NFL
By: Rick
They didn’t even show a full trailer yet, not even a teaser trailer yet, and already Marvel and the MCU have us all talking about Avengers: Doomsday. With so little story to go off of so far, the Russo Brothers, who are directing the film, stated that the little clips we saw aren’t teasers; they’re clues, part of a larger story that will more than likely be soul-crushingly painful to watch. Marvel has been looking for ways to end the Multiverse Saga, and it will more than likely play out in Doomsday and be resolved in Secret Wars. So everyone is wondering, what could these clues mean? Let’s break down key clues from them:
Steve Rogers
In the first teaser we get from Avengers: Doomsday, we see that Steve Rogers is back. While so-called fans online were at odds with this, it is a key part of the story. No, Steve isn’t back to take over as Cap. In this teaser, we see Steve holding what we assume is his and Peggy’s newborn (clue 1). Steve will catalyze to remind Sam what they’re protecting.
Thor
In the clip from Thor, we hear Thor praying for strength. In this same clip, we’re shown Thor’s child as well, Love, asking for strength, presumably to protect her so she can live out her days (clue 2).
X-Men
In the X-Men teaser, we get a whole lot of nostalgia from the Fox run X-men series, and finally, the full scope of Cyclops’ powers (finally). Unfortunately for us, this does not seem to be a happy moment. What is sure to be revealed as an edited out character, more than likely, Scott is kneeling over a fallen companion/love (clue 3).
Black Panther
This was the final teaser before we get the actual teaser, and that seems deliberate. Yes, the Thing was in this trailer, but it was mostly centered around Shuri. However, I think Ben/Thing showing up at the end was deliberately placed for what could be left of the MCU going forward. This whole teaser has Shuri’s narration about preparing for the afterlife (clue 4).
This whole story plays out over the Multiverse Saga, leading up to these next two projects. Each of these trailers depicts different stages of a life cycle. From birth to life, to death, and then the afterlife, all depicted in a series of teases signaling the end of the MCU as we know it. Avengers: Doomsday will ultimately be the hard reset the MCU will need going forward.
What does that mean? Deaths, and lots of them. Think about it this way: if you followed the post-Endgame projects, you watched two key stories, Agatha All Along and Loki. Loki’s main story was discovering the multiverse and the establishment of the Sacred Timeline. Agatha All Along introduced Aubrey Plaza as a potentially very important character, Death. Though these shows seemingly had nothing to do with each other, they could tie together the whole thing.
Loki was all about preserving the Sacred Timeline, and the destruction of anything outside of this timeline was heavily leaned into. Deadpool and Wolverine also leaned into this story. Agatha All Along comes along and has a very similar theme to what we’ve seen all along, Billy searching for his brother Tommy, both children of Wanda Maximoff, and introduces us to Lady Death, or simply death.
Have you followed the pattern so far? The majority of these stories have a large story to do with children in a post-Endgame world. From WandaVision with the Scarlett Witch trying to get back to her boys, Black Panther 2 showing T’Challa’s son, Thor: Love & Thunder, where Thor adopts a child, Fantastic 4: First Steps introducing Franklin Richards, and even as much as some of y’all hated She-Hulk, introducing Skaar. Every single one of them, and probably more, introduced a younger version of our heroes. That was intentional.
Most people thought it would lead up to a Young Avengers run, but it’s deeper than that. It started in Infinity War and continued in Endgame. They started killing off our heroes and bringing in younger versions. Hell, even Tony Stark died in Endgame, and in the same film, we’re introduced to Morgan Stark. What does it all mean?
If you follow these teasers and put them all back to back, with what we know so far, there’s one theme that stands out the most: death. Yet it doesn’t end there. Just as life doesn’t end after our death, the story goes on. Tie every bit of these stories together, and we see why they brought back Steve Rogers, despite the toxic fan outrage online. “What was the point of Endgame?” right?
Simple. This whole story is about what we leave behind after we’re gone. What type of world will we leave when our story is up? What will we leave behind for our children? That’s what Avengers: Doomsday will play out to be. Expect a lot of our heroes to have their final moments, where the Sacred Timeline is the only one left standing, passing a world on to the younger generation of heroes. The whole thing will not only symbolize a soft reboot of the MCU, but the stories we’re leaving behind from the heroes we’ve come to love.
