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Tag: Infinity War
We’ll Avenge It.
WARNING! INFINITY WAR SPOILERS!
“There’s no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it’s too much for us, but it’s all on you. Because if we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we’ll avenge it.”
-Tony Stark, The Avengers 2012
I was broken after Avengers: Infinity War. When watching TV with my family, every time they would fast forward through a Marvel commercial, I’d shout “Wait! Stop! Rewind it! There’s 0.03 seconds of footage in this TV spot that hasn’t been in any trailers!” After Infinity War, I began to say “Keep going, fast forward over this.” I went to work and informed everyone I was a DC fan for the time being. I rocked myself to sleep, silently telling myself I was going to be okay. But worst of all, whenever I saw the Avengers A, I sighed, groaned in disgust. Because the boy that cried in 2012 when we pan out of Stark Tower and see only the A remaining, now in 2018 saw a symbol of failure. A group of super powered losers that couldn’t beat one purple bum.
The Avengers A was meaningless to me. They lost. They failed. They couldn’t stop Thanos. So why would I believe in heroes that can’t save the day? That can’t protect the Earth? Then boom. That line from the first Avengers movie hit me like Stormbreaker. They couldn’t protect the Earth. But, if Tony’s words ring true, then we can be damn well sure they’ll avenge it. Because they’re not called The Protectors, or the Guardians (who also failed) or the Defenders (who were MIA), but they’re The Avengers. And yes, they lost. Thanos beat them. He has a throne. There’s 14,000,604 versions of this where he comes out on top. His army came and it was too much for them. But now they’re mad. Now they’re ready. There’s only one thing left to do, to stop Thanos and save the universe. The Avengers must assemble. Once and for all.
All this to say I’m cool with Infinity War now. Lol.
The Spider-Sense in Infinity War is Cool, But…
WARNING! INFINITY WAR SPOILERS!
Okay, so from the moment we saw it in the trailer, we all lost our minds. Peter’s on the bus, and the hairs on his arm stand up. He looks out the window and see’s Ebony Maw’s donut ship hovering over the city. In the distance. Who knows how many miles away. What I’m saying is, while that moment got every Spider-Man fanboy, myself included, dancing with joy, that’s not how his Spider-Sense works!
Peter’s Spider-Sense is an early warning system for immediate danger. When someone is sneaking up on him, or if he’s about to spin a web to a loose ceiling tile. It doesn’t let him know what’s coming, but it does let him know to watch out or get out of the way. It works in tandem with his reflexes, allowing him to dodge and move at lightning speed, avoiding any sort of damage, and the only time it falters is if Venom is around.
The Raimi trilogy illustrated the Spider-Sense perfectly in the scene where he fights Flash Thompson. He gets the tingle, and we see a fly, a spitball, and Flash’s fist. Spider-Sense warns him of anything around that could cause potential harm, even if it’s something as small as a fly or a spitball. The thing is, it’s meant to sense things that are dangerous to Peter, and not the rest of the world.
For instance, in The Amazing Spider-Man, when he’s kissing Gwen on the roof, then his Spider-Sense tingles because Lizard is attacking the bridge. But it’s miles away, across the city, and Peter is in no immediate danger, so it should not have tingled. In that case, if Scorpion or someone is robbing a bank across town at night, Peter’s Spider-Sense would wake him up! Then he’d have to sleep in a tank of water like Daredevil in the ’03 movie!
In Civil War, we see very subtle references, but it’s demonstrated perfectly. As Ant-Man is about to sneak attack Spidey from Cap’s shield, Spider-Man says “Hey, guys, I think that something-” then gets cut off as Ant-Man attacks. And he cries “Oh God!” when Bucky hurls that sign at him, and chucks it back. That’s because both times, something was directly attacking Peter. His Spider-Sense didn’t tingle when Wanda threw the cars at Tony, or when Vision shot Rhodey down. Because that’s not how it works.
So, while it was really great to see Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense manifest in a very clear, very cool way in Infinity War, it was not really the most accurate portrayal. That ship was miles away, and no immediate threat to Peter. It didn’t bug me or anything, I’m just being a nerd and pointing things out. Now there is a theory going around that Peter fought off disintegrating so long because his Spider-Sense warned him that it was coming, and while we’ve never seen it work that way either, there’s nothing suggesting that it doesn’t. After all, I’d say turning to dust qualifies as immediate danger! R.I.P. Spidey (sad face emoji).
Iron Man is Not a Hero
WARNING! THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR! YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!
“You may not be a threat, but you’d better stop pretending to be a hero.”
