Infinity Gauntlet
A couple of days ago I wrote that the only war I'd subscribe to is the war on war, and that most other wars we fight are just cosmetic. I'll have to adjust that slightly, as this month we'll be treated to the conclusion of the war against Thanos; we'll learn how the superheroes we've come to know during 10 years of films set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will triumph over the Mad Titan Thanos.
source: Pexels
I mean, they will win, won't they? Of course they will, and they've been set up perfectly to make this win an unforgettable one; Thanos has convincingly won the first round, the original Avengers, as well as all other superheroes we've come to know are thoroughly beat and half of the universe's sentient creatures have been snapped out of existence. Thanos himself is presented to us as a complicated personality, utterly ruthless, yet capable of love for his daughter and apparently motivated by a noble cause, at least in his own mind; prevent overpopulation and the subsequent wars over scarce resources.
After Infinity War part one, I immediately had a problem with Thanos' theory of overpopulation, as it so closely mirrors the general misconception of our actual world; we're captive of a scarcity mindset when in fact we live in a world of abundance, and that abundance is the best cure against overpopulation (relatively rich people make less kids, poor people make more kids). I even wrote a rather large post on that, which you can read here if you're interested. Now we all know, or I think most of us do, the feeling of disappointment after watching a movie based on a book we've already read; sometimes filmmakers change things we don't want to see changed, even if we can admit that it was probably necessary to fit the story in two hours, or fit it in a visual storytelling format.
I've never read the Marvel comics the MCU is based on, so I just enjoyed the movies as they are, and love most of them. My childhood comic-book hero was Storm, drawn by the legendary Don Lawrence, and I only read the Marvel and DC stuff occasionally, and even then my heart lies with Batman who is my favorite superhero of all time, both on paper and on the silver screen; the Marvel movies, good and spectacular as they are, can't even begin to compare with the high art that was the Christopher Nolan Batman-trilogy. Maybe that Avengers: Endgame will change that. And if you want to go into that movie completely unbiased and unspoiled, please stop reading here, as I'll no go over some details of the original story in the comic books.
AVENGERS 4 ENDGAME Trailer #4 (2019) Movie Trailer 4K
So, anticipating the conclusion of the Infinity War it got me thinking again about Thanos' motivation to exterminate half the universe's population. To find all the original comics would have taken too much trouble, but luck has it that there's a channel on YouTube that explains in detail all major original Marvel stories, and among the videos was one about the Infinity Gauntlet saga. It's a whopping two and a half hour watch, but takes us through all issues and the entire story. After watching this, I can understand if you're a long time fan of the comics, that you might be disappointed with the movies; the scale and scope of the original story is so much larger, the number of superheroes so much bigger and the universe so much more expansive... And Scarlet Witch didn't disappear at all, and Captain America isn't even in the story, and Thanos isn't motivated by noble feelings at all...
The reason why Thanos snapped his fingers to kill half the universe was much simpler and more egoistic: he did it to impress Mistress Death, another Marvel character he fell in love with. Now, a lot (most) of the changes made to fit the story on a silver screen have to do with property rights; Disney doesn't own the rights to the Fantastic Four, the X-men and a lot of other prominent heroes present in the war on paper. Some other prominent absentees are The Silver Surfer, Galactis and Adam Warlock; in the comics it's The Silver Surfer that crashes into Dr. Strange's residence to warn him of Thanos instead of The Hulk.
All these changes I can understand, but ti makes me think they could have just gone with the original story of a love-stricken mad man with Godly powers. And then instead of shoehorning in Captain America at the last moment, spend one solo movie on Thanos to tell this backstory, as well as his journey to collect the Infinity Stones. I now fear that Captain America will be the deciding factor in defeating Thanos, when I have no investment in that character whatsoever... Well, let's just wait. Endgame could still be the best superhero movie ever, and that would be a fitting end to more than 10 years of building up to this moment, which in itself is a unique project of immense proportions. I'll leave you with the two and a half hour audio-visual recap of the original story, should you feel inclined to check it out:
Marvel’s Infinity Gauntlet: Full Story
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