Avengers: Endgame - How Captain Marvel Reveals A Key To Defeating Thanos

1. The Failed Plan

There's a reason Captain Marvel's mid-credits scene showed her introduction in Avengers: Endgame. It established that she turns up right at the start of Endgame (after all, they're still charting victims of the Decimation) and that she will presumably be involved in the first mission we've seen in the trailers released so far.

Thanks to that teased footage, we know that the surviving Avengers come together to launch immediate counter-measures in the wake of Thanos' snap. We also know that there's a time jump in Endgame that has to come after that mission, which pretty easy signposts the fact that the mission fails. But how could it, with someone as powerful as Captain Marvel involved?

Well, it's all about power balance. As the Russos have already said in the run up to Endgame, they don't want Captain Marvel to be a get out of jail free card. They want her powers to restricted so that the element of drama isn't compromised by her turning up. It's the same reason they turned Vision from a messianic robot in Age Of Ultron to a bumbling, self-conscious polo-neck wearing butler in Civil War:

"It's always a concern of ours about overpowering characters, because the reason that people relate to these characters is their humanity, and that they’re flawed. And the reason we love working so much with Captain America was that he was limited, and his heart was his superpower, you know? So we're all acutely aware of the dangers of having an overly powerful character. [But] we like sensitive storytelling, so… we found a thoughtful way through it."

In order to make her fallible, they have to make her (and the other Avengers) fail. So presumably we're going to see the heroes try and follow Thanos to his retirement haven, where they will confront him and he will either defeat them or escape. The latter is more likely as the Russos won't want to hamstring Marvel immediately. Either way, we'll probably see Marvel's powers questioned for the first time, which will ensure she's not over-powered.

Even more importantly. it will reinforce the idea of unity that has run throughout the Avengers movies. The whole Avengers Initiative has been about bringing heroes together for added strength and Captain America's mantra in Civil War has basically been the same as Cesar's from the Planet of the Apes movies.

Apes. Together. Strong.

Delete as appropriate obviously, but you get the idea. All of the ensemble films have preached the higher value of heroes working together and not leaving anyone behind. Tony Stark's individualism has most pertinently been used as a counterpoint to that idea, starting with the first Avengers where Cap challenges him on being the one to lie on the barbed wire for his fellow heroes, through to Age Of Ultron where his plot to protect the Earth alone backfires. In Civil War, he breaks up the Avengers to the cost of the world and then in Infinity War he attempts to go after Thanos alone. He is held up as the opposite of the Avengers ideal.

The franchise has also established the idea of the Infinity Stones as powerful individually but far more powerful together. In a very important way, the Stones are a reflection of the Avengers and they cannot work as well without that unity.

That's the mentality behind bringing Captain Marvel in, tying her to an Infinity Stone and then immediately questioning her power. She has to come to the revelation - just as all of the Avengers do - that they need to be a team. They need to unify their powers in order to achieve their goals and this would be a rather elegant way of expressing that.

So while that first mission might appear to be a failure, it will offer the mechanism for the Avengers to realise that they cannot hope to win without unity. And presumably combining with the time travel element led by Ant-Man's return, we could well see the Infinity-signature heroes (or at least Captain Marvel since she's the only one currently alive) playing key parts in what happens to the Stones after Thanos is defeated.

What do you think of this theory? Share your thoughts below in the comments thread.