I generally feel about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) the way I feel about gender-reveal parties: I get why people are into it, I’ll go if I’m invited, and I always root for a girl. So after I saw on Twitter there's a “women got this” moment in the climactic battle of Avengers: Endgame, I decided I’d do my cultural duty and see this much-hyped project for myself.
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Twenty dollars and three hours later, I can attest that, yes, the female superheroes do kick butt. Moreover, Endgame reveals a franchise—and perhaps an audience—caught between nostalgia for the status quo that built it and the interesting, diverse possibilities ahead. But before we get into that, be warned: Major spoilers for Endgame ahead.
Endgame picks up where Infinity War left off: Half of the universe's population has turned to dust, though the original six conveniently survived (Iron Man, Black Widow, Hulk, Hawkeye, Thor, and Captain America). War Machine, Nebula, and Rocket Raccoon are also around to help, along with new recruit Captain Marvel, who saved Iron Man’s life on her way to earth because Carol Danvers is good like that. Right away Captain Marvel is confident that, with her help, they can all do their avenging and finally kill Thanos—and they do. The only problem: He destroyed the Infinity Stones, which means they can't reverse his actions from Infinity War.
For five years, everyone mourns their lost loved ones. Captain America leads a support group that features the movie's one and only openly gay character. Captain Marvel peaces out to fight crime on other planets, even though Nick Fury used his dying breath to summon her to earth. But don’t worry, because here comes...Ant-Man! Yes, they let the most powerful woman in the galaxy skip town, but good ol’ Ant-Man is crucial to the first half of the movie.
That's not to say the first half of the movie isn't really fun, by the way. The Avengers go back in time to collect the Infinity Stones, allowing Thor to see his mom, Iron Man to see his dad, and Captain America to fight himself. There’s a lot of sneaking around and even more antiaging CGI. It all leans hard into the audience’s nostalgia for the earlier movies in the franchise, and that’s what we signed up for, isn’t it?
The only thing is, if you haven’t seen the original Avengers since it came out and have instead been watching Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and the MCU’s other, more inclusive efforts, you might have forgotten that it’s a real White Guy–palooza. Iron Man and Captain America are going ego to ego, Hulk is doing his best to rein in his testosterone, and Thor still has his phallic attachment to his hammer. The only girl in the group is Black Widow...except she—spoiler—sacrifices herself so Hawkeye can get the Soul Stone, and dies. After that, the only women left to save the world are Nebula and Gamora (who, yes, died in Infinity Wars but has joined with her sister in the past and traveled to the present day). But they interact with the main group pretty much never.
After some twists and turns, though, Hulk is able to undust all the people Thanos previously dusted—right as a now-alive Thanos (who time-traveled his way from the past) arrives with his entire army. But good news: The heroes who turned to dust have returned too. If the first half of Endgame was a long and loving tribute to the original batch of Avengers movies, the second is a rapid-fire reminder of all the characters Marvel introduced in the past five years. On your left is Doctor Strange! On your right are Spider-Man and the Scarlet Witch! Directly in front of you...Wakandans! And arriving via the sky are Valkyrie and Captain Marvel (the latter taking down a whole ship by herself in the process, by the way). Except, wait, those last two never got the dust treatment. They could have been here helping the whole time.
It’s picky, I know, but it’s an example of a story paying lip service to its female and POC characters without meaningfully integrating them into the action. Earlier in the movie, Hulk and Rocket Raccoon traveled a long distance to convince Thor to return to work—couldn't they have just asked Valkyrie to come too? And Captain Marvel might have been handy to have around when they were doing those time-travel tests that went awry. She’s got a new pager, right? Why not use it? A raccoon got to see more action than these two did.
That said, Scarlet Witch does get a badass moment in the climactic battle. (Thanos to her: “I don’t know you.” Wanda: “You will.”) Captain Marvel arrives just in time to save the day more than once, and Valkyrie gets to fly a frickin’ horse. These are little crumbs of empowerment, though.
Which brings us to that Girl Power Moment I talked about earlier. Midbattle, the ladies get in formation to help Captain Marvel transport the Infinity Stones. The music swells as the camera pans across the many female faces of the MCU. They leap into action, ready to win the battle or die trying, and I teared up. And then it was over. Sorry. Time for Iron Man to do stuff.
Iron Man kills all the bad guys, and then he—AGAIN, SPOILER!—dies. While Black Widow’s death is witnessed only by Hawkeye and mourned for an afternoon, Iron Man’s sacrifice is honored for the rest of the movie. (You might have also noticed that Robert Downey Jr.’s head is freaking enormous on the poster. It’s clear which star, and which character, Marvel credits for its success: the billionaire weapons manufacturer who romanced his employee.)
After the funeral, Captain America goes back to the forties to be with Peggy, and that’s the image we fade out on: a man and a woman kissing in their house in the suburbs in postwar America. The ultimate nostalgia. This is the endgame of Endgame.
It felt final, and I hope it is. I hope that Marvel moves on, ideally to a version of the Avengers that includes more women and people of color and doesn’t make Chris Hemsworth wear a fat suit for cheap laughs. That seems to be in play: Iron Man himself calls Captain Marvel the future of the Avengers. And Steve Rogers passes the symbolic torch—his shield—to Sam Wilson, a.k.a. Falcon, giving him the mantle of Captain America.
That ladies-team-up moment felt like it was from the climax of another movie, one I'm still waiting to see. Maybe one with a female hero, a female sidekick, a female villain, a female love interest. The characters are all there, spread across the franchise, they just need to be (forgive me!) assembled. I’d buy a ticket to that movie with zero hesitation.
Elizabeth Logan has written for Reductress, McSweeney's, and The Huffington Post. Follow her on Twitter @lizzzzzielogan.
