With the exception of Uncle Ben and Bruce Wayne’s parents, no one really dies in comic books, right?
That phrase gets tossed around quite a lot when it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, too, as the only real person of interest to bite the bullet – so far, at least – is Agent Phil Coulson. And even he was resurrected for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
So it’s fair to say that Marvel tends to shy away from permanent deaths when dealing with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and their many allies – Tony Stark fell back to Earth and was rudely awoken by a rampaging Hulk in The Avengers, while in Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill survived an unscheduled spacewalk in order to save Gamora. The list goes on, really. But thanks to Avengers: Infinity War, that’s all about to change.
Yes, as promised, the film made some bold moves and killed off a few of our favorites, and if you’re interested to know who, continue reading after the jump. Spoilers will follow, though, so tread carefully if you haven’t seen the pic yet.
Technically, four characters bite the bullet in Avengers: Infinity War: Heimdall, Loki, Gamora and Vision – in that order. We say technically because at the end of the movie, Thanos snaps his fingers and wipes out half of all life in the universe, taking out heroes such as Black Panther, Spider-Man, Bucky Barnes and more. Obviously, these aren’t permanent deaths and will somehow be reversed in Avengers 4. But the other individuals we mentioned, well, it seems they’re gone for good.
Of course, the Mad Titan is responsible for all of them, with Heimdall and Loki falling victim to him when he attacks the Asgardian refugee ship, and Gamora being sacrificed by Thanos in order for him to get his hands on the Soul Stone. As for poor Vision, well, he originally has Wanda kill him so that the Mind Stone will be destroyed before Josh Brolin’s big bad can retrieve it, but being the cruel monster he is, Thanos reverses time, revives Vision and takes the Stone himself, therefore giving Paul Bettany’s android a much more painful death.
Given that Loki, Heimdall and Vision were all expected to meet their maker, the only real shocker here is Gamora, which may upset some fans who were hoping that Marvel would truly raise the stakes this time around and knock off say Iron Man or Cap. That being said, they’ve certainly shown us with Avengers: Infinity War that they’re not afraid to kill their heroes and we’ve no doubt that once Avengers 4 rolls around, a few more will bite the bullet too, as the studio begins to clear the slate for Phase 4 of their cinematic universe.