries to use the fight as a metaphor for his son’s life, as Ali turned a supposedly impossible fight on its head and believes that Lewis can do the same. Lewis isn’t so sure but does accept his Dad’s words. Afterwards, Lewis goes to the hardware store and picks up a few things. And uses those things to whip up a bomb, to dispose of O’Connor and cover up the murder. Not good.

Frank is pretty upset about not killing Bennett, as he really really hates the corrupt officers that seem to fill the upper echelon of the US Military. David reiterates that this was the smart pay, as now they can track Bennett to his bosses. And, low and behold, Bennett starts moving.

Damn, how many times is Frank going to make this guy's
life flash before his... eye?

Bennett, once brought before Russo and Rawlins, starts screaming about how he almost died. He yells at them, Russo makes cracks about Bennett’s kink, and Rawlins looks like wants to shoot them both. They decide that Bennett should go to ground, they’ll give him a new id and enough money to live well. Russo takes him to a cheap motel, to hide out for a few days he says. Bennett seems to believe it, right up until he sees the dead Dominatrix in the bed. Russo kills him and sets it up to as a murder suicide. Creepy bastard.

Madani and Stein meanwhile search for the bug in her office after hours. They find it on the bookcases. The two have a victory drink, and Madani tells Stein that he really doesn’t have the personality to be in Homeland. Stein counters by saying she’s a lot like Castle.

Frank gets set up at the CIA safe house. He sets sup his sniper rifle and prepares to take the shot. When Rawlins gets in sight, Frank recites the rhyme his daughter used to love and fires. Unfortunately, the CIA Safehouse uses bulletproof glass. Crap.

Damn, Frank came so close and is still so far from his goal. Seriously, only an extra thick bit of glass kept him from finally getting vengeance. Sucks for him. Especially since he and David had recently bonded about the thought of David finally being able to go back to his family. It’s also interesting to see Russo take a complete 180 in terms of personality. The kind confident business man turns into an emotionless killer pretty damn quickly. It’ll be interesting to see what Castle does to him when he finds out that his buddy is as dirty as they come. The wrath of Castle has a habit of spreading blood and guts everywhere. Looking forward to it. 

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Review: The Avengers: Infinity War

Death has come hunting.

Well, it all comes down to this. Ten years, Nineteen movies, dozens of characters, all building to this showdown. The Mad Titan Thanos has grown tired of waiting and is now actively searching for the six Infinity Stones. He plans on bringing the stones together and use them to wipe out half of all life in the Universe. May the Asgard help those who stand in his way.

A big cast for a colossal problem.

We open to the Asgard Ark being bombarded. Well, crap. The refugee gods were set upon by Thanos and his Black Order. Here’s a quick roll call, something the movie doesn’t bother with. First, we have Ebony Maw, he is an insanely powerful telekinetic and serves as the ‘preacher’ of Thanos.  He mostly stands around shouting about how glorious it is to die at the hands of the Mad Titan. Next, we have Cull Obsidian, the giant bruiser. He’s the resident powerhouse of the group, he is mostly brought along to break things. FYI, in just about everything else he’s referred to as Black Dwarf. And finally, we have Proxima Midnight, and her husband Corvus Glaive. They’re a pair of peerless warriors that serve as more discrete assassins then their cohorts. And leading them is Thanos, the Mad Titan and bringer of doom. He’d already gained the purple Power Stone from Xandar offscreen. Thanos and his minions lay waste to the Asgardians. Even the best efforts of Thor, Loki and the Hulk are useless against Thanos. Using the last of his strength, Heimdall is able to open a Bifrost Bridge, flinging Hulk towards Earth. Thanos stabs him through the chest for that. Thanos tortures Thor, to try and force Loki to hand over the Tesseract, which he stole from the Asgard Vault before their home’s destruction. And, to everyone’s shock, he hands it over to get Thanos to spare his brother’s life. Thanos shatters the cube, retrieving the stone within and places it on his glove. Loki then tries to offer his services to Thanos, as a guide while on Earth. This turns out to be a ruse to get in close and stab the Mad Titan right in his enormous chin. Unfortunately, he sees it coming and strangles Loki to death. He and his crew depart, bombarding the Asgard ship to debris with Thor still inside.

