Meet Death, Marvel's Embodiment of the Cosmic Force

In the Marvel Universe and beyond, Death is an inevitable part of life. Although many of Marvel's heroes and villains have found ways to escape her icy grip, Death remains one of the universe's oldest and most powerful forces.

Frequently taking the form of a cloaked woman with an exposed or semi-exposed skull, Death has existed as a constant presence around the Marvel Universe for eons. Beyond simply taking fallen heroes and villains to the afterlife, Death has encountered many living Marvel characters and most notably inspired Thanos to assemble the Infinity Stones for the Infinity Gauntlet.

Now, let's take a closer look at Death and how she became a tangible entity in the Marvel Universe. From her grim beginnings to her crucial role in inspiring Thanos to assemble the Infinity Gauntlet, we'll break down who Death really is and how she makes life more interesting for Earth's Mightiest Heroes and beyond.

WHO IS DEATH?

Like Eternity and Oblivion, Death is a cosmic entity who has existed since the creation of the universe. While Death can appear anywhere, she generally rules over the Realm of Death and oversees lesser gods of death and the afterlife, like the Asgardian Hela. With a functionally limitless amount of power at her disposal, Death—who is sometimes called Mistress Death or Lady Death—has enough power to be a Multiversal threat, but she generally operates as more of a universal constant than a malevolent force.

Death first appeared as the Grim Reaper in a MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS (1939) #10 text story by Beach Allen and Ed Robbins, but she didn't debut in her modern form until CAPTAIN MARVEL (1968) #26 by Jim Starlin and Mike Friedrich. While some cosmic titans like Thanos and Gamora can always see Death, she generally only appears to those who are about to die, frequently as a loved one.

Despite her relative immortality, Death is subject to the judgment of the Death of Death, an aspect of a Multiversal guardian called the Living Tribunal. Since heroes like the X-Men and the Hulk often find ways to return from the dead, the Death of Death once had to be convinced Death was maintaining a meaningful balance between life and the afterlife.

DEATH AND THANOS

Death has a unique connection to Thanos, who killed billions in order to court the cosmic entity. The relationship between Thanos and Death began when Thanos was a child, as detailed in THANOS RISING (2013) #1 by Jason Aaron and Simone Bianchi. Death initially appeared to Thanos as another student at his school on Titan. Over time, she encouraged Thanos to take risks—including killing and dissecting animals and his fellow Titans.

As he fell in love with her, Death tried to convince Thanos killing was in his nature. Death accepted his advances only after he embraced his murderous tendencies and killed his mother. Although Thanos briefly turned away from Death, the pair eventually started a bloody rampage across the universe.

Once Death revealed her true nature to Thanos, Thanos descended into madness but continued killing on a planetary scale to woo his mistress. Thanos' efforts to impress Death dragged him into "Thanos War," his first major battle with Captain Mar-Vell, Adam Warlock, and the Avengers. When Thanos lost to the heroes, Death turned away from him.

To win Death's affections again, Thanos hunted down the Infinity Stones—which were then known as the Soul Gems—to wipe out life on a universal scale. He was ultimately defeated and turned into stone.

DEATH AND THE INFINITY GAUNTLET

With Thanos frozen in stasis, Death turned her attention to her cosmic peers. Death and the Grandmaster—one of the immensely powerful Elders of the Universe—forced the heroes of Earth to battle each other in MARVEL SUPER HERO CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS (1982) #1 by Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant, Bill Mantlo, and John Romita Jr. Then, after the all-powerful Beyonder briefly wiped them out of existence during SECRET WARS II, the Grandmaster and several other Elders of the Universe tried to usurp Death's power and kill Galactus with the Infinity Stones.

Following the Elders' defeat, Death came to believe too much life had flourished in the universe. To rectify this, she resurrected Thanos, who claimed the Infinity Stones for himself in THANOS QUEST (1990) #1 by Jim Starlin and Ron Lim. After forging the Infinity Stones into the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos courted Death by killing half of the life in the universe with a snap of his fingers in INFINITY GAUNTLET (1991) #1 by Starlin and George Perez.

However, Death turned against Thanos, stopped him from killing Mephisto, and joined several other cosmic entities in unsuccessfully trying to stop him. Nebula ultimately stole the Infinity Gauntlet and undid Thanos' rampage.

