Thanos: Working Hard or Hardly Working?

   One of my complaints about the MCU has been a rather glaring lack of development in its villains.  As a group, they seem to be fairly interchangeable - snarling threat figures, with a gimmick and glib dialogue but little in the way of character growth, depth, or even real personality when you get right down to it.  The MCU movies have been dominated by the heroes, and that's coming at the expense of the villains, which is a shame when you consider the wasted potential.  Magneto, in the X-Men films (which are Marvel, but not MCU as they're produced by Fox) is proof alone that the potential exists for a well-written nemesis, but somehow that's not translating in the MCU.

   Tom Hiddleston's Loki is something of an exception, in that he simply exudes personality, far more than any of the other MCU Big Bads.  But even Loki's actions are trite and vague, and there's that same, nebulous "I want to rule the world just 'cause..." attitude that the others share.  You could probably try and extrapolate some motivation, but for the most part, all of the MCU villains have been one-trick ponies or sneering goofballs with a schtick...Iron-Monger, Abomination, Whiplash, Red Skull, Aldrich Killian, Ultron.  Baron Strucker was a non-entity.  Don't even get me started on Mandarin.  And I think an argument could be made that Malekith & Kurse from Thor 2 are actually secretly doubling as Ronan & Korath from Guardians.

I've done Shakespeare, you know.

   However, the biggest of the Big Bads has been lurking in the background of three films, and as we move forward, I expect we'll see a lot more of him.  Thanos is the mover and shaker behind the over-arching plot of the whole MCU, namely, the acquisition of the Infinity Stones, which will presumably lead to a huge throwdown with every character thus far introduced in the forthcoming Infinity War films.  So far, we haven't gotten much in the way of screen time for Thanos, so it may be that he'll get his due as a character, but I'm not holding out hope based on what we've seen so far.  Sure, there'll be some obligatory dialogue to say that he wants to rule the world so he can destroy everyone for Death, his would-be mistress, but I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up showing the same monotonous lack of depth and character we've seen so far.

   But...

   My wife and I were chatting about this recently, and we hit upon a way Marvel could retcon much of the disappointing villainy so far, if they chose, by using Thanos as a subtle manipulator, rather than just the Monster at the End of This Shared Universe.  Basically, this way revolves around three moments from Age of Ultron:

1.  It is revealed that Loki's staff from the first Avengers movie contains the Mind Stone, as many viewers had suspected.

2.  Ultron is building the 'perfect body' to host his own consciousness, and plans to use the Mind Gem for it.

3.  In the mid-credits scene, Thanos snatches the Infinity Gauntlet and declares something to the effect of "Fine, I'll do it myself."

     Now, that third one is a little strange in and of itself...sharp-eyed viewers will have noticed the Infinity Gauntlet tucked away in Asgard in the first Thor movie, and wherever Thanos was at the end of AoU, it was not Asgard.  Also, it strikes me as a little odd that he keeps the Gauntlet stuck...where, exactly, a closet?   It makes me wonder if there are other items in there....an Infinity Fedora, perhaps?  Infinity Pants?  Perhaps undergarments...is Thanos more of an Infinity Boxers or Infinity Briefs type?  Or...(shudder)...an Infinity Thong?  Is this line for both sexes?  Is there an Infinity Bra, by chance?

Enjoy that image.

    There are six Infinity Stones, and the whereabouts of two of them are as yet unknown, the Time Stone and the Soul Stone.  At least one will have to figure into the Doctor Strange movie, methinks.  As to the other four, a quick recap:

1.  The Space Stone (aka the Tesseract or the Cosmic Cube):  Last seen in the first Avengers movie, taken to Asgard and presumably still there.

2.  The Reality Stone (aka the Aether):  Given to the Collector by Sif and Volstagg at the end of the second Thor movie; presumably still in the Collector's possession.

