The Thanos Quest

The Thanos Quest
Thanos features on the cover of The Thanos Quest #1 (Sep. 1990).
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Format	Mini-series
Genre
Publication date(s)	Sep. - Oct. 1990
No. of issues	2
Main character(s)	Thanos
Creative team
Written by	Jim Starlin
Penciller(s)	Ron Lim
Inker(s)	John Beatty
Colorist(s)	Tom Vincent
Collected editions
Rebirth Of Thanos	ISBN

The Thanos Quest is a two-issue comic book limited series published in September and October 1990 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Jim Starlin, and drawn by Ron Lim.

The storyline is a continuation of events involving resurrected Starlin-character Thanos, featured in the title Silver Surfer. The storyline leads directly into three consecutive limited series, The Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, and Infinity Crusade.

Recently resurrected by Death in order to wipe out half of the population of the universe, the Titan Thanos discovers the true nature of the six Infinity Gems after gazing into Death's Infinity Well. Convincing Death that possession of the gems will aid him tremendously in his quest, he gains her permission to seek them out from the cosmic entities that currently possess them.

In Part One of the Thanos Quest, Thanos first travels to the Nexus of Reality where the "concept being" known as the In-Betweener is being imprisoned by Lord Chaos and Master Order; after freeing him from the sphere in which he is being incarcerated, Thanos forcibly takes the Soul Gem from the In-Betweener, whose powers are useless at the heart of the realm of Chaos and Order.

Thanos next seeks out the Champion of the Universe on a planet called Tamarata, where he has been testing his combat prowess against the planet's numerous armies. Challenging him to single combat, Thanos tricks the Champion into destroying the planet and stranding himself in space. He then offers the Champion transportation to the nearest planet in exchange for the Champion's Power Gem, to which the Champion agrees, believing that the gem has never functioned, but not realizing that he has tapped into its power reserves subconsciously. Thanos upholds his part of the bargain, but jettisons the Champion into the unnamed planet's atmosphere, leaving him to plummet to the planet's surface. His reasoning is that he had never promised the Champion a "soft landing."