Hello friends and welcome to a very special edition of "Marvel Mondays!" Throughout the past few weeks, I've been reviewing the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we countdown to the biggest superhero film in the history of film,
Avengers: Infinity War. Today, I'm going to do a quick review of the MCU, talk about where our favorite characters are located at the beginning of the movie, talk about where the ever so important Infinity Stones are located, and close by giving my predictions for
Infinity War including who I think will not be making it out of the film alive.
Let's start with the quick run down of the MCU:
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Iron Man: Where it all began. Here we're introduced to Tony Stark, a weapons dealer billionaire who, after a near death experience, becomes the hero we know as Iron Man. We're also introduced to Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D who tells us, and Tony, about the Avengers Initiative. My favorite memory? When Tony gets the alibi from Coulson and Rhoades, goes to the media, and halfway through his speech throws the card away and simply says "I am Iron Man." (my ranking: 5)
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The Incredible Hulk: Arguably the least important movie in the MCU. We're introduced to Bruce Banner, who after taking Gamma Radiation, becomes the Hulk. The only other bit of significance here is we're introduced to Thunderbolt Ross who plays a role later on in the MCU. My favorite memory? The Hulk and Abomination fight scene in Harlem. (my ranking: 17)
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Iron Man 2: Tony is back, and this time it's himself that's killing him. We're introduced more to Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D, including one of their agents, Natasha Romanoff, aka: Black Widow. This is also the first time we get War Machine on the big screen. My favorite memory? When Tony realizes that his father actually did love him and when his father says that Tony was his greatest accomplishment. (my ranking: 11)
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Thor: We're taking a trip to the cosmos as we're introduced to the God of Thunder, Thor and his mischievous brother, Loki, who plays as big of a role as Thor does in the future. This is also the first time we're introduced to one of the Infinity Stones: the Tesseract. We're also introduced to another important character: Hawkeye. My favorite memory? When Thor takes on the Destroyer with no weapon, proving he is worthy of Mjolnir and the title of God of Thunder. (my ranking: 9)
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Captain America: The First Avenger: Before we can have an Avengers movie, we need to collect the first avenger. Chris Evans stars as Steve Rogers turned Captain America in this origin story that takes us back to WW2, introducing us to Bucky Barnes, Agent Carter, and Howard Stark. When Evans wakes up, Fury is waiting with a mission for him. My favorite memory? When little Steve Rogers jumps on the dummy grenade while all the other troops run and hide, proving he's the right guy for the Super Soldier Serum. (my ranking: 16)
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The Avengers: The greatest superhero team up in the history of movies. We're not really introduced to much here, outside of Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk. Loki tries to take over the world, and the Avengers come together to stop him. Loki got his powers from his Scepter, which contains yet another Infinity Stone: the Mind Stone. But who sent Loki and that Scepter? This is our first glance at the biggest bad of them all, Thanos. My favorite memory? That iconic sweeping scene of the Avengers fighting the Chitauri in New York...and puny god. (my ranking: 1)
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Iron Man 3: As Tony deals with PTSD after going into space, another enemy is out to destroy his world: Aldrich Killian and the Mandarin. When everything, and everyone, he loves crumbles around him, Tony must rely on his brains to save the day again. My favorite memory? When Tony finally realizes he can be the hero even without the Iron Man suit. (my ranking: 8)
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Thor: The Dark World: Thor is back in Asgard and now the Infinity Stone craze is ramping up a notch...this film introduces us to the Aether: the Reality Stone in different form. It also features the death of Thor's mother, Frigga, and Loki somewhat saving the day, revealing he's not full villain, but more anti-hero to me. My favorite memory? When Loki saves the day, seemingly sacrificing his life for others, only to dodge death again. (my ranking: 15)
