Thanos Is Subtly Called Out by Marvel Over Huge MCU Plan Flaw
Warning: contains spoilers for Eternals #11
Many MCU fans typically link Thanos with the Avengers, but it's a fair assessment to say he's worse enemies with the Eternals. Because Thanos is the MCU's biggest and best villain, it's more engaging to see him battle Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Nonetheless, encounters with the Eternals usually shine a light on more personal moments with the Mad Titan.
Thanos' master plan with the Infinity Gauntlet in the MCU differed from the comics. Jim Starlin and George Pérez's iconic The Infinity Gauntlet featured Thanos snapping, wiping out half of the life in the universe as a simple appetizer for his beloved Lady Death. Due to Death's absence in the MCU, writers decided to construct Thanos as a more independent character. He was still a "Mad Titan," but they replaced his sinister disposition with an intricate philosophy—to decrease the surplus population of the universe. Instead of eliminating half of the universe's life at the beginning of the story, writers cleverly decided to have Thanos collect each Infinity Stone the audiences had grown familiar with in the MCU.
In Kieron Gillen, Guiu Vilanova, and Matthew Wilson's Eternals #11, Thanos and Druig allude to the MCU's idea of "balance" and decreasing Earth's population. The Eternals' Druig, now an ally of Thanos, specifically references how "within minutes, America's population will be reduced by an amount they'll have recovered from by tomorrow morning." Druig understands Earth and its population better than Thanos; after all, Druig has over a thousand years of experience on Earth. As Druig suggests, wiping out half of America's population would be evil, but people could still recover. Comic book Thanos cares much less about "randomly balancing the universe" than his MCU counterpart. Though Thanos completely dismantles Druig, it's hard to argue that the duplicitous Eternal doesn't have a point.
The original Thanos' cruelty and evil intentions exceed his "madness" in the MCU. In the comics, Thanos intends to destroy life, obtain insane power levels, and court Lady Death because he enjoys it, not because he believes it will benefit anyone other than himself. Regardless of what happens after comics Thanos snaps away half the universe's life, he's already succeeded in his goal. In contrast, even if one accepts that overpopulation is a problem in the MCU, Thanos' plan of eliminating half of all life is doomed to fail. People will eventually repopulate, so Thanos' plan is only a bandaid at best. In contrast, the Thanos readers see in Eternals #11 knows that people will repopulate, he just doesn't care.
Even though he is arguably the MCU's most effective villain, Thanos' grand plan wouldn't even work in the long run. This new issue of Eternals proves that the comics version of Thanos isn't just more sinister, he's also smart enough to see the flaws in the movie version's plan.