Barry Lyga's novel MCU tie-in book - a statement that was quickly clarified. It seemed both the author and the publisher, Little, Brown and Company, had believed this was canon. Then, when the news broke, Marvel ed them and asked that they make it clear that "the book has no canonical ties to the MCU."
It's not hard to understand why Lyga and the publisher were confused. In an interview with io9, Lyga told of a writing process that had involved a heavy degree of collaboration with Marvel Studios. He and his editor had a lengthy conference call with Marvel, who outlined their version of Thanos and allowed Lyga to ask any necessary questions. "In some areas I was given great latitude and a free hand," Lyga explained, "while in others I had to tip-toe very carefully through the MCU." Given the closeness of Lyga's relationship with Marvel, and the constraints he had to work with, it's understandable he honestly believed he was writing the first official MCU tie-in novel.
Related: Thanos Origin Book May Tease Avengers 4's New Villains
So exactly what happened? Frankly, the only reasonable explanation is that Thanos: Titan Consumed was indeed intended to be canon, but that something changed while Lyga was working on the book. So let's try and work out what that was.
- This Page: Thanos' Origin Book Lines Up With Infinity War
- Next Page: New MCU Information & Contradictions
Thanos' Origin Book Lines Up With Infinity War
Thanos: Titan Consumed opens where Avengers: Infinity War left off - with the snap. He's going through what can only be called a mystical experience, with his mind unmoored from time and space. Lyga describes it as follows:
"I am adrift in myself, alone with my past, my present. The sheer existence of me is at once a weighty and a weightless thing. Time is not an arrow or a line or any other convenient metaphor. Time is not an abstract notion.
"Time is a Stone.
"With the Stone, all his story is open to me. I am in history. I am history. I witness it and relive it and experience it in the same quantum instant."
The opening scene includes Thanos seeing a few key moments in his life, and they include recent events from Infinity War - the slaughter of the Asgardians, after Thanos snaps his fingers in the movie. It's worth ing that mystical experiences like this don't follow the normal constraints of time, so there's no reason Thanos couldn't have had some sort of experience through every single one of the Stones in that moment.
Related: Easy Ways The Avengers Could Have Beaten Thanos In Infinity War
The body of the book corresponds perfectly with the film as well - and even fits with recent revelations from The Art of Avengers: Infinity War. It confirms that Thanos survived Titan's destruction because he was exiled after making the insane suggestion of euthanizing half his homeworld's population, a detail not explained in the film. One scene halfway through Thanos: Titan Consumed sees the Mad Titan confront an Asgardian goddess, and he winds up suffering a brutal injury that clearly foreshadows Thor's attack upon him at the end of Infinity War. The story moves on to show how Thanos recruited Gamora and Nebula, and the Chitauri onslaught on Zehoberei matches perfectly with the film's flashback scene. The level of detail is fascinating, and there is literally no contradiction between this book and Avengers: Infinity War.
Page 2 of 2: New MCU Information & Contradictions
The New Information In Thanos' Origin Book
Of course, given this is Thanos' origin story, it also tells a lot more. Thanos: Titan Consumed gives readers a glimpse of a largely comic-book-accurate civilization on Titan, and is heavily influenced by Jason Aaron's Thanos Rising miniseries, which was published in 2013. According to the book, Thanos is a Deviant child born to A'Lars (name-dropped in Infinity War) and Sui-San. The purple color of his skin marks him as unlike any other Titanian, but Lyga adds a new detail; on Titan, purple is the ceremonial color of death. When the young Thanos meets a woman wearing purple, he is fascinated and delighted to see the same color as his skin, and devastated to be told that it is a symbol of her grief. Thanos grows up isolated from the rest of Titan, desperately seeking love but - because of a harsh upbringing - unable to truly empathize with others. When he makes the suggestion of wiping out half his world's population, he genuinely cannot understand why people believe he is insane.
Exiled because of his view, Thanos' ship is knocked off course by a new black hole, and he is fortunate to be picked up by what's essentially a slave vessel. It doesn't take the Mad Titan long to take control of this vessel, and curiously his first act is really one of heroism, freeing the slaves. When Thanos crosses paths with the Chitauri, they it they are constrained from original thought by their hive mind, and need a tactician; Thanos agrees to take charge, and in truth plans to unleash the Chitauri upon his homeworld, forcibly enacting what he calls the "Titan Doctrine." He is too late, though, and Titan is all-but destroyed; a wrathful Thanos gives in to his own instincts and destroys the genetic repository of his homeworld, sealing Titan's fate in a fit of madness.
Related: Thanos Origin Book Teases MCU Eternals, Deviants, Eternity & Death
It's only then that Thanos turns his attention to the wider universe, and concludes that all life in the cosmos will one day be imperiled by the same kind of crisis. He resolves to become a savior, enforcing the Titan Doctrine upon all worlds. And that quest ultimately leads him to seek out the Infinity Stones. Thanos: Titan Consumed introduces a wealth of new concepts into Thanos' world. Although Titan isn't referenced as an Eternal colony, it is clearly a colony nonetheless, and the capitol is known as the Eternal City. Thanos' father, A'Lars, hints at the existence of the Deviants. One of the slaves makes a throwaway reference to "Eternity," the personification of the universe in the comics. And, most significantly, an alien known as the Lorespeaker outlines the history of the Infinity Stones - and the Celestials. It's uncertain whether or not his information is entirely accurate, of course; the Lorespeaker collects stories, but not all stories are true.
Why Thanos' Origin Reveals May Contradict The MCU
When Thanos: Titan Consumed was initially announced, it was clear that both the author and the publisher believed it was canon. Marvel evidently swiftly ed the publisher to "clarify," however, and the book was declared non-canon. It's hard not to conclude that Marvel originally planned this to be the true MCU backstory of Thanos, but that their plans began to change while Lyga was working on it. The most likely issue is with The Eternals movie - rumors of that project first began to circulate just a month after news of Thanos: Titan Consumed. Given there are close ties between the Eternals and Titan, Marvel may have feared their scriptwriters would be boxed in by the novel.
Related: The Eternals Could Be A Prequel To The Entire MCU
It's entirely possible, though, that Marvel already suspected there would be explicit contradictions. It's believed Eternals heading to Titan in the first place. Meanwhile, the comic book story of the Eternals is tied to some of the ideas and concepts Lyga toyed with in his book, ranging from the Deviants to the Celestials.
It's distinctly possible Marvel was already beginning to realize that some of their ideas would clash with Lyga's narrative. In other words, Thanos: Titan Consumed fits perfectly with the MCU to date - but, going forward, Marvel's story will part ways with the book. This really does seem to be the most reasonable explanation for Marvel's surprising decision to hire someone to write a book he believed to be canon, and then swiftly "clarify" matters the moment the novel was announced.