-Captain Steve Rogers to Tony Stark, The Avengers, 2012
Cap called it in The Avengers. Tony Stark is not a hero. And, while he may not have been a threat at that point, he certainly went on to become one. Tony is a billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist that got in way over his head and tried to solve problems he was never meant to. Since escaping the cave, Tony made three crucial mistakes that make Iron Man the most tragic Avenger. He revealed his identity, he lost focus of his mission, and he never stopped trying to fix his own mistakes.
“It is one thing to question the official story and another thing entirely to make wild accusations or insinuate that I’m a superhero […] because that would be outlandish and… fantastic. I-I’m just not the hero type, clearly, with this, uh, laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I’ve made, largely public… The truth is… I am Iron Man.”
-Tony Stark, Iron Man, 2008
Tony’s speech at the end of Iron Man reveals all. He stated, clearly, in his own words, that he’s not a hero. He wasn’t trying to hide the fact that he was throwing down with Stane the night before, he was telling the truth! He’s got a long list of character defects that immediately disqualify him from being a superhero, let alone trying to lead a team of them. As per Black Widow’s report in Iron Man 2, where it states that he’s compulsive, prone to self-destructive tendencies, and narcissistic, it then proceeds to say that Tony Stark is not recommended for the Avengers Initiative. In that movie alone, he used the Unibeam to blow up a watermelon in an ill-timed house party where he peed the armor and ended up throwing hands with Rhodey! Not very heroic. The only reason Nick Fury came to Stark in The Avengers is because, as Coulson stated, “This isn’t about personality profiles anymore”, and Loki had made him very desperate. So why keep suiting up? Why put on the armor? Because he told the world who he is, and the pressure to be Iron Man will never go away.
Because he revealed himself, Tony now has no choice but to be Iron Man. Iron Man 2 is basically one big consequence to that decision. Whiplash came after him because he knew who he was. The senate came after him because they wanted the suit and knew who he was (or at least Senator Stern wanted it because he’s HYDRA). Hammer spent the entire movie trying to one up Tony because Iron Man was revealed to be his number one competitor in the weapons industry, and there was no way he could outdo that! Even in Iron Man 3, Tony was dragged into the Mandarin scheme by the media, who expected him to do something after Happy got hurt, as displayed by the “When is somebody gonna kill this guy?” comment from the one reporter. Because everyone knew he was Iron Man. And everyone expected him to fight back.
The next big mistake Tony made was losing focus of his mission. At one point in Iron Man, he tells Pepper that he finally knows what he has to do. Yinsen told him not to waste his life, and he decided to scrap the weapons development department of Stark Industries, and then use the Iron Man armor to hunt down and destroy his weapons. So here’s what should have happened. After defeating Iron Monger, the Mk III should have been melted down for scrap, and Tony should have read Coulson’s cover story to the press. He fulfilled his promise to Yinsen, and changed for the better. Stark Industries would go on to use the Arc Reactor technology to give the world clean, free energy, and Tony would go down in history a beacon of our time. The end.
But no, he made the Mark IV. Because Iron Man has to settle East-West relations. Then he’s got to stop Whiplash. Then he’s fighting aliens, which scars him mentally for life. Next thing you know, he’s got 42 suits, and he’s going after the Mandarin, who Rhodey explicitly states is not superhero business. So then he’s tired of being Iron Man. Why? Because he didn’t stop when he should have, so he builds Ultron, to “end the mission, and go home”. But uh-oh, Ultron is a homicidal maniac who can’t tell difference between saving the world and destroying it (where does he get that again?) so he has to go stop him. It’s over right? No, because he didn’t want to stop, as he told Cap in Civil War. Which gets us to Infinity War, where Tony decides to remain aboard Ebony Maw’s ship, headed on a crash course for Titan, despite Pepper begging him to stay, because now he wants to stop Thanos. Wait, he wants to stop a giant purple alien from destroying the universe with Infinity Stones? But his mission was to rid the world of Stark weapons. So how did it go from stopping weapon distribution in his company to fighting freaking THANOS! Because he lost sight of his original mission.
The last thing Tony did wrong was try, and try, and try, to fix his mistakes. Because he’s a genius, everything he builds works. He’s a ‘mechanic’, he solves problems, he makes everything better. But he feels responsible for Whiplash getting the Arc Reactor technology. Heck, he told him how to improve it by doubling the rotations! So that’s a mistake he has to fix. And leaving Killian on the roof. Whoops, created the Mandarin, fix that mistake. Good. Done. Nope, Ultron literally destroyed a city, which was a mega fail! So okay, stop Ultron. But wait, Charles Spencer died in that fight, so okay, sign the Accords, maybe with some government oversight, so many things won’t go wrong. And… Cap doesn’t agree. Let the government handle him? Nah, go to war with him!
