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“Avengers: Infinity War” presents a villain for our times

The latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is about its villain far more than about its heroes.

Thanos, played by Josh Brolin, in a scene from "Avengers: Infinity War."

A frequent criticism of movies set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is that they lack compelling villains. Usually our heroes are up against mostly-faceless corporations or assorted bland space terrorists. The most compelling villains so far are buoyed by the charisma of the actor (Cate Blanchett as Hela in Thor: Ragnarok), or by their conflicted motivations (“Bucky” Barnes in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, and Loki, the adopted brother of Thor and scion of the sinister Frost Giants, across several Marvel films). The others are generic bad guys with generic plans for generic domination and/or mayhem (Iron Man 2’s Justin Hammer or Guardians of the Galaxy’s Ronan the Accuser, for example). As a result, most Marvel movies play on the excitement of seeing comic-book heroes come to life on the screen accompanied by state-of-the-art special effects and sarcastic quips (there are also other, somewhat less flattering reasons we generally find Marvel movies so enjoyable, which Titus Techera has been chronicling).

Avengers: Infinity War finally provides a villain worth watching and talking about. Josh Brolin’s Thanos not only steals every scene, but provides the film’s primary emotional resonance. This is a movie about Thanos far more than the Avengers, despite the initial appeal of watching all of our favorite heroes from across the MCU team up to fight evil.

Thanos presents himself as the only being in the universe bold enough to take the harsh steps necessary to save people from themselves. The problem, as he sees it, is a problem with life itself: left unchecked, life outgrows its own resources, leading to poverty and untold suffering for most people. Thanos’ own planet suffered the consequences: it became, over time, an uninhabitable wasteland filled with ruins and destruction because of its overpopulation.

Thanos’ solution, which his own planet rejected but which he intends to impose on the rest of the galaxy, is to wipe out half of all the living beings in the universe. He will do so by lot, thereby removing any favoritism based on wealth or rank. Thanos argues with Gamora (Zoe Saldana), his estranged adopted daughter whose planet he subjected to his version of the Final Solution, saying that now, relieved of its excess population, her planet has become a “paradise.” Gamora’s argument—that her people were happy under their previous conditions—is brushed aside by Thanos.

Most of Avengers: Infinity War chronicles the Avengers’ attempts to prevent Thanos from collecting the six powerful Infinity Stones, which will allow him to carry out his population-control plans.

In his own mind, Thanos (whose name is clearly derived from the Greek word for death) is a tragic hero. He alone is willing to make the sacrifices, including deeply personal ones, to eliminate suffering; he alone has the will to sacrifice even the only person he truly loves to achieve his goal. Thanos’ success is built on his willingness to endanger or torture loved ones of the people he seeks to manipulate into doing his bidding; in each case, Thanos gets his way because of some hero’s unwillingness to sacrifice a loved one.

Because of the blandness of most previous Marvel villains, it is useful to think about Thanos’ goals. He is, essentially, a super-powered Malthusian proposing as radical a solution as possible to intergalactic scarcity. He is set apart from other Marvel villains in that his malevolent goals are rooted in real-world threats; a growing and influential segment of Western elites have begun wondering about the goodness of humanity itself, given what they perceive to be man’s baneful effect on the natural environment. What used to be an opinion confined to the margins in, for instance, the deep ecology movement, now finds purchase in books published by major academic presses.

The problem Thanos proposes to solve and the salvation he offers force us to confront the question: what is good about being human? Is it worth the suffering and the inevitable destruction we cause? Other than Gamora’s brief, unsatisfying assertion, our heroes don’t offer a counter-argument; the Avengers’ only resistance is the armed kind. That is a mixed blessing; it does show that Disney/Marvel assumes its audience still feels the goodness of humanity deeply enough that, despite his arguments, Thanos may be presumed to be obviously wrong and his “salvation” obviously evil.

But while neither the average-Joe moviegoer nor his superheroic alter egos on screen feel the need to articulate an argument against Thanos, it is also not clear whether they have the resources to do so if they wanted to. It is a sign for hope that we still believe strongly in human goodness. But if elite skepticism about that goodness begins to trickle down, the time may come when Captain America or Iron Man needs to counter Thanotic arguments not only with vibranium shields and repulsor blasts, but also with a reasoned defense of human life.


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About Thomas P. Harmon 19 Articles
Thomas P. Harmon is Associate Professor and Scanlan Foundation Chair in Theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX. He lives in Sugar Land with his wife and five children.

9 Comments

  1. Catholics really should be boycotting Disney.

    The population control advocates are a problem, but they’re not as bad as cultural Marxists. (Though many are both.)

    • The only advocates in my town for families with no more than two children and high income, is the local “catholic” high school.

    • Disney has been boycotting or baiting or boring Catholics for some time now, I have been avoiding spending money on their brands and causes. They have a very big, colorful chunk of the market with a great spin program. What competition is up and coming?

  2. I noticed the following terms being used “I am”, “salvation” , “hel”, ” mercy”. just coincidence?

  3. Thanos actually approaches the view of God as one who punishes and wounds us for our own good and who is beyond our own ideas of good, evil and justice by merit of his own foreknowledge (what happened to Titan) and omnipotence. In prior films his brief cameos made him come off as snarky at best. But this is a character with depth. It’d be interesting to look further at the theological themes in Thor and Vision as well in the movie, as they are also god-like characters.

  4. We just saw this movie, on your recommendation. You were right about the only character with depth being Thanos, but Honestly, his character did not make it worth sitting through more than two hours of extreme violence.

  5. A wonderful analysis. The MCU’s version of Thanos is that they present him as the tragic hero. His comic self only seeks to gain power of the infinity stones to literally court an anthropomorphic version of death. This discussion of overpopulation is a ruse used by Thanos in order to distract the Silver Surfer. And the elimination of half the galaxy’s population is used only as a gesture or gift of love to Lady Death. MCU Thanos is a much more interesting and nuanced character. In using this as a study in theology, the Infinity War film finally shows the downside of having super-heroes and villains (God like figures). Before this latest entry it’s been all fun and games, and I am sure people have imagined their universe being inhabited by these heroic characters and villains. But once we see the raw power of a non-benevolent God (akin to Greek and Roman deities) being used to destroy without a second thought…it makes one question whether or not the superheroes are a blessing or a curse on their universe.

  6. I have noticed Thanos’ allusion of himself to God as “I am” and men returning to dust in the end. The biblical references makes me wonder if the writers are making a parody of our Catholic beliefs. Are there any anti-Christian sentiments here?

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