The Mad Titan’s origin story will be told, but not during Avengers: Infinity War.
Leading up to release, directors Joe and Anthony Russo confirmed plans to trim Thanos’ backstory on the belief that it interfered with the sequel’s pacing. And that’s despite the fact that they consider Josh Brolin’s über-villain to be the main character of Infinity War – the film largely revolves around his quest to acquire all six Infinity Stones, after all.
But before he became known as Marvel’s Mad Titan, Thanos was born on a doomed world (Titan), where he was cast out by his people “for his genius, physical deviancy, and pragmatic but monstrous ideas.”
That’s a line pulled from the synopsis of Thanos: Titan Consumed, the MCU’s first canon novel that’s due for release in November. Penned by Barry Lyga, the tie-in book is described as so:
Space. Reality. Mind. Power. Time. Soul.
Before creation itself, there were six singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots…Infinity Stones.
Only beings of immense power can hope to wield these stones, but for those who are worthy, the powers of a god await. Thanos is one such being. But he wasn’t always.
The synopsis continues:
Born on a doomed world and cast out by his people for his genius, physical deviancy, and pragmatic but monstrous ideas, Thanos is determined to save the galaxy from the same fate as his homeworld… no matter how many billions have to die.
Learn the origins of the most formidable foe the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther have ever faced—a foe whom even a group of remarkable people, pulled together to fight the battles nobody else could, will fail to stop….
Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives.
Thanos is here.
Coming to us by way of io9, this extract was accompanied by an in-depth interview with Lyga, who went on to discuss the ways in which he traced Thanos’ journey back to the very beginning – long before he cropped up in The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy.
That was one of my main goals in the novel and, in fact, was the main reason I agreed to write it! I really hope that certain bits in the book will make people go, “Oh, so now that cool scene from that one movie is even cooler!” I really wanted to reverse-engineer those moments we’ve all seen already—in Guardians, in Avengers—and show how we got to them.
Thanos: Titan Consumed will be released on November 20 in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook. That’ll undoubtedly help bridge the gap between Avengers: Infinity War (April 27th) and its untitled sequel, Avengers 4, which isn’t expected to hit theaters until May of 2019. You can check out the stunning artwork that adorns Barry Lyga’s canonical tie-in down below.
