Retro Review: The Thanos Quest By Starlin, Lim & Beatty For Marvel Comics

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The Thanos Quest #1-2 (July – August 1990)

Written by Jim Starlin

Pencilled by Ron Lim

Inked by John Beatty

Colour by Tom Vincent

Spoilers (from thirty-two years ago)

I started to reread the classic 80s/90s Silver Surfer series mostly because I wanted to revisit the issues by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers, but I knew I’d stick around through Jim Starlin’s epic run which brought Thanos back to the Marvel Universe, and turned the soul gems into the Infinity Gems, on the way to creating the Infinity Gauntlet.  

I’d completely forgotten that this two-issue prestige format (what Marvel used to call ‘bookshelf’ format) miniseries existed.  In the midst of the Surfer run, Starlin and Surfer artist Ron Lim gave Thanos this two-parter.  Once I dug it out of my longboxes, it came back to me, or at least I recognized the covers.  I’m pretty sure this is about Thanos tracking down the gems, which were last seen in the possession of some of the surviving Elders of the Universe.  

As I’m enjoying the Surfer run, I’m sure I’ll like this too.  Let’s find out.

Let’s track who turned up in the title:

Antagonists

  • The In-Betweener (#1)
  • The Champion (Elders of the Universe; #1)
  • The Gardener (Elders of the Universe; #1)
  • The Collector (Elders of the Universe; #2)
  • The Runner (Elders of the Universe; #2)
  • The Grandmaster (Elders of the Universe; #2)

Guest Stars

  • Lord Chaos (#1)
  • Master Order (#1)

Supporting Characters

  • Death (#1-2)

Let’s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:

  • Thanos contemplates the Infinity Well when one of Death’s servants comes to bring him to an audience with Death.  She never speaks, but her intermediaries demand to know why Thanos is taking so long to go about his task, which is to kill half of the living things in the universe.  He explains that in order to do that, he needs to acquire the six Soul Gems.  He explains that he’s come to realize how powerful they are now, and how they can help him in his mission.  He seeks Death’s permission to seek them out, and then makes it clear that the first one he’s going for currently belongs to The In-Betweener, who recently humiliated Death.  He gets permission and teleports away on his big chair.  He travels to the Nexus of Reality, where The In-Betweener sits trapped in a force bubble, surrounded by winged creatures.  This was his punishment from Order and Chaos for moving against them during Steve Englehart’s Silver Surfer run (I like how respectful Starlin is of Englehart’s plots in this book).  Thanos easily defeats the guards, and reveals himself to The In-Betweener.  He offers to help him escape, explaining that he doesn’t want to remain in service to Death, and the In-Betweener thinks about how he can betray him.  They both turn their full powers on the bubble, and eventually destroy it, freeing The In-Betweener.  He then discovers that he is powerless – Order and Chaos placed him in a place that cancels his powers, except inside his bubble.  Thanos strikes him and removes the Soul Gem from his forehead, further explaining that while he is invisible to Lord Chaos and Master Order, they know that the In-Betweener is free.  As Thanos departs, they arrive, and we see the In-Betweener screaming.  Thanos sits in space examining his Soul Gem when Death and one of her servants appear, asking if Thanos is actually unhappy working for her.  He explains that that was a ploy, and they depart, leaving Thanos to realize that he needs to be careful to not reveal his true plans.  Next he travels to the planet Tamarata, where The Champion, one of the Elders of the Universe, now involves himself in the endless war the factions on that planet engage in.  Thanos goads the Champion into getting into a fight with him, and then enrages him through his use of a forcefield.  Finally, Champion launches himself high into the atmosphere, flying down towards Thanos at a great speed, and with an immense amount of power.  Thanos simply teleports away at the last second, resulting in an impact so cataclysmic, that its aftershocks destroy the entire planet.  Thanos finds Champion floating amid the debris in space, and ends up negotiating with the Elder.  He offers to tow him to another planet in exchange for his Soul Gem.  At first, Champion refuses, but realizing he could be floating there for years, he agrees.  Thanos ends up tossing him towards the next planet he comes across, and then contemplates his two gems.  He decides that they should be called the Infinity Gems, and this is the first time this name is used.  He declares that the one he acquired from the Champion is the Power Gem, and heads out for the next one.  It’s in the possession of The Gardener, another Elder.  Thanos approaches him in his magnificent garden, and they talk.  The Gardener admits that the only reason he worked with the other Elders was to acquire the Soul Gem he has.  They sit on benches to better admire the garden, and continue talking about how the Gardener knows why Thanos is there.  They sit staring at each other, and we see vines grow around Thanos.  He uses his power to destroy them, and then he speaks about how the Gems are very old, and how they can be used to control reality.  He explains that the Gardener has been using the Time Gem to subconsciously accelerate and then freeze the growth of his plants.  We see that Thanos used his two Gems to kill the Gardener with his own plants.  He takes the Time Gem, and returns to his chair, ready to travel for the remaining three.
  • Thanos calls the Collector, who he’s worked with in the past, to tell him that for that reason, he’s going to trade his Infinity Gem for something that the Collector doesn’t own.  The Collector agrees, knowing that Thanos is going to take the Gem no matter what.  Thanos uses his chair to track down The Runner, who immediately attacks him, wrecking his chair.  The Runner feels confident that his Gem is boosting his powers enough to protect him against Thanos, but Thanos uses the Time Gem to accelerate The Runner’s aging, leaving him decrepit.  He explains that The Runner was using the Space Gem, and then de-ages him to infancy, and teleports directly to the Collector’s place, where he offers him The Runner as a trade.  The Collector is happier with this than expected, but that’s partly because he doesn’t believe his Gem has any true power. Thanos demonstrates that it, the Reality Gem, is incredibly powerful, but that the Collector’s lack of imagination hamstrung him.  As Thanos prepares to leave, The Runner returns to his usual age, and starts beating on The Collector.  The Grandmaster watches this on a screen, and prepares for Thanos’s arrival.  Thanos teleports to him, and the Grandmaster explains that they are to play a game for the sixth Gem, which is in a forcefield and teleportation device, so Thanos can’t access it.  The game they are to play is a form of VR, where they will fight one another in battle suits, with the prize being all the Gems.  Thanos is surprised by how realistic the game is, and is soon attacked by the Grandmaster.  He evades him, and hides.  When the Grandmaster walks into his ambush, he is surprised to find that the Elder has cheated, and has covered him in a silicon fungus that will kill him (to die in the game is to die in the real world as well).  The bigger surprise belongs to the Grandmaster however, who learns that Thanos sent a robot in his place.  The real Thanos is outside the game, and he crushes it, killing the Grandmaster.  Thus, he retrieves his last Gem, the Mind Gem, and revels in the knowledge that the universe is now his.  We get a series of cool splash pages that each highlight the uses of one Gem.  Thanos returns to his mistress, who transforms from her usual skull-like appearance to be a rather generic pretty woman.  Thanos appeals to her that he would like to rule beside her, and so a throne is made for him.  He’s unhappy that she still speaks to him through her intermediaries though, and asks why.  They explain that it’s because now he’s more powerful than she is, and she stays silent out of deference.  Thanos kills the rat-like servant and storms off, upset that his schemes did not give him the thing he most desired – to be Death’s equal.  As he looks out on the universe, he lets loose a single tear.

