Captain Marvel got Iron Man Killed in Endgame
We all know it…
But no one will talk about it. Seriously, google “death of Iron Man” and it’s all rave reviews and some salty morons complaining that RDJr. deserves an Oscar (lol No he doesn’t).
Generally it’s tough to find a good critique on Endgame because it checks a lot of boxes for fans. It finishes out a huge continuity and tries to wrap up about a thousand loose ends from the past two decades of storytelling. Being overly critical would be easy because, essentially, the MCU attempted the impossible. It is simply not possible to make two dozen films with flawless continuity and wrap them up in about 6 1/2 hours of film making. Not on Earth. Not by humans. Not yet, anyway.
I did a rewatch of the Avengers saga this weekend, including Civil War because I’ve got the time and why not? — and because I’m so comfortable with these films I can see the inconsistencies pretty clearly. But that’s not what this is about. I don’t want to get into nitpicking or arguing how Time-Travel works/doesn’t work in storytelling. (If you are interested in hearing my thoughts on stuff like that, email me) What I want to talk about here is specifically the ending of Endgame and how much they botched the setup for the next phase.
For some people, the end of Phase 3 of the MCU is an exciting time full of possibility and potential. There is a massive slate of films/series to expect in the coming continuity and the promise of new heroes fighting alongside some long-beloved ones. With the downfall of Fox Studios, it appears they’ve got the plan to try the X-Men and Fan 4 franchises again. So if you’re in the optimist camp, there’s plenty to grab hold to.
The rest of you see the end of Phase 3 and the Infinity Saga as if you’re on a cliff looking down into a bottomless pit. Sure, there’s going to be new stuff, but RDJr is gone, Evans is gone, Johansson and Boseman too, those are realities. Disney is going to do everything they can to replace these big names, but will it work? And if it doesn’t work, is Disney self-aware enough to course correct? (And how long before they use the quantum realm to bring Iron Man back, really?) Lots of questions to be found in the gray area between Phases 3 and 4 but not a whole lot of answers forthcoming.
The point I’m trying to make is that fans of the MCU are not sure what to expect in the future of this universe. For years people were going to see the new Marvel movies without even considering if they would be good. They were an event that came around every half year like the carnival, the whole community showed up to buy tickets, even if it made you sick last time it came to town.
Now? Who knows? Are theaters going to recover from Coronavirus? Should they? I digress.
While many will point to this and that, or make up excuses for the largest entertainment company in the history of mankind’s shortcomings, I choose to blame Endgame, specifically the ending of Endgame. Making Tony Stark commit suicide on camera to save the universe was a bold choice and a massive mistake. This miscalculation by the MCU team is going to cost them in ways that may take over a decade to properly quantify.
Most people stopped reading in that last paragraph. Many will only continue on to this sentence out of hatred. I get it. The death of Iron Man was a moving moment in an already emotionally exploitative film, and you want to hold on to the feeling without thinking about it. Sorry. What can I say? — I don’t have a lot of friends.
But here’s the thing, Iron Man didn’t need to die and we all know that. In your guts, deep down in your heart, you know it didn’t need to end like that. Instead, the film makers REQUIRED that ending, and tried to move the pieces around to fit the moment. It’s cheap and flawed and the cracks show immediately when you do stuff like that. Even if it takes people a long time to realize it, there’s a little something in the back of your mind pulling you out of the experience.
Ignore it all you want, but I think you know Tony didn’t need to die. Which brings me to Captain Marvel, her inclusion in the MCU before the ending of the Infinity Saga and of course her insertion to the climactic battle in Endgame.
The MCU team was openly promoting the fact that Carol Danvers was going to show up to help end Phase 3 and lead the Avengers into Phase 4. She was supposed to balance the scales of power away from Thanos and help defeat him. And I guess, technically she did do that. But she did it as a plot device — as a mechanic to move the story along, not as a character with autonomy.
Carol tells Romanoff that she “might not be around for a long time” to add a level of suspense to the story that never lands because there is no threat to the Earth in present-day. Instead, it’s a cheap excuse to exclude her from 98% of the film. Imagine excluding Robert Downey Jr. from an Avengers movie. Could you? If Brie Larson is supposed to lead the new MCU, how do you exclude her from the story? Literally HOW?
When the movie has her return it’s to destroy Thanos’ ship, The Sanctuary II, in a matter of seconds, it is not because the story set that up. Quite the opposite. No one called her to tell her there was anything happening on Earth and she told all of us it would probably be a long time till we see her again. So she shows up out of the blue at the perfect time to counter a bombardment that the Avengers had no way to stop. Come on…
Crazy thing is, she’s not even done being a plot device, because when she lands amongst the battle scene she’s immediately given the Infinity Gauntlet. Spider-Man puts the greatest power in the cosmos in the hands of a true cosmic power, and what does she do with it? Not use it, no. She doesn’t put it on, nope. She doesn’t even contemplate any of those things for a single second of screen time. Nothing. She doesn’t have a brain in this movie. She won’t have one till Phase 4 apparently.
No, instead Captain Marvel, the most powerful being in the MCU, acts like a delivery girl. She tucks the Infinity Gauntlet under her arm — a glove made from Iron Man’s nano-tech which would instantly change shape and size to fit her hand — and carries it toward a time-travelling van operated by Ant-Man, a person she’s never once met — or even heard of — in her life.
She’s definitely not wearing a time suit, so she would not have been able to enter the quantum realm. She would have had to literally hand the most powerful single object in the history of the universe to a complete stranger for this plan to even theoretically work. Think about that for a second. I know that’s not the result that the team was ultimately trying to make happen, but it was the proposed resolution for a little while in this film.
It’s pure nonsense, and yet without it happening Thanos doesn’t get his hands on the Infinity Gauntlet, meaning it’s integral to the story.
Even if you’re not aware of the fact that Captain Marvel has wielded the Infinity Gauntlet in the comics, the movie does a good job showing that her powers are at least equal to those of Thanos. Hulk used the gauntlet and he got the snot beat out of him by Thanos, so there’s no reason she can’t use it effectively.
Rather than have an ounce of autonomy and put the glove on, use it and win the day, Captain Marvel is a mindless drone and it costs Iron Man his life. I would probably be pissed if Danvers had simply considered putting it on then yadda-yadda’d away that idea. It would have irked me, but at least the film makers would have put in the effort to make the climax feel a little bit earned.
As it stands, Iron Man only died because Captain Marvel never even considers using the Infinity Gauntlet. Realistically, she is probably the only person in the whole MCU who could use it with no threat to her safety, and it never even occurs to her to use it.
This simply will not do. Iron Man is dead because the hero who intends to fill his shoes allowed him to die. Captain Marvel will never be able to tell the Avengers she did all she could to defeat Thanos. It’s simply not true. She sat on the sidelines and tried when called upon, but she didn’t risk anything. She left that to lesser, mortal men and it got one of them killed. She got Tony killed.
Iron Man should be alive even if it’s in retirement like Cap, but his death rests squarely on Captain Marvel’s shoulders.