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier: The political thriller brings back Cap, Black Widow, and Nick Fury as S.H.I.E.L.D crumbles around them. With HYDRA running rampant, Cap tries to save the day, until his old friend Bucky Barnes arrives to wreak havoc upon everything, and everyone, as the Winter Soldier. We're also introduced to Sam Wilson, who later on in the film becomes the Falcon. My favorite memory? When Cap takes on a whole HYDRA unit in a teeny tiny elevator..."before we begin, does anyone want to get out?" (my ranking: 10)
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Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 1: The funnier version of the Avengers, James Gunn gives us an action packed, humor filled, heck of a movie. Introducing the likes of Star-Lord, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Nebula, and everyone's favorite tree, Groot,
Guardians is a thrill from start to finish. We also get a lot more of Thanos (for the first time as Josh Brolin), and we're introduced to yet another Infinity Stone: the Power Stone. My favorite memory? WE. ARE. GROOT. (my ranking: 13)
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Avengers: Age of Ultron: When Tony and Bruce try and build an Artificial Intelligence system, something goes wrong and the system, Ultron, wants to wipe out the Avengers. The only way to stop the vibranium-clad villain, and his two enhanced helpers, Quick Silver and Scarlet Witch, is to come together and hope for the best. Until Thor creates the Vision, who was formally JARVIS, using none other than the Mind Stone to bring him to life. With the help of Vision, and the twins realizing they were on the wrong side, the new Avengers are able to take down Ultron. More importantly though, we finally see Thanos get out of his chair, put on the Infinity Gauntlet, and prepare to do it himself. My favorite memory? Seeing another iconic sweeping scene, this time including Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Vision. This...is all I've got. (my ranking: 6)
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Ant Man: We're introduced to Scott Lang, a thief who, thanks to Hank Pym, becomes the Ant Man and must save the Ant Man technology from Darren Cross, who plans to sell it to HYDRA. my favorite scene? Baskin Robbins don't play games bro. Or when we shrink to ant size and rob the new Avengers HQ. (my ranking: 14)
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Captain America: Civil War: War among friends. When a mission goes wrong and civilians are injured, Thunderbolt Ross returns with the Sokovia Accords for the Avengers to sign. An agreement that would make the Avengers answer to governments and only be used when necessary, failure to sign makes you a fugitive. After Bucky Barnes gets framed for a bombing he didn't commit, that killed the Black Panther's father, the Black Panther becomes involved. When Cap, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Bucky, Ant Man, and Hawkeye refuse to sign, they become wanted fugitives and the government sends none other than the Avengers who did sign to get them. This leads to the biggest fight scene to date pitting Iron Man, War Machine, Vision, Black Widow, Black Panther, and the arrival of Spiderman, against Team Captain America. Later on in the movie, Tony finds out that Bucky was the one who killed Tony's parents and that Cap knew the whole time, the war reignites ending with Bucky losing an arm, Cap almost getting killed and dropping his role as Captain America, and Iron Man having a severely damaged black eye and messed up suit. My favorite memory? The two best fight scenes in MCU history: the airport fight and the Iron Man against Cap and Bucky fight (that Iron Man totally won.) (my ranking: 2)
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Dr Strange: Introducing us to the magical side of the MCU,
Dr Strange gives us characters like Wong, Karl Mordo, Christine Palmer, and Stephen Strange himself. More importantly though, it introduces us to another Infinity Stone: the Time Stone. My favorite memory? When Strange bargains with Dormamu. (my ranking: 18)
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Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2: The guardians are back and this time are joined by Baby Groot for their fun filled mission as they encounter Star-Lord's dad, Ego, who in turn becomes the villain. Joining the guardians and becoming one is Mantis, who has a special connection with Drax, along with the Ravagers who join the fight as well. My favorite memory? When Star Lord realizes what Ego did and opens fire on him, or "I'm Mary Poppins, y'all!" (my ranking: 12)
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Spiderman: Homecoming: After he made his MCU debut in
Civil War, everyone knew there'd be a standalone Spiderman movie. This one just build our love for Tom Holland's Spiderman and introduces characters like Ned, Vulture, and gives us some more of that great mentoring between Tony and Peter Parker. My favorite memory? That whole driving to Homecoming scene with Peter and the Vulture. (my ranking: 3)
