[Comics] Marvel: The End

Over the years, I've grown to respect the character of Thanos of Titan. He started as a somewhat over-powered villain and has developed over the years into a more calculating and cunning villain whose aspirations are beyond most mortals and whose vision goes well beyond most. After all, he's already achieved near-omnipotence by gaining control of the Infinity Gauntlet, so what else is there for him to do?

He's been portrayed as both hero and villain, most often due to the skilled crafting of writer Jim Starlin. He created the character and nurtured the Mad Titan over the years and has certainly done a lot for him.

This particular comic book series is yet another exploration of Thanos' development as set against near-cosmic events, as befitting the Titan's status in the Marvel Universe.

Marvel: The End is a six-issue limited series introduces yet another source of near infinite power in the form of the Heart of the Infinite. Somehow this item is more powerful than other items that Thanos has gotten involved with like the Cosmic Cube or the Infinity Gems and has somehow granted near godlike abilities to the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. The power-mad monarch has set about the conquer the Earth with his new-found abilties and once again it's up to Thanos and his allies to rally against him.

Image by ElDave via FlickrThis time, however, Thanos has not been entirely altruistic as he was in recent Infinity crises and determines the best way to defeat Akhenaten is to take the power of the Heart of the Infinite for himself, once again putting him pretty much at the center of creation as its supreme being of sorts. How he deals with this newfound power acts as another test of his abilities and character and provides another look at the nature of Thanos.

While this may not be one of the best Infinity-related stories around, it is certainly better than the last one, The Infinity Abyss, given it certainly got somewhere more interesting and focused more on actual character development.

It could have been a lot better organized - the whole shifting point of view with the story starting at The End and then working its way around the Universe is not a new idea and was a bit muddy in terms of execution here, at least for me. I suppose the initial premise of an Egyptian pharaoh with near-infinite power was a bit hokey and didn't really do much for me, so the story only started to get interesting once Thanos and Adam Warlock started to make some serious moves against the demi-god.

I guess what drives my interest in this story is, fitting enough, the end of the tale. It leaves us with another perspective on Thanos and his constant struggle to deal with life after omnipotence and of course his undying love for the cosmic personification of Death. He was a pretty complex character to begin with and he's only gotten more and more interesting over time so one can't help but appreciate him more and more over the years.

This remains to be an interesting read but of course ended up being just another stop on the journey for Starlin - there were bigger things to come.