Let's say I'm playing the colossal Thanos ig008c at a tournament. Now let's say I lose the map roll and my opponent chooses to play on the prison map, where the starting areas are divided into 2x2 rooms. Where do I place my Thanos? I've had one judge tell me he gets to destroy whatever walls he needs to in order to place as much of his base in my starting area as possible, but I've had another judge say I just automatically lose the game because I can't legally place my team.

The Rules say that if you cannot fit him in your starting area that you increase all starting areas by one Row/column until they can fit. If there is still no place to place the figure then he would go as close to your original starting area and all terrain he is placed in is ignored until he moves. It is never destroyed unless the characters Card or Rules sheet specifically states it is destroyed.

From the player's guide page 4 under Multibased Characters:

Punch ur opponent in the face, because they are a coward and don't want to face thanos on equal terms... prison, mistress death's realm, jsa, and krakoa are unfair for colossals...

and colossals are unfair to normal teams, what's your point?

And blanket statements are leading us nowhere, what's your point?

I want tacos...what's the point?

And quoting you makes me a little less intelligent, whutz yer poynt?

Also...

The point there is that you want tacos. That is a valid statement!

I want it known that I had no intention of starting a flame war here.

geeez mister your hungerier than i am

That's crap. I hate the fact the colossals are pretty much shunned everywhere. If I can play a near 400 point Thor/Loki why can't I play a 300 point Galactus, or a 100 point Giganto for that matter?

If you really want a map that screws colossals, use Jotunheim, Muspelheim, or Krakoa.

Colossals are pretty fair from GSX on. No reason to go off and have a big argument.

The official answer is that for initial placement, your colossal character ignores terrain in the starting area. Once they move, the terrain behaves normally.

Coward.

Quote for truth.

Afraid of the Original Galactus? Starro? Dr. Manhattan? Fine, but everything since GSX has been so much better dialed that if you don't want to play against them, its all in your head.

Don't be a chicken.

Remember that ignoring the terrain in the starting area is only allowed if expanding the starting area doesn't correct the problem. You can't just default to "ignore".

The Maps are all Fine, they changed to ruling for colossal movement so they act as 1 square when moving. If a player chooses a map that is closed quarters then that is the strategy of the game and you agreed to it by sitting down.

Colossals are all Fine, even the old ones. They have the WizKids stamp of approval on the bottom of the dial then they are fair game. There has not been one colossal that I have fought against that I did not have a chance at beating. Sure I lost to some, but those came down to strategy and dice rules.

It's good that they're allowed to walk down the prison halls, but bad that they still can't fit in them or the cells...
Spending a couple turns blowing stuff up seems to work best, even if it does allow the opponent a huge positioning advantage.