Thanosi (modified clones of Thanos)

THE THANOSI

Membership: Armour, Mystic, Omega, Warrior, X, at least two unnamed others who had been active recently, plus at least a dozen dead/misshapen specimens (see Comments)

Purpose: To bring Oblivion to all beings by capturing Adam Warlock and by destroying either Atlez or his successor Atleza Langunn.

Affiliations: Moondragon (former pawn); The Nihilist Sect and its troops (pawns and allies); in all likelihood the abstract entity Oblivion (see Clarifications)
other dead and/or captive Thanosi (see Comments - relatives and potential allies);
Charles Xavier (DNA donor and/or inspiration for X); Doctor Strange (DNA donor and/or inspiration for Mystic); Galactus (DNA donor for Omega); Gladiator (DNA donor and/or inspiration for Warrior); Iron Man (DNA donor and/or inspiration for Armour);
Atlez (freed Armour on purpose and the other members accidentally).

Enemies: Adam Warlock, Atlez, Atleza Langunn, Captain Marvel (Genis-Vell), Doctor Strange, Eternity, Gamora, Infinity, Moondragon, Pip the Troll, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Thanos;
to a lesser degree, the remaining members of the Langunn family (Brian, Debby and Ruby), the Incredible Hulk, Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Silver Surfer;
ultimately all beings opposed to universal destruction.

Base of Operations:

Armour : One of Thanos' former hideouts on the surface of an unnamed planet; formerly mobile through space aboard his own ship; formerly the Nietzsche Arena on Baligiest

Mystic, Warrior, X : Mobile through space aboard one of Thanos' spaceships

Omega : Mobile through space aboard his gigantic spaceship

First Appearance: Infinity Abyss#1 (August 2002)

History:
(Infinity Abyss#2-3 (fb) - BTS) - At some point in the past, Thanos gave up on his nihilistic ways and decided to create a number of "Thanosi" - inexact copies of himself made with a combination of cloning, sorcery and technology for the purposes of testing the strength and reliability of several probable foes and possible comrades.

(Ka-Zar IV#1-11; X-Man/Hulk '98 Annual; Thor II#21-25; Thor Annual 2000/2 (fb); Captain Marvel V#17-19; Avengers: Celestial Quest#1-8; Infinity Abyss#3 (fb) ) - Thanos allegedly sent specific individual Thanosi against Ka-Zar and later Thor and the Avengers, partially as a means of testing their behavior and capability. Ultimately he decided that the experiment was a failure because of the nihilistic and destructive behavior of the Thanosi. Thanos then gave up on using his duplicates, keeping them in storage on a subterranean chamber located in one of his hideouts.

(Infinity Abyss#5 (fb) ) - Needing help to recruit his successor (due to the time disturbances created by Avengers Forever), Atlez created in Adam Warlock an urge to meet him. Warlock begged to Eternity and/or Infinity to open them a portal to Atlez's dimension and was granted that wish. Warlock found Atlez and learned about his role in keeping reality stable and his need for preparing his successor (Atleza Langunn) and agreed to help him. Atlez then gave Warlock and his Soul Gem the information they would need to release to Atleza, but the strain proved too much for Warlock, who lost his sanity.

(Infinity Abyss#1, #5 (fb) - BTS) - Unable to restore Warlock's sanity directly, Atlez chose to release him into the surface of the planet Degaitor. Soon he found himself interned in an insane asylum. After a brief and fruitless interview with a native psychotherapist, Warlock locked himself into one of his retreat cocoons, where he remained for about two years.

Realizing that further action would be needed to heal Warlock's mind and allow him to find Atleza, Atlez decided to plant into the Thanosi the conviction that they needed to find Warlock in order to establish Oblivion; he also directed a meteor to free Armour from his containment. He succeeded, but involuntarily also freed Mystic, Omega, Warrior and X in the process.