AFTER THE INFINITY GAUNTLET

Once the Infinity Stones were dispersed with trusted guardians, Death made a few other notable encounters around the Marvel Universe. After almost dying several times, Deadpool developed a crush on Death in DEADPOOL & DEATH ANNUAL (1998) #1 by Joe Kelly and Steve Harris. A jealous Thanos cursed Deadpool with immortality to keep him away from her, but Deadpool and Death reunited on a few occasions anyway.

When Death was approached by a death god called Walker, she hid inside the body of Marlo Chandler, the wife of former Avengers sidekick and Captain Marvel host Rick Jones, in CAPTAIN MARVEL (2000) #17 by Peter David and Jim Starlin.

After Thanos died, his energy merged with Death to create Rot, a dark void that consumed everything it touched. However, they reunited and destroyed their ostensible offspring. Then, following Annihilus' attack on the Marvel Universe, Death encouraged Thanos to join the fight, and she eventually launched a devastating assault on the undying Cancerverse.

Eventually, Death wanted Thanos to prove his love for her again, so she made his son, Thane, merge with the Phoenix Force to toughen him up. However, Thanos ultimately rejected her after he stopped Thane in THANOS (2016) #12 by Jeff Lemire and German Peralta.

DEATH'S HEROES

After Thanos turned away from her, Death approached several heroes with some unlikely offers and requests. Taking the appearance of Marlo Chandler, Death approached Ben Reilly, a recently resurrected clone of Peter Parker who operated as the heroic Scarlet Spider and the villainous Jackal, in BEN REILLY: SCARLET SPIDER (2017) #6 by Peter David and William Sliney.

Since the clone had been killed and resurrected so many times, Death grew fascinated by him and put him through several tests. When the web-slinger proved he genuinely wanted to redeem himself, Death undid a few deaths Ben had caused and restored his failing health.

When Death fell under judgement by the Death of Death, Jane Foster—the former Thor who now operates as Valkyrie—came to her defense in VALKYRIE: JANE FOSTER (2019) #6 by Al Ewing, Jason Aaron, and Pere Perez. Valkyrie successfully argued that Death still served its function and was needed on multiple levels.

Shortly after that, Death made a deal with the recently deceased Doctor Strange. If he served her as the Harvestman and stopped a group of magicians called the Blasphemy Cartel from resurrecting the dead, Death promised to resurrect him in exchange, which she did in STRANGE (2022) #10 by Jed MacKay and Marcelo Ferreira.

THE END OF DEATH

After performing her role since the beginning of time, Death needed a break. Through her prior connection to Death, Marlo Chandler saw how sad and exhausted Death was. To give the cosmic entity a reprieve, Marlo agreed to become Death's host again in GENIS-VELL: CAPTAIN MARVEL (2022) #5 by Peter David and Juanan Ramírez.

After a grieving mother named Christine Collins approached her within her realm, Death decided to live as a human woman named Roberta Marshall in THANOS (2023) #1 by Christopher Cantwell and Luca Pizzari. In exchange for knowledge about the future, Death arranged for the reformed Illuminati to erase her memory, allowing her to truly experience life.

However, Death's human experience came to an untimely end when Thanos attacked her earthly home in Fresno, Nevada. When Thanos killed Christine, Death rejected Thanos and tried to kill him. Despite the considerable power of the Illuminati, Thanos defeated Death and trapped her within a new Infinity Stone: the Death Stone.

After resisting Thanos' attempts to wield her power, the Death Stone found a new host with the resurrected S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson, who joined the other Infinity Stone protectors in a new Infinity Watch in AVENGERS ANNUAL (2024) #1.

Want more Death? Join Marvel Unlimited for instant access to 30,000+ comics on the Marvel Unlimited app or on the web, with digital issues spanning Marvel Comics classics to ongoing series!

Grab these comics and more at your local comic book shop! Or redeem then read your digital copy on the Marvel Unlimited app by using the code found in your print comic. Find and support your local comic book shop at ComicShopLocator.com.

To read your Marvel comics digitally, download the Marvel Unlimited app for iOS and Android devices. Gain an expansive catalog of 30,000+ comics spanning Marvel Comics history, plus access your entire digital library including comics redeemed from print.