Marvel Announces Thanos' New Codename As An Official Superhero

Published Sep 13, 2026, 9:41 AM EDT

Robert Wood is a writer and editor based out of Cheshire, England. He is the author of 'The False Elephant: and 99 Other Unreasonably Short Stories' - 100 stories, each told in exactly 100 words.

Rob got into comics via Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man and the UK anthology 'The Mighty World of Marvel,' which was running Frank Miller's Daredevil, Classic Hulk and Contest of Champions II.

Prior to journalism, he worked in copywriting and copyedited for Oxford University Press. He is on X as @PinchTwigs and Instagram as roobwoodjourno.

Thanks to Josh Brolin's depiction of the villain in the MCU, there is perhaps no Marvel villain better known than Thanos, the Mad Titan... which makes it all the more shocking that Marvel just rebooted the fearsome enemy of all life as a full-blown superhero.

Debuting in 1973, Thanos is a product of cosmic experimentation, with his father Mentor unsuccessfully combining Eternal and Deviant DNA, creating an uber-powerful psychopath of interstellar proportions.

Thanos was a recurring enemy of the original Captain Marvel, and went on to menace the Avengers and Eternals, never more famously than in 1991's Infinity Gauntlet and its movie adaptation. While the tiniest slivers of compassion have shone through his nihilistic exterior - mostly in regards to his adopted daughter Gamora - Thanos is as villainous as it gets... or so it seemed until now.

Thanos Becomes The Titanson In Heroic Redesign

The recent Marvel Dimensions - from Alex Ross, Jason Millet, Josh Johnson and Ariana Maher - depicts a new reality known as the In-Verse. This reality is the opposite of Earth-616, with classic heroes becoming villains and villains becoming heroes. That applies to even the biggest of Marvel's antagonists, with Thanos transformed into the heroic "Titanson."

While most of the comic follows the evil 'heroes' of this reality, the ending sees them confronted by a massive coalition of heroes, with Thanos turning up as one of the heaviest hitters. During the final battle, 'Titanson' is shown fighting an evil version of Adam Warlock (above), who is wearing a crown dotted with the Infinity Stones.

Adam Warlock is a longtime ally/nemesis of Thanos in traditional lore, existing in moral greys with the big-picture goal of maintaining the universe itself. It therefore makes sense that the 'good' Thanos is similarly antiheroic in In-Verse lore, wearing the Kree sigil of the original Captain Marvel.

While Mar-Vell was undoubtedly a villain in this universe, the mainstream Thanos and Captain Marvel had a mutual respect, with Thanos even helping to guide Captain Marvel to the afterlife following his death from cancer. It seems that in the In-Verse, some echo of this bond persisted, just with an opposite hero/villain dynamic.

Thanos' Hero Redesign Confirms He Isn't Marvel's #1 Villain

While Thanos is a heavy hitter in Marvel Dimensions' conclusion, he's not the leader of the heroic alliance. That role goes to 'Brother Doom,' the heroic version of Doctor Doom, who releases the Great Galen as his ultimate weapon - a heroic equivalent to Galactus.

Doctor Doom's opposite being the In-Verse's greatest hero strongly implies Doctor Doom is Earth-616's greatest villain, and outside the MCU (at least so far) that's pretty provably true. While Infinity Gauntlet is one of Marvel's best-known event stories, Doctor Doom has been a threat to Earth and its heroes many more times than Thanos, and even famously tore out the Mad Titan's spine when they clashed in 2015's Secret Wars.

Marvel Dimensions Has Endless Sequel Potential

Marvel Dimensions ends without revealing the outcome of this seismic battle, and hopefully future stories will visit this alternate reality again. DC has long had Earth-3 as an evil reflection of its main reality, but Marvel has never had a consistent equivalent until the In-Verse, opening up endless story opportunities.

One of the biggest sources of potential to emerge from the In-Verse are its new heroes. Seeing all of Marvel's greatest evil-doers suddenly on the side of the angels is fascinating, with Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus becoming Dragon-Rider and the Kraken, Loki becoming the Asguardian and Magneto becoming the Metallurgist.

It would be fascinating to see Marvel follow-up on these new versions of classic characters with one-off stories revealing how the individuals who became terrors on Earth-616 instead became heroes. Indeed, no version of this morality flip could be more fascinating than seeing how Thanos became the Titanson.

Marvel Dimensions is available now from Marvel Comics.