Marvel’s strong, independent female protagonist movie, Captain Marvel, was just released last week. It serves as an origin movie for Marvel’s strongest hero, as well as a bridge movie between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, signifying the end of MCU’s Phase 3. It’s speculated that Captain Marvel will play a pivotal role in defeating the purple villain, Thanos.

But, in all that fracas, let’s not forget how The Avengers Initiative began.

SPOILER INCOMING

Threats From Above

Our first sighting of intergalactic threats came from the movie Thor (2011), and the incident was referenced in 2012’s The Avengers during their banter-slash-quarrel on the Hovercarrier.

The Destroyer

Here’s part of the script from the scene in case you’ve forgotten;

Nick Fury: Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned.

Thor: My people want nothing but peace with your planet.

Nick Fury: But you’re not the only people out there, are you? And, you’re not the only threat. The world’s filling up with people who can’t be matched, they can’t be controlled.

The inception of The Avengers Initiative is due to the looming threats coming from outer space. Even in Captain Marvel, it was stated that they never anticipated that the threats would come from above and that they ‘would search for more heroes’. This is the point where Fury proposed The Avengers Initiative, which was then named The Protector Initiative, to have a group of heroes to protect Earth from unknown threats where ever they came from.

Little did Fury know that most of the future threats would come from elsewhere, and not from the other continents.

Stark’s Stark Determination

One of the memorable scenes in The Avengers movie is the banter between Iron Man and Loki on top of Stark Tower. In my opinion, this is one of the scenes that strengthens the Avengers as their name implies, especially as we step into Endgame.

In case you need to jog your memory, here’s some help;

TONY: You’re missing the point. There’s no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it’s too much for us, but it’s all on you. Because if we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we’ll avenge it.

That exact line cemented it for me. It was disastrous during the events of the Battle of Wakanda, and yes they failed to prevent The Snappening, and the whole universe lost half of its population.

And from this line, it’s clear that the what’s left of the Avengers will definitely kick Thanos where the light doesn’t shine.

They will avenge the universe in Endgame, with the help of Captain Marvel.

Speaking about avenging.

Carol Danvers’ Callsign

I don’t know about you, but it’s funny how Nick Fury was inspired by Danvers’ callsign. In the movie Captain Marvel, we see that Danvers’ callsign sparked the idea and was put in the stead of ‘The Protector Initiative’. Stay with me, yeah? Okay, remember 2012’s Avengers, in which Agent Coulson meets his untimely demise at the hands of Loki.

Here’s a snippet of the line from the scene:

Agent Coulson: It’s okay, boss. This was never going to work… if they didn’t have something… to…

It’s implied that he was about to say ‘avenge’. So, therein lies the true namesake of the Avengers. It’s true to a certain extent, because, in my opinion, the Avengers got their act together after Coulson’s death, effectively ‘avenging’ him, therefore being fit to the moniker.

In Captain Marvel, however, the name was taken from a callsign slapped to the side of Carol Danvers’ F-14D Tomcat. I just feel that something as arbitrary as a callsign couldn’t have been the namesake of Earth’s Greatest Defenders. I mean, who did Danvers avenge anyways to justify her the callsign? Again, it’s as arbitrary as it gets, not unlike those badass callsigns you get in the story of any of the Ace Combat games.

With all that said, I have nothing against the recent movie, but in fact, it actually hyped me up for Endgame, and I’m sure those who went to watch Captain Marvel is hyped for the next movie. Not to mention, there are so many questions clouding my thought, such as how strong is the ‘strongest Marvel superhero’? What’s her role in Endgame? What would Thanos look like being hit by a Photon Blast? Well, we can only wait and find out on 26 April when Endgame hits the big screens.