3.  The Power Stone:  In the possession of the Nova Corps and the end of the Guardians film.

4.  The Mind Stone:  Currently powering the Vision at the end of Age of Ultron...which may not bode so well for Marvel's favorite synthetic man once the time comes for the gathering of the stones.

   We know Thanos needs all six stones in order to achieve full Godhood, or whatever you want to call it.  So here's a theory:  What if everything that has happened pertaining to the stones has been by design...not just what we've seen, but what may be happening behind the scenes.  We know that Loki and Ronan were at least at times working for Thanos...indeed, Ronan was supposed to be acquiring the Power Stone *for* Thanos, before he decided to go solo.  So we can safely assume that Ronan messed up Thanos' plans.  But as for the rest...

"If I had a hammer, I'd hammer on the Nova..."

   By equipping Loki's staff with the Mind Gem, Thanos is putting one of his six most coveted things into the hands of someone else, and then Loki gets his butt whupped.  But what if he was supposed to?  Consider the events after the first Avengers movie...the Space Stone gets taken to Asgard, and SHIELD ends up with the staff.   As subsequent events have shown us, though, Loki has secretly taken over Asgard, and Hydra infiltrated SHIELD and gained possession of the Mind Stone, which the Avengers eventually retrieved.

   So what if that was all part of the plan?  What if Loki was *supposed* to 'fail', as part of a master plan to have him with Asgard at his heel, and thus able to acquire the Space Stone?  Beyond that, what if the games Hydra was playing with the staff, whatever they were, were part of a plot to lead to Ultron's creation (perhaps even thanks to the Avengers), and had Ultron's plan worked, he would have been in possession of the Mind Stone, so if his whole existence were part of Thanos/Loki's scheme, that stone would be in the hands of one of Thanos' agents?  What if, somehow, the return of the Dark Elves was also orchestrated by Thanos/Loki, to trigger the return of the Reality Stone?  If all of that had worked out the way the various schemes had started, Thanos would have had four stones in the hands of willing pawns, in safe keeping and ready to be gathered. 

   In a way, that's the only means by which that Thanos' line at the end of AoU makes sense.  The "I'll do it myself" thing makes it seem as though he was watching Ultron and relying on him and expecting a different outcome, doesn't it?  (Unless it transpires he's reacting to something else entirely, which we've not seen yet?)

   I'll grant that this could be stretching, especially the bit about the Dark Elves...I'm not totally sold on that myself, so it may require some more thought.   But it's a theory which could explain the rather bland nature of the villains so far, in that they're only supposed to be henchmen working for a Master Planner (who, sadly, due to rights issues, cannot be Doc Ock.)  It would mean sacrificing lesser characters, namely Ronan, Malekith and Ultron, for the good of a more potent villain: Thanos.  Loki, for his part, could be scheming, Starscream-like, with his own agenda to usurp his puppet master down the road. 

Be thankful the plan was to put the Mind Gem on the forehead, and not some other place that he's fond of showing.

  It's just a theory, and given the mediocre writing on the villains so far, the only way it could work would be as a retcon...I wouldn't believe Marvel at this stage if they tried to claim they'd underwritten the villains on purpose.  But it could be a huge saving grace moving forwards, by offering an explanation of foresight and strategy.  Since another of my issues with the MCU has been a lack of consequence between different entries, it would go a long way towards giving us a sense that there actually is a master plan, after all, and it's not just about adhering to the cheap and easy formula of a Macguffin Device, sought by a standard growling meanie,  thrashed into oblivion by 'noble' heroes who overcome themselves to unite in the final reel.

   We'll see...most of Marvel's best villains belong to Spider-Man, the X-Men or the Fantastic Four, and as such, haven't figured into the MCU.  So for the most part we're talking about second-tier names to begin with.  I think it'd be pretty neat if Marvel could contrive a way of elevating these characters from photogenic, action-figure-worthy punching bags into great villains.  They'd still have to worry about things like motivation and depth, but at least there'd be a start.  For Thanos' sake, I hope so.  Time will tell.