The biggest atonement for his sins, however, is through his self-appointed role as mentor to Peter Parker. Because in Peter, he sees a young Tony. Bright eyed, brilliant minded kid with so much potential, and he has super powers! So Tony literally intercepts this kid, who’s on his own hero’s journey, and says ‘I don’t want you to screw up as many times as I did, so I’m gonna teach you how to be a superhero, and then maybe you’ll be better than me!’ Which was a mistake, because as revealed in the ferry scene, Peter was trying to imitate him! Tony had no business being Iron Man in the first place, and he’s reached the point where he’s inserted himself into this impressionable young boy’s life, and tried to teach him things he himself has yet to discover. And how did that end? With Peter apologizing, as he faded to dust in Tony’s arms.
Iron Man is not a hero. He never should have been. Now, Thanos knows who he is, probably because he revealed himself. He’s stuck on an alien planet with nothing but Nebula and a vague hint from Doctor Strange, because he’s ventured so far from his original mission. And now he’s probably going to do something drastic in Avengers 4, because half the universe, including his protégé Spider-Man, is gone, and he has to try and fix his mistakes. This is where his path has led him. A literal worst-case scenario. So if you still think Tony being Iron Man is justified, then that’s your prerogative. But I am wholly unconvinced that, after defeating Iron Monger, he ever should have put that armor on again.
So I Think I Know Where Hawkeye Is…
Yeah, so I think I kind of figured out where Hawkeye is. It’s no secret he’s been missing from Infinity War promotional material, but I’m pretty sure that the reason behind this is… He’s being held captive on a Skrull Warship! Now hear me out. During Civil War the Skrulls infiltrated his home and replaced his wife and kids. Catching on to this, Clint embarks on a solo mission to rescue them, and discovers a much larger scheme, a secret invasion. He finds his family, but before he can escape, he is captured by the Skrulls and being held captive.
It lines up with everything the Russo Brothers have said. That he’s on a personal quest and it’s a long play and a spoiler. Also the set photos of him in the Ronin outfit help, since he was using that alias during the Secret Invasion arc and he probably doesn’t want to be associated with the Avengers, or, you know, get arrested since he doesn’t wear a mask.
This will also segue into the next Avengers movie, which, since the name is supposed to terrify us, would probably be Secret Invasion. Because Captain Marvel will have come out by then, introducing us to the concept of Skrulls, and what’s more terrifying then figuring out that none of our heroes are who we thought they were? Well, that’s my two cents anyway!
Infinity War Super Bowl Spot!
First, this:
And now bullet points! Don’t act like you don’t know me by now!
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Well, Peter is clearly comfortable with Dr. Strange knowing his identity.
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I wish Wanda would stop messing with the dang Mind Stone.
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Guardians are rolling like straight up G’s.
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“It’s all been leading to this.” A little on the nose there, Tony, but that’s fine.
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Pretty confined space for Rocket, Groot, and Thor! And is Groot on a cellphone? Or is that his video game from the end of Vol. 2?
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Dang Loki…
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Peter’s going to space!?! And he’s in the Homecoming suit, not the Iron Spider, look closely!
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Cap and Widow are ready for battle, but maybe not Vision… Look, he’s holding his side! I guess he got hurt.
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Yes Thor, we’ve been ready since 2008. Again, on the nose, but that’s fine.
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Well, it’s not red, white and blue… or even a circle… but Cap’s new shield is at least still made of Vibranium, so… yay! Good to know they got that man a shield.
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A little Superior Iron Man tech in there…
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Teen Groot ready to fight!
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Oh, good to see Nebula… And still not Hawkeye…
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Outrider Invasion!
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Black Widow hitching a ride with Okoye and some other Wakandans, no big.
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Heeeeeere’s Bucky!
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Science/Magic combo attack!
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And the money shot again!
And for that last shot of Thanos, well, I’ll just leave this here…
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Avengers: Infinity War Trailer Breakdown
So I’m sure we’ve all seen the Avengers: Infinity War trailer (over, and over again). Now let’s go over what exactly we saw (over, and over again)! Bullet point time! You know I love my bullet points! Also, if for some weird reason you haven’t seen it, SPOILERS for Thor: Ragnarok ahead!
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We open with Nick Fury’s “There was an idea…” speech from The Avengers, with everyone tagging in, and a slow piano riff of the Avengers theme… Yeah, immediate shot for the feels.
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We see a sad, distraught Tony. Maybe his Age of Ultron nightmare coming true? That’s exactly what I think of when I see him like this.
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Strange and Wong found Bruce in a hole!
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Well, no more speculation on that Vision/Scarlet Witch romance. He even made himself a real boy and everything! You know, aside from that glaring Infinity Stone in his forehead. He probably has to wear a hat when they go on dates… And I have officially put too much thought into this. Moving on.
