The MCU has done an amazing job when it comes to creating a shared universe. The creative team at Disney decided to showcase the life of Marvel heroes on the silver screen and they have had huge success. Creating so many interlinking stories has the advantage of capturing a wide variety of audience and to draw in the big numbers. It’s the quality vs quantity argument all over again, we have seen Marvel do it for over a decade, we see them creating a beautiful franchise with multiple heroes and overlapping story arcs. It’s a piece of art. However, the problem arises when you leave out inconsistencies in the plot. It doesn’t happen often but that makes it all the more worse when it does. So here are the 10 biggest plot holes in the MCU that made fans cringe.
Origin of the infinity gauntlet
Let’s start with the most obvious one. When Thor came out during the development of Marvel Cinematic Universe phase 1 of Marvel Cinematic Universe the directors had no clue how big this whole thing was going to be so they did what any comic book enthusiast or movie Maker would. They put in Easter eggs in the movie. You see, when Thor was being produced nobody expected an entire franchise to stem out of these movies much less see an infinity gauntlet storyline. Hence the infinity gauntlet with the infinity gems in Odin’s treasure room. Although this plot hole was recently debunked in Thor: Ragnarök when Hela claims that majority of ‘treasures’ in Odin’s treasure rooms are nothing more than fakes. This loose tie-up still dies not explain where the infinity gauntlet originated from. Is it a device created by the Dwarves or is it something more primordial.
Spider-Man’s timeline
There was a time when Marvel Cinematic Universe movies we’re set in the year they were released but that is no longer the case. Gone are the days of set and linear continuity, here are the time of obscure and confusing timelines (let’s hope we are not headed towards retcons and sequels of prequels). The first in the line of confusing timeline movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was Spider-Man Homecoming. Although the movie came out in 2017 , the timeline was more close to civil war. The implications of this will only become clear in the sequel to Spider-Man which is also said to be set before the events of the Infinity War.
The shawarma scene
At the end of the first Avengers Tony Stark commented, “ I don’t know what shawarma is, but I want some”. What followed was perhaps one of the cutest and the funniest post-credits scene ever recorded and presented in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After the hard-fought New York battle we see the newly formed team sit down for a meal ( like a war feast after a battle in Asgard ). The only problem with this scene is the presence of Thor. Now , you see it’s not possible that Thor comes and sits down for a meal before transporting back to Asgard when there’s a superpowered evil brother to be guarded. Now, either Odin granted Thor a huge bulk of excess power to move between realms just for a meal or Loki was locked up for this scene.
Gamora and Thanos
Gamora was introduced to us in the Guardians of the Galaxy. All throughout the movie Zoe Saldana character claimed that Thanos was not her father. She screamed it again and again until her hatred for her adopted father poured out from the silver screen. She also told the audience that “Thanos killed my parents in front of my eyes and then tortured me and turned me into a weapon”.
Later a Nova corps official remarked that Gamora was the last of her species (the zehoberei). After Infinity War we know both of these statements to be false because the zehoberei were not completely obliterated by the mad Titan. And neither did the tyrant force Gamora to watch the execution of her parents. We never even got to see the child’s real father and all these conflicting dialogues raise a lot of continuity issues.
Capitol Hill
Alright, this one was more of a typo than anything else but it still counts as a mistake in the plot/production of the movie. During the events of Iron Man 2, Tony Stark is called to testify in front of the United States Senate armed services committee. Later the hero watches back his own testimony on a YouTube clip pulled from C-SPAN. The only problem with this scene is the fact that C-SPAN sports the headline ‘Stark industries CEO on Capitol Hill’, while the correct spelling would be Capitol Hill as an American, knows that is where the Senate is.
Tony’s arc reactor
For the majority of the phase one films and almost all of the Iron Man films the focus has always been on Tony Stark and the piece of magical machinery on his chest. Stark is a man who has been embedded with a machine for a heart. He has an arc reactor on his chest that prevents shrapnel from reaching his heart keeping him alive and well. You can see this reactor shine through most of his civilian clothes in the majority of scenes in almost every phase one movie he appears in except for when you can’t. There’s this famous sequence from the first Avengers movie where Tony Stark confronts Loki and they talk about armies and Hulk. In this scene, Tony Stark dons a black Sabbath t-shirt. The only problem with this scene is the fact that you can’t actually see the arc reactor shine through his t-shirt. Is it because he switched it off or the CGI team got lazy. All we have is speculation and this continuity mistake.
The birthday of private Barnes
Bucky Barnes was one of Steve Rogers’ oldest friends. He grew up with Steve and they served together during world war 2. The men even went through similar cryogenic conditions and ended up as men out of time. It was a rather beautiful irony that highlighted the duality between the protagonist and the antagonist in Captain America Winter Soldier. Now , the entire continuity shatters when you look at the above picture, the Smithsonian mural highlights the life of James Buchanan Barnes but makes a crucial mistakes. It lists the birth of private barnes as 1916 but then ends by saying that the lifespan of Barnes was from 1917-1944.
Albeit, it’s a small mistake but it hurts more because Marvel is so on point with it’s continuity.
Thor’s age
During the first Thor movie, the audience was informed by the all-father that the frost giants and Asgardians fought a battle that raged on for years. A part of this battle also spilled onto Midgard (or the realm we like to call earth). The ancient Vikings who saw the Asgardians battling the frost giants mistook these all-powerful beings as Gods and this led to the development of the Norse mythology. The Norse mythology has very accurate descriptions of Thor, his weapon of choice and the rainbow bridge. This is solidified by the in-universe book that Erik Selvig reads during the first Thor movie. However, the only problem is the fact that Thor never participated in the battle on earth and neither did he ever visit earth before the events of ‘Thor’ so how did the ancient Vikings have those illustrations. Thor’s age is arguably one of the most confusing things in Marvel continuity.
Tony Stark’s house party
The major inconsistency in the third Iron Man was the fact the even though the armors like mark 42 ran out of power after cross-country flights, the Iron Man still had the option to summon all of his might with all the other armors lying dormant in his garage. But instead of doing that, Tony Stark chooses to charge his mark 42 by using a car battery and then waits to call upon his army until he’s right in the middle of enemy territory. As strategies go this is arguably one of the worst.
Star-Lord’s gear
I’m all for retro music. Hell, it’s one of those things that made Guardians of the Galaxy one of the most entertaining films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The headphones that Star-Lord uses and the music that he plays have become an iconic call sign for the character. Event to the extent than when the Nova corps rebuild the Milano they aim to rebuild the retro boom box into it. The only problem with this entire picture is that even though Star-Lord never visited earth after the death of his mother how did the man ever keep his walkman running. Where did he find AA batteries or tape decks to keep it functioning.
