Thanos vs. Darkseid: Who Would Win in a Fight?
The worlds of Marvel Comics and DC both have their own version of intergalactic tyrants that are hellbent on death and destruction. Marvel’s version is the Mad Titan named Thanos, while DC has an evil New God in the form of Darkseid. Of course, both Thanos and Darkseid have fought the main superhero groups of Marvel (Avengers) and DC (Justice League) multiple times while giving their members trouble. But if Thanos and Darkseid were to fight, who would win?
Darkseid is more powerful than Thanos and would win a fight against him. Darkseid is stronger and faster and has better and more versatile powers and abilities. Thanos could win in a fight against Darkseid only with Infinity Gauntlet. It would be a close fight because both characters are incredibly durable and powerful. Still, Thanos stands no chance.
The thing about Darkseid is that he scales on a much higher level than a lot of Marvel villains, as he is actually on a tier slightly above Superman in DC. In that regard, he is an incredibly powerful villain, much stronger than the Mad Titan. Of course, in his true form, he is so much more powerful. That said, let’s look at this battle in greater detail.
Strength
Due to his incredible physiology as a remarkably strong Eternal, Thanos is one of the physically strongest characters in the world of Marvel Comics. The upper limits of his strength are not exactly known, but he has been able to contend with some of the most powerful characters in Marvel Comics.
We are talking about going toe-to-toe with the likes of Thor and the Hulk, who are two of the biggest guns that the Avengers have. In that regard, Thanos is a strong character who could overpower any other powerhouse the good guys have to offer.
Darkseid is a New God, meaning he is an incredibly strong character with a physiology that could match the strength of some of DC’s most physically gifted characters. Of course, we are talking about the likes of Superman, who Darkseid has been able to overpower more than a few times already.
He can also contend with the strength of someone like Doomsday, whose display of strength rivals or even exceeds Superman’s own strength. And because he is the very embodiment of pure evil in the multiverse, his true form is far stronger than what his avatars have been able to show.
The truth is that Darkseid’s avatar is already strong enough to take down Superman. That means that he is stronger than Thanos, whose strength probably isn’t close to Superman’s strength, and he is capable of moving planets and destroying moons.
Thanos 0, Darkseid 1
Durability
Thanos is one of the most durable characters in the entire Marvel Comics universe, as he can withstand some of the most powerful attacks that the Avengers can muster up.
The fact that it usually takes the entire Avengers to take down Thanos is the only thing we need to know to understand just how durable and resilient he is. Of course, this is because he has quite impressive physiology. In Marvel Comics, Thanos is now nigh-invulnerable, which means it is incredibly difficult to damage him.
Darkseid is one of the characters said to be quite invulnerable to damage as he can take punches and attacks from Superman and Wonder Woman without getting too damaged. Nevertheless, individual members of the Justice League, such as Superman and Wonder Woman, have been able to damage him a few times already. In fact, there was a point when Doomsday defeated Darkseid. Still, he is one of DC’s most durable and resilient characters.
If Darkseid used his true form, he should be invincible. However, if we are only talking about his avatar here, Thanos has shown that he is more durable in his encounters with superheroes and powerful entities alike.
Thanos 1, Darkseid 1
Speed
Despite his size, Thanos is deceptively fast because he has very strong legs that allow him to move faster than most other characters in Marvel. However, Thanos was never fast enough to keep up with some of the fastest characters in his universe, which means that he isn’t the quickest. As such, characters with speeds greater than Thanos can speed-blitz him. Still, what we are sure of is that he is a lot faster than regular human beings and is quite agile for his size.
Darkseid is one of the fastest villains in the DC universe, even though he doesn’t really rely on his speed a lot. In his battle with Zeus, he could move so fast that Wonder Woman said she had never seen a battle happening at the speed they were fighting. Of course, Wonder Woman has seen her fair share of speedsters and is known to be quite fast herself. The fact that she was impressed by Darkseid’s speed is a testament to just how fast this large entity is.
Thanos is fast only when compared to human beings. But Darkseid is faster than Wonder Woman and can move as fast as Superman, which means he is one of the fastest villains in DC.
Thanos 1, Darkseid 2
Powers and Abilities
In most cases, we often see Thanos as a brute with no powers or abilities. But that isn’t true because, even if he didn’t have the Infinity Gauntlet, he still has a host of different powers and abilities that he could use.
He can project energy blasts with concussive effects that are strong enough to knock down someone like the Hulk, and he can even form barriers using his mental link with his mystical chair. On top of that, Thanos has abilities like matter control and telepathy, although those abilities aren’t really top-tier in terms of their power.
As the embodiment of evil, Darkseid has a cosmic power called the Omega Effect, which is the source of most of his powers. As such, he can use the Omega Effect to produce his Omega Beams, which can become a target and blast them with a power stronger than Superman’s heat vision and keep up with Speedsters. His Omega powers are strong enough to destroy entire planets. Darkseid is also capable of unassisted flight and has the power to manipulate gravity to a certain degree.
Yes, Thanos’s powers are impressive, but they pale compared to what the Omega Effect allows Darkseid to do. And we’re not even talking about Darkseid’s true form here.
Thanos 1, Darkseid 3
Alternate Forms
Thanos has almost always been associated with the Infinity Gauntlet, allowing him to masterfully control the Infinity Stones. As such, he has the power over some of the different aspects of the universe as the stones, when used all at once, can manipulate reality and even destroy, shape, and recreate the universe if he wants to. That is why Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet is one of the greatest threats the Marvel Comics universe has ever seen, as he is basically a god. Still, he has plenty of other, even more powerful versions.
In his true form, Darkseid is actually a multiversal entity that exists in conjunction with all of the different universes of DC. The different versions of Darkseid that we see in the many different DC universes are just the avatars of the true Darkseid, which exists outside of any universe and is multiversal regarding his threat level.
Darkseid is the very embodiment of evil in the multiverse. As such, the true form of Darkseid can threaten all of the universes at once, which means that he is incredibly powerful.
While Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet is a universal threat that is more than enough to defeat an avatar of Darkseid, the true form of Darkseid exists well beyond the universe and is a multiversal threat. A threat to the multiverse is far more serious than a threat to the universe.
Thanos 1, Darkseid 4
Thanos vs. Darkseid: Who Wins?
As you can see, the only thing that Thanos has over Darkseid is his durability, and that’s because we are talking about Darkseid’s avatar instead of his true form. However, the avatar of Darkseid is already more powerful than Thanos.
The only chance Thanos has over Darkseid’s avatar is to use the Infinity Gauntlets because that is the only time he could match the power of a New God. However, Darkseid, in his true form, is an entity that is well beyond the confines of Thanos’s powers, even if he had the Infinity Gauntlet, and that is why Darkseid is stronger than him.
