In the movies,
Thanos was one of the greatest genocides in the entire
Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Many people don't know that in addition to causing the deaths of millions of innocent beings, he was also responsible for wiping out his own family.
To understand this correctly, we need to dig deeper into the relationship between the Mad Titan and the
Eternals, stars of Marvel's next big cosmic movie.
Who were Thanos' parents?
[caption id="attachment_71640" align="alignnone" ]
A'Lars was the heir to the Eternals' royalty.[/caption]
Thanos is the son of an Eternals couple - his father is
A'Lars, and his mother,
Sui-san.
Heir to the throne of the Eternals, A'Lars left his life behind, going into exile on Titan so as not to betray his pacifist ideals. During this exile, he met Sui-san, the last surviving member of the clan responsible for instigating the war between the Eternals on Earth.
They began to work together and were responsible for transforming the distant moon of Titan into a lush paradise, home to a new generation of Eternals that emerged thanks to technological advances. While leading their people into an era of prosperity, they eventually fell in love and had two sons:
Eros and
Thanos.
Why did Thanos kill his parents?
However, while all members of his species look like humans, Thanos was born with Deviant Syndrome. This rare condition causes his appearance to resemble that of the Deviant race, cousins, and enemies of the Eternals. His gray skin and deformed body terrified his mother.
She swore that this was a sign that he would bring ruin to the universe and tried to kill her son soon after giving birth to the little one. Completely horrified, A'Lars committed his wife to a hospital so that she could not pose a danger to his children, whom he raises with great affection.
[caption id="attachment_71641" align="alignnone" ]
Sui-san tries to kill baby Thanos.[/caption]
But even with his father's efforts, Thanos would carry traumas for the rest of his life.
During his early school years, Thanos was a peaceful boy. However, he became a dark and vengeful boy due to the discrimination he was subjected to, both from his family and the rest of the Eternal society.
When his mother tries to reconnect after many years, the Titan unceremoniously takes her life. How this happens varies depending on which comic you are reading: in one version, she dies in an attack on Titan; in another, she is dissected by her own son in an attempt to understand what was wrong with him.
Anyway, facing the fact that his son was a monster was not easy for A'Lars either. So he begins to help any hero who would be willing to stand up to Thanos' atrocities.
Many years later, when the Mad Titan is sick, he tries to turn to his father for a cure. But A'Lars says he couldn't develop a drug in time, and even if it were possible, he would never help someone so cruel. So in retaliation, Thanos kills A'Lars in the most brutal way possible...
In the MCU
Despite all this, a direct connection between Thanos and the Eternals has yet to be established in the MCU. The closest we've come to uncovering Thanos' origin is a brief reference made by the Red Skull and the villain's own unreliable accounts of how the planet of Titan collapsed.
Still, the physical resemblance between the deviant Kro that appeared in the Eternals final trailer may be a clue that we could get an explanation in theaters very soon.
[caption id="attachment_71642" align="alignnone" ]
In the comics, Kro is very similar to Thanos.[/caption]