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Thor: Ragnarok: While the Avengers are fighting each other on Earth, Thor is out looking for more Infinity Stones, until his evil sister Hela returns to wreak havoc on Asgard. When she sends Thor to Sakaar, he's greeted by the Grandmaster, Valkyrie, Loki and the Grandmaster's championed fighter: the Hulk. When Thor, Hulk, Loki, and Valkyrie go back to Asgard, they realize Ragnarok is the only way they can live. They head to space with other Asgardians, only to have Thanos' giant ship waiting on them. My favorite scene? "He's a friend from work!" (my ranking: 7)
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Black Panther: After his amazing debut in
Civil War, T'Challa returned to the screen in what many people consider the best origin story of all time. Introducing us to pivotal players like Shuri, Okoye, Nakia, and M'Baku, and showing us the story of T'Challa's reign as King of Wakanda,
Black Panther isn't essential to
Infinity War yet but that could very well change come Thursday night. My favorite scene? When T'Challa emerges from the fallen aircraft arms open wide. (my ranking: 4)
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Now, let's talk about where our favorite characters are at the beginning of
Infinity War.
Tony Stark/Iron Man: My guess is he's probably in upstate New York at the Avengers HQ shown in
Age of Ultron and
Civil War. You can also bet he's probably with
Pepper Potts, as Gwyneth Paltrow is in this movie, and probably not too far from
Spiderman and
War Machine either.
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Steve Rogers/Captain America/Nomad: For starters, Cap isn't Cap anymore, he's Nomad. He's also in hiding as he's a fugitive. Where's he hiding? My guess is as good as yours, but wherever he is, I can pretty much guarantee that
Black Widow and
Falcon are with him, and from reading into some things, it can be assumed they're doing their own missions.
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Thor: The God of Thunder was last seen with his little brother, Loki, looking at Thanos' looming ship in space. And I'm sure this where we will pick up with Thor,
Loki, Valkyrie, Hulk, Heimdall, and
Korg all coming face to face with Thanos first.
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Guardians of the Galaxy: They're off in space somewhere, we know that. We also know that at some point Thor washes up on their ship, the Milano. That's about all we know.
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Vision: Vision and his Mind Stone are supposedly off in Switzerland with his new found love interest,
Scarlet Witch. Also, watch the trailer, you can see Vision has taken off the purple android version and put on human skin.
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Wakandans: I put
T'Challa, Okoye, Nakia, Shuri, and
M'Baku under this title because well, they're all Wakandans, and they're all probably in Wakanda as well, where the entire 3rd act takes place. Joining the Wakandans in Wakanda is
Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier/The White Wolf who was left in Wakanda to get worked on by Shuri. He's better now, and is emerging as the White Wolf, not the Winter Soldier.
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Now, let's talk about where these pesky stones are...
Space Stone: It was hidden in Asgard; however, as the city of Asgard was burning, Loki was able to grab the Tesseract without being seen. All in all, it's safe to assume that the Space Stone is with Loki on board the ship, and it could be what draws Thanos to their ship.
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Mind Stone: The Mind Stone is what gave Vision life, therefore it's still embedded in the forehead of the android. Vision is supposedly in Switzerland with lover Scarlet Witch, and from the trailers, it looks like Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight will be giving them a visit to retrieve that stone.
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Reality Stone: In the form of the Aether, the Reality Stone was given from the Asgardians to Tivan the Collector at the end of
Thor: The Dark World.
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Time Stone: The Time Stone is wrapped around the neck of Dr Strange, embedded in the Eye of Agamotto. Strange is supposedly at the Sanctum Santorum in New York, but who knows?
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Power Stone: The Power Stone was given to the Nova Corps on the planet Xandar, where it is suppsoedly kept in safe keeping. From both trailers, it appears that Thanos already will have the Power Stone when the action kicks up in
Infinity War.
