Outriders

• Core Identity: The Outriders are a terrifying, genetically engineered species of shock troops, serving as both relentless scouts and a near-mindless swarm army for Thanos and his Black Order.
• Key Takeaways:
• Role in the Universe: They function as the vanguard of Thanos's conquests, a disposable and brutally effective force designed to either gather intelligence on targets or overwhelm them with sheer numbers. Thanos.
• Primary Impact: Their most significant impact was as the primary ground force during the Invasion of Wakanda in the search for the Mind Stone and later as a major component of Thanos's army in the final Battle of Earth. Infinity War.
• Key Incarnations: The fundamental difference lies in their function; in the comics (Earth-616), they are singular, stealthy, telepathic assassins used for infiltration and information extraction, while in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), they are a non-sentient, multi-limbed horde of cannon fodder used for large-scale assaults.

The Outriders made their first, chilling appearance in the lead-up to Marvel's massive 2013 crossover event, Infinity. They debuted in Free Comic Book Day 2013 (Infinity) #1, which was released in May 2013. This introductory issue served as a prologue to the main event, showcasing the terror and efficiency of Thanos's forces. The creation of the Outriders is credited to the acclaimed writer Jonathan Hickman, who was the chief architect of the Infinity storyline. Hickman, alongside artists Jim Cheung, Jerome Opeña, and Dustin Weaver, conceived the Outriders as a new and frightening element of Thanos's war machine. They were designed to embody a specific type of cosmic horror: the perfect infiltrator. Unlike the more distinct personalities of the Black Order, the Outrider was envisioned as a living tool, an extension of its master's will, bred for a single, horrifying purpose. Its sleek, shadowy design emphasized stealth and lethality, a stark contrast to the brute force often associated with cosmic armies. Their introduction was a key part of Hickman's effort to re-establish Thanos as a universe-level threat, giving him not just powerful generals but also a terrifyingly effective intelligence-gathering apparatus.

The origin of the Outriders is a testament to Thanos's cruelty and his mastery of genetic science. However, their nature and deployment differ dramatically between the comic book universe and the cinematic universe.

In the prime Marvel continuity, the Outriders are not a naturally occurring species. They are artificial beings, a slave race created through horrific genetic engineering by an unknown progenitor, and later perfected and mass-produced by Thanos himself. Each Outrider is a “genetically engineered parasite-assassin” grown in cosmic “assassin-wombs.” Their creation is bespoke; they are designed for a single mission and then, typically, they die upon its completion. Their primary purpose is not open warfare but infiltration, espionage, and intelligence extraction. An Outrider is dispatched to a target world to locate its greatest secrets, its most powerful weapons, or its most valuable tribute for Thanos. To accomplish this, they possess a unique set of abilities. They can become intangible, allowing them to phase through solid matter, rendering conventional defenses useless. More terrifyingly, they are telepathic parasites. Upon making physical contact with a target, an Outrider can sift through the victim's mind, consuming their thoughts and memories and transmitting the most relevant data back to its masters in the Black Order. This process is invasive and deeply violating, as seen when an Outrider infiltrated the Inhuman city of Attilan and psychically tortured Black Bolt to learn the location of the Infinity Gems. They are inherently servile, possessing no true will of their own. Their existence is one of singular focus, driven by the biological imperative to please their master. This lack of individuality makes them utterly loyal and expendable. They live to serve, report, and die. This version of the Outrider is a scalpel, a precise instrument of intelligence gathering that paves the way for the hammer blow of Thanos's full invasion force.

