Avengers 4

SPOILER ALERT: This contains SPOILERS for ‘Avengers 4’ and possibly ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ so proceed with caution.

Marvel Studios is keeping nearly everything about ‘Avengers 4’ under wraps.  Often with big budget movies, promotions can begin as much as a year before release, but that is not the case here.  But now some concept art from ‘Avengers 4’ has leaked revealing a new team lineup and in a few cases, new costumes.  Of course, if you saw ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, the lineup really comes as no surprise.  But first, here is another leaked image showing how Thanos will be slightly modified for this sequel:

This rendering more closely resembles how Thanos looked in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ than most of ‘Infinity War’.  In the latter, he ditched the helmet and armor fairly quickly and he looked as though, from the waist down, he was dressed in dress pants.  This brings him back, closer to the way he is drawn in the comics, but who knows how long he’ll keep all the armor and extras on.

And now… drum roll… the new Avengers!

Yeah, this is pretty much everyone left at the end of ‘Infinity War’.  Well, we didn’t see Hawkeye or Ant-Man at all in that movie, so their fates were a mystery, but with ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ coming out on July 6, expect to find out what Scott Lang was doing during that time.  But unless she’s really small, The Wasp doesn’t seem to be present, so it looks like Evangeline Lilly will turn to dust by the end of that outing.

Unless I blanked, I don’t remember seeing Nebula at the end of the movie, so her fate was also a mystery.  With the sister she was just starting to get to know now dead, look for her to take her revenge on her dear ol’ dad.  And Rocket was the only Guardian left behind.  Was there a reason for that?

Speaking of, War Machine is still around for some reason.  If you look at the lineup, it’s all the original Avengers.  War Machine wasn’t one of them.  Why was he kept alive after Scarlet Witch, Falcon and the rest vanished?  This is just speculation, but War Machine was killed in the comic ‘Civil War II’.  Even though most of the characters that turned to dust at the end will probably return, expect some permanent loss to balance things out and since Rhodey is dead in the comics (killed by Thanos, in fact), it’s possible that the movies will follow suit.

Obviously, whatever was plaguing Bruce Banner in ‘Infinity War’ clears up as The Hulk is back… and wearing clothes. Do the garments serve a purpose within the plot?  And thankfully, Black Widow is getting a new look closer to her old look.  There was no explanation why she had bleach blonde hair in ‘Infinity War’ but it just did not look good at all.  And her army green vest might have been practical but it didn’t quite fit her.  Here, she looks to have dark hair again and to be wearing a black catsuit like the ones she has worn in the past.

And at long last, Captain Marvel appears and joins the team.  Apparently, she will have been in space, protecting the Earth from extraterrestrial invasions during the events of the prior Marvel films.

It’s fitting that this movie takes us back to the Avengers’ original lineup since this will be the wrap up for the first 10+ years of Marvel films and may be the last film for many of these stars.  It’s fitting to put the spotlight back on Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye.  It will be interesting to see what roles Ant-Man, War Machine, Nebula, Rocket and Captain Marvel will play in this film and those going forward.

What do you think so far?

Source: Comic Book Movie