 Thanos, possibly the most diabolical individual in the Marvel Universe, is back, and he's out for vengeance. Unfortunately for the Mad Titan, he's also heading for an unexpected reckoning with his family. Hey everybody, welcome to another exciting episode, another edition, another cosmic episode here at A Week in Geekdom, and if it's cosmic, you know it's gonna be a good time. One of my favorite reads when it comes to comic books happens to be in space. I love the whole alien thing and cosmic beings at play and all that stuff, so I went ahead and picked up Thanos, the Geflamir run Thanos Returns, this is the first volume, the first six issues written by Mr. Geflamir, and drawn by Mike Deodato, and it is fantastic. This is a very operatic, symphonic, and somber yet, um, fierce way to look at the Mad Titan. This is a character that has a long history way back decades ago when the character first showed up in Iron Man comics and then with his own event in the Infinity Gauntlet and all that stuff. Now the character has evolved since then to a more complex overlord type villain that I have come to appreciate and really freaking love. This is the Mad Titan for a reason. He is villainous, he is a force of nature, he is godlike, and he is not to be messed with. The character is awesome and Jeff is the right writer in my opinion to tackle the subject of Thanos because Jeff is great at doing interpersonal stories and interjecting life and just a brooding sense of realism to his characters and I think he does that. He excels with the solo series of Thanos in the way we see the character more of a protagonist this time around because he's usually fighting off the Avengers or Guardians or whatever cosmic team just so happens to pick a fight with him. And if he's not trying to please Lady Death, he's trying to conquer the galaxies and spread the fear of the name Thanos across the multiverse so everybody knows he is not to be trifled with. So anyways, what is exactly this story about? How do you turn a book like this on its head? A character that has previously been seen like this big baddie that he's a world conquering force and do something interesting with him. Well, Thane, if you don't know about Thane, is Thanos' son. Now for this book you might need to do a little digging with previous titles, at least the basic information, maybe your Infinity Gauntlet storyline and Jonathan Hickman's Infinity event or his Avengers one if you will. And that is sort of the basis for this book, this happens after all that stuff. And you don't necessarily need to read it, but like I always say, if you have read it it will greatly improve the chances of you liking or loving this book. Otherwise, you're gonna have a fun time because you're seeing this character that is usually a solitary bad guy, like he doesn't usually have a posse around him. Well, nowadays that changed with the Black Order, but you know, back in the day it was just solo Thanos doing his own thing. But anyways, Jeff Flamie writes a very interesting story where Thane is looking to get back at his father. And that was a dynamic that I really enjoyed from the Hickman Infinity storyline where you find out that he has a son. So how does this character live up or build a reputation of his own when his flesh and blood, his father is one of the most notorious characters in the galaxy. And you have the character of Thanos that is coming back to his former fortress that is now being ruled by Corvius Glaive, an ex-member of the Black Order. And he is trying to once again remind everybody how much of a badass he is. But something's wrong with Thanos and I'm not exactly going to spoil it. Something ails him and there's a lot of elements at work that really bring the Mad Titan down to more of a human level. For the first time, this character that has considered himself a god is brought down to his knees to a more moral human way of thinking. Now what I particularly love about this book is, like I mentioned at the beginning of the video, it's very operatic tone and the way that these characters, like it's like reading a sort of Shakespearean play and everybody's like super dramatic in this. And you've got the character of Thane making up this elaborate plan to take revenge on his father. And you see what Thanos is up to and his personal quest that really transcends beyond the Overlord archetype and just makes it makes him somewhat sort of a sympathetic character because he's trying to find an answer to something that's wrong with him, something that's happening to him. And when you do find out, it is a very, some would say shocking moment, but it is to be expected, he's sort of had it coming for hundreds of years, what's happening. The art in this book is fabulous, Mike is a stellar artist and people just love his art. If I were to complain about anything in this book is that sometimes the art can be a little bit static as you're like normally Mike does very fleshed out and vivid characters of colors are all they're a little bit muted, but they're expressive and joyful to look at. But in this book, for some reason, some panels or some character designs or something, everything just looks static. There's not a whole lot of fluidity in certain scenes. There's a lot of scenes, by the way, with the nine panel grid with characters being interviewed. So you get references to previous events in the characters history, of course I'm talking about Thanos. And it's great if you're a fan, if not, you might be just a tiny little bit lost, but nowhere does this book confuse you and you get a smooth story that continues going forward and actually does some really wonderful things. The art, freaking fantastic, I mean look at this, Pip is recalling the events of the original Infinity Gauntlet with all the Avengers fighting him and then you get another grid with Gladiator from the Shiar Imperial Elite Squad or whatever it's called and then you get stuff like this just a very cool sense of cinematography and the drawings that Mike is able to conjure up. I think it's pretty damn fabulous. I mean look at that and you really feel the weight and the massive bulk that is this character and that can only be achieved by a master artist such as Mike. But it's just a mean nitpicking because you get really fantastic, let's see if you can actually see it. You get a fantastic imagery like this, just a beauty to behold. And by the way, this is one of my favorite comic book covers, this one right here, really awesome stuff. So yeah, this is only the first volume, if you're interested in me doing a video on the second part and spoiling some of the aspects of it, let me know down below. Guys, what do you think about the Jephla Mirathano solo run? If you have read it, let me know down below. If not, let me know what is your favorite Marvel Cosmic character. I'm very curious to find out. As always you can follow me on your favorite social media platforms, like, comment, subscribe, do all that wonderful stuff that you guys do and I will be forever thankful. Guys, I gotta go, I will catch all of you on our next episode.