Crazy MCU fan theories are a whole lot of fun. While they can often lead to fun nerd debates, the best ones want to make you re-watch the entire series now that you think you’ve figured out a fresh new secret about the franchise.
My favorite of these fan theories at the moment revolves around Thanos first appearance in the MCU as Obadiah Stain—say what?
So I know this theory might sound a bit on the crazy side. I’m not crazy, you’re crazy. But it does have some interesting implications for the MCU and answers more than a few questions.
Before we get into all that, though, let’s look at the actual evidence for this theory.
If we look back at Iron Man and Avengers: Infinity War, we see that there are two parts that have a ton of visual similarities.
When Obadiah staying menacingly steals the ark reactor from Tony’s chest, he looks more than a little like Thanos as he stabbed Tony with his own blade.
While any other franchise might see this as a coincidence, it seems like the Russo brothers were trying to deliberately call back to that scene from the original Iron Man.
You also have to admit that there are some striking physical similarities. Sure, Obi’s not an eight-foot-tall Hulk-sized alien with purple skin and golden armor, but they’ve still got quite a lot in common.
Both are bald, forceful men. While Obadiah Stain has a long beard, Thanos has those weird marks on his chin that are reminiscent of Stain’s beard.
Also, if we look at his relationship as Tony’s surrogate’s stepfather, it’s strikingly similar to how Thanos collects children from around the galaxy.
He frequently uses his fatherly bond to manipulate people into doing things for him. For Tony, that manipulation was building weapons, while someone like Gamora was manipulated into being one.
You’ve also got to take into account how similar their methods are.
Both prefer to delegate most of their work to other villains, but ultimately do a better job themselves.
They’re also both brutally efficient. If you look back on the scene where Obi takes on the 10 Rings and the scene where Thanos attacks Gamora’s home planet, you will see similarities.
Both feature an incredibly adept army that manages to overwhelm their enemy and then put them into a firing squad.
Frankly, Thanos also just seems like the kind of guy who wouldn’t wear the jam as either.
Step one is to accept the idea that Obadiah Stain might be Thanos.
Step two is to figure out what in the name of Titan Thanos would have been doing and how he did it.
Well, there are multiple ways in which Thanos could have taken on the role of Stain.
The simplest idea is that he disguised himself some way to appear as a normal human. That’s not the idea that feels right, though.
No, I think what happened is that he made good use of the scepter.
In Avengers, Loki is given a scepter that secretly houses the Mind Stone. He then uses this stone to take over people’s bodies.
Though the post-credits sequence from Thor makes it seem like the scepter has quite a lot more power than we realized. In fact, Loki was able to seemingly take over Eric Selvig’s mind from deep space.
There’s a good chance that Thanos did this exact same thing with Obadiah Stain.
When we get the brief history of Stark Enterprises, it paints a very different image of Obadiah’s Stain than the one we get at the end of the movie.
So my theory is that Thanos was able to take over Obadiah Stain from a great distance, hoping to use his possible connections with SHIELD to help him secure the Tesseract, or the Space Stone.
Frankly, from what we know about how sneakily Thanos likes to operate, it would be weird to assume that he didn’t have some sort of agent on Earth who could snag that little cube.
He also seems to know a great deal about Tony Stark.
“You know me.”
“I do.”
There are even moments where Thanos talks to Tony with genuine respect and admiration—something Thanos never shows heroes like Cap or Thor.
So I definitely think there’s a possibility that Thanos could have been Stark’s very first mentor, which would make rewatching the first Iron Man such an interesting experience.
Okay guys, let’s go watch Iron Man for the 75th time, huh? Anybody?
As far as Thanos’ earthbound plans go, I think I’ve got a decent idea of what he was doing.
You see, another big fan theory surrounding Obadiah Stain is that he was secretly a part of HYDRA, if not the leader of it.
Frankly, this theory matches up pretty perfectly. I mean, Stain was pretty aggressive guy, even by weapon steelers standards. It would make sense if he was part of a giant evil organization that wanted to create chaos around the world.
So I think that at some point Thanos used the Mind Stone to take over Obi’s mind without alerting potential enemies like Asgard or the Sorcerer Supreme.
This also accounts for staying’s dramatic change in personality and appearance.
Then he discovers that the Tesseract is a little harder to get his hands on than he thought.
He arranges the hit on Howard Stark because Howard would have instantly seen through the ruse.
Then he became the leader of HYDRA and set them on a new path collecting those Infinity Stones.
We never find out all the plans HYDRA had at the beginning of Age of Ultron. It’s entirely possible that the facility they were experimenting on Loki’s scepter was set up to communicate with Thanos and return the stone that was rightfully his.
This would also explain Project Insight a little more.
If you were Thanos and you just suffered a humiliating defeat at the hand of the Avengers, you might also want to gain a giant laser satellite that can wipe out all the competition.
So try re-watching the MCU next time with the background thought that Thanos was pulling all the strings since day one. It will certainly make it a new viewing experience, even if it is your 75th watch.
There you have it: all the ways that Thanos could have been Obadiah Stain.
What MCU fan theory’s your favorite? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to like and subscribe for more from CBR.