9. The Thanos Imperative
Although Thanos is set to appear in phase 2's Guardians of the Galaxy movie and be the main villain in phase 3's third Avengers movie, he is likely to still be at large once they are over. The third Avengers movie will likely be based around the Infinity Gauntlet comic book arc, in which Thanos gathers all of the Infinity Gems (or Infinity Stones, as they're known in the Marvel cinematic universe) and wields them all, having attached them all to a golden gauntlet, giving him ultimate power. He causes universal havoc, but it is all ultimately undone and things return to normal. Indeed, Thanos is last seen in the arc harmlessly working on a farm, but he has reappeared several times since that story in a number of interesting stories where he, yet again, has set out for universal domination (usually to impress Lady Death). If, like Loki, he proves popular, Marvel and Disney may wish to utilise him in more movies and The Thanos Imperative would be a great way to do so. The story revolved around "The Fault", which was a rift in space-time formed at the end of the "War of Kings" arc. Beyond the Fault lies the universe known as the Cancerverse a universe where death itself is extinct. Monstrous creatures emerge from the fault and they are revealed to be alternate versions of existing characters who are plagued by life in the Cancerverse (named as such because life runs rampant like cancer). One of the monstrous characters, Lord Mar Vell (an alternate version of Captain Marvel) is the avatar of life and aims to spread his plague of undeath around the multiverse. As the avatar of death, Thanos is his opposite and the only way to end this coming war is for one of the pair to defeat the other. An interesting chain of events then unfold, culminating in Lady Death punishing Thanos and banishing him to the Cancerverse, where he would die upon its imminent destruction, which would make for a truly epic movie and a fitting demise for a character who craves death.