COMMENTARY: ‘Avengers: Endgame’ and the Problem with a Cinematic Universe That Never Stops Expanding1 min read
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The following article contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.
Of the two major characters who die in “Avengers: Endgame,” one already has a standalone spinoff planned. That’s par for the course in a cinematic universe that managed to convince exactly zero viewers that the heroes snapped out of existence in last year’s “Infinity War” were actually dead, but it’s disappointing nonetheless — and further proof that Marvel still insists on having it both ways.
Consider some of the predecessors: Agent Coulson, Nick Fury, Groot, and the Winter Soldier are just a few of the characters who have either died and come back or faked their deaths in earlier films. Their resurrections and/or returns provided fan-serving feel-good moments, but they’re also part of the reason it was impossible to take the otherwise monumental conclusion of “Infinity War” at face value. It’s a problem inherent to the source material — death is rarely permanent in comic books, after all — but the longer this series has gone on, the more it’s been impaired by these fake-outs.
Image credit: Disney
