Avengers: Doomsday is almost upon us, but there are still so many questions surrounding this massive Marvel movie crossover event. Aside from needing to know more about Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) and his entire Marvel Cinematic Universe backstory, there is another element of Doomsday that has not been addressed in virtually any of the marketing for the film: Who are our titular Avengers?
Thanks to the Thunderbolts* post-credits scene, we already know that CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) has rebranded the Thunderbolts as the “New Avengers”; however, that same Avengers: Doomsday button scene established that Sam Wilson/Captain America II (Anthony Mackie) formed his own squad of “classic” Avengers, who are not at all cool with the Thunderbolts rebrand. That’s two Avengers teams in one movie, after not having any kind of Avengers presence in the MCU for seven years.
Empire Magazine revealed its first big cover shoot spread for Avengers: Doomsday, with an in-depth feature about the film soon to follow. The Avengers squad led by Sam Wilson/Captain America is now confirmed to include Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), and Falcon II (Danny Ramirez). Kevin Feige was interviewed, and he made it clear that Avengers: Doomsday will be happening during a turning point where the Avengers are just getting themselves back together, literally and figuratively.
“We’re coming out of years of seemingly no organised Avengers team, and that’s exactly when they face these incursions,” Feige explained. “That’s always fun, to put your heroes on the back foot.”
One of the biggest missteps Marvel Studios made is allowing the Avengers movie franchise to stall. After Avengers: Endgame, the team disbanded, entering what fans now call their “Disassembled Era,” in reference to the famous Marvel Comics story arc. With no new Avengers films, the MCU was never forced to reconsolidate after Endgame; instead, the franchise ventured off into so many kinds of different (disconnected) characters and stories that fans weren’t able to keep up.
The MCU has also been robbed of having the pop of a minor event like a standalone Avengers sequel that doesn’t require every corner of the MCU coming together. As I write this, MCU fans have just gained so much more appreciation for Avengers: Age of Ultron; VisionQuest has just proven that even a standalone Avengers film can produce much great story material for spinoff films and series. Avengers films also force legacy characters into new status quos; give the franchise a new excuse for costume updates (new merchandising!), and help introduce and/or establish new characters: Wanda, Vision, and Ultron all got their start in Age of Ultron, and have now been some of the biggest successes of The Multiverse Saga (thanks to the WandaVision trilogy).
Meanwhile, characters like Shang-Chi, Shuri/Black Panther II (Letitia Wright), Moon Knight (Oscar Isaac), and Falcon II could’ve used a team-up event that let fans witness them come together and gel as a team – before seeing them take on a world-ending event like Doomsday. Because right now, we know more about the Thunderbolts’ team dynamic than we do about how Sam Wilson’s squad gets along. And that’s a pretty bad place for the Avengers franchise to be in. So here’s hoping it’s the last time we’ll wait this long for a new insallment.
Avengers: Doomsday will be released on December 18th.
