Marvel Avengers Assemble Cartoon

In this week's season premiere of "Marvel's Avengers Assemble, " the Avengers learn of an oncoming threat that's bigger than anything they could have ever imagined. His name is "Thanos" and he's in search of the Infinity Stones. Thanos is so powerful, he even strikes enough fear in Red Skull that he comes to the Avengers for their protection. Who is Thanos and why does he want the Inifinity Stones? Read more below to prepare yourself for the Mad Titan!

Name: Thanos a.k.a. The Mad Titan

First Appearance: IRON MAN #55 (1968)

Powers: Virtually unmatched in strength or intelligence. While wielding the Infinity Gauntlet, his power knows no bounds. His physical strength is matched only by his determination to conquer and destroy as much of the universe as possible.

Origin Story: Thanos is a Titan that was born into a family of Eternals. In comparison to the beautiful Eternals, Thanos appears as a disfigured monster. Although he was peaceful as a child, his resentment towards the beautiful Eternals grew more passionate as he got older. Thanos even resented the family that helped take care of and raise him.

Thanos Quest (1990) #1

Growing older, the things he prized most were knowledge and power. Thanos knew that no one posed a physical threat, so he set out to learn as much information as he could about the universe. The more knowledge he had, the more his passion for universal domination grew. He's come very close to succeeding in universal domination a few times too often, most notably through the use of the Infinity Gems.

In the series THE THANOS QUEST, Thanos reveals that the gems are the remains of an omnipotent being. This being, revealed to be Nemesis, existed alone and attempted to create life forms, but these life forms had no concept of good or evil and became demonic beasts. Nemesis destroyed these beings and itself for the error of its ways.

The power of Nemesis couldn't just dissipate, eventually gathering together into the six gems. Because the gems were originally pieces of one entity, the gems seem to be drawn to each other. Finding one gem helps you find another, with two gems helping you find the third. When the six gems are combined, they give the wielder near omnipotence. The gems represent Power, Space, Mind, Soul, Time, and Reality. Individually, each stone holds vast amounts of power to control their respective aspect of the universe. Of all the characters in the Marvel Universe, none of them desire the gems as much as Thanos.

Infinity Gauntlet (1991) #1

Thanos has obtained the gems on multiple occasions. The most notable of these occasions would be 1991's THE INFINITY GAUNTLET. In this series, Thanos obtained all of the Infinity Gems and placed them in a golden glove. Thanos was granted so much power with the Infinity Gauntlet that he was able to destroy half of the living universe. The Gauntlet was taken from Thanos by Nebula and Adam Warlock, but neither of the two was deemed worthy by the gems themselves, so Warlock helped spread the gems across the universe.