Hank McCoy (Before the Fur)


With Thanos set to be the 'big bad' in the next sequence of Avengers films and a Guardians of the Galaxy movie in the works, I've been wondering just how cosmic and out there Marvel's going to get with all of this. There's that whole really weird set of strange entitities in the Marvel universe that represent the personification of concepts at play in the universe. I'm pretty sure someone big is set to play the Collector in Guardians (Benicio del Toro is pretty big). I think the Collector was just a strange, ancient alien being and not quite at the level I'm talking about here, but still a relatively obscure and bizarre part of the landscape, right?

Well, if Thanos IS around...I'm wondering about death. Death isn't exactly a villain in the Marvel Universe; she just kind of 'is'. She isn't good or bad. She just gets personified as a silent, beautiful, seductive figure. She doesn't seem like she has any motive per se...she just kind of exists. Different writers have, of course, put different spins on this. Death isn't exactly benevolent and does seem somewhat insatiable in her hunger to have others 'join' her. Infinity Gauntlet fans are likely to remember that Thanos is so obsessed with Death that he even goes so far as to interact with her (a privilege very few get) and to romanticize his relationship with this being. Thanos' attempts to woo her involve wiping out half of all life in the known universe. That's quite an engagement ring.

Are we gearing up for a retelling of this whole saga? I think something along these lines--in a condensed form--is possible.

Marvel's incarnation of Death is sort of distant, statuesque and unknowable. Others take a different approach. DC's death has a bit more personality, courtesy of Neil Gaiman and the Sandman series. While never exactly part of the mainstream DC universe, characters from Sandman do make an appearance now and again (or at least characters from DC make an appearance from Sandman).

People seem to love this Death. And I sort of have come to think of her as not really good or bad, but just sort of honest? Death doesn't mince words. She's a little bit harsh that way and she tells you the truth, even if it hits you hard. That's my impression anyway.

Will Marvel cast Death to co-star in some sick, Thanos epic? I'd actually be really interested to see them take this on. It's one of the things in the comics that always seemed so strange that it's hard to imagine what exactly it would be like outside of the comic. Someone has a chance of trying something like that if they're feeling ambitious. Of course, that all depends on how true to form they want to make Thanos and how much they want to draw from the storyline that made Thanos such a big deal to begin with. In that same token...do they want to make Death the same way? Silent, mysterious? Something new?

Any ideas on who would be an idea cast for this if they went this route?

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