Thanks to Marvel's Avengers movies the entire world now knows Thanos, the power-mad tyrant. What they probably don't know is that he was originally designed to look surprisingly different, taking inspiration from one of rival DC's characters -- but not the one most people think.
In a rare case of multi-film character introductions, the design of Thanos underwent significant changes in each appearance. The first cameo at the end of The Avengers used prosthetic makeup to capture the closest likeness to the comics, with his signature grin and exaggerated chin. But as his overall design evolved into a less alien, more chilling, and self-important 'savior'... the comparisons to DC's Darkseid became harder and harder to ignore. Rightly so, some fans cried, since 'Thanos was a knockoff Darkseid to begin with.' But not in his very first drawing.
With the spread of the Coronavirus shutting down the comics industry, comic creators have been finding new ways to spend their time. In the case of Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort, his Twitter followers have been walking memory lane with insider sketches from Marvel history. That includes what Brevoort classifies as "Jim Starlin’s first drawing of Thanos," before the villain's co-creator even began working for Marvel Comics. But surprisingly, Starlin's first vision of Thanos is a far cry from the version fans know. Take a look:
With the artwork unfinished (just penciled and inked) fans need to supply the purple-blue and yellow color scheme using only their imagination. But looking beyond the colors, the man depicted in Starlin's art lacks almost all of the signature features he would later develop to make Thanos the mutated Deviant. But more importantly, this design fires a torpedo into the commonly-held belief that Thanos was based on Jack Kirby's 1970 creation Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips. Not to mention supporting Starlin's claim (made when this original piece was put up for auction) that if any of Kirby's New Gods inspired him, it was Metron -- NOT Darkseid.
This is probably one of the first concept drawings of Thanos I ever did... Jack Kirby's Metron is clearly the more dominant influence in this character's look. Not Darkseid. Both [Darkseid and Thanos] started off much smaller than they originally became. This was one of the drawings I had in my portfolio when I was hired by Marvel. It was later inked by Rich Buckler.
As Starling says, both Thanos and Darkseid eventually grew in size and hulking physique, suggesting more in common than their initial appearances, where they were simply... men of normal supervillain size. And when comparing this frankly human look for Thanos to Kirby's fantastical approach to Darkseid, the similarities are non-existent. Especially when Metron (pictured above) is as obvious an inspiration as Stalin admits.
So now that fans can see for themselves the normal, human-looking Thanos that Marvel could have made famous, will the rivalry between he and Darkseid, waged by Marvel and DC fans, finally subside? We won't bet on it.
Source: Tom Brevoort, Heritage Auctions