Thor’s… Transformation
After the five year time-jump, the Avengers try to bring everyone back together, which involves Rocket and Hulk visiting New Asgard in Norway to recruit Thor. The only problem is, the God of Thunder isn’t much of a man of action these days. After failing to stop Thanos, he’s fallen into depression, having piled on the pounds and spending his days drinking hard and playing Fortnite with Korg and Miek.
Some of the other heroes have had their lives changed dramatically over this time – Tony’s a dad now, Banner has merged with Hulk to become Professor Hulk – but Thor’s physical transformation is probably the biggest surprise. We figured that he might have some unresolved trauma after all he went through – losing his father, his home planet, brother and then half the universe – but we didn’t expect it to play out like this.
Truth be told, a lot of people are disappointed in the way Marvel handled Thor’s PTSD in the movie, with the Asgardian’s weight gain basically played for laughs as Chris Hemsworth shuffles about in a fat suit. To be fair to the filmmakers, they don’t let Thor shed the fat with a blast of lightning or something and instead have him deal with his problems for the rest of Endgame. But the depiction of the character here still feels somewhat misjudged.
Captain Marvel Is Benched
Before Endgame came along, Captain Marvel was the biggest film in the world and fans couldn’t wait to see more of Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers in the team-up movie as we all expected her to be a major part of the final act of the Infinity Saga after seriously proving her worth in CM. It was kind of a surprise, then, when the heroine had a severely reduced role.
She turns up early on, literally as Iron Man’s guardian angel as she’s the reason Tony and Nebula get back to Earth. She then accompanies the heroes to Titan II but disappears again and for some reason, doesn’t come with the Avengers on their Time Heist. Carol then returns for the grand finale, joining the assembled Marvel universe to battle Thanos’ troops.
Compare Carol’s part in Endgame to Black Panther’s in Infinity War, though. Having also just had his own solo movie the previous month, T’Challa had a significant role in the plot as Wakanda was the site of the heroes’ big confrontation with Thanos and the Outriders. Here, Captain Marvel is a negligible part of the narrative at best, but at least we got that awesome moment where she takes down Thanos’ ship on her lonesome.
