A Smattering Of Thanos Imperative Related Thoughts

- It's been noted throughout Thanos Imperative that while Thanos is vital to saving the universe, he's also Thanos, and is really dangerous as well, especially since he seemingly can't die. If he can be brought down, he could be locked up, but Thanos is pretty smart, he figure out how to escape eventually. So convince Thanos to stay behind in the Cancerverse when things are done. Death will have returned to that universe (assuming Thanos succeeds in killing Mar-Vell), but it's still a universe filled to the bursting with life. It'll take time to get things back on an even keel, and an angry Avatar of Death could speed things along. Plus, the Death in that universe is different from the Death in the Marvel Universe, so it's a whole new Death for Thanos to cozy up to and impress with large amounts of killing.

- The idea that Death and Life are connected isn't a new one, nor is the idea that it could be ugly if either one grows too much stronger than the other. Still, I like how connected they've been in this cosmic struggle. For Life to win out, Mar-Vell still needs to kill someone. For Death to balance the scales, that same person has to live, whether they want to or not. Death also needs Mar-Vell to die, but it's to be expected that death would play a part in its own victory.

- Before Thanos killed him, Drax was described as an Avatar of Life. Adam Warlock was considered the same before he became the Magus, and perhaps afterward as well. He still worshiped life. First off, it makes me wonder if Phyla could have averted what's coming by killing Drax, since he's an Avatar of Life, or if it had to be Adam specifically. I'm guessing the latter, since Drax didn't have grandiose schemes of destroying Death. He's quite the practitioner of Death, after all.

- Which brings me around to the second point. Adam and Drax were both Avatars of Life, but they went about things very differently. Drax protects/serve life by destroying the Avatar of Death. Adam Warlock, at least in this incarnation, protected life by trying to seal the Marvel Universe up, so things outside the universe couldn't get in and wreak havoc they might intend. To that end, he took control of the Universal Church of Truth, so that 1) they'd stop interfering in his work, and 2) he could use their resources to do his work more effectively. Contrast that with Drax, who might work with teams, but tends to operate alone when it comes to Thanos. Drax fights Death with death, Adam was fighting life, with Life (the belief energy of his followers). Drax actively sought out his target, while Adam reacts to problems. A tear in the fabric of the universe appears, Adam and the Guardians (or the Church) go there and close it up. When Adam tried to act to avert the disaster, going after Emperor Vulcan before the War of Kings destroyed the universe, he was soundly thrashed and sent packing. Adam Warlock helped set Thanos' return in motion, because he was worried his Magus personality would emerge and need to be stopped. He set aside his personal distaste because he perceived a greater threat. When he reached Thanos during Annihilation, Drax couldn't wait two seconds until Thanos had freed Galactus to kill him, and thus jeopardized the entire universe. He was too focused on the immediate problem, and didn't think of the larger picture. I can't decide whether he'd begun to do so in Thanos Imperative or not, because Thanos is an ally at the moment, but he might be the bigger problem. It would be interesting if he adopted Adam's approach, and it got him killed.

Maybe there's something there about Drax representing the so-called lizard, brain, the basic, emotional responses, while Warlock is the more reasoned, logical portion. Both of them are a part of us, as living beings, and life comes in many different forms, so it makes a certain amount of sense there would be more than one Avatar of Life, and they'd address different problems, or have different approaches.

- These days, there only seems to be one Avatar of Death at a time. There was Thanos, and Drax killed him, so there was no one for a time. I think Moondragon becoming an actual dragon, as the Dragon of the Moon grew stronger, was a step to fill the void, but Ultron stepped in (in a sense, Ultron, unknowingly, filled Drax' role for a moment). Then Phyla took the job to get Moondragon back, until she was killed by Thanos, as he reemerged. Maelstrom's been around, but doesn't seem to have a physical presence, he's more an intangible puppet master. But Death, whatever form it takes, ends the same way. The person is dead, all the way dead (as opposed to mostly dead), and it doesn't matter whether Thanos disintegrated them, they were hit by a bus, thrown from a bridge, died of old age, whatever, end result is the same. It can take many forms, but they all wind up in the same place.