We're likely done with Thanos material while we're still Vader and Joker material every other year. I mean hell, Joker just had a movie that was nominated for a ton of Academy Awards. Then there is Vader who it seems is getting a lot of screen time in the Obi-Wan show.
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Now that's almost been two years since Endgame, do you think Thanos has joined the status of iconic villain like Darth Vader and Joker ?
- Thread starter CaptainKashup
- Start date
What an interesting distinction to make.
I can't even think of any iconic Joker lines on the level of "Luke, I am your father." (Even if that isn't the actual quote)
and Joker has a much richer media history going back to Cesar Romero in Batman 66
I'm 33 and definitely think he's just as iconic as Vader and Joker.
There's degrees of popularity here obviously and you aren't gonna easily top some guys but he's in their league.
There's degrees of popularity here obviously and you aren't gonna easily top some guys but he's in their league.
Yeah, but you're not scared of Grimace. You either want to hug him or tell him milkshakes are a sometimes food.
Nah, I love the MCU but those two are far above Thanos. I wouldn't even call Thanos the most iconic Marvel villain.
These days, I'm not sure about that. Here in the UK, the home of Tolkien and LOTR, ask any kids, teenagers, and young adults and they're far more likely to know who Thanos, Vader and the Joker are than Sauron.
The difference with Joker is there isn't "one" Joker. He's more of a foundation of a character, the colours, laugh, archenemy status, etc, which many incarnations have tied together. From Romero to Nicholson to Hamill to Ledger and now Phoenix. Vader on the other hand is a specific character in one film series.
Gonna be honest, I couldn't take Thanos seriously. Like he didn't feel like a threat, even though logically watching those two movies he should have. Especially after everything he did. I'm thinking his character didn't resonate with me much. With that said, he's pretty iconic, but dunno if he's in their tier.
Sauron is hardly even a characrer. He's more like a force or concept. The eye is more like iconography than anything else.
Surely you're talking about Loki? He's the only other option, and really, definitionally, it's hard to call him a villain, at least in the same way you would call Thanos a villain. Thanos would never get a series, for example.
Especially given Sauron at least in the LOTR films, which most people know, is not really a character, he's more of a concept and threat. He doesn't even have any clear lines in the films, nor do they delve into any aspect of his long, long backstory. He's just "bad guy" then "bad eye". It works for the film and his eye is an iconic image but not as a character.
because those demographics were the kids when Star Wars came out. Marvel movies are as big to the current generation as SW was back in the day, you'll see in time
Again, an interesting thing to consider when evaluating Thanos.. Everyone has "their Joker" or the platonic ideal of Joker or the admission that he can actually be wildly different across interpretations and still work great. But there's really only one Darth Vader, one idea of who he is and what he should be like, and even Anakin is treated as a different character.
There's now two pretty different versions of Thanos in media: the ones based on the comic concept and the MCU.
OP
OP
Even the polls being balanced is on Thanos side, guys.
Face the truth. And for thos who denies his iconic nature ?
Well..
Face the truth. And for thos who denies his iconic nature ?
Well..
I asked my 3 year old niece and she told me Marvel ain't shit because Peppa Pig is the real deal. But who's the villain in Peppa Pig? 🤔
Nah, I think the difference is Darth Vader and The Joker transcends their respective source material as being well known by name. People who don't watch Star Wars and Batman will know who those two are. I don't think Thanos is as widely recognizable when you move past the movies and comics. So I don't think he stands up to their level yet.
Just wait until after Secret Wars happens and all the articles are "who should be the next Thanos"
In terms of pop-culture significance I think Vader is hard to top, but he definitely in the ball park.
He will be THE villain for an entire generation of kids.
He will be THE villain for an entire generation of kids.
Nah, I'd say Magneto has proven he has staying power. The jury is still out on Thanos and Loki since they're more recent. I was unclear in my post though, had meant Marvel movies as a whole.
This is ERA where nothing Marvel did compares to the stuff you the poster watched when you were 12.
But yes he is, and the generation growing on Marvel will continue to hype and meme him for a long time
But yes he is, and the generation growing on Marvel will continue to hype and meme him for a long time
Ah okay, that's fair, I do think Magneto will be huge once introduced to the MCU machine.
Vader's story was done 40 years ago, and Disney desperately milking every last dime from his rotting corpse is more pathetic and a sad reflection on the state of the Star Wars fandom than it is an argument in his favor.
The Joker is at least being reimagined in new ways, even if they aren't always great. He's a more relatable type of villain that fits into a lot of different contexts. He's been around and popular from cheesy TV shows in the 60s, to the gothic style 80s Batman, to the animated series and Arkham games with Mark Hamill, to Heath Ledger's legendary performance, all the way through to Jared Leto and Joaquin Phoenix's latest takes. He's a character you can do a lot of interesting stuff with.
Thanos is probably closer to Vader in that his time in the sun is done, but I don't think Marvel will try to pathetically wheel him out every few years like Star Wars does. It's easy for people who grew up on Star Wars to answer Vader, but outside of the western world, Star Wars is not the property that Marvel is these days. The same is probably broadly true of the younger generation whose Star Wars exposure is the last 20 years of embarrassing shit like the prequels and pointless rehashes of older, better movies in the Disney era.
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And let's be real, that really means there's one version of Thanos, the MCU one. The general public doesn't read comics, their familiarity comes from film and TV. It's not a coincidence the superheroes with the best known rogues galleries are the ones with the most frequent TV or film adaptations, Batman and Spider-Man, for instance. After all Thanos in the MCU is quite different from his comics counterpart and in fact very central parts of his comics character are now wholly absent from the pop cultural image of him (like the whole Death thing).
A few of my kids don't care about the MCU at all but the damn sure know who Thanos is. My 12 yo daughter, no MCU or Fortnite knows who he is.
Thanos is unique among villains in that I don't think his appearance or personality is what makes him iconic, unlike Vader, Joker, Voldemort and the like. Instead, it's what he did.
As others have rightfully said, "Thanos snap" is a very understood thing. I hear non-comic book fans say it in conversation every once and a while. Hell, Eminem mentioned it in a song AND did it in a music video.
As others have rightfully said, "Thanos snap" is a very understood thing. I hear non-comic book fans say it in conversation every once and a while. Hell, Eminem mentioned it in a song AND did it in a music video.
Pretty sure if I asked a boomer who is not a Marvel fan who Thanos is, they'd have no idea. So, no.
Therein lies the issue with Sauron. You need to read those books to give him any depth beyond his depiction in the trilogy and those books are certainly not pop culture cornerstones.
Totally meaningless in the long-term.
Like, literally meaningless
That "boomer" would have been a youngster when Darth Vader debuted so that's a pretty useless metric.
There are more people in the world outside of kids. Those two villains are widely recognized across all ages. I'll counter your anecdotal example with mine. My wife knows instantly who Darth Vader and The Joker are, but I'm pretty sure she would have no idea who Thanos is if I brought it up to her since she hasn't watched a lot of the Marvel movies.
People overestimate this. Just because a movie makes a huge profit does not mean it will have the same kind of cultural impact of Star Wars etc.
Avatar made a lot of money can you name one character from that movie with out looking it up?
Also memes don't mean shit outside of a tiny internet bubble most of the time (and when they breach that bubble it usually not a good thing).
I'm not saying kids don't like Thanos btw.
Avatar made a lot of money can you name one character from that movie with out looking it up?
Also memes don't mean shit outside of a tiny internet bubble most of the time (and when they breach that bubble it usually not a good thing).
I'm not saying kids don't like Thanos btw.