2022 marks the tenth anniversary since Marvel Studios premiered The Avengers in 2012, and nothing has been the same since. It was the last film in phase one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Bringing together Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Steve Rodgers, and Bruce Banner to help find and take back the Tesseract from Loki is step one. However, when Thor joins the group, it starts to round out the Avengers team. Meanwhile, Clint Barton takes longer to become an official Avenger until after Natasha frees him from Loki’s mind control. The Avengers is not just a superhero movie. It may have also been the true start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe phenomenon.

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Although the Marvel Cinematic Universe began in 2008 with Iron Man and continued to tell the solo stories of Captain America and Thor before bringing everyone together, The Avengers still holds an important place in the MCU lineup. In hindsight, all the characters have grown immensely since their first introductions to each other. Whether individually or as a team, the Avengers have developed so much since the invasion of New York. However, although they may grow, that does not make The Avengers obsolete. Instead, it is a critical factor in understanding how the characters have developed and changed or how to see where the MCU began to find its rhythm in team-up movies.

The MCU’s First Team-Up Movie

     Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The Avengers was an essential piece of the puzzle for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It needed to portray how the various characters could find a way to work together without compromising the preexisting characters from solo films. Watching the Avengers become a team is one element that makes the movie so important. The group may continue their friendships or fight and separate in future films. However, The Avengers needed to prove it could create a group dynamic that could work. Everyone needed to show that they could meld together as heroes and people. It was not just about whether Iron Man could work well with Captain America. It also showed the differing perspectives of Tony Stark and Steve Rodgers, a conflict that would continue to be a subplot throughout the following movies.

The successful work of The Avengers would go on to prove the MCU could move forward in conducting more team-up films, including the next Avengers movies, Guardians of the Galaxy films, and Captain America: Civil War​​​​.

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Foreshadowing Events In Future Movies

Steve claims that Tony is someone who would never make the sacrificial move. Tony states that everything unique about Steve came from science. In the end, they were both wrong. Although Tony shows his willingness to make a self-sacrificial move at the end of The Avengers, the true testament to his development comes at the end of Avengers: Endgame. Tony is willing to die if it means everyone else gets to live. Meanwhile, although Steve proves he is more than just a super-soldier countless times, Avengers: Endgame also proves Tony wrong. Thor’s hammer does not care about super-soldiers. Steve is deemed worthy by the hammer because of who he is as a person. It is a plot twist that got heavily cheered on by its shocked and excited audience.

However, The Avengers also teases a universal expansion. Marvel does not wait until the second phase to tease that there is more to the universe than Earth and Asgard. Instead, The Avengers teases a larger universe before Guardians of the Galaxy went on to premiere two years later in 2014. The Avengers references an off-screen force that Loki is working with toward the invasion of New York. But, the truth is not revealed until the post-credits scene, when viewers get their first glimpse of Thanos. Tony does get a frightening look of a spaceship during his brief time through the portal, revealing there is far more out in the galaxy than anyone knew about. Thanos is seen again in Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2 and at the post-credits of Avengers: Age of Ultron, showing the continuity of Thanos gathering the pieces of his master plan. However, although teased in The Avengers, Thanos does not become a significant problem for them until phase three’s Avengers: Infinity War.

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Fighting Each Other And Loki

The Avengers asks a lot of its heroes throughout the film. Not only is this group of strangers asked to work together to save the world, but they have to do it in an environment where rising tensions could create a variety of problems. Although Bruce Banner mostly has a handle on his bigger counterpart, he can not always prevent the Hulk from making an appearance. Although Natasha alerts everyone to Loki’s plan to awaken the Hulk, they do not avoid a fight with him. However, in the final act of the movie, when the entire group works together to defeat Loki, this solidifies their group.

Loki also proves himself as a worthy MCU adversary. He can exist outside of Thor’s corner of the MCU, living among the rest of the universe’s major players. Hulk attacking Loki is a fan-favorite moment revived between Hulk and Thor during Thor: Ragnarok as an ecstatic Loki watches from a safe distance. Although the Avengers would go on to participate in more intense battles, the action sequences portrayed throughout The Avengers helped create what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become.