The MCU’s Avengers Shows The Awful Cost Of Failure
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a huge success, but if a superhero product flops on the big screen, it doesn’t have much of a future on the page. That’s the message conveyed by Marvel’s Avengers Annual # 1, written by Jed Mackay and illustrated by Travel Foreman with colors by Jim Campbell, in which Captain America and Iron Man seek the lost Infinity Stones and their hosts-humans selected by the stones themselves. A specific team is noticeably omitted from the issue, indicating Marvel’s intentions about the fate of any property unfortunate enough to fail in the MCU. As the individual Infinity Stones seek out their hosts, Captain America and Iron Man understand that, if left uncontrolled, these “Infinity People” might do severe damage. The stones have a near-infinite potential to modify the cosmos, and not all humans can deal with (and many can’t handle) that kind of power. As the Avengers search for the stones (as part of the ongoing Infinite Destinies event), Ward, a humanoid AI (though he prefers the term “synthetic person”), finds himself at a diner surrounded by furious humans.
Ward finds himself having to defend his existence to furious diners after being labelled a robot (an insulting phrase to him). He discusses humans, mutants, and how both sides see artificial intelligence-and proposes that the three forms of sentient, sapient life-“humans, mutants, and synthetics”-have a shared history dating back to the time when the three shared the planet on which they exist. Regular readers may recall a fourth group that Ward completely ignores: the Inhumans.
The Terrigen Mists bestow powers on the Inhumans, who form a sizable group in the Marvel Universe. They seem human until they are subjected to the Mists; Ms. Marvel, probably the most well-known Inhuman, gained her powers in this way. The Inhumans have been prominently featured in a number of storylines over the last decade, mostly because Marvel Studios did not own the film rights to the X-Men until 2019, and higher-ups felt they could push the much-maligned Inhumans to replace Xavier’s squad. All of this culminated in Marvel’s Inhumans, a 2017 TV program that bombed both critically and commercially: the production was plainly hurried, and the budget was startlingly low for a Marvel property. Only a year later, Marvel’s Death of the Inhumans miniseries effectively ended the Inhuman campaign in the comics. Ward’s omission of the Inhumans from his speech is definitely not by chance.
Marvel has since purchased the X-Men rights, and Jonathan Hinkman’s 2018 soft relaunch of the franchise has elevated the mutants to A-list prominence once more. The unexpected termination of the Inhumans TV series after just one season, as well as the abandoning of the Inhumans in the comics, demonstrates the disadvantages of brand synergy across various media. Perhaps upcoming films like Shang-Chi and Eternals should be concerned if their Marvel Cinematic Universe debuts are less than great-their destiny in the comics could be similar to that of the Inhumans.
So there you have it: This is how the MCU’s Avengers Shows The Awful Cost Of Failure. Well, to be honest, this is the reason behind the failure of the Avengers. So what do you guys think about this? Do let us know in the comments area below. Until then, keep reading Animated Times for in-depth coverage of the entertainment industry, upcoming films, and other issues. in addition to TV series, celebrity news, and much more.