The MCU reimagined the Outriders for a different purpose, transforming them from solitary assassins into a full-fledged swarm army. While their origin as a genetically engineered species created to serve Thanos remains, their function and physiology were radically altered for the large-scale spectacle of films like Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. In this continuity, the Outriders are the primary infantry of Thanos's forces, a horde of monstrous, quadrupedal (or sometimes six-limbed) creatures that attack with feral ferocity. Visually, they are hulking beasts with dark, chitinous skin, mouths filled with razor-sharp teeth, and a complete absence of eyes, suggesting they may hunt using other senses like scent or echolocation. Some variants display an extra set of smaller, scythe-like arms, bringing their total limb count to six. Their purpose is not stealth but overwhelming force. They are deployed en masse from drop-pods launched from warships like the Q-Ships or the Sanctuary II. Their battle strategy is simple and brutal: charge the enemy, tear them apart, and overwhelm defenses through sheer numbers and a suicidal disregard for their own survival. This was demonstrated most vividly during the Battle of Wakanda, where thousands of Outriders were unleashed. They mindlessly threw themselves against Wakanda's powerful energy shield until a breach was created, and even then, their primary tactic was to flood the battlefield and engage powerful heroes like Captain America, Black Panther, and the Hulkbuster armor through a seemingly endless wave of bodies. Unlike their comic counterparts, the MCU Outriders show no signs of telepathy or intangibility. They are pure biological weapons of war, a living tide of claws and teeth. Their creation serves a different strategic need for the MCU's Thanos: a disposable army that can bog down and decimate a planet's defenders, allowing the Black Order and Thanos himself to focus on acquiring the Infinity Stones.

The biological makeup and societal structure—or lack thereof—of the Outriders are central to understanding their role. The two primary versions are almost entirely different species, sharing only a name and a master.

The comic book Outrider is a masterpiece of biological engineering, designed for espionage and assassination.

• Physiology and Abilities:
• Intangibility/Phasing: Their most crucial ability is density control. An Outrider can become intangible at will, allowing it to pass through walls, force fields, and even living beings. This makes them virtually impossible to contain and allows them to reach even the most heavily guarded targets.
• Telepathic Consumption: Outriders are psychic predators. They don't just read minds; they “eat” thoughts. By phasing a part of their body into a victim, they can access their deepest memories and secrets, ripping the information directly from their consciousness. This process is agonizing for the victim and highly efficient for Thanos.
• Cloaking/Invisibility: They can bend light around their bodies, rendering themselves invisible to the naked eye and most forms of technological detection. This, combined with their phasing, makes them the ultimate infiltrators.
• Superhuman Attributes: While designed for stealth, they possess superhuman strength, speed, and durability, making them formidable opponents even for enhanced individuals if they are forced into direct combat.
• Claws and Teeth: Their primary physical weapons are razor-sharp claws on their hands and feet, capable of rending steel.
• Purpose and Psychology:
• The purpose of an Outrider is singular: to gather a specific piece of information for its master. They are dispatched with a clear objective—find the Infinity Gems, learn the secrets of a king, discover a planet's weakness.
• They have a “gnawing, suicidal need to please” their creator. They experience a form of pleasure upon successfully completing a mission and transmitting the data. Their life has no other value. If they fail, or after they succeed, they are expected to die. This was shown when Corvus Glaive expressed surprise that the Outrider sent to Attilan had survived its mission.
• Hierarchy:
• The Outriders sit at the very bottom of Thanos's command structure. They are tools, not soldiers. They take their orders directly from members of the Black Order, who act as their handlers. They possess no rank or individuality among themselves. They are simply a resource to be deployed and expended.

The MCU's Outriders are less about finesse and more about overwhelming, brute force. Their design reflects a role as expendable shock troops.