Even Loki would have trouble talking his way out of this.

Hulk hurtles across space and time, crash landing in Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Santorum in New York City. Hulk reverts back to Banner and tells the Sorcerer Supreme and Wong about what is coming. In order to stop this, Strange picks up Tony Stark, whom was in the middle of unsuccessfully convincing fiancée Pepper Potts that they should have a baby. They get Tony just in time, as Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian have arrived in New York to steal the Time Stone from Dr. Strange. Unfortunately, Banner is unable to Hulk-out, so the heroes are at a disadvantage. Spider-Man, who saw the colossal ship the two Black Order were using, swings in to assist. The team is able to disarm, dis-hand, and strand Obsidian somewhere in the arctic, but Maw is able to overpower Strange and takes him to the ship. Peter hitches a ride on the ship but is nearly killed when the ship leaves the upper atmosphere. Tony summons up the Iron Spider Armor to help Peter, and by help, I mean tries to use it to force him back to Earth. It doesn’t work, so He and Iron Man are stuck on the cruiser. Street side, Banner takes the burner cellphone that Tony had dropped as the fight began to call Cap.

Meanwhile, in Glasgow, Scotland, Wanda Maximoff and Vision are finishing up a ‘secret’ rendezvous. The two have been carrying on a private relationship, despite Wanda’s status as a fugitive, since that Civil War fiasco. Just as the two are about to part ways, they’re attacked by Proxima and Glaive. The Black Order carry weapons that seem to counter-act Vision’s phasing powers, and nearly rip the Mind Stone from his head. But, back up arrives in the form of Captain Rogers, Black Widow, and Falcon. The three relatively normal humans force the two aliens back, for now. They grab Vision and take him back to the new Avengers Facility. James Rhodes is there, and ordered to arrest the fugitives, but he decides to ignore that order. Vision, knowing what will happen if Thanos gets the Mind Stone, asks Wanda to use her Chaos powers to destroy it. She refuses, as doing so will kill Vision. With few options, the heroes decide to take Vison to the one place on Earth that might be able to do something about the Mind Stone that could leave Vision intact, Wakanda.

Meanwhile, The Guardians of the Galaxy arrive at the wreckage of the Asgard ship. They’d received the distress call earlier. They hit Thor, literally, and bring him onboard. The last of the Aesir, after recovering, proposes a plan to the alien team. Feeling underequipped without Mjolnir, Thor wants to travel to Nidavellir, to see the Dwarf king and master weaponsmith Eitri. Why? So he can build a weapon capable of killing Thanos. But, at the same time, he feels someone should go to the space station Knowhere to check on the Collector, whom currently holds the Reality Stone. Thor had the Warrior’s Three give it to him at the end of Thor 2. Thor, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot go to Nidavellir, and Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis go to Knowhere.

Such a colorful collection of characters.

Back with Team Iron Man, Tony and Peter try to think of a way to beat Ebony Maw. And, actually, Peter has a perfect plan. They ripoff the ending to Aliens. Peter and Tony distract Maw for a second, then blow a hole in the side of the ship to cast him into the void. Peter and Steven almost get pulled out too, but hey, no plan is perfect. Without Maw to drive the ship, though, they’re stuck heading for it’s destination, Titan.  

On Nidavellir, Team Thor learns that the station is dark, and that the dwarves are all dead save Eitri. The rather giant Dwarf reveals that he made Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet, in the foolish hope that Thanos would spare Nidavellir if he got what he wanted. Instead, the Mad Titan killed the dwarves and chopped off Eitri’s hands. Thor is able to convince Eitri to help them, and they set about forging Thor’s new weapon, the half-hammer half-axe Stormbreaker. They have a slight issue with the forging process, which leads to Thor having to manually holding open a valve and be blasted by a solar Prominence to forge it. Groot offers up some of his own wood to give Stormbreaker it’s hilt.

