Thanos’ Oldest Enemy, His Mother, Has Just Been Resurrected

Warning: contains spoilers for Eternals #2!

Marvel Comics just revealed that Thanos‘ first, worst enemy – his mother Sui-San – has been resurrected by the Eternals. This shocking fact was revealed in Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribic’s Eternals #2, which confirmed that as true members of the Eternal race, both of Thanos’ parents were resurrected and then Excluded following their murders, now imprisoned but alive somewhere on Earth.

Though known for his own catastrophic villainy, which includes having once murdered half of all living beings, Thanos is the son of A’Lars (aka Mentor) and Sui-San – radical members of the Eternal race who believed that the Great Machine that governs Eternal life could be improved and expanded. Journeying from Earth to Titan – the largest moon of Saturn – a group known as the Llarsite Faction attempted to prove their ideas by starting a society of their own; a society ultimately undermined and massacred by Thanos.

But Thanos wasn’t the first to strike – on seeing her newborn baby, Sui-San immediately attempted to kill the child, failing and being institutionalized as a result. Thanos would later vivisect his mother in an attempt to investigate his own terrible nature, finding no answers in the act. Sui-San was later seen in Hell during one of Thanos’ adventures, but Eternals #2 makes it clear that both Sui-San and A’Lars were resurrected on Earth before being Excluded – a process whereby ‘failed’ Eternals are mind-wiped and imprisoned.

The information comes as the heroic Ikaris and formerly Excluded Sprite investigate the death of Eternals leader Zuras – a crime for which they suspect Thanos is to blame, even if he wasn’t working alone. Though given in an offhand way in a data page explaining the history of the Titan Schism, Sui-San’s return may explain Thanos’ renewed interest in the Eternals, and perhaps his mission in taking apart the Great Machine that lends them several of their powers, such as long-distance teleportation and resurrection.

While Thanos’ relationship with his mother was explored in Jason Aaron and Simone Bianchi’s Thanos Rising, the nature of her influence on the villain remains elusive. Told as a prequel, Sui-San’s hatred of Thanos seems to suggest she foresaw what he would become, but born with physical differences to his peers due to Deviant Syndrome and living a relatively blameless early life, it’s also possible Thanos became the horror he is because of how he was treated. Whatever the case may be, Thanos believes the former, making his mother one of the few people in the universe who he would believe truly understands him – something he’s more likely to want to punish than reward.

As ever, Thanos’ game exists on the scale of planets – his attack on the Eternals’ Great Machine threatens to kill all life on Earth, and his use of their transit system suggests there’s a traitor among the Eternal people working for him. But given that until now, fans believed Sui-San long dead, it’s likely that the first person to see his evil and try to rid the world of it figures somewhere in his plans. Though locked away and perhaps lacking any memory of her monstrous child, Sui-San would share the same powers of matter manipulation as any other Eternal, as well as being the only person who looked at him even as a child and instantly saw his evil.

While Thanos is currently the major threat of the ongoing series, fans shouldn’t be surprised if his Eternal mother and first adversary returns with a vengeance in a future issue of Eternals, perhaps even offering the Mad Titan the equal he never found in his father or brother. The last time Thanos was killed, it was at the hands of his adopted daughter Gamora. Despite the history of patricide in this particular family, it wouldn’t take much for Sui-San to flip the script and become the greatest threat her son has ever faced, finally becoming a hero in a world which has now embraced the thing she believed from the start – Thanos must die.

About The Author

Robert Wood
(396 Articles Published)

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Robert Wood is a comics editor for Screen Rant and the author of ‘The False Elephant (and 99 Other Unreasonably Short Stories).’ He received his Master’s in English Literature from Lancaster University, and now happily spends his days applying it to Daredevil and the Hulk.

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