Oh Snap! Infinity War Take 2

Who Are These People? To say there are a lot of characters in this movie is, well, it’s just silly. There are more people in Infinity War than you’d find at Comic-Con! We know the heroes but who are the villains?

Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive and Cull Obsidian

Thanos has hordes of aliens doing his bidding but his main generals — Ebony Maw, Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian — only Ebony Maw is identified by name. Now, Proxima Midnight is a cool name but watching the DVD with the closed captioning on she as well as Cull Obsidian and Corvus Glaive are not mentioned by name. Fans may recognize them but I only discovered their names through the merchandising of the film.

Dead or Temporarily Dead?

It’s relatively safe to assume anyone who got dusted — Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, Drax, Mantis, Starlord, Groot, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, Bucky, Falcon — will return to life when the remaining heroes undo Thanos’s snap. But how long will they stay alive?

Definitely Dead

When the movie opens we get a continuation of the casual, brutal slayings of the Asgardians we saw in Thor Ragnarok. Loki, a major character practically from the beginning and was responsible for the formation of The Avengers, deserved a lot more screen time and a nobler death. As did Heimdall. The way in which Marvel has slaughtered the Asgardians and destroyed Asgard itself has been unbelievably cold as though Marvel wanted this part of their universe erased completely without any compassion for who these characters were. With Tom Hiddleston and Idris Elba on the list of actors leaving the MCU, Loki and Heimdall are definitely dead. As Thanos said, “No resurrections this time”.

Probably Dead

Gamora…..with so many heroes in Infinity War, few heroes were given any time in the spotlight. Gamora was the one hero who received a strong focus on her story amidst all the battle scenes and her arc appears to have come full circle. Plus, her death provides ample impetus for Nebula’s rage against Thanos. There are those who believe Nebula may well be the one who delivers the killing blow to Thanos. Awhile back, Zoe Saldana said she would be done with the colorful makeup after 3 more movies. Presumably, these 3 films are Infinity War and two Avatar sequels. But there could still be a resurrection for Gamora as the actress has been vocal along with the rest of the cast of Guardians of The Galaxy about rehiring James Gunn for the third Guardians movie after he was fired for insensitive tweets he made years ago which were dug up by conservative trolls looking to get back at the director for his criticism of Donald Trump.

Vision…this one is a toss-up. Thanos ripped half of Vision’s skull apart taking the Infinity Mind Stone. His body turned grey as Thanos tossed him to the ground. But Vision is an artificial being, therefore, he could be rebuilt, even without the Mind Stone. Shuri seems as though she could reanimate The Vision but at what cost? Without the Mind Stone, would Vision still have his developing emotions? His love of Wanda? But here’s the catch: Paul Bettany/Vision is not listed to appear in any movies beyond Infinity War. So only time will tell if we see the android again.

The snap was particularly unkind to the superheroes in general. The way it was supposed to work was to take out half the population of the universe…effectively every other person. But the heroes got hit disproportionately hard. It took out all of the Guardians except Rocket. It dusted Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, leaving only Tony and Nebula out of that grouping of 7. That’s 5-2. It wiped out Hank and Janet Pym and their daughter Hope, the Wasp, leaving only Scott Lang, Ant-Man (albeit stuck in the Quantum realm). 3-1. Also dusted: Maria Hill, Nick Fury, Wanda, Bucky, Falcon, Panther…14 dusted and 9 survivors on the heroes side.

The Final Battle

One thing is all but certain…by the time Avengers 4 ends there will be death. Fans are absolutely screaming to see their heroes die. Something that is as sad as it is disturbing. Why would anyone want to see a hero die? The usual response: because it makes it real. Crazy aliens with space stones that make them omnipotent, Norse Gods, talking raccoons, androids, super soldiers…but the death of a hero will make it real? It’s another symptom of the dark times in which we now live where people want to see the hero die. And the general consensus of the hero they most want to die is Captain America. The heart and soul of the Avengers, Steve Rogers. Die Steve, die! We’ll hand off the shield to Bucky or the Falcon like in the comics. Except in the comics, Captain America comes back and reclaims his place. We need Captain America and regardless of what some people say, Steve Rogers is Captain America. If Chris Evans wants to move on that’s fine. Then recast Captain America. They recast the Hulk from Edward Norton to Mark Ruffalo. They recast War Machine from Terrence Howard to Don Cheadle. Fandral was originally Josh Dallas and Zachary Levi took over the role. It’s been done before. The question though is whether audiences would stand for it as Chris Evans has embodied the star spangled Avenger from the start in such an amazing way. People could be outraged at first but the past has shown they usually settle in to the new actor given time.

It’s public knowledge that, besides Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr (the second most favored hero to die), Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlet Johansson, and Jeremy Renner will all have finished their contractual obligations by the end of Avengers 4. With serious talks going on regarding a Black Widow solo film, it may be safe to say Natasha will survive the final battle with Thanos.

