The Shawarma Initiative *SPOILERS* AVENGERS DISCUSSION *SPOILERS*

I think the less weird marvel mythology they introduce, the better.

Could be played off in the movie that Odins "power of Thor" words were specifically made for Thor...and the Hammer just can't be picked up by the unworthy...but only Thor gets his powers from it.

If you recall...Thor knew exactly what the men in the restaurant were talking about right when they said how heavy it was...alluding to the fact the even without Odins "enchantment" no one else could pick it up.


That being said...I would definitely prefer they only let Thor be able to pick it up...just to reiterate my previously stated opinion.

I noticed that too.

I enjoyed that line that Cap. said, thought it was a great touch

Also the Mark 7 armor rocketed to him and enfolded/encased Tony ala the Iron Man armor from Volume 3 of the comic, the suit that became sentient.

Also that plunge to his doom and armoring up like that was a nice nod to Iron Man Vol 1 #118.

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Sure the hammer weighs a lot and that per legend it was so heavy only THOR can lift it. But in Marvel it is the enchantment of ODIN that has changed it from strength of limb to strength of character.

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I know that.

I'm just saying that it could be played off differently in the movie.

Wasp and Mockingbird would be logical candidates.

I heard somewhere that they had the rights to use Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in an Avengers movie, as long as they don't mention Magneto or anything relating to the X-Men movies.

Other than that...umm... Sersi? Hellcat? Tigra? Crystal?

Wasp, Mockingbird and She-Hulk should be the easiest to get in. Sersi would mean the Eternals, Crystal the Inhumans....

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Actually I'd have her take Coulson's place in IM3 Thor and CA2 as a replacement for Coulson. Then have her power up in Avengers 2 and be the lynchpin that helps them defeat Thanos.

Yeah, I would definitely like to see her be brought into the movies. Definitely my favorite female character.

The idea of bringing her in as a replacement for Coulson in the stand alone movies is a great way to introduce her before the next Avengers movie.

After she gains her powers in Avengers...have her be the "lynchpin" by needing her to absorb some sort of threatening energy.

I wouldn't think that. The fact that they referenced the Ed Norton movie (that was the video Stark was looking at when he was reviewing the roster) and it's MARVEL's movie (so they'd want to keep it in the lore) I'm betting they'll use The Leader for the next Hulk villain, assuming they make another Hulk movie, of course.

I don't think it was a test. I think Thanos expected to win. It would be more in keeping with his core character if the smile he cracks at the end when he's told that to continue to throw himself at the humans "is to court death" implies that Earth actually became interesting to him at that moment, specifically because they have the potential to be huge agents of chaos and death under the right conditions.

As to the awesome lines in the movie, I think the movie is full of them. Before I went to see the movie I believed that what Joss Whedon could bring to the table is not just his command of emsemble characters, but the specific way he gives them unique identities in the face of absurdity. Each of the main characters in the Avengers shows their personality most when they are playing off of the most absurd elements of the story. Stark wisecracks in the face of it, Fury stoically and sardonically challenges it. Rogers tries to do what Dr. Erskine reminds him to do in the Cap movie: continue to be himself while it happens all around him. Ruffalo tries to ignore it completely, because his way of dealing with his "condition" is to try to make sure nothing gets inside and reaches the Hulk.

And yeah, the Hulk doesn't talk too much, so his best lines are delivered with his fists: against Thor as the equivalent of "oh yeah, I remember you" and against Loki. And you know, the Loki scene reminded me of another famous Whedon scene.

I don't know. I think if he wanted this done right he would've done it himself. This way someone else gets smacked down if it goes wrong, and Thanos allowed the possibility for it to go wrong by sending lesser beings when really there's reason why he shouldn't have been able to swoop down there and take the Cube himself.

Come on now...any "super awesome" villainous being never goes down to do the "Lowly" thing of a "Fedex" mission when he has lackeys/minions to command!

Now that he knows Earth/humans are a threat, now he'll think about coming down to "smack 'em around"

Yeah, I read the comment as Whedon sneering at Cap, sort of a backhanded way of saying, "Look at what a religious hick this guy is." I don't really approve of treating one's characters that way, but I am not the writer, either.

Indeed, and THANOS' power levels are nothing to sneeze at. In the final fight during his first incarnation, he was strong enough to fight THOR and the THING at the same time and was beating them until Adam Warlock's spirit returned to turn him into stone.

When Death revived him in the 90's, he was given greater power then before and also as an agent of Death I think at the time he was immune to dying, but Death herself could still punish him for failure or betrayal. In the two part Thanos Quest when he sought the Infinity Gems from the Elders of the Universe, his second target was the power gem which was wielded by the elder called Champion.

Thanos goaded Champion into a fight and was using his vehicle's force fields to shield himself from Champion's punches and noted how by tapping the gem's power he was getting stronger and stronger like the Hulk and then thought of how that was a conflict he'd sought to avoid in the past......so at that point even Thanos respected the sheer might of the Hulk. Later encounters with and without the gems showed him able to handle the Hulk but still....in the next movie HULK may be the one to overpower and defeat Thanos.

Presuming they don't bring in the cosmic heavy weights like Drax, Mar-Vell and Warlock.

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"So that's what that does."

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Well I'd say a super awesome villainous being would be personally involved in retrieving the key to his plans if he were confident enough in his ability to overcome any likely resistance, but if he wanted to test those defenses first...

A random super awesome being maybe, but not Thanos. Stark had Loki pegged when he told Cap that Loki needed the adoration, the worship, the attention. He was setting them up to be defeated in public so the world could see him defeat the Avengers. Loki had to lead personally: its in his nature, and its ultimately part of his actual goal.

Thanos doesn't care about any of that. He doesn't care about attention or adoration. He basically worships death, and craves power only as a means to an end to make himself worthy of Death by having the power over life and death in the universe. And I'm certain that while Loki was on Earth Thanos wasn't at home watching cartoons. He had other things to manage, as all leaders do.

If he didn't think Earth was going to be a significant threat, he wouldn't go there just because he was confident: that's not what leaders do. Going there himself when he thought Earth was no threat is a waste of his time.

Slight note about Thanos: in his first incarnation back in the Captain Marvel book when he had the cosmic cube in his possession, he flaunted its power repeatedly and kept pumping up his ego, kept beating the heroes and imprisoning them, until he decided it was time for the grand moment of his wish to the cube.

The cube used all it's power to merge Thanos with the universe and thus become the universe thus becoming all powerful. He discarded the drained cube in an effort to make the heroes think that it was now useless. But since no one worshipped Thanos as a god, he couldn't exist without the cube and when Mar-Vell shattered it, reality was restored and he was defeated.

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Wow, that's a pretty cynical way of looking at it. I don't think there was anything sneering about it, or ironic, or anything. It was just Captain America, saying a Captain Americaish thing. I thought it was a good moment and a good line.

The most cringe-inducing line in the movie was Iron Man's delivered just a few seconds before that: "My plan: attack." I love Joss, but that was this movie's "You know what happens to a toad that is hit by lightning?"

That's mostly my point. Thanos had to have other things going, and it's entirely possible that the Cube wasn't that important to his plans to begin with. Thor mentioned that the universe was becoming aware of Earth as being prepared for a higher form of war, so why not use this scenario to see what Earth's defenders are capable of? There's no reason to leave room for error by outsourcing if you believe you'll win no matter what resistance you face. I mean that's what Dr. Doom and Red Skull did in the movies.

I'm just thinking about this in terms of how they'll explain it down the road with that classic "benefit from a loss" logic they tend to use with the likes of Doom and Thanos.