Guardians Of The Galaxy Spoilers: 10 Ways It Sets Up Future Marvel Films

2. Thanos As The Big Bad

He first made an appearance at the end of the first Avengers film, getting geeks all excited and making most audience members turn to their one geeky friend to ask what the deal was with the grinning purple guy. Weirdly none of the Marvel films that followed this post-credits sting have included a single reference to Thanos again since, making it seem like he was a character from a completely different Disney film who somehow accidentally got spliced in amongst the credits of this one. Rest assured, dear readers, that Thanos is going to play a big part in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The only question is, uh, when. In the comic book Thanos is one of the biggest threats in existence - not only to superheroes, not only to planet Earth, but to the entirety of the known universe. See this space-based jerk is sweet on Death - the actual Grim Reaper - who, admittedly, is something of a shapely lady in Marvel comics. Because, y'know, comics. Clearly the only way he's gonna get her attention is by committing mass genocide, which he tries time and again, only to be thwarted by the combined efforts of the universe's superpeople. It's like a romantic comedy, only with the destruction of entire civilisations in the place of bad dates and ruined bouquets of flowers. From the looks of things Marvel are playing the long game with Thanos in the movies. We had that fleeting glimpse in Avengers and then, really, he has little more than a cameo in Guardians Of The Galaxy, appearing in one scene proper and then over a screen in another. That's it. Eventually, though, he's gonna be revealed as the Big Bad of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The powerful puppetmaster who has been pulling the strings all along. And now everybody actually knows his name, so maybe that's gonna happen sooner rather than later.