15 Strongest Versions of Thanos (Ranked)

When we’re talking about villains associated with Marvel Universe it’s hard not to think about Thanos. This iconic villain clashed with almost every hero in the universe throughout his long history of existence. That couldn’t be possible if Thanos wasn’t a Marvel powerhouse with abilities ranging from physical supremacy to cosmic-scale powers.

There have been many versions of Thanos created over the years and some are bound to be more powerful than others. In today’s post, we’re going to be dealing with Thanos’ many iterations over the years, having said that let’s take a look at the 15 most powerful versions of Thanos.

15. Poison Thanos

In Venomized reality, Thanos was tricked by the Poison Queen, he thought she was Lady Death and he was infected by Poison, a member of the predatory race of aliens who have the ability to enthrall Symbiotes and other organic beings. Thanos was chosen as the commander and leader of Poisons due to already being quite powerful in his own right.

This version of Thanos would have ended up much higher on this list except it had one major weakness which ultimately cost him his life. Because he was possessed by the Poison, he was bound to the Poison Queen as well this made disposing of him extremely easy when compared to other versions of Thanos.

Where Thanos is considered mostly invulnerable and extremely durable, Poison Thanos was merged with another organic being– Poison, which ultimately weakened Thanos. Not only that but when Jean Grey managed to take down Poison Queen this resulted in the ultimate and final death of Thanos. 

14. Higher-Powered Thanosi

You shouldn’t be surprised to find out that Thanos in fact managed to clone himself. He designed and created a series of clones for purpose of testing his allies and foes. Those clones were extremely powerful and shared both his powers and the powers of his enemies. The clones were at first meant to be destroyed, but by mistake, they were activated and released. Upon release, they joined forces in order to end the universe.

That kind of behavior was why Thanos wanted them destroyed in the first place. Higher-Powered Thanosi is Thanos’ clone who managed to obtain the power of Ragnarok. This version of Thanos had all other abilities attributed to Earth-616 Thanos as well. He was promptly stopped by Thor who was at the time empowered with Odin-Force.

13. X Thanos

Talking about Thanos clones, X Thanos is next on the list. He had all the powers and abilities of the original Thanos and a combination of powers inherited by Professor X. He was extremely skilled at telepathic illusion and other telepathy-related abilities.

12. Avenger Thanos 

In this reality, Thanos is hired by the Galactic Council to help in the war efforts again the Builders. Thanos and Captain America often clashed since Cap didn’t truly believe that Thanos has changed, and he was right. Captain America figured out that Thanos was only after killing his own son, he never wanted to truly protect the Earth.

This resulted in the two of them fighting and Captain America was murdered by Thanos. He picked up Cap’s shield and later used it to save Thor’s life. He sold him a touching story about how Captain America perished as a hero fighting the last of the Builders and now It’s up to him to continue the Cap’s legacy.

Thor was touched and extended the invitation to Thanos to join the Avengers. Later Thanos joined the Illuminati as well, fully taking on the role of Captain America. This version of Thanos is empowered by Cap’s shield which makes him slightly stronger than Earth-616’s counterpart.

11. Thanos the Just

Thanos the Just ruled Titan with benevolent intentions he was known as a just and wise leader the only thorn in his backside were criminals and other low-life scum. For that reason, he sought to find Reality Stone in order to purge the reality of criminals.

He hired Lord Starkill to find the Reality Stone. Starkill and his crew did eventually locate the stone but it was never delivered to Thanos, instead of executing them, Thanos just gave up on the whole plan and decided to leave justice to destiny. This benevolent and drastically different version of Thanos is power-wise the same as his earth-616 counterpart with the addition of flying.

10. Zombie Thanos

Zombie Thanos from Earth-2149 is seemingly as strong as Thanos from Earth-616 with one notable difference, he is infected with the zombie plague. Once infected with the plague Zombie Thanos joined forces with Zombie Galacti.

This results in the universe largely being eaten and devoid of life. As their appetites were growing Thanos and Hulk got into a fight, with the former accusing the latter of eating more of the universe than it was fair. Hulk consequently killed him using minimal effort.

9. Punisher Thanos

Punisher Thanos is the result of the Rider’s attempts to raise Thanos in a peaceful environment and to make him a better person, they were supposed to eventually create a more peaceful world together. Even though Thanos’ upbringing was relatively peaceful, he still reverted to his old ways and accepted his nature by forming the slums where he subjugated the populace that didn’t share his worldview of creating a sterile utopia.

Rider was unaware of this happening. He eventually found out that Thanos’ perfect reality had an ugly underbelly. This resulted in Rider and Thanos fighting and Thanos was killed. Punisher Thanos had all the same powers as his Eath-616 version with the addition of being capable of manipulating energy and telepathy.