(BTS - before Infinity Abyss#1) - The five Thanosi reached an agreement and began to plot in order to establish Oblivion. Omega went into deep space to feed upon planets, while the others decided to kill the original Thanos to avoid his interference in his plans. Armour left to reorganize the Nihilist Sect, spending at least some time on Baligiest. The other three took one of Thanos' spaceships. Using a mental projection of the original Thanos' likeness as a disguise and their ship as headquarters, X recruited Pip the Troll to find and rescue Warlock.

(Infinity Abyss#1) - The Thanosi launched a failed attempt to kill Thanos by creating an artificial and very short-lived Black Hole. Pip successfully rescued Adam Warlock from the asylum, taking him to X (still disguised as the original Thanos). All across the Universe of Earth-616, blocks of "nothingness" began to appear (apparently because Atlez was beginning to die and could no longer quite maintain the Universe stable and sane), drawing the attention of Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel. Pip and X then recruited Moondragon, who reluctantly agreed to examine Warlock's cocoon. At the same time Gamora met Armour and the renewed Nihilist Sect, was recognized by them and ended up having to run for her life. She then decided to head for the hideout that Thanos used after the end of the Infinity Gauntlet crisis.

(Infinity Abyss#2) - Moondragon succeeded in contacting Warlock telepathically and awakening him. Warlock left his cocoon (assuming a new appearance in the process) and confronted X (still disguised as Thanos) who began to lead him into remembering about Atlez and his call for help two years before.

Simultaneously, the true Thanos took over a Skrull vessel that was sent to investigate the effect of his black hole death-trap and headed to the same hideout that Gamora decided to visit.

Mystical energy trails began to form, trespassing various dimensions while linking Atlez to his future successor, Atleza Langunn (a two years old female human child). Those trails drew the attention of Captain Marvel and Doctor Strange, who decided to travel through them, and of Armour, Mystic and Warrior, who reacted by sending a squad of nihilistic soldiers to Earth to investigate. Spider-Man was also drawn to the energy trails, which ended at a country house - that of the Langunn family.

X convinced Moondragon to read deep into his mind, under pretense of wanting to make her completely aware of the situation. He did not resist the mind-reading, but she ended up brainwashed by X's nihilist thoughts and joined their cause.

Thanos arrived at his hideout and was shortly after joined by Gamora. He then told her about the creation of the Thanosi.

(Infinity Abyss#3) - Armour's nihilists arrived at the Langunns' house and were opposed by Captain Marvel and Spider-Man. The fight was brief because another block of nothingness appeared and removed the nihilists from the scene.

Armour, Mystic, Warrior and X realized that Gamora has invaded Thanos' former hideout and that Doctor Strange is following the energy trail. They sent Armour to stop Gamora and the brainwashed Moondragon to fight Doctor Strange. Doctor Strange defeated Moondragon, but fell unconscious himself from the effort. Warlock and Pip decided to visit a manifestation of Eternity and found out that its aspect had mixed partially with that of Infinity, becoming somewhat insane as a result. Omega consumed at least three planets in an attempt to empower himself for his Oblivion quest. Thanos detected the coming of Armour and ordered Gamora to distract him.

(Infinity Abyss#4) - Gamora managed to distract Armour long enough for Thanos to blast and kill him. Sensing the loss of Armour as well as those of Moondragon and of the nihilist soldiers that had been sent to the Langunn house, Mystic and Warrior decided to split and investigate the situation with Moondragon and the energy trail while X and an elite group of nihilists followed the trail leading to Earth (the Langunn's house to be precise). Mystic and Warrior realized the trail's significance when they came close to it, and decided to follow it all the way to the end, hoping to find the key to the destruction of reality there.

The joined Eternity/Infinity entity was convinced by Warlock to open a portal to the dimension where Atlez was - exactly as it had done two years before. Warlock then retraced his own steps, hoping not to be driven mad by the experience this time.

