There are few villains in the Marvel Universe that conjure as much dread as Thanos, the Mad Titan. Whereas foes like Doctor Doom or Magneto may threaten the safety of Earth, entire galaxies can be on the line when confronting Thanos. And thanks to Josh Brolin's excellent performance in Avengers: Infinity War, even mainstream audiences have become familiar with Thanos' awe-inspiring might and terrifying ambitions. His cunning and strength, his goal to achieve omnipotence, and his ongoing dalliance with the cessation of half of all life in the universe make him a force to be reckoned with. On paper, anyway.
For all his intimidation and power, Thanos gets his butt kicked. Like, a lot. While some of these defeats are understandable, like the entire Avengers team taking him down, there have been some cases where the Mad Titan has been defeated by a single person. And not even an extremely skilled or powerful single person either. The purple menace from beyond the stars has been knocked down a peg by perfectly ordinary people. Maybe it's just because Thanos is a villain so he has to lose in the end. Maybe it's just part of his own nature to be self-defeating.
But whatever the reason, Thanos has suffered some pretty humiliating defeats in his time. So if you still need to get over the ending of Infinity War, here's a soothing balm of karmic justice. Let's take a look at 25 Characters that Defeated Thanos (and it's too embarrassing for words).
25 Squirrel Girl
Squirrel Girl started out as a joke character, but it's hard to tell who the joke is on. Doreen Green is a mutant with the ability to command squirrels, but her real power seems to be defeating characters way outside her weight class.
She's scored victories over Doctor Doom, Wolverine, and even befriended Galactus.
So it's no surprise that eventually she went toe-to-toe with Thanos. The funniest part about this battle is that it happened off-panel, so we readers only ever saw the aftermath. Uatu the Watcher was even on hand to make it clear this was the real Thanos.
24 Thor
Of all the Avengers, Thor is probably the one with the best chance of taking on Thanos and winning. That's exactly what happened in Thor Vol.2 #25. Thanos, empowered by a series of magic items, had already beaten Thor in battle by the time the issue starts.
It looked like all was lost for the God of Thunder.
But it turns out Thor lost on purpose, to give Odin time to create another set of magical power-ups. Now evenly matched with Thanos, Thor proceeded to lay the smackdown with his magic hammer. This Thanos was later said to be a clone, but still. An impressive defeat.
23 Deadpool
A big part of Thanos' motivation in the comics is his crush on Mistress Death. Basically Marvel's version of the Grim Reaper. Much of Thanos' wanton cruelty were attempts at wooing her. Too bad for him, he's not the only one attracted to her. Deadpool is also after the dark lady's heart and the two have come to blows over it. In the issue, they decided to have it out once and for all (with DP getting a cosmic power-up to make it fair.) Ultimately, the Merc won not by winning the fight but by convincing the Mistress to dump Thanos.
22 The Pet Avengers
Thanos has taken on whole superhero teams, but none have been as embarrassing as his loss to the Pet Avengers. The Pet Avengers, if it wasn't clear, are a group of superpowered animals. And Thanos lost to them. It was during one of the Mad Titan's periodic quests to collect the Infinity Stones, which were in the Pet Avengers' possession at the time. Just go with it. So Thanos ended fighting with a few dogs and cats, and a frog with the power of Thor, until the Inhuman mutt Lockjaw used his teleportation powers to send Thanos to another dimension.
21 Doctor Doom
For someone supposedly so cunning, you'd think Thanos would pick his battles better. Just look at the Secret Wars event. During that story, the Marvel Multiverse had collapsed into a single planet called Battleworld ruled over by a cosmically-empowered Dr. Doom, now calling himself God-Emperor Doom. Thanos, who's become a god himself several times, showed up to make trouble in Doom's new kingdom. He demanded Doom bow to him. In response, Doom obliterated Thanos, leaving only a charred skeleton behind. You'd think someone obsessed with obtaining omnipotence would know better than to challenge someone called God-Emperor.
