With 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicks into high gear for Phase 3, raising the stakes for the most successfully-mapped cinematic franchise ever built. But even the best laid plans of Kevin Feige can sometimes go awry.
In the midst of managing dozens of characters over a couple of dozen movies, mistakes will be made. Which is understandable, and forgivable, considering the huge amount of fandom joy and huge profits the movies have generated. Still, there are some glaring inconsistencies when it comes to the huge crop of Avengers films.
Some of them can be chalked up to simple oversights, but others really look like some writer somewhere just wasn’t doing their job. There are just too many moments where how Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, and many more characters were handled that just don’t add up. And we’ve got the memes that prove it!
Here’s 15 Memes That Prove The Avengers Movies Make No Sense.
Collateral Damage
What is it with really powerful superheroes and city-wide destruction? From the devastation of Gotham in The Dark Knight Rises to the leveling of Metropolis in The Man of Steel, it can be argued that sometimes our saviors can do more harm than good.
Of course, in the first MCU team movie, The Avengers, the group was tasked to defend New York from a major alien invasion. But holy cow, Hulk, Iron Man and company sure pulled no punches while “protecting” the Big Apple. The whole town gets crushed, as this hilarious yet poignant meme proves: “Let’s Save the City by Destroying It.” Talk about collateral damage.
We guess sometimes you’ve got to break a few eggs to make an omelet!
Good Guys or Bad Guys?
Which side are you on? In 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, fans were asked that cinematic question when the Avengers were split into two opposing parties, following the storyline of the classic comic series by the same name.
The split arose when the US government decided that unregulated superheroes pose a danger to society. Iron Man chose to be controlled by the law, Captain America chose not to - and we all know how that ended. But it’s so weird that the Avengers are punished for rescuing the world (twice) while in The Guardians of the Galaxy the authorities of another planet gave pardons to our team of criminal heroes - and sweet new ride - for their efforts in saving an entire world.
This brilliant meme sums up our feelings on the subject: we Earthers could learn a thing two about gratitude!
Scarlet Witch Hunt
And speaking of Civil War, it really gets confusing when we keep treating our heroes as if they were villains. To be sure, the events in Avengers: Age of Ultron were a complex series of difficult moral choices. Yes, indeed, mistakes were made. One of those mistakes fell squarely on the shoulders of Wanda Maximoff, aka The Scarlet Witch, when she sided with the evil robot Ultron to oppose the Avengers.
Hypnotizing Bruce Banner into a rage which causes the Hulk to go into a destructive rampage, Wanda basically unleashed a monster. But because she later helps the Avengers defeat Ultron, she is invited onto the team.
That is until, Civil War when she’s jailed for the damage caused by her powers. This meme says it all: make up your mind, Tony Stark. Scarlet Witch is either good or bad, just pick one!
Hawkeye’s One Job
It isn’t easy being Hawkeye. After all, you’re surrounded by superheroes who are unbelievably strong, control supernatural powers, have sick power suits and can even fly. Meanwhile, Clint Barton has a bow and arrows.
Without even a gun or maybe even baseball bat, this guy has to use stone age technology to ward off everybody from Thor to Loki and Thanos - with a pointy stick hurled by a guitar string. Does that make sense?
Still, as this meme states, Mr. Barton gets the job done. He doesn’t have Captain America’s enhanced biology or Iron Man’s unstoppable tech. He’s just a dude with a weapon that’s only a couple of steps above a Nerf gun. But hey, he’s still an invaluable team member to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! At least until a new recruit shows up with a slingshot.
Armor Off for Romanoff
In the world of Avengers memes, many are unkind to Natasha Romanoff, aka The Black Widow. Rather than recognize the super-spy’s immense skill and bravery, too often social media treats her as nothing more than eye candy.
Here’s one meme which makes us wonder if Tony Stark hasn’t excluded the Widow in one important way. In Civil War, we can see in this meme that every member of Team Iron Man is armored. Black Panther has his vibranium threads, War Machine and his boss have their metal suits, and the Vision is literally made of armor. So why does Natasha not have her upgrade? Even Peter Parker got his leveled-up costume from Stark in Spider-man: Homecoming.
What’s the deal Tony? Do you refuse to dabble in ladies’ fashions?
Watch Your Language
To be fair to Steve Rogers, he was born into a more genteel age. As we learned in Captain America: The First Avenger, the shield-hurling hero is a product of the 1930s and 40s, where common wisdom dictated that folks restrain from cussing too often. It might seem corny in the 21st century, but it’s understandable when you see Cap as the time-displaced character that he is.
While he gets made fun of for being so clean with his language, this meme points out that Tony Stark, who invented the genocidal Ultron, doesn’t get nearly as much flack for his disastrous activities. While it may be funny to laugh at outdated morals, maybe we could spend more time giving Iron Man a far harder time for his role in lots and lots of lives being lost.
A Matter of Faith
Nothing can get quite as touchy as matters of faith. Put two people from two different religions in a room and expect fireworks to go of. Still, one would think that in the face of real evidence, one might need to question one’s faith. But as this meme proves, Captain America and Iron Man might just be calling the facts “fake news.”
As was established in the first Iron Man movie, Tony Stark is an atheist. There are no gods, only science. And Steve Rogers is a devout Christian. You might think when meeting the gods Loki and Thor, they might think twice about their beliefs, but you would be thinking wrong. That’s why we will default to Hulk’s position and let him just smash what we can’t accept!