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What is Thor looking at? Are those windows on the Milano? Or a condensed version of Yggdrasil? We know Asgard is a spaceship now, so they had to take the World Tree with them, right? I know they didn’t necessarily have a lot of time to pack…
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So that whole “Bruce Banner may never come back” thing was a false alarm. Good, we need Bruce, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to design Hulkbuster 2.0! Just wait, Hasbro Build-A-Figure in development now.
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How can we change Natasha’s hair this time? Make it blonde! Sold!
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Okay, well if we direct our attention towards the Sanctum’s staircase, we can find the hole Bruce fell through, more likely as the Hulk. Probably explains why Tony’s there too. People have also pointed out he’s holding the phone Cap gave him, so good eye!
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Spider-Sense! Yes!!!!!
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People have pointed out that it looks like Strange, Banner, and Wong are all frozen in time, which at second glance it does look like that. They also stated that Tony’s immune because of the Arc Reactor, which we’ve seen defends against Infinity stones in the past (aka Loki’s performance issues). I mean, the Arc Reactor was based on Howard Stark’s research into the Tesseract, so that’s all well and good. My only problem with this theory is that this scene seems to take place moments after the scene in the Sanctum, where Strange is wearing the Eye of Agamotto, and the only way you can freeze time is with the Eye of Agamotto, so technically he shouldn’t be frozen, right? Curious, guess we’ll have to wait and see.
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This is why I hate Loki! They just went through all that trouble saving all those Asgardians in Thor: Ragnarok, and because stupid Loki had to grab the stupid Tesseract, now they’re all dead. Way to go. As I said in my Ragnarok review, Thanos is just making good on his promise. The whole “No crevasse, no barren moon we can’t find you” deal. I can only imagine that if Ronan had made off with the Power Stone then we’d be seeing some star ways bathed in his blood.
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Don’t know why people keep saying Thanos looks like Bruce Willis merged with a purple Homer Simpson, I think he looks cool.
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Iron Spider! With light up eyes! OMG!!!! Some All-New, All-Different influence in there, I see you Marvel!
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My friend suggested that looks like a giant forge, and Thor is rebuilding Mjolnir. I don’t think Thor should be going off on side quests in Avengers movies (again), but hey, if Thanos just wrecked what’s left of Asgard and threw me and Hulk across space, I’d want my all powerful magic hammer back too.
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That’s Proxima Midnight. Hard to see, but it’s her. Throwing her stupid spear.
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Yeah! Get Captain “Bum-Beard” America a shield!
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Okay, that thing Black Panther is fighting is that four-armed creepy alien thing from the 2013 Infinity storyline, the one that creeped in on Black Bolt while he was sleeping. Don’t know why I specifically remember that, but I do. I think it’s called an Outrider. Aka Chitauri 2.0.
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Poor Spider-Man!
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That’s the foot, tattered cloak, and spear of Corvus Glaive. The one violently tearing the Mind Stone from Vision’s forehead. Poor Vison.
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So, he’s already been to Xandar and Asgard. At least that’s what I gather from the Power and Space Stones in his gauntlet there.
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Poor Iron Man. Homeboy just got flat laid out.
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Sam says: Pew, pew all the Outriders!
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Cap! Black Panther! War Machine (back on his feet)! Falcon! Black Widow! Winter Soldier! Okoye! The Hulk! And the full might of Wakanda! CHARGE!
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If you didn’t cry when they played the Avengers theme at literally the perfect moment, it’s confirmed, you have no soul.
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Hey! There’s the Guardians of the Galaxy!
So that’s a lot to unpack! Kind of justifies why it took me this long, right? Right? Oh whatever, you try running a blog and living a life! Anyways, I’m excited, I can only assume you guys are excited, so let me know in the comments! Theories, Easter eggs, references, callbacks, anything! We’re all super fans here, so let’s talk. Alright guys, I’ll see in the multiverse!
Avengers: Infinity War comes out May 4, 2018
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Avengers: Infinity War #D23
Holy cow! D23 keeps the hits coming, this time with Infinity War footage! Now, I wasn’t there, wish I could have been, but I hear the trailer has Thanos throwing a planet at the Avengers and Thor running into (literally) the Guardians of the Galaxy! And let’s not forget that Josh Brolin, Thanos himself, confirmed and introduced the Black Order! (Not the Fantastic Four, sorry guys. Although, three guys, one notably larger, and one girl, so I don’t blame the speculators on this one.)
There’s Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, and Black Dwarf. I hate all of them (blame Future Fight for that) but they’re villains, and we’re supposed to hate them, so that’s good! I can’t wait until they reveal this trailer to the public, and I’m glad they’ve finally confirmed the Black Order. So what do you guys think? Let me know in the comments and keep it on Face Front for more breaking news in the MCU!