20 Groot
All right, this one was a team effort but we're giving it to Groot because he scored the first hit on Thanos and it was darn cool how he did it. In Avengers Assemble #8, the Mad Titan has got himself yet another ultra-powerful cosmic artifact and is using it to subjugate the Earth.
The Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy team up to defeat him.
After getting a special weapon to de-power Thanos, the full force of both teams go up against him. But like we said, Groot got the first hit. He got it by having the Hulk throw him at Thanos and knocking the villain down with punches.
19 Star-Lord
Another team effort, but Star-Lord landed the final blow this time. The Guardians were by themselves, facing a newly resurrected Thanos and not doing too terribly well. The Mad Titan had the team on the ropes when Star-Lord pulled out a Cosmic Cube. There was only enough juice left in the cube for one attack and Star-Lord didn't waste it. He shot a massive energy blast into Thanos' chest, knocking the big purple baddie out cold. Not a permanent defeat, but a good show by the Guardians. They celebrated by hitting up a bar for drinks.
18 A Random Child
The 70s were wild, ya'll. It brought us stories like this one from Spidey Super Stories #39. Thanos is on Earth stealing the Cosmic Cube with Spider-Man and fellow hero Hellcat in hot pursuit. The two end up fighting Thanos but neither can match him while he's wielding the cube.
That is until Thanos makes the ground shake and drops it.
Some random kid named Jim who's been watching all this then comes over and picks up the cube, rendering Thanos powerless and tying the villain up. The Cops (!?) then show up and arrest Thanos. Seriously. This was also the first appearance of the infamous Thanoscopter.
17 Gamora
It's safe to say that Gamora has some "issues" when it comes to her adopted father. Thanos did put her through some brutal training as a kid to turn her into a living weapon. It's understandable she'd want some revenge on the guy. Gamora almost got her chance when Thanos challenged her to a sparing match/duel in the Infinity War storyline. Though Thanos was stronger, Gamnora had the advantage in speed and used that to end the fight quickly with a nerve strike to his throat. Thanos was paralyzed by it, but Gamora didn't go for the fatal blow. She knew Thanos was bluffing.
16 Captain Marvel
No, not that one. Before Carol Danvers, the alien soldier Mar-Vell (seriously) bore the mantle of Captain Marvel. Thanos' creator Jim Starlin wrote Mar-Vell's comic book and gave the two characters a deeply antagonistic relationship during his tenure. In one instance, Starlin had a weakened Mar-Vell escape from a stasis field the Mad Titan had trapped him and his allies in and try to fight a Cosmic Cube-empowered Thanos. He ended up not winning the fight, but it did distract Thanos long enough for Mar-Vell's friends Mantis and Drax the Destroyer to foil Thanos' plans. A technical defeat is still a defeat.
15 The New Fantastic Four
It'd be one thing if Thanos had lost to the Fantastic Four. But the New Fantastic Four aren't the real Fantastic Four. The New Fantastic Four are the motley crew of Wolverine, Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Ghost Rider. They became a (sort-of) team because an alien had taken the real Fantastic Four.
It's complicated.
Anyway, this group faced off against Thanos in an alternate universe where the real Fantastic Four never returned and Thanos once again assembled the Infinity Gauntlet. How did they beat the Mad Titan? Wolverine just cut his arm off and then they all dogpiled him.
14 Galactus
Leave it to the hubris of Thanos to challenge someone who eats planets. Weirdly enough, this was during a period when Thanos was trying to be a good guy. Galactus had been corrupted by an evil force and Thanos went to confront the World-Eater.
He only went to talk.
Galactus, as far above Thanos as we are to a bug, didn't care what the Mad Titan had to say and blasted him. To his credit, Thanos was able to dodge one energy blast, but not a second. Galactus left him crumpled up in a ball of pain after that.