On Knowhere, Team Star-Lord find Thanos already there and torturing The Collector for the Stone’s location. Despite Quill’s best attempts at forming a spontaneous plan, Gamora rushes in and stabs her adoptive father in the neck. Well, that was easy. That’s a real short movie. Kind of anti-climactic really.

…

Okay, that’s not what happened. Turns out, Thanos already had the Reality Stone and used it’s powers to draw them into Knowhere, and then out into the open. The Thanos that Gamora killed was an illusion, and all of Knowhere is actually on fire. After a very short fight, Thanos grabs Gamora and flees. On Thanos’ ship, Thanos reveals that he captured Nebula, and through the Cyborg’s memories learned that Gamora knows where the Soul Stone is hidden. Gamora tries to feign ignorance but relents to spare her sister’s life. It's on a planet called Vormir. They travel to Vormir and are greeted by the Soul Stone’s Guardian. Turns out, it’s Red Skull. Oh, so that loose end is finally tied up. Apparently, he’s spent the last seventy or so years as a disembodied spirit, watching over the Stone and being tortured by the knowledge that it will never be his. Through him, they learn that the only way for someone to acquire the Soul Stone, is to sacrifice a soul in return. Gamora, for a moment, thinks that the heroes win, as who in creation could Thanos possibly love? Unfortunately, there is one. A little girl that he’d spared twenty years prior and molded into his perfect warrior. With tears in his eyes, Thanos casts Gamora onto the Alter. Killing her and winning the Stone. Meanwhile, Nebula is able to escape her bonds, and get’s a message out to Mantis to meet her on Titan.

On Titan, Team Iron Man and Team Star-Lord meet, fight, have a Mexican Standoff, and then realize that they’re all on the same side. While the others try to formulate a plan, Dr. Strange uses the Time Stone to see into the future. Of the millions of possibilities that lay before them, only one can assure them victory.

Team Rogers arrives in Wakanda, where they meet with Black Panther and Winter Soldier. The team consult with Princess Shuri, the Panther’s sister. Shuri believes that she could remove the Stone, but it’ll take some time. She’s got to very carefully cut and rewire trillions of synapsis if they want to make this work. And the Black Order is on their way. Realizing what is coming, Black Panther orders the city of Wakanda to be evacuated, and all of their forces gathered to the battlefield.

Wakanda Forever!

So, there you have it, on Titan, it’s Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, Star-Lord, Mantis, Drax the Destroyer and Nebula vs. Thanos. On Earth, it’s Captain Rogers, Black Panther, Black Widow, War Machine, Falcon, Winter Soldier, M’Baku, General Okoye, and the assembled forces of Wakanda vs. The Black Order and the armies of Thanos. Thor, Groot, and Rocket are able to Bifrost in using Stormbreaker part way through the battle. And Banner, who still can’t transform for some reason, is piloting the Hulk-Buster Armor. This is going to be a big brawl.

The good first. Everyone is phenomenal in their roles. I’d do a casting calling, but that’d take two pages at least. Just know that everyone from central characters like Iron-Man and Captain Rogers, all the way down to one-scene guys like Pepper and Wong are giving it their all. FYI, I have it on good authority that Peter Dinklage has always refused to take roles stereotypical for those whom have dwarfism. I assume that the fact that they used CGI to make Eitri bigger then just about everyone is the main reason he decided to let that rule slide. I liked what they did with Thanos. They toned down his more insane characteristics. There’s no mention of the Death Goddess he’s in love with, or hints at insanity. Instead, he’s portrayed as an extreme proponent of… I guess it’s best described as controlled genocide. In this version of events, his homeworld of Titan was ultimately destroyed due to overpopulation. He proposed, and was called mad for suggesting, that they randomly kill fifty percent of their population to reduce the burdens on their resources. No one listened, Titan was destroyed, and Thanos set about purging planets on his own. So yeah, he’s still insane, but there is a little justification to said insanity this time around.

