Last night, Guardians of the Galaxy finally premiered on theater screens after years of anticipation and some camera-happy moviegoers were ready to take quick snaps of the action. One person got a shot and quickly uploaded it to Instagram of Thanos, one of the most feared villains in the Marvel Universe who made his movie debut with a brief profile shot in 2012’s The Avengers, but was played in full for a few scenes in Guardians by Josh Brolin.

Thus, Marvel Studios was compelled to release a higher-quality image of the Mad Titan sitting atop his rocket-powered throne during his first full appearance. (A snippet of this scene was also included near the end of the Comic-Con sizzle reel that Marvel also released today.)

If you haven’t seen Guardians yet and would prefer not to have Thanos’ CGI-rendered visage spoiled then you might want to skip the remainder of this article. For the rest of you, here it is….

From the post-credit scene in The Avengers, we knew that Thanos was the one who gave Loki the tools he needed to try to rule Earth. Of course, all did not go as planned, but based on the that tease alone, challenging the Avengers would mean Thanos would be able to court his true love, Death, or at least the physical embodiment of Death. But the plan was to use Thanos in upcoming films, leading up to him being a villain in an Avengers film of his own.

When it was confirmed that Thanos won’t be in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, we immediately knew that he was going to be a villain in Avengers 3. At first we thought The Avengers would mean the last time we would see Thanos, but James Gunn then revealed that the character would appear as a villain in Guardians of the Galaxy – although it is not as big as Ronan the Accuser. And for a long time we didn’t know who would play him, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said he has already cast.

Now a new rumor has surfaced revealing who will be playing as the Mad Titan. Hit the jump to read all about who is rumored to play Thanos.

It’s time for another franchise-crossing Marvel Comics summer event. This year’s event is titled Infinity, a word Marvel is pretty big on these days in their marketing. The six-issue miniseries is being crafted by Marvel staples Jonathan Hickman, Jim Cheung, Jerome Opena, and Dustin Weaver.

We have a few pages from Infinity #1 for your perusal. Check ’em out here below and let us know what you think in the comments!

If you’ve been reading Jonathan Hickman‘s books in the Marvel U lately, including The Avengers, everything seems to be getting more and more cosmic. This all has to be a lead-up to the next big thing from the House of Ideas called Infinity!

Infinity is a six-part summer event being crafted by Jonathan Hickman, Jim Cheung, Jerome Opena, and Dustin Weaver.

Check out the covers for Infinity: Part 1 here below.

I’m going to need to program Thanos into my spell checker since it looks like I’m going to be typing his name a lot over the next few years. Marvel Comics bad guy Thanos has already shown up in the pages of Avengers Assemble, and will soon have his own miniseries titled Thanos Rising, and he will also be featured in Marvel’s 2013 Free Comic Book Day offering.

Titled Free Comic Book Day 2013: Infinity, the issue will be written by Jonathan Hickman (Avengers, Manhattan Projects) with art by Jim Cheung (Avengers: Children’s Crusade). The story will feature the start to the next big Marvel event, as well as having a sneak peak at said event and a reprint of Thanos’ first solo story.

Check out the cover below and you can pick up the issue, as well as many other free issues from almost every other comic publisher, by heading down to your local comic store on May 4th, 2013 for Free Comic Book Day.