Warning: contains spoilers for Silver Surfer: Rebirth #4
Marvel's new Thanos was much more powerful than after he entered the era of being truly, irredeemably evil.
Thanos is Marvel's most popular villain, but his depiction has varied over the course of the decades. Due to the Mad Titan's complex personality, he has been depicted sometimes as a contemplative scientist, others as a power-hungry man obsessed with death (or rather, Silver Surfer and Thanos teaming up to stop the chaos.
In Silver Surfer: Rebirth #4, by the legendary creative team of Ron Marz and Ron Lim, the former herald of Galactus is confronted by four versions of himself, created by the Reality Gem's tampering with the fabric of space and time. The four Surfers, whose designs are an homage to legendary artists who worked on the character, attack the original after they learn he is in league with Thanos, who arrives on the scene to save his unlikely ally. With one gesture, Thanos blasts the four Surfers away, scattering them for enough time that he and the original Surfer can escape. Thanos and Silver Surfer have battled many times over the course of their long history. As the wielder of the Power Cosmic, Sillver Surfer is one of the most powerful creatures in the universe. Effortlessly scattering four of them is an impressive display of power even by Thanos' standards.
Marvel Comics has, in a sense, two different versions of Thanos. One became popular in the 1990s thanks to the Infinity Gauntlet saga and its follow-up series Warlock and the Infinity Watch, both written by Thanos' creator, Jim Starlin. This version of the character, after killing half the universe, abandoned his nihilistic dreams and became more contemplative, seeking knowledge rather than power. However, this Thanos proved he was also incredibly powerful, as his already impressive personal strength was augmented by a collected, sharp intellect and the knowledge of the deepest secrets of the cosmos, which led him to acquire and relinquish ultimate power many times. The "other" Thanos, the one who appears in stories not written by Starlin, leans more towards the savage, bloodthirsty side of the character. He is still one of the most dangerous creatures in the universe but lacks the full awareness of his own potential that allowed the "classic" Thanos of the 1990s to perform incredible feats, such as withstanding the full power of the Odinforce without bending a knee.
Silver Surfer: Rebirth is an homage to Marvel's 1990s era of cosmic stories, starting from the creative team that authored many of those classic tales. The version of Thanos that appears in this limited series is very different from the one which more recent Marvel fans may be used to. Reading this story, however, it should be clear that, during his "hero phase," Thanos was way more powerful than when he later committed fully to villainy, proving that, perhaps, Thanos is better off as a hero than as a villain.