• Physiology and Abilities:
• Multi-Limbed Locomotion: MCU Outriders are monstrous creatures that move on four to six powerful limbs. This allows them to scramble over terrain and obstacles at incredible speeds, moving like a terrifying cross between an ape and an insect.
• Enhanced Strength and Durability: A single Outrider is strong enough to pose a threat to a normal human, but their true strength is in their numbers. They can swarm and overwhelm even super-soldiers like Captain America or armored heroes like War Machine. They are durable enough to withstand significant punishment before falling.
• Feral Combat Style: Lacking any formal training or strategy, they fight with pure animalistic rage. They use their powerful limbs, claws, and teeth to bite, tear, and bludgeon their opponents.
• Hive Mind/Pack Mentality: While not explicitly stated to be a hive mind, they operate with a singular, coordinated purpose, much like a swarm of insects. They move as one, charge as one, and die as one, all seemingly directed by the will of their commanders on the battlefield, such as Proxima Midnight or Cull Obsidian.
• Environmental Adaptation: They were shown to be capable of surviving in the vacuum of space, clinging to the outside of their ships, and operating in Earth's atmosphere without issue.
• Purpose and Psychology:
• Their purpose is to be the wave that breaks the enemy's defenses. They are the first line of attack in a planetary invasion, designed to absorb casualties, exhaust enemy resources, and create chaos on the battlefield.
• They appear to be entirely without fear or any instinct for self-preservation. Their only drive is to charge forward and destroy whatever their masters point them at. This suicidal aggression makes them terrifyingly effective as a weapon of attrition. Questions like “What do the Outriders eat?” or “How do Outriders reproduce?” are largely irrelevant; they are living weapons, likely vat-grown and sustained by whatever means Thanos provides, existing only to fight and die.
• Hierarchy:
• Similar to the comics, they are the lowest echelon of Thanos's army. They are commanded by the Children of Thanos (Black Order) and deployed as a faceless horde. There is no distinction between one Outrider and another; they are an anonymous, churning mass of violence, completely interchangeable and utterly expendable.

As a servitor race, the Outriders' relationships are defined entirely by their masters and their targets. They have no culture, allies, or enemies of their own choosing.

The Outriders of both universes serve one ultimate master: Thanos. Their entire existence is predicated on his will. However, their direct handlers are typically his lieutenants.

• Thanos: The Mad Titan is their creator and supreme commander. In the comics, he genetically crafts them for specific missions. In the MCU, he unleashes them as his primary ground force. They are a reflection of his philosophy: life is a resource to be used and discarded in pursuit of a grander goal. Their mindless devotion and expendability are precisely what he requires from his army.
• The Black Order (The Children of Thanos):
• Corvus Glaive: In the Infinity comic storyline, Corvus Glaive acts as a direct handler for the Outriders, dispatching them to various worlds and receiving their psychic reports. He treats the Outrider with cold, utilitarian disdain, viewing it as a tool that has outlived its usefulness once its mission is complete.
• Proxima Midnight & Cull Obsidian: In Avengers: Infinity War, Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian act as field commanders for the Outrider army during the Battle of Wakanda. They direct the flow of the horde, ordering them to flank the Avengers and focus their efforts on reaching Vision to secure the Mind Stone. Their relationship is that of a general to their ammunition.

The “enemies” of the Outriders are simply the designated targets of Thanos's conquest.

• The Avengers: In both continuities, the Avengers are the primary force of opposition that the Outriders face.
• Earth-616: During Infinity, an Outrider successfully infiltrates Avengers Tower, though its primary mission was to gather intelligence on the Illuminati.
• MCU: The Avengers bear the full brunt of the Outrider assault in both the Battle of Wakanda and the Battle of Earth. Key members like Captain America, Thor, Hulk (in the Hulkbuster armor), and Scarlet Witch are shown mowing down dozens, if not hundreds, of the creatures. The Outriders are responsible for overwhelming and nearly killing many heroes through sheer numbers.
• The Armies of Wakanda: In the MCU, the Wakandan army, alongside the Jabari Tribe and the Dora Milaje, forms the frontline defense against the Outrider invasion. The battle is a brutal clash between Wakanda's advanced technology and tactical discipline and the Outriders' mindless, overwhelming ferocity. The Outriders' ability to breach the capital's energy shield is a testament to their terrifying effectiveness as a siege weapon.
• Black Bolt and the Inhumans (Earth-616): One of the most significant moments for the comic book Outrider involved its infiltration of the hidden Inhuman city of Attilan. It successfully bypassed all of their defenses to reach the throne room of their king, Black Bolt. There, it psychically assaulted him, sifting through his mind for Thanos's true objective: the location of his long-lost Inhuman son, Thane. This act of violation directly triggered Black Bolt's decision to unleash the Terrigen Bomb, a pivotal moment in the Infinity event.

The Outriders have played a central, if often faceless, role in some of the most climactic battles in recent Marvel history.