(Infinity Abyss#5) - Gamora joined Captain Marvel and Spider-Man in their fight against the Nihilistic Elite and X. X captured the three of them, but they were rescued by the timely arrival of Pip and Moondragon. Moondragon telepathically misled X into believing that Final Oblivion had come (supposedly because his brothers had killed Atlez). The illusion of his own death was made real by X's mental powers, and so he he died happily - as he desired. At the same time, Warlock managed to hold Mystic and Warrior long enough for Doctor Strange to join them and defeat Mystic. Unfortunately Warrior then managed to knock Doctor Strange out, forcing Warlock to use his Soul Gem to take Warrior's soul, killing Warrior and severely disturbing Warlock's mental balance.

(Infinity Abyss#6) - Warlock left Doctor Strange caring for Atlez while he went away to meet Pip at the place of the joint Eternity/Infinity manifestation. Pip then teleported himself and Warlock to the Langunn's house, where they met the whole Langunn family (including Atleza) as well as Captain Marvel, Gamora, Moondragon and Spider-Man. A blast from the Soul Gem fully awakened Atleza to her destiny and power as Atlez's successor at the palace of the Cosmic Abyss. She then instantly healed the cosmic anomalies and pockets of nothingness that had manifested. The group was then joined by Thanos, who insisted that all of them joined forces to prepare for the imminent coming of Omega.

Thanos, protected from Omega's senses by a device he carried, teleported the Langunns' house (and its occupants) to a distant planet made of fissionable matter. Omega followed them (seemingly of his own accord) in order to kill Atleza. With great coordinated effort the allied heroes and Thanos managed to, in progression, separate Omega from his ship, destroy the ship, distract Omega long enough for Spider-Man to blind him with his webbing, and finally return to Earth while a number of remotely controlled Thanos' battleships approached the planet and began to fire, causing a gigantic nuclear explosion that supposedly killed Omega.

Comments: Created by Jim Starlin and Al Milgron.

The was never a group name for these characters in the Infinity Abyss. I chose Thanosi for my notes, and it became official when I had that name included in the Spider-Man Encyclopedia, in the appendix section, under Adam Warlock--Snood.

Thanos actually created at least a dozen clones of himself besides the five Thanosi detailed here, but most of the others died before ever getting time on panel. The reason for their deaths has never been made clear and is probably not unique: some of the corpses seen in Infinity Abyss#3 were in fact skeletons, while others looked like they had just recently died and were in fact fully formed and even clothed with variations of Thanos' garb. Most were presumably various combinations of Thanos with other superbeings' DNA; one of them had claws not unlike Wolverine's and was featured prominently on the cover of#3 as well as in the insides.

    As Snood reminds me, Marvel time passes so slowly that it is hard to believe that Warlock spent two full years in his cocoon previous to this story. Snood thinks that some time distortion might have been at work, but both Atlez, Warlock himself and Dr. Nilrats of planet Degaitor make unequivocal mentions of two years' time. Then again, who knows? Maybe for some reason time passes faster on Degaitor than on Earth, and it just happens to pass at the same rate on the Infinity Abyss - or maybe Atlez was attuned to Warlock's passage of time, which sounds likely.
    --It's pretty common for writers to jump huge spans of time, like 6-12 months during their storylines. But that almost always gets ret-conned out when the stories become 5-10 years old. The key point with stuff like that is to remember that Peter Parker is still supposed to be in his twenties, even though he was 15-16 when he became Spider-Man. If only 12-15 years have happened since "the modern era" started in 1961 (real time). There's no way 2 years passed in the Marvel Universe, b/t the Warlock limited series (1998) and the Infinity Abyss (2002). However, as Atlez was involved, there certainly could have been warped reality, etc.
    --Snood.

