Ego Vs. Thanos: Who Would Win and Why?

Ego the Living Planet and Thanos, The Mad Titan, are extremely powerful Marvel supervillains that had a role so far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, they never went against each other, and both have different abilities that make them so mighty. The question is, who would win if Ego and Thanos fought, and why?

Ego is a Celestial, a primordial being millions of years old. He is essentially a Living Planet capable of unfathomable powers, so he would crush Thanos with ease based on raw strength.

The Mad Titan needs to invade the Living Planet’s core to destroy it and kill Ego, and the Celestial just wouldn’t allow that to happen. However, the tables turn in his favor if Thanos has the Infinity Gauntlet with all six Stones. He could just wipe Ego from existence. Even without them, his intelligence and prep could give him the upper hand. Let’s compare their powers.

Ego and His Powers

Ego the Living Planet is one of the Celestials, a primordial being millions of years old who existed before the universe had been created. He first appeared in Thor #132 in 1966, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Ego says the first thing he remembers was flickering and drifting in an empty cosmos, completely alone. After eons in solitude, he learned how to manipulate energy and matter around himself to protect his true form, his core. Gradually, the matter became the Living Planet, and Ego mastered his skills and discovered a whole new world of abilities.

In the end, he turned to a much darker path, implating his “seeds” on other planets, planning on activating them and essentially devouring the planets, making them become another extension of himself. He wants to cease all other life forms until there is nothing left but him. 

Most of his powers stem from his ability to manipulate matter to the molecular level; his powers also stem from Celestial physiology. Ego is a being with massive psionic energy. Pair that with matter control, and you get a virtually indestructible being.

Celestial Physiology

Even though Ego created a human avatar of himself to interact with other life forms, in reality, he lacks a true body. His true form, or the center of his consciousness, is a flickering blue brain at the core of the Living Planet.

His Celestial powers primarily focus on energy and matter manipulation. The Celestials created the seventh iteration of the universe, and they are gifted with extreme cosmic power. Ego can transform, transmute, and control both energy and physical matter.

His energy manifests as “light,” as he describes it. He can create powerful beams, draw power and energy from other Celestial beings, and perform blasts strong enough to obliterate entire fleets.

Ego can also “infect” matter with his consciousness, making it a part of himself and eliminating all other life forms in the process. That also allows him to make biological manipulations, like giving Peter Quill’s mother a brain tumor.

As he lacks a real body, merely creating it from matter, he is capable of shapeshifting, regenerating, and much more. It’s needless to say, Ego’s strength is not just superhuman; it’s virtually limitless.

Immortality & Durability

Ego is essentially unphased and untouched with any kind of physical attacks. As the Living Planet, he manipulates matter to the molecular level, so he just recuperates instantly after getting hit.

Even though the brain, or the Living Planet’s core, is susceptible to damage, it’s almost impossible to get to it. And, if you can’t destroy the core, killing the human avatar Ego has created won’t do any real damage to his true self.

It took Star-Lord’s Celestial power to defeat Ego, and he still couldn’t do it himself; he needed a lot of help from the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Finally, even after destroying the core and killing Ego, he could regenerate and revive later if he got close enough to a star to harness its energy. Therefore, he virtually cannot be killed.

Thanos and His Powers

Thanos, or The Mad Titan, first appeared in The Invincible Iron Man #55 in 1973, created by Jim Starlin. He’s a crazed warlord from Titan and the most powerful Eternal because of his deviant syndrome.

Thanos possesses superhuman physical and mental abilities further enhanced by the syndrome. He spends his entire life learning how to enhance his powers in any possible way, be it bionically, magically, or by using gadgets and weapons of mass destruction.

It resulted in one of the most powerful beings in the universe, even without his Infinity Gauntlet.

Eternal-Deviant Physiology

Although the Deviant syndrome makes Thanos physically awkward and stumpy, it gives him unfathomable strength – enough to beat the crap out of Hulk in a fistfight. Thanos has the unlimited physical strength to go along with years of warfare and combat training. He’s also extremely durable, capable of withstanding massive amounts of damage without harm.

Thanos battled many beings above his power level, and he still managed to find ways to defeat them. His intellect is extremely brilliant, learning everything there is on how to become even more powerful.

Mental powers are also something Thanos has. He’s capable of telepathy and telekinesis, but more importantly, he’s able to block or resist even the strongest attempts to attack him telepathically.

Weapons & Artifacts

Apart from having physical and mental dominance over almost all beings in the universe, The Mad Titan never shied away from using weapons of all kinds, especially those with cosmic powers.

He forced Eitri the Dwarf to forge the Infinity Gauntlet for him, a device strong enough to hold all six Infinity Stones. Thanos is virtually invincible with the gauntlet, capable of wiping the universe clean with a snap of his fingers if he wishes to do so.

Invulnerability

Not only did Thanos get stronger than other Eternals, but he also got even more invulnerable. While exploring, learning, and growing stronger, The Mad Titan had died and got resurrected by Death herself, giving him even more powers than he ever had.

Tony Stark threw a moon at him and didn’t even scratch him. However, stronger beings such as Galactus had Thanos begging for his life. Ego is certainly on that level, too, seeing he’s a Celestial.

Ego Vs. Thanos: Who Would Win and Why?

Now that we know what powers each of them possesses, it’s clearer who would win if they ever collided. First, let’s get something out of the way.

If we take both characters at their strongest possible level, that means Thanos has the Infinity Gauntlet. With it, one could argue that he’s invincible and indestructible, so he would just end Ego in a heartbeat, and there’s nothing the Living Planet could do.

Also, suppose it’s Thanos and his entire army. In that case, it might be enough to distract Ego long enough to somehow get to the core and destroy it, but very unlikely, as it took battling someone with Celestial power to distract Ego from protecting his core. Thanos, nor any of his allies, has that kind of power.

Now, if we’re talking about pure power with no gadgets or armies, Ego’s powers dwarf Thanos. He is a being of incredible psionic energy, existing for millions of years, learning to harness and use his powers. Although The Mad Titan is strong, Ego’s might is too much for him to defeat him in any way.

He can’t harm him physically nor mentally, and if he tries to use energy blasts or telepathy, Ego is stronger in that regard as well.

Therefore, with the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos wins, and in any other case, it’s Ego.