Honestly, the only real negative that I could think of, as a Marvel fan mind you, was there was not enough screen time to go around. Each of these impromptu teams, Cap and co on Earth, Iron-Man and friends on Titan, and Thor’s team adventures on Nidavellir could have had a full-length feature all to themselves. Sure, Team Iron-Man and Team Quill’s would have meshed together pretty early, but it would have been doable. But then, as this movie is already split in two, maybe it’s for the best.

A+ all around. This movie is all that it needed to be. It was action packed, funny, and a treat for the eyes. Given how much work was put into the setup, the aforementioned ten years and nineteen movies, it’s a real wonder that this was able to meet, and in my case exceed, expectations. Thanos has come, and all of creation will tremble with his passing.

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Villain Profile: Thanos

He who would court Death herself.

After ten years of buildup, minor cameos, and implied as well as explicit acts of cruelty, we’re about to meet Thanos. Now, a villain of this caliber really does deserve this level of buildup. The Mad Titan is one of the single greatest threats that the Marvel Universe has to deal with. He’s immensely powerful, cruel beyond just about all reason, and obsessed with impressing his great love, Death. Let’s get to it, shall we?

Yep, those are crazy eyes.

A quick ancient History lesson. I’ll try to keep things as general as possible and go into more detail at a later time. Otherwise I’ll be writing six pages of ancient history before even getting to Thanos’ parents. In the Marvel Universe, the earth was created by the Celestials, a race of beings of near Godlike power. The Earth and the Human race weren’t their only projects, though. Actually, their main project was a group called the Eternals. They’re an alternative evolutionary cousin to us, kind of like Neanderthals, but with nearly immortal bodies and immense power. So, kind of nothing like Neanderthals. Things didn’t go as the Celestials planned and they ended ditching the experiments on the third rock from the Sun. After a few wars, between themselves, another human offshoot called the Deviants, and other alien parties interest in Earth, a group of Eternal’s settled on Jupiter’s moon of Titan. The leader of this colony, A’Lars aka Mentor, and his wife Sui-San had two sons. The elder, Eros, was born with no complications. No, the problem came with their second son. The baby suffered from an Eternal disease called Deviant Syndrome. It’s a condition that causes an Eternal to suffer from physical deformities, as well as unstable minds, and a potential for even greater power then your average Eternal. The baby had this, making him unusually large, and covered in purple hide-like skin. His mother, seeming to sense what she’d bore, grabbed a scalpel and tried to kill him. A’Lars stopped her, sending his wife to get psychiatric help and kind of ensured the death of his people at the hands of the boy she named Thanos. Whoops.

But, for the first few years, Thanos was down right pleasant. He was a kind, introverted boy with a gift for science. He dreamed of becoming a scientist like his father, whom, like many a comic book daddy, was kind of a neglectful parent. Joy. But, things about Thanos’ nature began to change. He had an aptitude for Art, but his preferred model were dead animals. This, from a kid that also would vomit at the thought of preforming a dissection. This dichotomy in his nature reached a tipping point a short time later. He and several friends were convinced to explore a dangerous cave. The idea was to try and get Thanos to get over his distaste for killing by taking him on an alien hunting trip. I guess. While in the cave, a cave-in separated Thanos from his friends. He was down there for three days, not even eating as he refused to kill the animals for food.  He eventually found his friends, but they’d been eaten by the local fauna. Thanos escaped shortly thereafter, but returned when the mysterious girl came again, whom convinced him to get revenge.

And, thus marked the end of Thanos’ innocence. Over the next few years, Thanos excelled academically, learning faster than any previous Titan. Which was good. He was also obsessed with discovering what made him different. Which is also good. But, to this end he started performing vivisections on local animals. For those who don’t recognize the term, vivisection is a dissection performed on a living organism. Which is pretty messed up. The Girl was his constant confidante, always following him, always encouraging him, always pushing him onward. She was the one to convince him to experimenting on fellow Titans. He was the first murderer of Titan’s history. He tried to stop at one… and then two… but on his third he realized that he actually liked it. He fell in love with the Girl, but she continued to spurn his advances.