Quicksilver the Slowpoke
In the old Superman show, we learn he is “faster than a speeding bullet.” Too bad the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s resident speedster can’t quite outrun such weapons.
Quicksilver was Marvel’s answer to The Flash back when the 1961 comics universe was established. As he’s long been known to be able to run much faster than any bullet ever fired, we agree with this meme when it tells us that having the character killed by flying projectiles simply made no sense.
Why not have Ultron kill him with a super-fast robot? Or even a laser beam?
Even though he’s not quite the same character, the Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past was brilliantly depicted in relation to bullets: they may as well be standing still. Note to screenwriters: make sure to end your metahumans in more plausible ways.
Thanos Heads May Vary
Let’s call it “The Great Thumb-Head Scandal of 2018.” When we are first introduced to the cinematic version of Marvel’s cosmic bad guy in 2012’s The Avengers’ post-credits scene, the Mad Titan is portrayed wearing his regal helmet as befits an intergalactic ruler. Fast forward to our first look at Thanos in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and the helmet is gone, leaving Thanos with an oversize thumb look for his skull.
This meme’s lament: what we thought we were buying and what we got upon delivery were two very different things. Sorry, but he just looks silly - more like Bruce Willis in the later Die Hard movies than a cosmic supervillain who’s about to end half of all life in the universe! Somebody call wardrobe and get this guy a hat!
The Immortal Agent Coulson
Anybody who has been a superhero comic book fan long enough knows that characters’ demises are rarely (if ever) permanent. Jean Grey, of the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix fame, came back to life. Clark Kent’s demise in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice didn’t stop him from rising from the grave in Justice League.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we see the end of a “normal” human by way of Agent Coulson. Taken out by Loki in The Avengers, Coulson is resurrected by a secret project presided over by his colleagues in S.H.I.E.L.D. It’s all a little confusing, but hey – we didn’t really want to see old Phil go the way of the dinosaur.
Still, this whole event begs the question: if the secret spy organization can restore life to a husk, then why only do it for one guy? Can we get Quicksilver back please?
Ultron Gets Trolled
For an AI, Ultron sure can be a little bit of a dim bulb sometimes. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, the homicidal automation expanded his consciousness by logging onto the internet for like five minutes. In those five minutes, he concluded that every single person on Earth needs to be wiped out, just as this meme states.
Never mind all of humanity’s great contributions. Shakespeare, Madame Curie, Beethoven, Harriet Tubman – none of the sublime achievements of the best we have to offer were enough to sway the tin-plated destroyer. Which leaves us to conclude he didn’t look very far into our accumulated knowledge.
Instead, we are going to have to guess that Ultron got stuck on an extra long political thread on Reddit and figured, screw this species!
When Bad Boys Get Fangirls
It’s never a very smart thing to lean too hard into stereotypes. One of the thorniest is the idea that most girls prefer men with a bad boy image. It’s not fair because just as many good guys have been equally attractive in pop culture. But when it comes to Avengers movies, it would seem that the edgy dude gets the most attention
As it happens, Loki enjoys perhaps the most passionate fandom in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Never mind the stuff he pulled in Thor: Dark World or Thor: Ragnarok – not even to mention the first Avengers movie.
Sorry Tony, Steve and Odinson – but you guys just aren’t as worthy of the adoration that The Trickster receives from the fan!
Let Love Rule
Why must Kevin Feige and the rest of the planners over at the Marvel Cinematic Universe hate on love so much? One of the greatest love stories from the pages of the comics has yet to arrive on screen and it seriously frustrates die-hard comic book fans.
The idea that an android like The Vision and a mutant like the Scarlet Witch can find love in each others’ hearts is a thing of pure geekdom. It warms many a nerd’s soul to discover that romance can happen even under seemingly impossible circumstances – between a synthetic and a metahuman – but it’s crushing not to see it in the movies, so far.
This meme speaks for many: let these two get together! We all want to see this mighty Marvel marriage happen!
Defenders Lock Out
By last count, there are going to literally be dozens of superheroes fighting Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. It’s not just the heavy hitters like Hulk, Drax and Doctor Strange. Everybody from the normal human Black Widow to the mid-level hero Spider-Man will be part of the effort. So why aren’t any of The Defenders being recruited?
Jessica Jones and Luke Cage could add some muscle, while Iron Fist can bring another mystical element into the mix and Daredevil could, well, throw his billy-club at Thanos!
As this meme says, it makes no sense not to call in four more allies. After all, it’s established that the Netflix Marvel universe lives in the same world as the MCU. Those shows have plenty of references to “The Incident” – a term describing the alien invasion of New York in The Avengers. Still, it looks like they’ll be sitting out of Infinity War.
Strange But True
Here we end on the same note we began with: why do so many cities get destroyed during superhero fights? The short answer is, because it looks cool on screen. But in Doctor Strange, the city-wide destruction turned out to be less than permanent.
Wielding his massively powerful magic to battle a slew of supernatural bad guys, Doctor Strange was able to knock down buildings all around him, only to see the entire metropolis unscathed at the end of the day.
That’s a pretty neat trick! Did he hide all that destruction up his sleeve? Did he use mirrors? Or maybe was just a nonsensical choice to have Strange able to get away with all that mayhem without causing a great big mess?
Once again, the meme writers put the screenwriters to task!
What else doesn’t make sense about The Avengers? Let us know in the comments!
