Now there have been several speculations over the years as to the true inspiration behind Thanos, with detractors considering him to be a carbon copy of DC's 'Darkseid', another monstrous, alien tyrant created by legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby. As it turns out, Starlin idolizes the comic trailblazer and simply used Darkseid as a small influence, citing 'Metron'-- another Kirby product-- to be the true inspiration.