8. Cancerverse Thanos

Cancerverse is a brutal reality where Life managed to defeat Death for good. This resulted in the whole of reality and every substance being infected by Many-Angled-Ones, eldritch beings with cosmic-level powers. Life as we know it was twisted and broken until it eventually took on the qualities of a „universe-wide living corpse“. Thanos likewise didn’t manage to outrun the corruption.

He was eventually possessed by Many-Angled Ones and Xandarian Worldmind. This only slightly enhanced his abilities as his main powers remained the same.

7. King Thanos

In this universe, Thanos was strong enough to kill every living being (except for Knull) in order to join Death as he was thoroughly obsessed with her. When nothing in this universe remained Thanos was crowned as King of nothing. Thanos from Earth-616 managed to stop him eventually.

6. Omega

Omega is the most powerful type of Thanosi clone. He had powers similar to both Thanos and Galactus, and allegedly his abilities surpassed those of Galactus as well. Omega woke up with the rest of his sibling clones and while they schemed ways how to bring about the destruction of the universe, Omega followed a different path.

He decided to devour the entire planets (like Galactus) to empower himself and turn himself into an unstoppable force of nature. Omega was eventually destroyed by Thanos with the help of Spider-Man

5. Zero Day Thanos

This version of Thanos was empowered by yet another gauntlet – Iso Gauntlet. It looked like his former Infinity Gauntlet, but instead of being powered by Infinity Stones, this gauntlet was empowered by Cosmic Cubes.

This made him extremely powerful as the Cosmic Cube gives its wielder the powers to me manipulate time, space, matter, and energy. Iso Gauntlet was used to kill half of Earth’s heroes. It goes without saying that Zero Day Thanos was especially terrible and powerful.

4. Thanoseid

First appearance: Thorion of the New Asgods #1

Thanoseid is obviously a merge between Darkseid, one of the most iconic DC villains, and Thanos. Thanoseid rules Apokolips with an iron fist. He wants to enslave and annihilate all of creation in order to impress Lady Death. His ultimate goal is to find Anti-Life Nullifier.

Speaking about Thanoseid’s powers he is immortal, invulnerable, and has most standard powers attributed to both Thanos and Darkseid. This version of Thanos is extremely powerful hence why he landed so high up on this list of most powerful Thanos forms.

3. Ultimate Thanos

Ultimate Thanos is empowered by the Cosmic Cube, an object of immense power that allows its ultimate control over matter, energy, and will of other sentient beings. The first time Thanos had dealings with the Cosmic Cube he was young and it landed on his homeworld. He immediately became obsessed with the thoughts of subjugating sentient beings in the universe and manipulating creation itself.

The story of how this Cube landed on Thanos’ homeworld is interesting indeed. Older Thanos was aware that Reed Richards had the capacities to build the Cosmic Cube. He attempted to manipulate Reed into creating one by murdering Johnny Storm and manipulating Ben Grimm. What he wasn’t aware of however was that Reed planned on building the Cube, not for Thanos but to defeat him. Reed built in certain mechanisms into the Cube that ultimately meant as soon as Thanos attempts to utilize the Cube he will be destroyed.

And that’s exactly what happened. After Thanos’ destruction, Reed disposed of the Cosmic Cube by throwing it into the Time Rift. In the Time Rift, the Cube got misplaced and landed on Thanos’ planet when he was a young boy. As you can see this paradoxical scenario means that the Cosmic Cube that Reed has built to destroy Thanos was the reason why Reed built the second cube to destroy Thanos.

2. Heart of the Universe Thanos

This version of Thanos was empowered with the Heart of the Universe. The Heart of the Universe is a unique jewel that holds some of the powers contained within One Above All. Thanos empowered himself with the Heart of the Universe in order to stop Akhenaten and Celestial Order.

The Living Tribunal, Eternity, and Infinity couldn’t resist his powers. Thanos basically restored the Universe into order as his powers were so potent he managed to create two separate timelines. After he was done with balancing the universe Thanos erased himself from existence. Even though this version of Thanos has reality-manipulating powers on a cosmic scale, it’s nearly as strong as our next and strongest version of Thanos.

1. Astral Regulator Thanos

Created by the One-Above-All, Astral Regulators are artifacts designated as „regulation“ objects between many universes and realities, to keep them from interfering one with another. Thanos managed to cheat his way to his universe’s Astral Regulator to claim it, empowering himself with powers far surpassing those of the One-Above-All.

He started his rampage by absorbing Death itself. It didn’t stop there, he eventually absorbed the Living Tribunal, Eternity, and Infinity, and in the end, he even managed to take down the One-Above-All. As far as Thano’s strongest forms are discussed, Astral Regulator Thanos is by far the strongest version of him due to having reality-breaking potential.