13 Odin
As Thor's dad, Odin has been established as pretty powerful. He just rarely gets off his duff to show that power. His battle with Thanos is no exception. The Mad Titan came to Asgard to end Heimdall's life, but Odin met him on the Rainbow bridge first. They fought for a bit until Odin smacked Thanos with his Odinforce and sent the alien despot crashing through several buildings. Thanos refused to give up though and Odin even called him a worry opponent. Unfortunately, the fight ended there when the two agreed to team-up and heal Thor's sudden sickness. Boo.
12 Adam Warlock
With an origin too complicated to get into, the alien mystic Adam Warlock is the closest thing to an arch-enemy Thanos had in the comics. Their rivalry was as much ideological as it was physical. Adam Warlock even handed Thanos his first serious loss. In his initial attempt at collecting the Infinity Stones, Thanos had thought he'd succeeded in destroying Adam Warlock. However, in true Obi-Wan fashion, it only made his nemesis stronger. Adam Warlock returned to life and used his new powers to turn Thanos to stone. This was 1977. Thanos wouldn't be back until 1991.
11 Nebula
Hubris is a common element of Thanos' defeats. Something he felt was insignificant ends up being the cause of his downfall. We can see this no better than in the original Infinity Gauntlet event. While reveling in the godlike power the magic glove gives him, Thanos transformed his daughter Nebula into a nearly mindless zombie form. Mostly because he could.
But nearly mindless is not totally mindless.
So when Thanos used the Gauntlet to leave his physical body, the zombie Nebula pulled it off his hand. She took the Gauntlet's power for herself and teleported Thanos into the depths of space. Smooth move X-lax.
10 Drax The Destroyer
Drax's motivation has always been to get revenge on Thanos for ending his family's life by taking the Mad Titan's. He tried many times over the years, always failing to do so. Until 2006's Annihilation storyline. During the story, Thanos had Drax at his mercy and had teamed with the evil alien Annihilus to wreak havoc on the universe. Drax, finally having enough with the Mad Titan, decided to finally do it. He literally ripped out Thanos' heart. It was a spectacularly gory blow, but also the fulfillment of a promise. Drax had been made to end Thanos' life.
9 Gladiator
The thing you need to know about Gladiator is that he's basically Marvel's copyright-friendly version of Superman. Except with a mohawk. He usually pals around with the X-Men, but being an alien gets involved in space shenanigans too. Gladiator came to blows with Thanos when the Mad Titan invaded the Shi'ar Empire, Gladiator's turf, to end his father's life. Not being fools, the Shi'ar throw everything they have at Thanos but it barely slows him down. That's when Gladiator stepped in and knocked Thanos out with a single punch. The dude is basically Superman after all.
8 Himself
In many ways, Thanos' greatest enemy is himself. His creator Jim Starlin has even said that despite achieving omnipotence more than once, Thanos always feels deep down that he isn't worthy of such power. Because of that, he always subconsciously leaves open someway for him to be defeated. Like in the Infinity Gauntlet when he left his physical form even though it meant the Gauntlet could be removed from his hand. No Gauntlet, no godlike power. Perhaps that's the explanation for why he's defeated so often. Maybe on some level, Thanos feels he deserves it.
7 His Own Clones
I guess it makes sense that it would take Thanos to beat Thanos. The Mad Titan keeps several clones of himself, called the Thanosi, around for various reasons. Mostly so writers can retcon more embarrassing defeats.
Like Dr. Doom and his Doombots.
But those clones are just as smart as Thanos and in one story, five of them teamed-up to defeat their creator. The real Thanos had to team up with several heroes to overcome the challenge, so technically he wasn't defeated. But if you win a fight against yourself, haven't you also lost?
6 His Past Self
The recent Thanos Wins story provided some deep insight into the Mad Titan. The Thanos of our current time is whisked into the far future where an older version of himself rules over a desolate universe as King Thanos. The past Thanos wonders why he's been brought there and King Thanos explains. Having achieved everything he set out to, King Thanos was ready to move on but was too proud to take his own life. He needs his younger self to do it. Past Thanos though is disgusted and travels back to his own time, vowing to never become so pathetic. With that, King Thanos fades from existence.