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Soul Stone: Nobody knows where the Soul Stone is. There's plenty of speculation and theories surrounding it, from it's location being with Heimdall to Tony Stark to Wakanda. My personal belief is the Soul Stone was located in the meteor that landed on Wakanda and gave them the Vibranium, but what do I know?
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So that leaves us with the resounding question of what do I think will happen in
Infinity War. So to be completely honest with you all, I have zero idea. Really, the only thing I can put my money on is that characters we love will most likely meet their end by the time the movie is all said and done. That being said, I do have some predictions that I think could happen, and wouldn't be upset if they did happen. Starting with where I think the movie will begin, Loki, Thor, Hulk, Heimdall, Valkyrie, Korg, and the other Asgardians on the ship. I think this is where Loki will meet his end, but I'd like nothing more than for Loki to make the full turn and save his brother and as many lives as he can before he dies. I'm also interested to see what they do with Valkyrie, being that she was just introduced to the MCU, are they really going to kill her off this quickly? I'd also love to know how Hulk gets out of the situation alive (which we know he does). Moving on, I think we'll see just how powerful Thanos really is throughout the film, but this first scene will be the first taste we get of it. I can't wait to see how the Guardians are introduced here and how Iron Man, Spiderman, Strange, and possibly Wong get up to space with them. Aside from that, I think Cap will debut as Nomad, but it wouldn't surprise me to see him switch back to his role of Captain America by the time the movie is wrapping up or in
Avengers 4. Other than that, I'm expecting tons of fighting. Whether it be Cap, Black Widow, and Falcon against Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive or Iron Man, Spider Man, Dr Strange, Star Lord, and Drax against Thanos, I think this will be far and away the most action packed film of the MCU. That just leaves one question to ask, "who do I think is going to die?" An incredibly hard question as Marvel has done an AMAZING job keeping what happens under wraps. If I had to guess though, I would say Drax, Mantis, War Machine, Wong, Loki, Okoye, and Pepper Potts are all goners. I'd also bet money that something tragic happens to Hawkeye, to make him change into Ronin in
Avengers 4. That being said, I think the tragedy is going to be his family that we were introduced to in
Age of Ultron is going to be attacked by Thanos' children or Outriders and ultimately die. I'd also be willing to bet that one of the major Avengers (Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk, Iron Man, and Hawkeye) end up dying as well, as much as I hate to say it, I can see this being the spot where Iron Man meet his end in a heroically tragic death that will for sure rip my heart out.
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So there you have it. The past 10 years, and for us, couple months, have been leading to this. I'd like to close this blog up by thanking Marvel for the past 10 years. As a comic book, and superhero fan, I never thought I would see the day where my favorite heroes would be teaming up together with one collective goal, and Marvel has done that exact thing. Both Kevin Feige and Stan Lee deserve tons of credit for making this whole thing happen, but I think there are others who deserve some credit as well. Joss Whedon for giving us the first
Avengers movie and showing us that we can do superhero team up movies. James Gunn and Taika Waititi for bringing some amazing comedy into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and showing us that even the God of Thunder can be hilarious. Jon Favreau for kicking this whole thing off with
Iron Man. Joe and Anthony Russo for taking the daunting challenge of directing arguably the biggest, and most important, movies in this whole Cinematic Universe. And finally, the actors and actresses who bring our favorite heroes to life, without them, none of this would happening. Now, go out and get your tickets for
Infinity War, the time has come.
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Kevin Scott is a contributing writer for The Mouse Knows Best Podcast. He is self proclaimed Disney addict and oftentimes annoys his family with how much he talks Disney. He enjoys walking around all Disney Parks and taking as many pictures as he can in one day. When he isn't at Walt Disney World, he is working to get back or re-watching Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars movie. His spirit animal is a mix between Simba and Kylo Ren with a dash of Tony Stark. You can find him on Twitter @doubleoh_kevin and on Instagram @waltdisneyduo.
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