Thanos Always Lives To Serve Death

OK, I'm past my dour mood of yesterday. Actually, my dour mood's focused on things unrelated to comics, so I can be more engaged with the post tonight.

Thanos is coming back to life, after a bit over 3 years in the ground. I'm guessing he'll wind up being the fellow in that other cocoon the Universal Church of Truth has. It would make sense. Adam Warlock, in his current incarnation, emerged from a cocoon, and is/was described as the Avatar of Life. If you were going to describe someone as the "Avatar of Death", Thanos would be a good choice.

What's interesting is why he would be coming back. Maelstrom told Drax that when Drax killed Thanos, the balance between life and death was upset. Life became too strong, and a universe with too much life is as doomed as one with too much death. It will simply meet a different kind of horrific end. A safe bet is that Death is concerned by this turn of events, and sent Thanos back among the living to redress things*.

The other possibility is that Death is well-aware of the world Moondragon described as existing on the other side of the Fault, the one where life ran unchecked. A "cancerverse" was what she called it. The next big cosmic thing looks to be that universe trying to encroach upon the 616-reality. It's life, so it will spread if it can, and a whole new universe would provide considerable room for growth. Death knows this is coming, and is concerned by it. One universe where life won might not be an issue, since there's probably at least one universe where death won as well. This could be the start of a chain reaction, universes becoming choked with life, one after another. Which is bad, not just for Death, but for everyone.

Perceiving that, Death sends her most loyal apostle/servant/fanboy back to combat the threat. Which means Thanos would be helping to defend the 616 against that other universe. Which would make Thanos sort of a good guy. He's probably going to kill lots of people, whether it's needed or not, and he'd likely consider any allies he made expendable, but still. He'll be trying to protect a universe from a different doom than it's used.

Or he could be after Adam Magus and his followers, since they support unfettered growth of life. They'd be a more local, immediate threat, especially with the future we've seen, where the Magus ends up ruling all timelines. I'd be curious to see how Thanos would approach that challenge, considering the odds against him. If he's facing a threat from the other universe, Magus might actually throw in with him, since the enemy isn't likely to just let Magus step in and conquer. But if Thanos is after Magus himself, he's going to have to go through a lot of meat shields. Not that Thanos would care, except for the fact he'd be expending energy better spent killing Adam Magus.

Could he manipulate the Guardians of the Galaxy into helping? or would he play it (mostly) straight with them, explaining exactly why he needs to destroy Magus? Though, if he tells them Adam Magus isn't dead, the Guardians shouldn't need much encouragement to go on the offensive.

* The safest bet is Thanos observed all this, and hating to see Death marginalized, asked to be sent back, to serve her. In which case, death would send him back because he hadn't truly embraced her as it seemed he had by the end of Annihilation.