Don't make him get out of that chair.

Thanos went on a killing spree, murdering seventeen of his fellows. He was finally confronted by his mother. She’d connected the aberrant Titanic behavior of killing to her aberrant Titanic son. The two fought, Thanos gaining the upper hand and restraining his mother on a dissection table. While he had her restrained, he says one of the saddest lines in a work of fiction I’ve ever read. “it sounds ludicrous, I know, but… Sometimes, I believe I can remember the day I was born. I remember you holding me for the first time and the look of… horror that came over your face. And then you picked up a scalpel and tired to murder me. I’m sorry, Mother. I’m sorry they wouldn’t let you.” He then picked up scalpel and started cutting. He believed he would find the key to what he was, both physically and spiritually, in her. He obviously didn’t, as one cannot find the answer to life, the universe and everything in the guts of one’s mother.

Considering the… mental strain matricide could put on even the most disturbed mind, it’s no surprised that Thanos tried once again to get better. He left Titan, swore off killing and his twisted research, and took a job working on a space-pirate crew. Yes, those are a thing. He spent years in a cold, emotionless haze. He’d occasionally have… dalliances with different women on different worlds. They never worked out though, as the ‘romances’ didn’t make him feel like he used to. He left a string of illegitimate kids to rival Genghis Khan. Things might have continued like this indefinitely, if his captain had left well enough alone. The captain, angered by his crewman’s disinterest in killing, attacked him. The two fought. This broke the dam within Thanos, and he ended up killing his captain and taking over the crew.

Thanos embraced his killer instinct and returned to Titan to seek her out. The Girl returned, and Thanos tried to win her again. She demanded Thanos prove he belonged only to her, if he wanted her heart. And how could he do that? To kill every being he sired and razed any planet they came across, to prove his dedication to Death. While that was going on, he continued to experiment on himself, making himself even more powerful and deadly. This still wasn’t enough for the Girl, whom stated he had to become a Supreme Destroyer, a God of Death, if he wanted her love. A short time later, Thanos learned he was insane. Turns out, none of his crew had ever seen the Girl, and were probably starting to get creeped out by their boss talking to himself. Yeah, turns out, the Girl is a physical manifestation of Death itself, hence why she wants him to keep killing things. Either that or he has several screws loose and is hallucinating all of this, it seems to depend on the story. She’s known as Mistress Death from then on.

Do not take him up on this hug offer.

Determined to prove himself to his love, real or imaginary though she may be, he used his now sizable fleet to ravage Titan. Once his armada finished blowing the buildings to rubble, he descended to the planet to personally wipe out his people. He was eventually confronted by his father. A’Lars tried to reason with his son but didn’t have much luck. He was able to get his son to start to question whether Mistress Death was real or his imagination. Apparently, while Eternals are immortal (in the sense that they don’t die from aging) they’re susceptible mental illness, as their brains are as human as our own. Psychosis and Dementia are rare, but not unheard of among their people. Either shaken by his father’s words or unwilling to add Fratricide to his extensive rap sheet, Thanos spared his father. He claimed it was so his father could see him make the universe burn and prove his sanity. After leaving his father in the ruins of their world, Death finally kissed Thanos. She was cold… kind of… like…a…corpse. Well, that’s disturbing.

Shortly thereafter, he traveled to Earth. Why? To steal the Cosmic Cube that the Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) had recently made. He got the cube and used it to turn himself into a dark god of destruction. He was only defeated by the Avengers, and that was only after he rather stupidly threw the cube away because he thought he’d absorbed all of it’s power. The Kree hero Captain Mar-Vell nabbed the cube, used it to reset everything, and steal Thanos’ power. Thanos reverted back to normal at the center of the universe. He was saved from floating through eternity by his flagship, which had been preprogramed to save him. Much to his horror, Death had abandoned him for his failure.

