Detroit has bragging rights of being the hometown of the biggest baddie in the world right now: Thanos of "Avengers: Endgame."

That's thanks to Jim Starlin, the comic book writer and artist who created Thanos and wrote the "Infinity Gauntlet" series that informs the final chapter of the blockbuster Avengers movie franchise.

With "Endgame" continuing to build on its behemoth $1.2 billion opening, Starlin, who grew up in the Motor City suburb of Berkley, is having a moment.

The 69-year-old comics icon has a cameo in "Endgame" that's drawing murmurs and applause from comic book fans. It's during the scene where Chris Evans, aka Captain America, leads a group therapy session for those dealing with the catastrophic events of 2018's "Avengers: Infinity War."

Starlin hit the red carpet for the "Endgame" premiere last month in Los Angeles. In August, he'll conclude his 40-plus-years run with the Thanos character with his last book for Marvel Comics, "Thanos: The Infinity Ending."

Starlin says he gets why so many fans have a sympathetic and even sexy view of Thanos, whose quest is to kill half of Earth's population in order to restore its natural resources.

"I understand why. He's complex and interesting. I'm not at all surprised by it. Complicated can be sexy. He's a multilayered character."

Starlin may be new to the cinematic spotlight, but he's a legendary writer/artist in the comic book world, a veteran of Marvel and DC with hundreds of credits. Besides Thanos, he's also known for creating Gamora and Drax the Destroyer, now popular with mainstream audiences from the "Guardians of the Galaxy" films.

More:Detroit's own comic book creator of Thanos gets screen time in 'Avengers: Endgame'

Starlin filmed his "Endgame" cameo way back in October 2017, about six months before "Avengers: Infinity War" was released. He says his big-screen debut came about after he jokingly posted a message on his Facebook page aimed at directors Joe and Anthony Russo.

"(It said) Mr. and Mr. Russos, I'm ready for my close-up," he recalls. "Somehow or other, it got to them, I have no idea how. A week later, a producer at Marvel was calling to ask if I'd like to come down and do a cameo. I said, 'Of course.' The next thing we knew, there was a limo coming up to the front door and taking us to the airport and we were off."

Later, he had a chance to meet Josh Brolin, after the actor had already played Thanos in "Infinity War" through motion-capture technology.

"One of the first things he did was he got me in a big bear hug and said how much more he enjoyed playing Thanos than he did Cable (in 'Deadpool 2')," says Starlin with a laugh. "I wasn't expecting that."

Starlin has nothing but good things to say about Brolin's performance. "I thought the way he moved and his delivery was so right on the money," he says.

So how did a kid from metro Detroit become a comic book legend? Starlin began his journey as a young fan of comic books, especially the work of industry giants Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. "They were my gods," he recalls.

His father, a draftsman for Chrysler whose area was mostly dashboards, sparked his early forays into comic art.

"He would stuff his briefcase with as much tracing paper and No. 2 pencils and masking tape as he could jam in there and bring them home. He was going to use them for his woodworking hobby. I got hold of most of them and started off tracing comic book characters out of the books and taping them up on the wall with masking tape," says Starlin.

"That hobby turned into an obsession that's turned into a profession."

Starlin left home at 18 to serve in the Navy and then returned to metro Detroit in the early 1970s, where he took classes at Oakland Community College. A psychology course there played a key role in the future of Thanos. It introduced Starlin to the concept of "thanatos," the term used for Freudian theory on death and self-destructive drives.

According to Starlin, he did the first drawings for Thanos in Detroit before moving to New York to pursue comics work.

"You're young, 21 or 22, and you're just soaking everything up," he says of those days. "I went for a semester or two to OCC, then ran off to New York and never came back."

Thanos first appeared in 1972 in a couple of Iron Man comics. Starlin was assigned to the book when the scheduled artist had to have elective surgery. As Starlin told Entertainment Weekly: "So I did the first issue, which I plotted out with Mike Friedrich, and then the second one I worked with this writer Steve Gerber. We did a funny Iron Man issue, and Stan Lee hated it so much he fired both of us.”

Starlin's work on the 1991 series "Infinity Gauntlet" helped elevate Thanos to a superstar villain status.

A key character in that series, Mistress Death, was taken out of the movies altogether. In another Starlin book, "Silver Surfer #34," she orders Thanos to destroy half of the universe's living creatures to correct an imbalance in the universe. But in the story lines for "Infinity War" and "Endgame," it's Thanos who's the eco-maniac preoccupied with limited natural resources.

Such changes were OK by Starlin. "I had no trouble with that. You can't do a carbon copy of any kind of printed thing into the movie theater. I'm perfectly comfortable with what they did with it and kind of flattered that they decided to replace me with me," he says.

Starlin lives now in the Catskill Mountains, but he usually returns to Detroit twice a year for Christmas and summer family reunions. He sounds content with the fact that his celebrity arrived later in life.

"It's good. I probably would've acted badly if it had happened when I was in my twenties. ... (I'm) too long in the tooth to go the self-destructive route with fame. I figure it may have timed itself perfectly."

Starlin, who's had his clashes with Marvel Comics over the years, says that "Thanos: The Infinity Ending" will be his last chapter with Thanos. "Marvel editorial and I are parting company permanently," he says.

He's spent more than 40 years with Thanos, who, along with his title character from the "Dreadstar" series, he refers to fondly as "my children." According to Starlin, it's been a good ride — and the attention he's receiving from the Marvel movies is something he never expected.

"It's a plus," he says. "You can't expect anything in this life, and I've been totally surprised by the pluses so far."

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture writer Julie Hinds: 313-222-6427 or jhinds@freepress.com.