Thanos has been a malevolent force in Marvel comics for almost 45 years, and he’s also (currently) the biggest threat in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is a guy so powerful, he’s poised to take on the Avengers for the fun of it in Infinity War. His comics backstory includes being born with the Deviants gene and quite literally courting Death, but even if you aren’t familiar with the books, the glimpses at his onscreen iteration are enough to make just the name “Thanos” sound really ominous. Which is probably why it’s a good thing he didn’t end up called Dione, a name much more suitable for a ’60s doo-wop (and later, rock and/or roll) singer than a power-hungry villain.
As ComicBookResources.com reports, Marvel has just revealed the Mad Titan’s (another cool moniker) original birth name was actually Dione, which, again, is the kind of thing you’d dub the guy who sang of “The Wanderer.” That revelation is part of the Thanos #15 storyline, in which a much older Thanos has Ghost Rider drag his younger self a million or so years into the future, where he/they rule supreme. When old Thanos has to convince less-old Thanos of his identity, he utters the name that their mother, Sui-San, originally intended to give them. The decidedly less sinister mononym was scrapped after she went mad, which almost certainly helped set him on the path toward intergalactic domination instead of a series of talent showcases.
Thanos #15 will be out on January 24, but you’ll have to wait until May 4 to see Avengers: Infinity War play out.