Despite the cheesy ending, I really enjoyed this two-parter.  By using this title to demarcate and explain the various Infinity Gems, Jim Starlin made a lasting contribution to the Marvel Universe (and, I guess, the MCU).  He took a concept that had been knocking around the Marvel U for ages, and that he’d played with before, and refined it, making it more relevant and central to his long-term plans for Thanos and the entire line.

Thanos is a difficult character to like.  He’s always seemed immensely powerful and all-knowing, so watching him seek out some pretty big power upgrades feels foolish and unnecessary, yet it really works.  His devotion to Death, the silent avatar, is kind of interesting, but it’s the twist at the end, when she refuses to speak to him that stings him the most.  Is this why he’s so evil?  Because Death has spurned him at every turn? 

One thing I liked about this story was how respectful it was of Steve Englehart’s Silver Surfer run.  The Elders of the Universe were last seen with the Soul Gems, and it’s cool that Starlin uses that, and maintains the way they were most recently characterized.  

Ron Lim’s art looks so good on this higher-quality paper, and inked by John Beatty.  I remember Lim as drawing at least two books a month during this era, so it’s cool to see just how refined his work could be at the beginning of his career.  Tom Vincent’s colours worked really well here too, and gave the book a higher degree of quality than the newsprint comics of the day.

It wasn’t long after this series that Thanos put together the Infinity Gauntlet and launched the six-part series and crossover event.  It’s cool that a quiet, separate book like the Silver Surfer got the chance to launch that event, making some of Starlin’s issues very collectible.  I think it was a wise decision to pave the road to all that with this handsome two-parter.  At the time it came out, I didn’t know Thanos as well as I do now (seeing as he wasn’t the go-to bad guy at Marvel then), so I remember appreciating this closer look at his methods and motivations.

I’m glad I revisited this title which I had completely forgotten existed.  It’s left me tempted to track down the 2003 Thanos title by Starlin and later Keith Giffen title that predated Annihilation…

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Get in touch and share your thoughts on what I've written: jfulton@insidepulse.com