Despite the praise heaped on the Avengers movies, I don't
think that the majority of movie goers will enjoy Marvel's climactic Avengers:
Infinity Wars films. During the past few years, superheroes have stopped being
a nerd-only fascination and instead begun appealing to the mainstream. Unlike
10 years ago, it's now cool to wear an Iron Man, Hulk, or Captain America
shirt. This is in no small part thanks to the Marvel movies. However, we have
so far had one Guardians of the Galaxy movie, three Iron Man movies, two Thor
movies, two Captain America movies, and two Avenger movies. Before Infinity
Wars debuts, we will be treated to a flood of superhero movies, and with DC
planning to create just as many movies, the flood will be even larger.
I previously wrote about how we were not experiencing
superhero fatigue yet because each of the films was unique in its own way.
However, given the incoming barrage of hero films, I think this may change.
However, even if it didn't and we all were passionate about superhero films,
there is always the issue that, I think, will turn a lot of people off from the
final installment of the series: Thanos.
Thanos is ridiculously overpowered.
This may seem like an assertion based on comic book lore,
but just going by what little we know of Thanos it is undeniable that he is the
most powerful thing we have seen in any of the Marvel movies.
Consider this:
Based on what we have seen in the MCU, Thor is shown to be roughly as powerful as Loki, with Loki
being just a tad weaker, and Hulk, with Hulk being just a bit stronger. This
was established in the first Thor movie and in The Avengers. In Age of Ultron,
Iron Man's Hulk Buster... I mean, "Veronica"... suit was shown to be
as strong as Hulk on the short term. None of the other "classic"
avengers are near this power level, and neither are the Guardians. Of the newer
Avengers, The Vision seems to be the most powerful, having strength to rival
Hulk's (measured via Ultron), the power of flight, the power to shoot Mind
Infinity Beams as powerful as Iron Man's repulsor blast (measured via Ultron),
and the ability to wield Thor's Hammer.
What about Thanos? To understand Thanos' strength, we need
to begin with Loki.
In the first Avengers movie, Loki appears to be
exponentially weaker than The Other. The Other, however, is utterly destroyed
by Ronin with a simple twist of his hammer. Ronin was barely able to control a
single Infinity Gem (which ultimately killed him), but when Ronin said that he
would go after Thanos, Thanos was unconcerned. Based on this setup, we can
assume that Thanos without any kind of power enhancing magic is at least as
powerful as the most powerful character we have seen so far while wielding an
Infinity Stone.
It is entirely likely that Thanos has one Infinity Stone (we
know the official whereabouts of four, and I assume that Yandu's arrow is a
fifth one and Thanos holds the sixth), which would increase his power
exponentially. In other words, when all the heroes meet Thanos, heroes will
die. We have already seen that heroes can die (just like Quicksilver dies in Age
of Ultron), and when they come face to face with Thanos, they will die (because
Thanos is overpowered). If the movie is faithful to the lore the series has set up so far, Captain America will die. Tony Stark will die. Hawkeye will die. The Black Widow will die. The Falcon, War Machine, Groot, Rocket, Draxx, Banner, and Thor will die. Most of the superheroes so far introduced, and most of the superheroes to be introduced will die. And they will all die at the hands of Thanos.
The only way that the heroes will not die is if they somehow make it so that The Hulk gets angry enough over time to reach ridiculous proportions, if they somehow buff Draxx to comic book level strength, or if they bring in some ridiculous (by movie standards) over-the-top player into the fray like Living Tribunal or Eternity. And even then, if Thanos gets the Infinity Stones, there won't be much that even the most powerful Cosmic Powers will be able to do.
Either way, whether all the heroes die or whether some Ultimate Power comes into play, I don't think the average movie goer will like it.
***
But Thanos CAN'T be THAT powerful, can he? From a summary of the Infinity Wars graphic novel:
Using the massive power now in his possession, Thanos toyed with the Silver Surfer for a time before allowing him to warn the Earth's heroes of Thanos' coming. [...] In order to appease death, Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to remove half of the population of the universe, causing dire consequences in his actions. [...] The collected heroes battled Thanos, aided by the Cosmic entities Love, Hate, the Stranger, Epoch, Chaos, Order, and Galactus. But despite the assembled forces, Thanos was able to defeat all and imprison them.
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