In a pre
quel to Marvels Infinity War, Barry Lyga writes a non-canon backstory of Thanos that illustrates how Thanos becomes the intergalactic warlord we know him to be in Marvel’s Avenger: Infinity War THANOS: Titan Consumed.
On Titan, Thanos is born with genetic mutations – purple skin and a series of vertical ridges on his face – that mark him as a deviant. Thanos is also born a genius. This combination causes Thanos to become an outcast. Purple is the color of death on Titan which causes citizens to fear him.
Thanos’ father A’Lars decides that what is best for Thanos is to have Thanos separated from society essentially for his own safety. A’Lars even goes and finds Thanos a friend to help him to stave off any loneliness that may occur in this imposed exile.
Through a series of events, Thanos realizes that Titan is facing an ecological disaster primarily due to over population. Thanos, using state of the art technology, presents a solution to this inevitable disaster directly to the citizens – that 50% of the population must die, if not, then the planet Titan itself will die. This presentation causes extreme fear to go through Titan – the punishment for causing this panic is to send Thanos into exile off the planet.
While in exile, Titan succumbs to the fate that Thanos had warned about. Upon learning this, Thanos goes on a mission to save planets in the universe from the same fate. He gives each planet an option; either they willingly kill off 50% of their population or Thanos would kill everyone on the planet.
This initially begins as a slow process, but Thanos soon learns of a faster way to save, essentially, the universe – or, at least every advanced civilization in the universe – and that is by collecting the infinity stones.
Overall the book is enjoyable despite several disturbing scenes that showcase how cold-hearted Thanos is. Barry Lyga’s ability to novelize comic book characters is phenomenal, (see Lyga’s recent middle grade Flash trilogy as an example). My primary critique however is in regards to the story itself. Since every advanced civilization is destined to the same catastrophic fate – doesn’t that suggest that this ‘fate’ isn’t unnatural but, rather, natural? Thanos can’t seem to discover one planet that an ecological disaster isn’t that outcome of civilization, therefore he believes the only way to save them all is to wipe out 50% of the population off of all of them.
Thanos epitomizes the type of ideology that you’d find on the Georgia Guidestones.
Thanos believes he is doing good, yet he also delights in being a destroyer of worlds. Thanos goes through a terrifying transformation through the book while on this self imposed mission. He becomes an example of the phrase, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” He believes the genocides that he is carrying out is the only viable option to an idealized universe. Thanos is never quite presented as pure villain or hero. His existence and self imposed duty lies in a moral gray area. His belief that destruction is the only way to save the universe seems contradictory – but Thanos doesn’t see it that way. He see’s it as the only way to bring balance back to universe and no one, not even his close friends can stand in his way of restoring this balance.
This book is certainly worth your time if you want to have an understanding of what made Thanos the type of being we know him today.
We first meet up with Barry Allen (AKA the Flash) as he is going from vehicle to vehicle rescuing citizens from a horrific traffic accident. It is here in the midst of the chaos that we and the Flash first learn that something is not right with the Flash physiologically. This first reveals itself in the form of a tiny glitch that only the Flash is aware of. As we discover, along with the Flash, that there is something wrong inside the Flashes body we learn that Central City is under attack by a small group of metahumans.
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Raising Rufus is a very enjoyable read – I picked it up after realizing what Rufus is and thought it would be a fun, light read. I absolutely loved this story, it brought back to me all the stories I used to read and love as a kid. Perhaps the best part is that the author, David Fulk, did not go the easy way with the ending, which is the route I thought he’d take.
This is one of those memoirs that should be required reading – primarily as a lesson that war is not as glamorous as our society likes to make it out to be. Many of the things that Beah did while he was a soldier were terrible – and what even makes his actions even worse is that the murders he committed were done to people much like himself; kids caught up in a war they did not understand.
Why I’m pointing this out is that this book, as it talks about life in a war zone simultaneously, due to the war being discussed, exists in another type of war all together; an 
The war began in 1992, a war that when I was a child, I recall hearing about on television every evening after school. The break up of Yugoslavia was extremely violent, with most of the people killed being civilians. Campaigns of genocide were being waged, it seems, from both sides. This book brings back the horror of that war while it explores the aftermath.
Through out this short book, Ebrahim describes how he grew up in a violent environment – one that encouraged the types of violence that his father was arrested for. He describes that after the arrest, his mother attempted to try and keep the family together but after awhile she finally got a divorce and married a man that was physically abusive to her and her children.
Some people will find the humor to be very mature – but Oakley is not out to make himself look like some angelic, perfect person. The crudeness of some of the humor made the book relateable. Perhaps the best part of this book is that the stories in Binge did not hinge on knowing much about Oakley’s YouTube career. This, I feel, was one of those books written by a famous person that was done correctly.
I honestly didn’t know what I was expecting when I decided to read this “memoir” of a 22 year old (at the time when the book is written) YouTube celebrity. This book is nothing more than page after page of cliche’s stacked on top of each other – then Mr. Franta has the naive audacity to try to insinuate that he has some sort of “wisdom” to impart at his young age.
The book begins when Nina is initially diagnosed with breast cancer and her initial method to cope with it – learn more about it. She remarks that when she tells people that she has breast cancer, many people respond by telling her that they know someone who also had the disease and had survived. The book is broke up in four parts representing each stage of cancer. The first part is rather melancholy in a way. There is optimism that the chemo therapy will take care of the cancer. You get a sense of Nina’s apprehension and hope throughout this section as she tries to deal with her diagnosis and initial treatment with humor and educating herself.