Thanos Is A Horrible Boss, But He Learned It From Magneto

Warning: contains spoilers for Avengers: Mech Strike #4!

The Marvel villain Thanos is a terrible master, but he takes after another classic Marvel antagonist: Magneto. Avengers: Mech Strike #4 reveals Thanos clearly took notes after watching the Master of Magnetism treat his underlings with similar disdain in a particular battle. This revelation shows just how little Thanos cares for anyone other than himself (and a select few)…and also showcases Magneto’s utter hypocrisy toward his own kind.

In the Avengers: Mech Strike series from Jed MacKay and Carlos Magno, all the Earth’s time periods have been merged into one, causing complete chaos across the entire planet. The Avengers discover that Kang the Conquerer is to blame, but he’s far too powerful for the team to take on alone. That’s when Thanos makes his appearance – but due to the complexities of time travel, Thanos doesn’t even know who the Avengers are: this is a Thanos from the past, while the Avengers are from the Mad Titan’s future. Regardless, Thanos and the Avengers form an alliance built on a common enemy…and Thanos has a plan.

Kang took control of Avengers Mountain and built a formidable fortress on top of the existing fortifications. Thanos proposes a direct attack – using his army. “I possess legions of space-pirate scum. They are good for little else. Let their blood cloud Kang’s eyes.” The Avengers – who’ve devoted their lives to saving others – are naturally concerned that Thanos thinks so little of his own people, but Thanos believes his legions serve their intended purpose precisely through dying on his command. Outside of his adopted children such as Gamora, he cares very little for any other living being. He treats his underlings as pawns – a mentality shared by Magneto during a pivotal cinematic battle.

In the film X-Men: The Last Stand, Magneto and his mutant forces storm Alcatraz in order to kill the mutant Leech, who’s blood is being used for a cure for the mutant X-gene. Magneto stops Juggernaut from participating in the opening attack, explaining “In chess, the pawns go first.” Magneto appropriately holds back his more powerful allies as the mutants with lesser abilities charge – and fall in massive numbers. Some fans were angered at the way Magneto treated his army, claiming that a mutant supremacist like Magneto would never mistreat his fellow mutants in such a manner. But Magneto has always used people for his own goals, mutant or otherwise. His concerns are for mutant-kind as a whole, and not necessarily the individual.

Thanos and Magneto aren’t the only villains with similar feelings (or lack thereof) towards their followers. Upon witnessing the Avengers’ attack on his base, Kang delightfully exclaims “Let our pawns clash! It will be time for kings and queens soon enough!” It would seem that megalomania and a fondness for chess metaphors are prerequisites to becoming a classic Marvel villain. In that respect, considering how often Thanos and Magneto are defeated in comics, they are hardly grandmasters.