The beloved Marvel film “Endgame” had a dramatic ending signifying the end of an era for Marvel movie lovers. For those who loved the movies from the beginning, watching Iron Man die and seeing Captain America age was the end of an era.
There’s a separation between Marvel comic lovers and Marvel movie lovers; even though the comics are the source material for the movies, the movies stood on their own. The comic universe is too vast, with too many different endings and minor details that turn into major details down the line. If you were to read all the comics before watching the movies, it would be like committing to a lifetime of work with no end in sight.
Those who were already familiar with the comics when the movies first came out either loved the reinterpretation or hated it. Every character’s role was different depending on which comic you read, and every character’s personality was much more fleshed out.
In the Avengers movies, Tony Stark was pushed to the front as the main character because in the Iron Man movies, he had the biggest personality, and his story mixed humor and drama in a way that kept the viewers on the edge of their seats while maintaining a digestible vibe. The Captain America movies were similar even though Steve Rogers’ personality stood out in a more serious way than Tony Stark’s. Altogether, these two carried the series on their backs, and their deaths felt like an ending to the Marvel movie franchise.
When “Eternals” came out there was a question of who would be the new Avengers now that Stark and Rogers were gone, the joke felt out of touch. Of course, there were always more superheroes than those mentioned in the movies, but they existed in the comics. The Marvel movie fanbase’s connection was with the original characters, not the new characters they decided to introduce once the main story ended.
Now that the main characters are gone, Marvel is going to have to do a lot of work to make their audience care about these new characters the way they cared about the originals. Of course, with a franchise as successful as this one and a well of characters this vast to choose from, nothing is impossible.
