Thanks to the success of Marvel and Disney’s Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, it’s fair to say that the world’s list of iconic pop culture villains has been changed forever. Now, the MCU’s Thanos stands with the likes of Darth Vader and the Joker as one of the most instantly recognizable bad guys. Factors like an eye-catching design and determination to see his ideology through to its conclusion have helped to create a compelling character that will no doubt dominate discussions for years. Unlike the aforementioned villains, though, the Mad Titan is yet to have the same level of success in the world of video games.
Over the years, Thanos has appeared in several Marvel titles since his virtual debut in the 1995 arcade version of Marvel Super Heroes. Between appearances in fighting games, LEGO tie-ins, and the two recent console Guardians of the Galaxy games, there’s a growing list of Mad Titan content out there for fans to consume. However, what’s striking about each of his virtual appearances is the fact that Thanos has never quite dominated those arenas like his Hollywood conquering counterpart. However, thanks to the design of those games and Thanos himself, there’s some compelling reasons for that.
Thanos’ Full Potential
Since his comic book debut back in 1973, Thanos has been a formidable and constant threat to every corner of the Marvel universe. Thanks to his Eternal-Deviant physiology he naturally has superhuman strength, dexterity, stamina, and speed, alongside a near invulnerable body and genius-level intellect. That’s an impressive and nearly insurmountable list of abilities for any other character to overcome, even before the Infinity Gauntlet and Stones are thrown into the mix. Whenever Thanos has been able to gather all six of the gems, his power levels have only skyrocketed even higher toward godhood.
Adapting that level of power for a video game while ensuring that the experience is still fun for the player being beaten up on the other end is a difficult proposition. It’s for this reason that Thanos’ virtual appearances have often been constrained to some extent. Even in the various Marvel fighting games where the villain has appeared with the Infinity Stones in hand, the realities of the genre have helped to ensure that fights have still been relatively fair. Fans only have to look at how Thanos was able to wipe out half of existence in the MCU to see just how one-sided a video game adaptation would be if he was able to dominate to his fullest potential.
It’s perhaps telling that the one time in gaming when Thanos was able to come close to attaining those levels of domination was in a multiplayer title where the stakes were reset after each match. During the promotional campaigns for Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, Thanos became the star attraction of Epic Games’ Fortnite. Within the battle royale’s Infinity Gauntlet LTM, a player had the ability to transform into Thanos in an attempt to collect the Infinity Stones. The player-controlled titan was so powerful, though, that it often took the combined efforts of the opposing team’s 50 players to stop him.
Marvel’s Super Heroes
When it comes to singleplayer appearances that depict Thanos is an antagonistic force, there aren’t really any examples of the villain dominating to the same extent that he did in Fortnite. One of the biggest factors that’s helped to contribute to this is the relatively short list of characters who could physically go toe to toe with him. After all, in most depictions of the Marvel universe, it often takes an armada of super-powered individuals to even make the Mad Titan break out into a sweat. Therefore, it's much more feasible design-wise for a group of players in a multiplayer shooter or MMO to fight Thanos at his most powerful.
Players only have to look at two of Thanos’ most recent singleplayer gaming appearances to see this idea in action. In both Telltale and Eidos-Montreal’s Guardians of the Galaxy video games, Thanos’ appearances were dialed back in an attempt to make them more believable. Within Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy in particular, Thanos only technically shows up on-screen as a construct of Drax’s memories. He’s nowhere near as powerful as he could have been due to the fact that he’s essentially a ghost. It’s perhaps telling that within that version of the Marvel universe, Thanos was killed off-screen thanks to the protracted efforts of a giant space armada. Crucially, outside the control of the player.
Marvel’s Video Games
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In the grand scheme of things, thanks to the scale of his power levels, Thanos isn’t the type of villain that a fledgling superhero could realistically face off against. With so many recent Marvel-themed video games being the first entry in a franchise, it just doesn’t make sense most of the time for a story to focus on the villain right away. Thanos is often depicted as a cosmic threat and danger to the whole universe, which is also an issue for studios trying to tell an Earth-based narrative that revolves around the likes of the Avengers or Spider-Man.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is perhaps the best depiction of this issue in action. Even for a version of Thanos that was able to ultimately attain god-like status, it still took years of planning and several movies before he was even teased on screen for the first time. Building a powerful in-game Thanos, and a group of heroes that can fight back against him, would take a length of time that gaming franchises rarely have the luxury of working with. Between Marvel’s The Avengers‘ content struggles and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy failing to reach the sales figures it deserves, it could be awhile before Thanos reaches his full potential in a video game.
Thanos’ MCU Success
It should be noted that Josh Brolin’s iconic depiction of Thanos in the MCU, could be a slight obstacle to the character reaching his maximum level of domination in a video game anytime soon as well. Even though the character has been around for nearly 50 years and has featured in some famous comic book storylines, the live-action version of Thanos is so iconic that it’s hard to envision another depiction reaching the same levels of success for some time.
For a studio looking to put its stamp on the Marvel universe in general, creating a new version of a beloved character that’s the star villain in a game could be an off-putting proposition. The recent public outcry that Crystal Dynamics ran into when it brought its version of the Avengers to life, and the natural comparisons that were made between them and their MCU counterparts as a result, is just one example of this in action. With Thanos’ recent domination of the MCU having helped shape the future of cinema, the character might have to wait before he can do the same in gaming.