I’m really excited for Endgame. Like, really excited. It’s the culmination of ten years of movies building up to the climax, and for once the ending is not predetermined. Which Avengers will meet their final end, and how do the new Avengers get resurrected? With that being said, no movie is perfect and I decided to write down a few of my thoughts going into the movie.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is drastically different than Marvel Comics:
Comics are the land of the free, where overpowered characters abound. It’s been quite clear for a while that the MCU drastically powers down characters. This has led to some fan/personal disappointment and some (in my opinion) skewed power levels. Below are some of my gripes with the changes in the MCU.
Captain Marvel’s relative power level going into Endgame:
Captain Marvel has been established – by Kevin Feige (president of Marvel Studios) no less – as the most powerful avenger . The MCU version of Captain Marvel derives her powers both from Kree blood transfusion as well as absorbing the power of Mar-Vell’s engine when she destroyed it. She later goes on a rampage, destroying Ronan’s ships with her body. She then takes off with the Skrull, promising to help them find a new homeworld. Her feats of destroy the ships, as well as Kevin’s comments, have established her as the key to defeating Thanos. Here’s why that doesn’t make sense:
Her power is derived from only one stone. The Tesseract, or the space stone, has seen the most screen time in the MCU. It’s established powers are mainly teleportation (Thanos, and Red Skull) and energy production (used by both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Mar-Vell). While some of the Infinity Stone powers are yet to be fully defined (Soul Stone particularly), it does not seem from the movies that the space stone is significantly more powerful than any of the others. Ebony Maw states that Thanos was the only being capable of wielding two stones, giving us a clue that the stones together enhanced their power / difficulty in wielding. I don’t understand how her being infused with the energy of one engine powered from one stone makes her even close to Thanos with six stones. I don’t even believe it should be a discussion between her and Thor.
As far as the MCU goes, Stormbreaker Thor has exhibited at least the same feats that Captain Marvel has. He destroyed the dropships that housed the outriders with his body, and he held back the power of a neutron star without his axe. We have not seen similar feats of durability from Captain Marvel yet. Most impressively, however, Stormbreaker was able to pierce a beam from a 6 infinity stone gauntlet. If each infinity stone enhances the power of another, it’s very hard to imagine that Captain Marvel could have pierced a six stone beam. This is not to even talk about the differences in strength between comic book Thor and Captain Marvel. There is a nice summary here, but Thor should not be touched by her.
She does remain a powerful avenger though, with Scarlett Witch giving us a preview of the powers of a stone vs the gauntlet. She was able to hold back Thanos with the gauntlet for a while and both their powers come from one of the stones. It’s debatable how much effort Thanos was putting into overpowering Wanda as he knew he had the time stone, but it was still a much better effort than the other Avengers. If Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel are so powerful after absorbing some of the powers of an infinity stone, what happened to Vision?
Vision being completely useless in Infinity War:
I understand that Vision got nerfed by being stabbed in Infinity War, but Vision’s power levels have been consistently inconsistent with Marvel’s explanation of infinity stones. I will give him a pass in Age of Ultron, because after all, he was only a day old. Lets say he wasn’t able to fully utilize the stone yet.
Perhaps the power stone is simply far stronger than all the others stones, but we have seen both Thanos and Eson the Searcher destroy entire planets/moons by wielding one stone. Vision has not shown even close to similar capabilities. So far in the movie we have seen him with the following abilities: extreme durability (likely due to his vibranium frame), ability to phase in and out of tangibility (nerfed in Infinty War due to being stabbed), and the ability to shoot beams of energy (mind stone related). These beams were able to hold Ultron at bay, but only with the combined might of the other Avengers. In Civil War, we see him blast Rhodey from the sky and that’s about it. What gives?
Even if we don’t give him credit for utilizing the full power of the mind stone (we probably can’t due to his feats), he seems drastically underpowered. Wanda and Captain Marvel merely absorbed portions of the mind stone and the space stone, and they are seemingly far more powerful. Wanda absorbes part of the power of the mindstone, which is housed inside Vision! How can he be significantly less powerful than her?
It seemed that the Russo brothers acknowledge that he should be far more powerful than shown in prior movies because they nerf him immediately in Infinity War by stabbing him when unaware. This seems to render him useless for the rest of the movie. Tony Stark seems to be able to use nanites to save himself in the end of Infinity War, and if he got the technology from Wakanda it makes sense that they would have it in Shuri’s lab. Why did they not use it on Vision? Sure he’s made from vibranium, but it have to be better than nothing.
I get that there wasn’t enough time for everyone to be important in Infinity War, but it just doesn’t make sense that someone with a stone could be so useless, and for someone to have only absorbed part of a stone (Captain Marvel) to be so important. Just my thoughts on relative power level.
What trickery do the Russo’s have planned?
With reports that Endgame has even more spoilers than Infinity War , the details of the movie are being kept tightly under wraps. There are a few hints of what’s to come in the trailers, but the Russo’s have been known to insert misdirection into marketing materials .
I am a fan of the time travel theory and think it’s the most likely way to resurrect the dusted Avengers. For those not familiar with the theory, it says that the remaining Avengers will use the quantum realm to access the time vortexes mentioned in Ant Man and the Wasp to defeat Thanos before he dusts half the universe. Part of the popular theories suggest that they go back in time to the first attack on New York and take the portal to fight Thanos. There are many complications with time travel – such the Guardians of the Galaxy movies existing if this was the solution – so I’m excited to see how this plays out (or doesn’t).
Also, the second trailer shows Tony made it back to earth and most likely fashioned new suits for the Avengers. While it would be great for the whole team to be back together for what will likely be their last movie together, I’m not sure that Tony makes it. For one, the Hulk made an appearance in the Infinity War trailer in Wakanda, and we know that never happened. Secondly, Nebula marching with the Avengers seems out of place. She’s been more of a rogue character throughout her arc, and while this may be part of her redemption arc I see her more as a solo character than one of the Avengers in the MCU. One fan theory says that Nebula in the frame looks much wider than she normally does, suggesting that it’s actually Carol Danvers marching with the Avengers instead of Nebula.
Whether the solution to beat Thanos is time travel or if the snap actually sent the other half to an alternate universe, I’m excited because we don’t know yet how the movie will end. We don’t even know how it will start. And while Tom Holland is a walking spoiler machine, I will not be checking any news or social media until I see the movie. It might be foolish, but I have faith that the Russo brothers will give us the movie that fans deserve. There have been several high profile movies that (in my opinion) failed the fans, but Marvel has proven to be different. I’m hoping for the same magic with Endgame.