We do not know for sure how long Thanos had kept the Thanosi. He tells Gamora that he first began to dabble with occultism about three centuries before her birth - but since she was recruited by Thanos from an alternate future at an unspecified time, that does not clarify much. He describes the events of Ka-Zar Vol. 4 as the first test of the project and those of Thor Vol. 2 as the actions of another of his duplicates before describing "a fight against Thor and his fellow Avengers" (supposedly Avengers: Celestial Quest) as the last straw that made him give up on the Thanosi. The implication is that the real Thanos was not directly involved in any of those story lines. It is however dangerous to take Thanos' words at face value.

In Infinity Abyss#6 Spider-Man seems to be capable of seeing Rick Jones' astral form. Does anyone know if that was a mistake or if there is some back story that I am unaware of?

Warlock was surprised to find Eternity and Infinity merged into a half-and-half being in#3, but I am certain that we have seen the two in much the same way before in one of the first three Infinity series (probably Infinity War#6). Maybe Warlock was not present at that scene (I don't remember).

Profile by Luis Dantas, the Daevanator.

CLARIFICATIONS:

The Thanosi, duplicates of Thanos modified to acquire characteristics from various superhumans, should be distinguished from

Thanos, the Mad Titan, their inspiration, template and probable DNA donor, described in greater detail in a number of sites listed in our links page--Iron Man I#55

Rot, abstract entity created from the essences of Thanos and Death--Avengers: Celestial Quest#5

also, neither of them has any known connection to:

Oblivion, the abstract entity--Iceman#3, Quasar#21 - but I personally think it must have inspired them in some sense and even be considered to be behind the scenes

Thanatos, Spider-Man 2099 and Captain Marvel foe, Rick Jones from an alternate future--Spider-Man 2099#11

Thanatos, the mythological Greek personification of death--Incredible Hercules#138

The Thanatosian Tomes, presumably a Lovecraftian reference, books of magic--Marvel Premiere#4

Armour of the Thanosi should be distinguished from:

Iron Man, Anthony "Tony" Stark, founding member of the Avengers from whose DNA Armour may be partially based.

additionally, he has no known connection to:

"The Armorer", a.k.a. "Zahgurim's servant"--Hellstorm#12

Mystic of the Thanosi should be distinguished from:

Doctor Strange, Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme of Earth-616, enemy and possibly DNA donor for Mystic.

additionally, he has no known connection to:

MYS-TECH (Marvel UK) - British organization dedicated to takeover of the earth by technological and mystic means--Warheads#1?

Omega of the Thanosi should be distinguished from:

Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, from whose DNA Omega is partially based.

additionally, he has no known connection to:

Omega of Atillan, aka Ultron-7, gigantic android used first by Maximus and then by Ultron-- Fantastic Four I#131

OMEGA - merger of Roger Bochs and Scramble, utilizing Scramble’s power to manipulate flesh and Bochs' creative mind, killed by Box/Jeffries--Alpha Flight I#48

Omega the Unknown (Model X3Z) - penultimate humanoid creation of superhuman power bioengineered by Protar in order to replace their own dying race, inadvertently destroyed planet on which he was created, fled to earth, shot dead by policeman when mistaken for attacker against Ruby Thursday--Omega the Unknown#1

other "Omega" characters, groups, etc.

Warrior of the Thanosi should be distinguished from:

Gladiator, Kallark of the Shiar Imperial Guard, from whose DNA Warrior may be partially based.

additionally, he has no known connection to:

any other Warriors or people named "Warrior"

X of the Thanosi should be distinguished from:

Professor X of the X-Men, Charles Xavier, from whose DNA the Thanosi X may be partially based. He is profiled at the Unofficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe

additionally, he has no other known connection to:

The Ex-Squadron Supreme, erstwhile name for the team of Doctor Spectrum, Haywire, Moonglow (formerly Arcanna), Shape, Skylark, Power Princess and Whizzer--Quasar#13

X-Men, obscure Marvel team book of the 1960s that eventually ran out of steam and entered bimonthly reprint mode in 1970 with issue#67 (Dec 1970;#66 had a March 1970 cover date) and was finally cancelled in the early 1970s. The concept was eventually given a second chance, with a measure of success that actually led to at least a few spin-offs and media licenses--X-Men I#1 (September 1963)

any of those spin-offs, of which I believe there may be several, not necessarily all in comics books. In fact there is a good chance for a motion picture based on the X-Men to be launched in a year or two - I will try to keep you informed.

