there's a lot of heroes in avengers: Infinity war , the fight against thanos bringing together almost every hero the marvel cinematic universe has to offer. The beginning of the end for the original avengers line-up in the mcu, the film is really part 1 of a transition point, where the likes of iron man and captain america begin to bow out for newer heroes such as black panther and spider-man to really take charge of the franchise . Or, at least, that's what we expected to happen instead, infinity war gives some of the pop culture monolith's future headliners a disappointing amount to do while the old guard absorb the spotlight.
Naturally, it's important for the stars that have defined marvel's movies here to have a good swansong. Robert downey jnr. And the two chrises have been instrumental in these films becoming what they are, and for many infinity war is about saying goodbye to these character-defining performances after a decade. That's not in dispute. But in saying that, as their story ends, it's as important for the franchise to endear audiences to those that will be populating these crossovers in years to come. The likes of sam wilson, valkyrie, t'challa and rhodey will, presumably, be part of phase 4 and beyond's new avengers, yet in the biggest outing of the franchise, they all get little-to-no screen-time .
Related: Every hero in avengers: Infinity war, ranked worst to best
t'challa's limited role is especially curious given the box office-conquering success of black panther . Being both marvel's biggest solo film and the direct prequel to infinity war, one would think avengers 3 would lean more into the wakandan fervor, but alas it seems t'challa is a victim of marvel's own conservative estimations. Black panther and infinity war were filmed back-to-back since their release dates are so close together, and marvel didn't quite expect the reaction the kingdom of wakanda received, thus the african nation and its people aren't given quite as much agency as black panther fans might have wanted.
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for the others, their relegation to very-co-star-status feels similarly wasteful. The falcon and war machine were barely in avengers: Age of ultron and very much followed the lead of their respective sides in civil war . Bucky barnes is seen by many as the next in line to adopt the shield of captain america, not that you'd know that with his two lines of dialogue and gunplay with rocket raccoon. At least they get some action, valkyrie, one of thor: Ragnarok 's biggest stars, isn't even mentioned . None of them get any truly meaty character development. Something to make audiences think oh, more of that one would be cool! and start laying the tracks for seeing more of their faces in future. A moment that brings up back-story and signals conflict ahead. Granted, rhodey gets court-marshaled, but it's hard to imagine that sticking when he's fighting to stop half of all life in the universe be eradicated. They need something dramatic to make them stick in audience's minds.
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what's worse, then, is at the end, when thanos succeeds, most of these fledgling stars are disappeared by the power of the infinity gauntlet. Conveniently, the first avengers line-up survives while most anyone else who isn't a wizard or a raccoon fade away into nothingness. Even nick fury, the progenitor of the avengers initiative and his number one maria hill aren't spared. Setting the stage for the reconciliation between steve and tony and original six's final showdown is great, but that it needed to be so blatant that black widow wasn't taken instead of scarlet witch or bruce banner instead of t'challa is a little on-the-nose. Avengers 4 having a roster that felt completely ramshackle and put-together would have increased tension and given someone lesser known time to shine.
And considering that avengers 4 is the last time rogers, stark, banner, thor, barton and romanoff are expected to be on-screen together, the definitive end to their story is all anyone wants out of that movie. We want that catharsis and send-off for roles we've watched and admired for a decade. Avengers: Infinity war could've been the jumping off point for the stories that'll carry us further. Instead, we'll just have to wait maybe rhodey will fill falcon's spot for ant-man & the wasp ?
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