Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Characters Case Files #456: Thane

Since I covered Jay Garrick’s long lost kid last time, I figure I should do the same again this week with a character I am surprised I haven’t written up before.  Quite frankly, I am wondering why I haven’t covered this one before.

I am referring, of course, to Thane.  He’s Thanos’s son.

Thane first appeared in New Avengers #10 by Jonathan Hickman and Mike Deodato Jr from November of 2013.  That was part of a crossover called Infinity that had most of a very large Avengers team heading off into space to deal with alien destroyers called the Builders while the Illuminati at the same time had to stop Thanos from invading the Earth.  Thanos came to Earth for a very specific reason:  he was killing his own children.

Yes, the Avatar of Death had fathered some children by various different races of women and was scouring the universe to remove them.  He’d arrived on Earth because he’d screwed around with an Inhuman woman at some point, and she’d given birth to a boy that was named Thane.  While most of the alien rulers allowed Thanos to destroy the offspring because the “or else” was too scary–this Thanos came with an army led by his Black Order fanatics–Black Bolt said no.  Very loudly.  But this is Black Bolt, and he’s something of a strategist, and while the Black Order were off manhandling the individual members of the Illuminati and any friends they had with them (one telepathic member took out the X-Men pretty much by herself by psychically overpowering Rachel Summers, and yes, you read that right), Black Bolt had arranged for the Terrigen Mists to spread across the globe, empowering all the Inhuman colonies hidden across the globe.

That included Thane, originally a normal looking guy and a gentle healer, but after his powers kicked in, he looked a lot like Thanos and his one hand radiated a killing field that caused the death of every living thing in his vicinity until Thanos’s least trustworthy lieutenant Ebony Maw showed up with a containment suit.  MCU fans might recognize Ebony Maw as the telekinetic member of Thanos’s family.  However, in the comics, his skills are more that he can talk anyone into doing what he wants, and he starts to talk to Thane because, well…he wants something and Thanos was never quite sure he could trust Ebony Maw.

As it turned out, Thane’s other hand had a different power, one that could freeze people in some sort of amber.  And when Thanos came to kill him, the returning Avengers decided to try and bring the Mad Titan down at that exact moment.  Thanos had two members of the Black Order with him (Corvus Glaive and his wife Proxima Midnight), and between the three of them, they took down Captain America and the mightiest Avengers he had with him without trying too hard.  It seemed that even the combined might of the Hulk, Thor, Captain Marvel, and Hyperion were not enough to stop Thanos.  That was until Thane froze Thanos and his last two sidekicks in the amber and left with Ebony Maw for parts unknown.

So, a character like that could be an interesting figure.  Thane could be the good guy son of the deadliest bad guy in the universe or something.  At the least, Hickman looked like he was going somewhere with everything, so he had something to do with the guy, right?

Oddly enough, no.  Thane became, well, not a villain so much as a patsy for other villains.  While Ebony Maw’s ability to influence him seems obvious since influencing people is Ebony Maw’s whole thing, Thane would also be manipulated by Spartox emperor J’son (Star-Lord’s biological dad in the comics) into attacking the X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Captain Marvel before later falling in with Mistress Death who manipulates Thane into becoming the host of the Phoenix Force, a fact that forced Thanos to confront his wayward, unwanted son.

Thanos would find a way to bring Thane down by bringing the young man to the God Quarry, a part of the universe where gods go to die and never come back.  Thanos himself had managed to fight his way out, but after getting the Phoenix out of Thane, Thanos opted to leave his weak-willed son down there where, well, he won’t die, but he won’t be coming out any time soon either.

So, basically…Thane kinda sucked.  He just ended up doing what other people wanted him to do all the time.  Maybe this time, Thanos was right.