In comics and film, Thanos has frequently proven his awesome power, placing himself near the top of Marvel's deadliest villains. Even before he was the Marvel Cinematic Universe's greatest threat, the Mad Titan's power was well-known in the comics.Although frequently boasting some incredible feats, Thanos has only achieved his devastating potential on one occasion in Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom's 2003 miniseries, Marvel: The End.
On his own, Thanos is an immensely powerful being. As a Titanian, his abilities are like most of the Eternals', only amplified to a higher extent. These abilities include enhanced strength, speed, stamina, invulnerability and energy manipulation. Moreover, Thanos is the most powerful Titanian, due to bionic amplification and mystical enhancement of the Mad Titan.
Mistress Death, upon resurrecting Thanos in the '90s, enhanced his natural abilities, making the Mad Titan without a doubt the most powerful of the Eternals. Thanos' power also makes him quite durable, able to survive indefinitely without food, air or water. The Mad Titan is immune to disease and resistant to psychic assaults since he is also capable of telekinesis and telepathy.
Of course, as a trained strategist and combatant, Thanos often uses his sharp mind to his advantage. The Mad Titan has stood toe-to-toe against Odin and even knocked Galactus off of his feet. Thanos has defeated some of Marvel's most powerful heroes, including Thor, the Hulk and the Silver Surfer. Not even a Mjolnir-wielding Silver Surfer could handle Thanos' considerable power.
Most readers will be familiar with the Infinity Gauntlet by Jim Starlin, George Perez and Ron Lim, during which Thanos held the power of all six infinity gems. This power boost made the Mad Titan practically omnipotent, bending the universe to his will. Indeed, at the very start of the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos simply snapped his fingers and wiped out half of all life.
Following his rejection by Death, Thanos even used the gauntlet to create his own mate. This creation, named Terraxia, was essentially a female Thanos. When Marvel's heroes came to confront Thanos, the Mad Titan used the time stone to freeze everyone around him. Thanos only un-froze the heroes to toy with them, realizing that he could eliminate this group of do-gooders with but a thought.
Humoring his opponents, Thanos methodically killed each hero in a brutal and sadistic manner. The Mad Titan turned Thor to stone, morphed Wolverine's bones into jelly and combusted Quasar's hands, among many other atrocities. Thanos even used the gauntlet to take down some of the most powerful cosmic beings simultaneously, turning giants such as Eternity and Galactus to stone.
Still, Thanos' power did not reach its true peak until Marvel: The End, by Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom. In this story, Thanos fused himself with an alien energy source known as the heart of the universe. This energy source granted Thanos control over everything, even more than the Infinity Gauntlet.
The Mad Titan first used this power to travel back in time and kill the Celestial Order, alien beings who first discovered the Heart of the Universe. Once more, the Living Tribunal gathered beings such as Eternity, Infinity, the Celestials and several other cosmic entities in order to stop Thanos' reign of power. Ultimately, this effort was in vain, as Thanos was now one with the universe, making him impossible to stop. Thanos easily destroyed a Celestial, demonstrating the new height of his power.
When Thanos learned that there is a flaw in the multiverse which will end existence, the Mad Titan absorbed the entire multiverse into himself, with the intention of reconstructing all life afterward. Eventually, Adam Warlock arrived from outside of the universe, convincing Thanos to restore the multiverse. Realizing the error of his previous actions, Thanos sacrificed himself to restore existence with his power.
Thanos has used his considerable power for nefarious purposes over the years. Yet, at his most powerful, the Mad Titan became the savior of the multiverse.