Robert Downey Jr was originally contracted to do 3 Iron Man movies and The Avengers. But RDJ has extended his contract 3 times since then allowing for him to do Captain America Civil War, Spider-Man Homecoming and Avengers 3 and 4. Robert Downey Jr was responsible for launching the Marvel Cinematic Universe and has been critical to it’s success. It’s not a stretch to believe he could stay on even if it’s not in armored form but as the scientific genius and mentor Tony Stark. Maybe he could just marry Pepper and the two of them retire from the world and go off somewhere. RDJ is the highest paid actor in the MCU and now is as good a time as any to make it a wrap but that doesn’t have to come as the death of Tony Stark.

As stated before, Paul Bettany’s Vision has no appearances scheduled after Avengers Infinity War and Elizabeth Olsen’s contract expires with Avengers Infinity War. It’s hard to imagine she won’t make some kind of appearance in Avengers 4 because when Thanos’s snap is undone everyone it affected will have to be restored to life. And The Scarlet Witch has always been such a background character we really should get more of her in a new Avengers team (hopefully with Vision).

After his stint in the next Marvel film, Captain Marvel, Avengers 4 will most likely be the end of Nick Fury, Samuel L Jackson. After Robert Downey Jr, no other actor has defined the MCU more than Jackson. After ties were severed with S.H.I.E.L.D. (whatever form it’s currently in) and with the dissolving of the Avengers, there’s not a lot left for Nick Fury.

So, who’s left? Even if Gamora is truly dead, the rest of the Guardians are still set to do GOTG 3…we think. Recently that movie was taken off the schedule indefinitely and crews were dismissed in the wake of James Gunn’s firing and having to find a new director. It will more than likely still get made but what story will be used is now up in the air. Sebastian Stan has a 9 picture deal so he won’t be going anywhere. Anthony Mackie also has some films left. Benedict Cumberbatch and Chadwick Boseman have Dr. Strange 2 and Black Panther 2 respectively. So when Avengers 4 begins, we’ll likely have Iron Man hitch a ride back to Earth with Nebula and join up with Thor, Captain America, Bruce Banner, Black Widow, War Machine and Rocket for round two with Thanos. The big question is how are they going to get to him? He really has no reason to return to Earth and the Avengers have no idea where he is.

Who Is To Blame For Not Defeating Thanos?

Dr. Strange: the wizard had possession of the Time Stone so why couldn’t he go back in time and kill Thanos as a baby? We saw one of Thanos’s minions get his arm cut off when a portal closed on him so why couldn’t Dr. Strange use that trick on Thanos? We do know that Dr. Strange has saw only one possible future in which they defeat Thanos. So we must assume his actions are following that course.
Starlord: when Peter Quill learns of Gamora’s death he loses control of his emotions just as Iron Man, Dr. Strange and Iron Spider almost separated the gauntlet from Thanos. But even if they had gotten the gauntlet off there was no guarantee Thanos would not get it back. Even without the Infinity Stones Thanos is a very formidable foe.

Thor: the God of Thunder plunges his ax Stormbreaker into Thanos’s chest. Thanos said Thor should have aimed for his head. Actually, Thor should have aimed for Thanos’s arm and separated the Infinity Gauntlet from him entirely. However, we must rely on Dr. Strange’s vision of the future and assume he saw all of these possibilities and knew none of them would work. Therefore we cannot assign blame to anyone really and have to be content that the events are proceeding along the single timeline that will lead to victory over Thanos.

Why Didn’t Thanos (Fill in the blank) ?

Why didn’t Thanos create endless resources for everyone? Why didn’t he do this or do that? This part is very simple: the movie left out a character who was key to Thanos’s motivations and behavior: Mistress Death. In the comics, Thanos wanted to sacrifice half the life in the universe as a tribute of love to Mistress Death. This is why he was “The Mad Titan”. You’d have to be pretty crazy to fall in love with Death. But for whatever reason, the makers of the movie chose to leave out this one critical component of who Thanos was. Was it to make Thanos seem more noble? That he was truly concerned about the resources of the universe? How does he know that there weren’t thousands of civilizations across the universe that had abundant resources or figured out how to be self sustaining? If Mistress Death was in the picture there wouldn’t be any questions. We’d have a crazy dude who wanted to kill half the universe as a courtship gift to Death. Titan would still be around to serve as the home of The Eternals (who are Thanos’s relatives) for The Eternal’s upcoming movie. This is why it is so important to watch how you adapt stories from the comics. One need only to look at FOX’s attempt to do the Dark Phoenix story in their X-Men films.

Some speculate we may see Mistress Death in Avengers 4. Some even say that it will be Hela. It’s highly unlikely we will see Mistress Death at all. Thanos’s motivations for killing half the universe has already been stated.