Thanos simply displays greater feats of power than Darkseid does.
When it comes to physical abilities, Thanos has been shown to be a planet-buster, he's destroyed entire worlds with a single punch into the ground, Darkseid has been beaten by Doomsday and Superman in fisticuffs pretty easily, and doesn't have the feats to back up any physical prowess.
Nearly all of Darkseid's energy projection comes from the Omega Effect and Omega Beams, but Thanos would be immune to these for many different reasons. First of all, he can create mystical force fields around himself that were even able to keep Galactus at bay for a short time. As we saw from Wonder Woman's gauntlets, any sort of mystical or godly energy-Thanos being an Eternal/Mutant and a Titan and all that stuff-is enough to deflect Darkseid's Omega Beams. Then you have to take into account, Superman tanked them, pretty well actually. He just bulldozed them and there was minimal effect, Thanos with a much greater physical prowess than Darkseid, able too take on Thor and Hulk easily in single combat and tank their hits, shows a similar durability and could likely just tank the hits himself if he wanted to. So that gives him two layers of defense against Darkseid's most powerful attack, and then without it, Darkseid is left kinda helpless. Of course he could always use it creatively, but that bad guy stubbornness would likely end up just blasting it full power at Thanos, trying to harm him, just like he did the JL.
The exact extent of Thanos' energy projection abilities are unknown, but his blasts have been capable of rendering Thor unconscious. He was also able to slightly damage Galactus' armor and blast the Devourer of Worlds off his feet, I don't see Darkseid doing anything like that, Thanos' power is simply too great. He's destroyed not only planets with his energy manipulation, but when he released a good portion of it in order to help the In-Betweener it caused the universe itself to scream from the pain as it threatened to be torn apart. The energy he manipulates is all on a cosmic scale, so there's no question he could hurt Darkseid.
So while Darkseid's energy manipulation alone is definitely in the lead here, and his abilities should they cause damage to someone will do a lot more, Thanos is actually the only one here who is confirmed to be able to hurt the other.
Then I've heard people say Darkseid could use telepathy, but Thanos has blocked his mind entirely from telepathic attacks.
Then when it comes to matter, he has been shown to manipulate it on a subatomic level, even turning living beings into stone should they be severely below-par of himself.
Now, when it comes to intelligence, both are extremely intelligent, beyond any normal human means, but they employ this intelligence in different ways. Darkseid uses his intelligence politically mostly as ruler of Apokalips he thinks more politically, reading people, trying to bend them to his will, bribery, that kind of stuff. Thanos on the other hand tends to think much more technologically, far more advanced than anything Darkseid does. He's created city-sized spaceships and he has the ability to teleport. Now both use their intelligence on the battlefield as well, using their intelligence tactically, but I'd say it's a draw between them.
Then should there be any sort of prep time, Thanos takes a severe lead when it comes to his technological mindset, and the fact that Darkseid has his weakness to Radion. The odds are that Thanos would be able to make a weapon out of this, but even without it. Darkseid is nowhere near as durable as Thanos seems to be and has a much more likely chance of being injured, and Thanos is also physically stronger than Darkseid. Both of those factors would give Thanos the win.
Log in to comment