The Infinity event was the grand debut of the Outriders and perfectly showcased their intended design as stealthy terror weapons. As the Builders waged war across the galaxy, Thanos saw an opportunity to strike at a weakened Earth. He dispatched his Outriders to numerous worlds that had previously been conquered by Thanos, demanding a tribute of the heads of their young between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two. This was a cover for his true mission: finding and killing his son, Thane. An Outrider was sent to Attilan, home of the Inhumans. It phased through the city's defenses, remaining completely undetected until it reached Black Bolt himself. The creature's subsequent mental assault was a defining moment, demonstrating its power not as a brawler, but as a psychic burglar. It forced Black Bolt to reveal Thanos's secret, an act that pushed the Inhuman king to take drastic measures. The intelligence gathered by this single Outrider directly shaped Thanos's entire invasion strategy for Earth and set the core plot of the event in motion. This storyline established the Outriders as a serious threat, not because of their numbers, but because of their horrifying, invasive efficiency.

This is arguably the most famous appearance of the Outriders. In their quest for the Mind Stone, embedded in Vision's forehead, Thanos's forces descended on Wakanda. The Outriders were their primary weapon. Deployed from massive drop ships, they formed a tidal wave of black, snarling bodies that crashed against Wakanda's energy dome. The scene showcased their key traits: a complete lack of self-preservation and the ability to win through attrition. They piled their bodies against the shield, with many being vaporized, simply to create pressure points. When a section was opened to funnel their attack, they poured through in a torrent. The ensuing battle was a desperate struggle for the assembled heroes. Bruce Banner, in the Hulkbuster armor, was swarmed and nearly torn apart. Captain America and Black Panther fought back-to-back against an endless tide. The battle only turned when Thor arrived with Stormbreaker, his lightning decimating huge swaths of the Outrider army. The battle defined the MCU Outriders as a terrifying force of nature, a living plague that could threaten even the most powerful heroes on Earth.

After the Avengers successfully reversed the Snap, a version of Thanos from 2014 traveled to the future with his entire army, including a massive force of Outriders, Chitauri, and Sakaarans. They were unleashed upon the ruins of the Avengers Compound for the final, climactic battle for the fate of the universe. In this fight, the Outriders once again served as the backbone of Thanos's ground forces. They clashed with the fully restored armies of Earth, including the forces of Wakanda, the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj, and the Ravagers. They swarmed heroes, pulled down larger combatants like Giant-Man, and flooded the battlefield with chaos. Their presence turned the fight into a brutal, large-scale war. Their end came swiftly and decisively. When Tony Stark snapped his fingers with the Nano Gauntlet, the Outriders, along with the rest of Thanos's army, crumbled into dust, their monstrous forms disintegrating into nothingness. This final act solidified their status as extensions of Thanos's will—when he was defeated, they ceased to exist.

While not as heavily featured in alternate realities as other characters or groups, the Outriders have appeared in other media, often blending their comic and MCU characteristics.

The Outriders appear as an enemy type in the Crystal Dynamics video game Marvel's Avengers, specifically within the “War for Wakanda” expansion. Their design in the game is a clear homage to their appearance in Avengers: Infinity War, featuring the same multi-limbed, eyeless, and monstrous physiology. They serve the forces of Ulysses Klaw, who has invaded Wakanda. They function as fast, aggressive melee enemies that attack in packs, attempting to swarm and overwhelm the player-controlled heroes, very much in line with their MCU counterparts.

The Outriders have made minor appearances in animated form, most notably in the Guardians of the Galaxy animated series. In the episode “Lyin' Eyes,” an Outrider is shown held captive by the Grandmaster on his station, Conjunction. Later in the series, they appear as part of Thanos's army. Their design in the show leans closer to the sleek, humanoid, and somewhat reptilian look from the comics, rather than the bestial appearance from the MCU. This version helps to bridge the gap between the two main interpretations of the species.

• Thanos
• Black Order
• Corvus Glaive
• Proxima Midnight
• Infinity (Event)
• Infinity War
• Endgame
• Wakanda

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