Marvel’s Reluctance To Pull The Trigger (And Let It Mean Something)
The biggest disappointment was after all the teases about one of the major guns, such as Captain America or Iron Man, biting the bullet, none of them did. It could still happen in Avengers 4, but it failed to happen here. At the end of the day, it’s still up the old breed to save the world in the finale of this two-part story.
Once again, this shows us the MCU’s reluctance to pull the trigger when it comes to big decisions. The studio takes the easy way out and doesn’t like taking creative risks that’ll have repercussions. It’s disappointing, really, because there was real potential to close the chapter on a decade of movies in a more meaningfully way than what we saw.
Even the non-vaporized deaths of Loki, Vision, Gamora, and Heimdall feel they could be overturned at any moment – especially Loki’s since we never know if he’s really dead or faking it. While it’s possible that these will be the ones that do stick, you can never be sure with Marvel. Apart from Quicksilver’s demise, which was more due to the character’s rights being shared between Fox and Marvel, no other hero’s death in the MCU has felt like it was final.
Any good writer will tell you that a death in a story needs to have meaning and last. Otherwise, we’re in a soapie-like situation where Stefano DiMera dies and comes back a million times. After a while no one will believe that your characters are really dead, and death feels as common as a wedding in a CW show.
Right now, we think everyone will make a “triumphant” return in Avengers 4. Marvel is a family-friendly studio, after all, and it won’t want the culmination of Phase 3 to traumatize kids (again).