Review: Thanos Rising
Quick Summary
Pros: The main narrative is extremely interesting and has plenty of thrills to go along with it. The entire work is written with a darkness that matches Thanos as a character. Readers learn a ton about Thanos throughout the read. The artwork looks nice and is a good complement to the subject material.
Cons: The story may be too dark for some readers.
Overall: This is a Thanos story that grabs onto your attention from the start and simply does not let go. The volume dives into Thanos’ past, showing the cruel mechanisms that turned him from an innocent child to a mass murderer. This journey is interesting, exciting, well-written, and has some beautiful artwork to go along with it. Anyone who likes Thanos or who is interesting in seeing a shocking dark origin for Marvel’s most prominent villain should read this volume.
Story
Thanos Rising, by Jason Aaron, is an incredibly dark and well-written look at the early history of one of the Marvel Universe’s most prolific killers. It depicts the early days of Thanos and shows how he went from an innocent child to the terror readers know him as today. This journey is incredibly interesting to see play out and is also approached with a sense of excitement that will keep readers on the edge of their seat as it unfolds. By the end of the volume, fans learn more about Thanos while also being treated to a fantastic story.
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The most impressive aspect of Thanos Rising is Jason Aaron’s ability to capture the malevolence and disturbing insanity one would expect to see in the life of someone labeled as the “Mad Titan”. Readers watch as Thanos goes from a relatively normal child, to one intrigued by the mechanisms of death, to one obsessed with murder, and, finally, to a man hanging on the edge of insanity. This progression is handled well all the way through and happens in a way that manages to be both realistic and unbelievable at the same times. I often felt like I was reading the biography of a real-world serial killer, which is a testament to the feelings this read evokes.
Thanos Rising is also just plain interesting. Earlier Thanos stories almost entirely focused on his present exploits and only made vague hints about his past. This volume lifts the veil and dives headfirst into this previously unknown history. Everything within this read feels fresh and new, which makes the whole read rewarding.
All of this information is also revealed in a way that ensures the story is continuously exciting. Early chapters have Thanos’ sadistic experiments on the verge of discovery, later chapters paint Thanos as a time bomb ready to explode, and the final chapters see him struggle with his own sanity. Conflict is ever-present, whether it is straightforward or not.
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Art
The artwork in Thanos Rising looks great and suits the book well. Simone Bianchi creates detailed but uniquely stylized pages. These make the Thanos’ world feel alive but ensures that this sense of life has a dark and creepy vibe to it. This is helped along even further by the occasionally rough lines and purposeful balance of light and shadow, all of which gives the sense that anything can go wrong in this comic. The artwork also has a level of creativity to it that matches the cosmic nature of the storytelling, making distant planets feel as otherworldly as they should. In the end, the artwork in this volume is a huge plus for the volume as a whole and is something that really helps bring home the theme and tone of the work.
Continuity
Thanos: Rising is a mostly standalone story that is not directly preceded by any particular comic.
Several thematic elements from this comic are continued on in the Infinity event (Review) (Reading Order), which was published shortly after Thanos Rising.