Here we continue our jaunt through the MCU timeline. In Thor, we started to see more of the scope of otherworldly threats coming to wreak havoc on Earth and The Incredible Hulk teased the coming together of The Avengers. This is where those two teasers finally meet.

Loki is still an asshole

Presumably to fuck with Thor and because destroying one planet isn’t enough for him, Loki decides that he must take over Earth. In order to do so, he makes a deal with the Chitauri leader. Loki promises to deliver the Tesseract to the Chitauri in exchange for help with conquering Earth.

Loki knows that Dr. Selvig has been studying the Tesseract, so he activates it and uses his scepter to take over Dr. Selvig and Hawkeye’s minds. I can only presume this happens to make Hawkeye not the most boring Avenger, but honestly, he’s still the most boring Avenger. And if you were going to take over anyone’s mind, why bother with his?!

Avengers unite!

Nick Fury, Agent Hill, and Agent Coulson are already together at the facility where Loki steals the Tesseract and causes the facility to implode. You would have thought based on what Tony Stark said at the end of The Incredible Hulk that they were already assembling the Avengers, but I guess they decided to wait until the shit really hit the fan to do it.

They send Black Widow out to recruit Hulk who now looks very different since he is Mark Ruffalo. I’m not mad at this change. Nick Fury rounds up Captain America who is punching away his grief about being frozen in ice so long and missing out on his one true love, Agent Carter. (Which reminds me, I really should watch Agent Carter!) Tony Stark shows up too and the gang is almost fully assembled – commence operation “Catch Loki and study the Tesseract.”

Here is a direct quote from my notes when they capture Loki with the Tesseract:

“And then Thor comes to force Loki to return the Tesseract and come back to Asgard, but Iron Man and Thor end up measuring each other’s dicks until Captain America comes in and tells them to stop acting like shit heads.“

No edits needed there!

Somehow the Avengers pull their shit together for long enough to battle the space graboids the Chitauri ride their way in on and save Earth from destruction.

MCU Connections

Loki has been wielding a scepter that contains one of the Inifinity stones – the mind stone.

Once again we see Tony Stark’s quirk of not allowing things to be handed to him. I wonder if it’s some manner of genius germaphobe reference a la Howard Hughes?

Agent Coulson’s death is a rallying cry to get the Avengers re-focused on doing what they need to do. BUT … Agent Coulson is not actually dead because he is alive in Agents of SHIELD.

The Tesseract is last seen with Thor as he is supposed to be taking both it and Loki back to Asgard.

While the Avengers saved Earth, it is really only temporary. The Chitauri were actually working with Thanos and the whole escapade has now piqued Thanos’ interest in coming to Earth.

Some foreshadowing

We see a kind of foreshadowing of what’s to come in the future, particularly End Game. When the Avengers start arguing with one another (presumably caused by Loki), Captain America tells Tony Stark that he’s not the one to sacrifice himself for others. He says: “The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You’re not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.”

This is the first MCU entry where Tony Stark is moving toward developing humility and seeing the world beyond himself instead of just being a self-centered arrogant asshat all the time.

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