Any other X-somethings, if you find any... I am fairly sure there are some around.

Armour

Designed to test Iron Man, he was first seen speaking at the Nietzsche Arena in Baligiest, where he recognized Gamora and asked his nihilistic followers to kill her. Of the Thanosi, he was the one most involved with the nihilist army. His power level was comparable to that of the original Thanos, but his outfit and possibly powers also drew inspiration from Iron Man (whom he was designed to combat). He was blasted out of existence by the original Thanos after calling him "Father".

--Infinity Abyss#1 (2,3,4d)

Mystic

Hewas Thanos' answer to Doctor Strange. He had a significant degree of mystical ability and was capable of opening dimensional portals but proved no match to the real Doctor Strange. He was apparently banished to another dimension by Doctor Strange, but his real fate is unrevealed.

--Infinity Abyss#1 (2-5

Omega was first mentioned in#1, seen as a silhouette (identical to that of Galactus) in#3 and fully seen only in#6. Thanos mentioned specifically that he was created with Galactus' DNA using samples obtained during the Infinity Gauntlet series. He had no mastery of language and slow reflexes, but was otherwise allegedly at least twice as powerful as Galactus. After feeding upon at least three planets (and perhaps sensing the destruction of his four fellow Thanosi) Omega traveled to the Langunn's home in an attempt to kill Atleza. He was detained by the coordinated efforts of the Infinity Abyss team, who managed to destroy his ship, and ultimately killed when the planet of their fight was destroyed by the combined firepower of several of Thanos' battleships, creating a nuclear explosion of planetary magnitude.

--[Infinity Abyss#1], 3 ([5(fb), [1,2], 3 [4,5] 6

Warrior

Designed to determine the abilities of the Shi'ar Imperial Guardsman Gladiator.

He was first seen aboard the ship that he divided with Mystic and X. According to Warlock he was at least four times as strong as Thanos. Even so, Thanos considered him the weakest of the Thanosi awakened by Atlez, no doubt because of his limited intellect and eagerness to fight. Warrior was constantly kept restrained by his partners, who recognized his lack of tactical finesse. When he attempted to kill Atlez at the Infinity Abyss, Adam Warlock got desperate and ended up taking Warrior's soul with the Soul Gem, killing him in the process. By absorbing his soul Warlock became heavily nihilistic and mentally unstable for a time.

--Infinity Abyss#1 (2-5, [6]

He was gifted with extensive mental powers, presumably inherited or at least based on those of Charles Xavier, the X-Men's Professor X. He was the Thanosi who disguised himself as the original Thanos by means of a mental projection, and enslaved Moondragon to his will. Moondragon later freed herself and paid X back with a mental illusion of her own, leading X to dream himself into death with a smile.

--Infinity Abyss#1 (2-5

Omega's Ship was gigantic and roughly spherical, perhaps in imitation of the ship Galactus uses most of the time. It allowed Omega to feed upon the energies of even a nuclear explosion of planetary scale, and for that reason was destroyed by Pip as part of Thanos' plan to defeat Omega.

Many of Thanos' duplicates were less than successful, possibly even stillborn. Besides the five named Thanosi, both the cover of#3 and this panel clearly show one with Wolverine-styled claws. Other tubes (not shown in this picture) had nothing more than skeletons. It is not clear exactly how they died or why they are kept in storage. It could be that Atlez' meteorite damaged their life support system, but this is unconfirmed.

Appearances:
Infinity Abyss#1-6 (August-October, 2002) - Jim Starlin (writer/pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)

First Posted: 12/28/2003
Last updated: 09/28/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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