Rating: 3.5/5 – Continuing the exploration of Thanos’ origin
Thanos Rising is exploring the origin of one of Marvel’s most popular villains. Writer Jason Aaron and artist Simone Bianchi’s six issue series has taken us from the birth of Thanos, up to where we are now, with Thanos leading a crew of space pirates who’s focus is to destroy worlds as well as Thanos’ many children. If you’re familiar with Thanos from the popular 90’s series the Infinity Gauntlet, then you’ll know that he’s driven in his quest to destroy and kill everything in the universe to please his ultimate love, Mistress Death. Just who she is, and Thanos’ relationship with her is further explored in this issue.
Jason Aaron is showing us a Thanos that is not as powerful as we know him to be and is still self doubting. In an early sequence in the book we see Thanos shooting energy out of his hands, kirby-dots and all (also seen on the cover). Through his inner monologue we see that he’s designed this energy projection himself. It’s a smart way to show that Thanos is not just an all-powerful god, but that he’s somewhat “human”. And that idea of making Thanos more human-like, makes him that much more crazy and evil. Aaron does a great job of making Thanos seem weak and desperate, while at the same time hinting at just how powerful and driven he’ll eventually become. Aaron also provides some answers on just who Death is while leaving the door open for different interpretations.
Simone Bianchi’s art does fit the mood of this series, I’m just not sure about the way he depicts Thanos. To me he doesn’t have that larger than life stature that he should, and his face is less pronounced. This is all very subjective I know, but he just doesn’t have the same dramatic features that we’ve become used to. Overall though the art is beautiful, even if Bianchi’s style doesn’t always fit my tastes.
I do feel that this issue is the best one yet. For me this series started off weak, but has been getting better with each subsequent issue. It was great to see the relationship between Thanos and Death explained, and the final page leaves you wanting to see just how this will end.
Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas – shawn@comicspectrum.com
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