She left him for This Mama Jama.

No, Deadpool, she didn’t do that until years later.

Still, eventually, stole Thanos’ girl. Cause that’s the way I roll.

Deadpool, you’re an idiot. Moving on. Now obsessed with regaining his Love’s affection. In order to do this, he sought out something even greater than the Cosmic Cube, the Infinity Stones. The six stones, Space (Purple), Mind (Blue), Soul (Green), Reality (Yellow), Time (Orange), and Power (Red). To cover the sheer number of times that Thanos has tried to unite all of the gems, and use them all to wipe out all life in the universe, or half of it, depending on the mood he’s in.

Thanos is a Deviant Eternal. To put this in human terms, he is to the Eternals as Apocalypse is to humans. Same basic components, but massive gulf between him and his people. He’s also spent centuries tinkering with himself, using genetic treatments and cybernetics to make himself more powerful. He’s immortal, in the sense that he’s immune to disease and age. His body is nearly indestructible, and he’s strong enough to wrestle the Hulk. He can move and think at absurd speed. He has immense telepathic powers. He can heal from most any injury, manipulate energies, control matter, teleport and fly. Because why not. He’s considered public enemy number one by the intergalactic peace keeping force the Nova Corps, the Shi’ar Empire, The Kree Empire, and pretty much every spacefaring race that comes across him.  

Despite being one of the most massive threats that the Marvel Universe has ever seen, Thanos has been used somewhat sparingly. In fact, he only had one real appearance outside the comics before his appearance in The Avengers. I imagine this is due to his somewhat… graphic obsession with death and the sheer number of Marvel heroes needed to stop him.

Okay, him having two Stones is bad enough.
He's not going to stop until he gets the whole
set.

Thanos first appearance was at the end of The Avengers. He was portrayed by stuntman Damion Poitier and had no lines. His minion, a creature known a The Other, told his master of the failure of Loki’s invasion of Earth. He smiles confidently as the Other claims that to attack Earth would be to “Court Death.”

He has a longer appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. I. He’s portrayed here, and in all other live action appearances, by Josh Brolin. In it, he was using the Kree warrior Ronan the Accuser to get an Infinity Stone. The deal was, in exchange for the stone, Thanos would destroy the Kree’s enemies the Xandarian’s homeworld. To facilitate this deal, he loaned out his adoptive daughters Gamora and Nebula to Ronan’s service. Thankfully, Thanos’ doesn’t get the Stone.

Thanos had another small cameo at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron. In it, he’s seen taking the golden Infinity Gauntlet from it’s case and saying, “Fine, I’ll do it myself.”

He’s finally set to take center stage as the antagonist of Avengers: Infinity War Part I. He’s leading a full out assault on anyone and everyone holding an Infinity Stone. From the promos, he’s going to cleave a bloody swath across the Marvel Cinematic Universe to get what he wants. It’ll take just about every hero the Avengers can find just to slow him down.

Thanos was the overarching antagonist of the second season of Avengers Assemble. He was the backer of Red Skull during season one and spends season two gathering the Infinity Stones. He’s eventually defeated by the Avengers. Since, he’s been a recurring antagonist on Avengers Assemble and its sister series Guardians of the Galaxy.

Thanos is exactly what he was made to be, an agent of Death. I know him almost entirely from his portrayal in the Marvel movies, which seems rather consistent with his comic incarnation. He’s sadistic, powerful, destructive, and dangerously insane. He’s almost tragic, seeing a once kind child lose himself to darkness. The real sad part is that he’ll clearly never get what he wants. He’s had Death’s love, felt her kiss, and it was cold. No matter how many lives he takes, worlds or stars he destroys, she’ll always be cold. Really, his only saving grace is that he admits the universe would have been better off had his mother succeeded and killed him. When I see Infinity War Part I later this month, I hope he lives up to the hype that Marvel spent over six years building. Ten if we’re counting Iron Man.

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