Avengers: Endgame –
Avengers: Infinity War dropped in theatres on April 27th, 2018. The movie was the culmination of over a decade of movie making. It showcased the advent of the primary antagonist of the Marvel comic-verse aka Thanos and his primary arc that has been such an iconic part of Marvel comic history over the years (albeit the motivations of the Mad-Titan were a bit different in this iteration of Marvel universe than the comic one).
The movie also showcased over 40 super-powered characters to the point where even the most enthusiastic Marvel Cinematic Universe fan would not be able to name all of them. The Marvel Cinematic Universe in itself saw the beginning of the Endgame as fans flooded theatres and cinema halls all over the world to see the tyrant of the dark quadrant wipe the floor with their favourite heroes.
And Thanos definitely did not disappoint. To quote Black Widow aka Natasha Romanoff (as played by the beautiful and enticing Scarlett Johannsson) “Thanos did exactly what he said he was going to do, he wiped out 50% of all living beings”.
The sheer act of Thanos snapping his fingers changed the landscape of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe as evidenced by the Avengers: Endgame trailer. The events of Infinity War had a profound effect on the status quo of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Where earth was under the protection of Iron Man and his residual allies (residual because of what went down during Captain America: Civil War).
The responsibility has now shifted to Steve Rogers and friends. Moreover, where Steve Rogers was an outlaw barely holding on to his lifeline of justice that role has now been transferred to Tony Stark as he tries to make it back home post the events of Infinity War. While all of this is rather profound and surreal, the fact remains that Thanos pulled off the biggest genocide in the history of the universe and still remains at large.
His actions brought about the end of the universe (or at least half of an end). But this distinctive act of benevolence (as Thanos puts it) must be corrected. And that is what Avengers: Endgame represents. The very end of what Iron Man started over a decade ago. We are about to witness the death of a universe that was birthed by the hands of Tony Stark himself, and possibly the death of Iron Man along with it.
But how will a handful of residual Avengers stop a force so powerful that the entire universe bent to its will? How will six lowly Avengers go against a Thanos that wiped out their combined might during the events of Infinity War? Well, the prevailing theory is time travel. It has been largely speculated that Thanos will be made incompetent against the power of time travel and the ingenuity of the Avengers.
It is theorized that the original Avengers (along with the help of Ant-Man and his quantum tunnel) traverse through time to collect the infinity stones from the past and then challenge Thanos to a final showdown. If this theory is to be believed then time travel might very well be the salvation for Avengers.
But here’s the problem. Time is not a linear force, no sir; it is a highly complex intertwined dimension that is anti-paradoxical in nature. What I mean by that is any paradox or changes we might want to create through time travel have already been accounted for.
That is how timelines work. Because when an entity travels through time, it may intersect with itself and the paradoxes hence solve themselves (by and large). But if the paradoxes are to sustain it then a completely different plane of existence must be willed into being that has no effect on the current timeline.
So even if the Avengers somehow manage to travel through time they will not be able to defy Thanos of the infinity stones or affect the current events in any manner. And if you argue that Marvel does not care about this technicality then I refer you to the original “Age of Ultron” arc in the Marvel comics where time travel only complicated things further and made them worse. The comics remind us yet and again that travelling through time does more harm than good and Marvel comics readily discourages such an act. So in this sense time travel is highly unlikely.
