'Avengers: Endgame': Thanos' Creator on Why the 'Thanus' Theory Won't Work

SAN DIEGO — In the lead up to Avengers: Endgame, there were plenty of different theories about how the good guys could undo Thanos’ Snap and defeat the Mad Titan. We even came up with a few of our own, but one of the most bizarre plans for beating Thanos came straight from the bowels of the internet.

The idea was simple and disgusting: What if Ant-Man shrunk down, hopped inside Thanos’ butt, and then re-expanded, killing Thanos in the process? It was total nonsense — but hey, so were the Infinity Stones — and the theory quickly spread online. Even Jim Starlin, the comic book writer who created Thanos, heard about it eventually.

In an interview at San Diego Comic-Con, Starlin tells Inverse that he’s well aware of the Ant-Man theory, often referred to as “Thanus.”

“I was really surprised when the head of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City got into it and started talking about it,” Starlin says. “He said it seemed unlikely.”

But what does the creator of Thanos think? Well, let’s just say it’s a good thing for Ant-Man that the actual movie didn’t this particular theory.

“I think Thanos has a much tougher anus than anyone ever thought,” Starlin says, “and I don’t think Ant-Man would have done anything but get himself crushed into his helmet.”

"When good taste overruns a creator’s ego, there’s something wrong. — Jim Starlin

When Starlin first created Thanos, he never expected the big purple alien to become a cultural icon, and he definitely didn’t expect the comic book character to become a sexual fetish (even ironically). But in the late 2010s, that’s exactly what happened.

Starlin says he’s seen the so-called “Thicc Thanos” memes for himself, but they didn’t disturb him as much as another bit of Thanos paraphernalia.

“I wasn’t quite as horrified as I was of this picture I saw of a unitard one-piece swimming suit with Thanos’s face on it,” he says. “And then I found out later on there’s a bikini like that too, which is even more disturbing. When good taste overruns a creator’s ego, there’s something wrong.”