Disney/Marvel
"Guardians of the Galaxy" is in theaters this weekend.
The film is a lot of fun and should have a huge opening weekend for Disney and Marvel. It's currently aiming to make north of $70 million, according to BoxOffice.com.
While there are many action and fight sequences in the film, the one moment that had fanboys on the edge of their seats was the slow reveal of a huge villain in the Marvel universe named Thanos, played by Josh Brolin.
It's a very rewarding scene if you've been paying close attention to the many end-credits sequences Marvel places in its movies. Thano's appearance has been two years in the making since the character was first teased in an end-credits sequence of 2012's "The Avengers."
If you're not familiar with the character, Thanos is one of the most important characters you'll want to familiarize yourself with as the Marvel universe continues to expand.
Who is Thanos? Disney/Marvel
Think of any of the villains you know in a superhero film and multiply that number exponentially. That may start to come close to describing Thanos who is often considered one of the biggest Marvel villains ever created.
Thanos is a Titan born with a deformity which caused him to have an oversized body. He's obsessed with three things: killing, death, and power.
The guy's literally insane (one of his aliases is the Mad Titan). He was responsible for the near destruction of his own home planet and his people.
You thought Loki was bad for wanting to rule Earth and Asgard? Thanos makes the God of Mischief look like a saint.
So what kind of powers does he have?
It may be more appropriate to ask what powers Thanos doesn't have. Thanos is intelligent, has some telepathic abilities including the ability to teleport himself. The guy is virtually unstoppable.
He was cursed by death to be immortal. In other words, he can't die.
Oh, and don't let his size fool you, he's extremely fast.
His importance in future Marvel films:
If you've been following along with all of the end-credits, Marvel has slowly been teasing Thano's grand entrance on screen.
In the comics, the Mad Titan is widely known for his appearance in "The Infinity Gauntlet" storyline where his main objective is to collect six power gemstones known as Infinity Stones to make him all powerful.
We've talked about it a bit before here, but Marvel has slowly been revealing some of the different stones on screen. So far, we've seen three. Loki's Chitauri scepter holds one of the stones while another was recently seen in "Thor: The Dark World" as the object villain Malekith wanted to obtain to make the world dark.
Loki with the Chitauri scepter that holds one of the six Infinity Stones wanted by Thanos.
Expect to hear more of Thanos' name in the future.
This is a storyline Marvel has been building toward which many believe will finally culminate in "The Avengers 3" possibly merging the "Guardians of the Galaxy" with the "Avengers."