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Thanos #6

Sep 2019
Tini Howard, Ariel Olivetti

Thanos #6 cover

Story Name:

Zero Sanctuary: Part 6 of 6


Synopsis

Thanos #6 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
In the present Gamora is on Halfworld looking after a young Magus, but she leaves him temporarily to confront the 'ghost' of Thanos who's watching them. (She killed Thanos in Infinity Wars Prime and this ghost may just be in her head/conscience.) And she continues to reminisce to *him* about their early life together.

Back in the ongoing flashback they are on the Kyln facility at the edge of the universe. Very young Gamora is attacking him with Proxima Midnight's 'pitchfork' but of course the Titan shrugs it off. Death appears to them and mocks him for coming here to let the anti-matter of the Crunch kill him. He protests that that *wasn't* his plan and she *isn't* Death - who reveals herself to be Magus in disguise.

Magus says that he knows enough of the future (because he comes from the far future) to know that the 3 of them are destined to fight. In fact he seems to claim that he engineered their original meeting (and that he's been impersonating Death from that point in #1). His purpose in getting the 3 of them here is to persuade Thanos and/or Gamora to join him. He holds the Titan back with a forcefield while he gives the girl the usual offer of convert (to his Universal Church Of Truth) or die. She rejects him so he threatens her life to get Thanos to submit.

Back on Thanos' base Zero Sanctuary many of the crew are mutinying and fighting against others. Ebony Maw and Proxima Midnight of the elite Butcher Squadron thread their way through the conflict back to Thanos' control room to try to figure out what their boss's plan must be. They discover that the orbital station is surrounded by warships of the Universal Church and that Sanctuary has started moving to ram their command ship. They commandeer an escape pod and get out before the 2 ships collide. The Blood Brothers seem to be the only other survivors in another pod.

Magus feels the death of so many of his followers which temporarily weakens him. *This* was Thanos' plan, although he seems to think he's killed *all* Magus' flock. Whatever, it will take Magus time to rebuild his strength. So for now he just beats the 'god' up to emphasise how easily he can be defeated. And then he restrains Gamora from killing Magus, saying that she'll do it some day in the future while he watches. They leave Magus on Kyln, but Gamora doesn't understand why he didn't just let her kill their foe then. (Present-day Gamora thinks it was because complicated Thanos didn't want to completely ruin the little girl's innocence yet.)

Many months later Sanctuary 1 is under construction. Ebony, Proxima and the BB's come begging Thanos' forgiveness for the things they did in earlier issues. The Titan actually commends the 1st 2 for their smartness in betraying him when he seemed weak and being survivors. So he promotes them to his new Cull Obsidian, which seems to include young Gamora. (And we know that the Blood Brothers are still working for him in his 1st published app in Iron Man #55.) A later scene shows young adult bladeswoman Gamora with her cybernetic arm and leg replaced by vat-grown limbs indistinguishable from the real thing. And another scene shows her with Thanos as the most dangerous woman in the galaxy in her original (Strange Tales #180) green outfit.

In the present the reincarnated young Magus asks Gamora if she ever really saw Death. She says she thinks it was Magus all the time (and presumably it was his plan that Thanos would be drawn to her because she seemed to be the only other person who could see his love Death). Now she tells young Magus to take her small spaceship Lachesis/Lucky and go find his new destiny in the universe. But in case of need she's programmed in a destination he can choose where people who've been hurt by Magus go.

She's left on Halfworld with Thanos' ghost who questions her decision. She says that if the young boy is to have a chance of growing up good he needs not to be raised by a killer like her, as she was raised by Thanos.


 

Review / Commentaries


Thanos #6 Review by (June 18, 2022)
What happens next for the chars in the flashback past?

Well for Thanos and Gamora it depends a lot on whether her 2017 mini-series counts. The problem with it is that it has Nebula raised by Thanos as her foster-sister with the cybernetic look of of her post-Secret Wars (and Marvel film) apps, whereas in the pre-Secret Wars past she was not cybernetic and Thanos claimed not to know her. Also here it's the Badoon who killed her people (which was deemed true at some point in Marvel's convoluted timeline). It would probably be set between the last 2 flashbacks of this issue, when she's a young woman warrior but before she's the Deadliest Woman In The Galaxy.

Without that she'll have several minor apps with him as a youngster (FBs in Infinity Wars #2, Marvel Holiday 1992 and Guardians Of Infinity #6) before Thanos Legacy sees her sent as a teen on her 1st kill and an FB in Warlock And The Infinity Watch #9 has the teen get beaten up so that Thanos has to rebuild her body (probably before the penultimate FB of this issue which shows her as a warrior). Then in an FB in Warlock #10 Thanos lets her kill her people's killers (which obviously at that point wasn't supposed to be *him*, and which would tie in to the Gamora series). And then we reach Strange Tales #180 and the original debut of the Deadliest Woman In The Galaxy.

Meanwhile Thanos is involved in the destruction of the Douglas' family car in an Iron Man #55 FB which results in the origins of both Drax The Destroyer and Moondragon (and allows Heather Douglas to grow up during the same time as Gamora). Then he has the above bits with Gamora before bombing his birthplace Titan in Thanos Rising #5 and many other issues. And then it's on to another inserted mini-series Thanos: A God Up There Listening before we get to his 1st published app in IM#55.

Ebony Maw and Proxima Midnight will next appear in the TAGUTL mini-series (the flashback section) with the rest of the Black Order (an alternative name for the Cull Obsidian) (but without Gamora), before the Black Order make their original 1st app in during the Infinity event.

And the Blood Brothers will show up working for Thanos in IM#55.

Magus will move on to his original 1st app in Strange Tales #178.

But what of Gamora and Magus in the present?

Gamora is on Halfworld to look for Rocket Raccoon, and we'll see her on that quest in Guardians Of The Galaxy (2019) #3 onwards.

Young Magus will turn up in #9 of that series when the GOTG recruit him to help them.

Thanos himself will be resurrected in #5 of that GOTG series only to be dropped into a black hole in the following issue. He'll be rescued from there in the current Eternals series where he'll become Prime Eternal.



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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Ariel Olivetti
Ariel Olivetti
Antonio Fabela
Jeff Dekal (Cover Penciler)
Jeff Dekal (Cover Inker)
Jeff Dekal (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Joe Caramagna.
Editor: Darren Shan. Editor-in-chief: C. B. Cebulski.

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