Thanos Sits Enthroned on a Spiked Iron Throne — Print & Oil Painting

Almost nothing in this canvas is lit. It carries the lowest brightness reading anywhere in its group, a black vignette closes in from all four edges, and the artist has spent the entire picture on darkness so that only three things survive it: a seated figure, the chair he is in, and one glove.

The chair is made of weapons. Dozens of blades stand upright behind the seat, fanned outward in every length with the points up, welded together into a back that rises twice the height of the man in front of it. The arrangement is quoted from somewhere well outside this universe and the artist has made no attempt to disguise the loan. A black bird stands on the topmost blade with its wings half open.

The figure is perfectly symmetrical and perfectly still. Both forearms lie along the arms of the chair, the knees are apart, the boots are planted, and the head is level with the chin slightly raised. Gold plated greaves, gold boots and heavy gold pauldrons sit over dark segmented armour with a gold panel running down the sternum, and two small blue lamps burn at either side of the seat without illuminating anything.

The hand on our right is the only saturated thing in the picture. The gauntlet on it is closed, lit from inside, with small stones burning green, orange, blue and violet in the plating across the back. The other hand is bare grey skin and the artist has left it in shadow. Red leads the measurement with orange second at low saturation, which is one lit glove against a great deal of black.

The story he is best known for ends with him stopping. Having taken everything and beaten everyone, he was told by an opponent who knew him better than he knew himself that he had never intended to win, that some part of him did not accept he deserved to keep what he had taken, and that this was why he kept leaving openings. He lost the glove within a few pages. The last panels put him on a piece of farmland, working it alone and apparently content. From our Marvel collection, next to the same armour standing calm over a smoking field and the same glove carried quietly.