The MCU is the biggest movie franchise in history, and a huge part of that is the overarching plot that drove it for so long. Of course, we're referring to the hunt for the Infinity Stones and the man hunting them, Thanos. First appearing as a cameo at the end of The Avengers, he would be fully introduced in Avengers: Infinity War, a movie he was arguably the star of.
The MCU gets a lot of credit for being comics-accurate, and in some ways this correct. There are some things about Thanos in the MCU that are absolutely on the dot, but to say everything is pitch-perfect would be a woeful overstatement. This list is going to look at the things the movies got right, and perhaps more importantly, what they got wrong.
10 Got Right: The Look
The MCU does a really good job of capturing the correct looks of the characters, and it does a great job with Thanos. It captures the size and physicality of the Mad Titan wonderfully. He's an intimidating villain who dwarfs just about everyone standing against him.
The costume designers made sure to get his purple and gold color scheme correct as well. However, the costumes are a bit of a problem.
9 Got Wrong: The Costumes
While the color scheme is correct, the costumes look nothing like the comic one. When it does look the one in the comics, it has too much of an armored feel that doesn't really fit with Thanos's power level (more on that later).
The one he wears in Avengers: Infinity War is nothing like anything he's worn in the comics. It looks very cool and all, but other than its purple and gold color scheme, it's not comics-accurate at all.
8 Got Wrong: In The Comics, He's Afraid Of The Hulk
In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos handles the Hulk to show viewers just how powerful he is. Comics do this sort of thing all the time (in the '90s, Wolverine got jobbed out to debuting characters all the time) but if the scene was actually comics-accurate, Thanos would have went at Thor instead of Hulk.
Why? In the comics, Thanos is afraid of Hulk. Thanos knows that the Hulk's strength potential is basically infinite. Thanos knows better than to go at the Hulk because it can easily end badly for him.
7 Got Wrong: His Reasoning
In the comics, Thanos is a nihilist. He hates everything and that's one of the big reasons he fell in love with Mistress Death. It's a wonderful metaphor for his nihilism taken to a very unsubtle extreme because back in the day, most comic readers were younger than they are now.
In the movies, he wants to kill half the universe so he can save the other half. In the comics, that is not at all something that Thanos would care about. He would never do anything to save anyone.
6 Got Right: His Attitude
Thanos in the comics is completely and totally sure of himself and his goals. Thanos can rationalize every decision he's ever made, every atrocity he's ever committed. Thanos believes in himself and the righteousness of his cause.
The MCU gets this completely right about Thanos. Thanos knows he's about to do something completely and totally terrible and has no problem with it at all. In fact, he relishes the whole thing and believes not only that he's right to do so, but that he will be thanked for his actions.
5 Got Wrong: He Uses An Army
In recent years, Thanos gained some followers in the Black Order. And before that, he had Gamora. However, for the most part Thanos has always been a solo act. If he wanted to destroy a planet, he did it on his own with his own two hands. If he wanted to fight a bunch of superheroes, he did it on his own.
The MCU gave Thanos an army. Now, it makes sense from an action scene standpoint because it's hard to do a credible action scene where twenty or more superheroes are going after one person, but it also makes Thanos seem weaker than he is in the comics. Speaking of power levels...
4 Got Wrong: His Strength
Thanos in the comics is superlatively powerful. On his own, Thanos has been known to take out cosmic beings. Even Galactus fears Thanos. When it comes to Earth's heroes, Thanos is more powerful than just about any of them. He can readily handle Thor pretty easily.
In "Thanos Wins," Thanos ends up killing every hero on Earth, and he does it without the Infinity Gauntlet. In Avengers: Infinity War, he almost loses to Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Also, in the comics he can fire powerful blasts, which never happens in the movies.
3 Got Wrong: He Uses Weapons
Thanos in the comics doesn't use weapons. He'll seek out things like the Cosmic Cube and the Infinity Gauntlet, but calling them weapons isn't accurate, as they're more akin to objects of power.
In Avengers: Endgame, past Thanos uses a double-bladed sword to fight the Avengers. He even orders an airstrike against them. Comics Thanos would not do either of these things. He wouldn't need to at all.
2 Got Right: The Voice
This is going to seem weird, because how do you capture a voice in comics? It's a medium without sound, so every reader probably thinks he sounds different. However, the lettering and bubbles that represent Thanos's speech give readers the impression of his voice.
The movies captured this impression perfectly, giving him a deep gravelly voice that readers will probably hear from now on when they read Thanos in the comics.
1 Got Wrong: His Origin
In the comics, Thanos is a Titanian Eternal. His mother tries to kill him because of how he looks, but his father saves him. He eventually gets really into nihilism because of the way he's treated by his peers and even kills his mother. He eventually becomes a pirate and ends up attacking Titan, killing a lot of his own people.
This is completely different from the movies. The movies paint him as Titanian who was trying to save his planet, not someone who was ridiculed and hated by his own people and was the cause of many of their deaths.