The U.N. Is The Real Bad Guy In The Marvel Cinematic Universe

I recently completed what I’m sure is my 20th re-watch of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and a thought occurred to me. Would an undivided force of the Avengers defeat Thanos? After all, a splintered, skeleton crew nearly did on their own. I think they would, which makes the true villain of this entire timeline the United Nations. Why’s that? Come with me, and you’ll see.

 In ‘Captain America: Civil War’, the Avengers become divided over 2 main issues. The spark is the framing of Bucky Barnes, which leads to the first actual conflict between the sides. The timber, however, is the Sokovia Accords. If you don’t remember, that is the law the United Nations tries to force upon the Avengers which would give a group of U.N. officials complete and total control over their actions. Captain America and others object, mostly because they trust themselves to do good more than they do any sort of government group (remember that S.H.I.E.L.D, their original government overseer, was infiltrated and corrupted by HYDRA). Tony Stark disagrees because he is guilty as shit over inadvertently destroying an entire country by creating James Spader-tron (Ultron). Somehow, it doesn’t register to Tony that trying to give an oligarchy control over the actions of very powerful entities is exactly what cause him to set the events of ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ into action.

Bucky Barnes frame job is discovered by the end of Civil War, and Tony briefly rejoins Cap and Barnes to fight Zemo before turning full blown emotional idiot by attacking Barnes for killing his parents while still brainwashed by HYDRA. With this deception discovered, the only venom that remains is Tony still being pissed about his parents (grow up dude, the universe is at stake), and the U.N. hunting down Cap & Co. for not accepting the Sokovia Accords. So let’s imagine a world where the U.N. doesn’t try to push on the accords.

I don’t think the framing of Barnes actually works without the existing division between the Avengers over the accords. Zemo’s plan fails, because all of them team up to uncover his plot before he even has time to discover the tape of Barnes killing the Starks. Fast-foward to the events of Infinity War, and when Thanos’s minions arrive on earth to take the time stone from Dr. Strange and the mind stone from Vision, they face a consolidated force of super heroes instead of a fractured group. They kill Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive. This leaves Thanos with only the space and power stone. Bruce Banner knows Thanos’s general plan, and Dr. Strange has the ability to go forward in time and see where Thanos is going (Knowhere) and create a gateway to there so they can ambush him as a combined force. So you would have Thanos being ambushed by Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Scarlet Witch, Captain America, War Machine, Black Panther, Hulk (maybe), Spider-man, Black Widow, Vision, Bucky Barnes, Hawkeye and Ant-Man. Time allowing, it would also include Star Lord, Drax and Mantis. Thor, Rocket Racoon and Groot would presumably be still on the way to Nidavellir. Honestly, they could even punt on sending Vision and have him get the mind stone removed and destroyed in Wakanda. Either way, Thanos loses.

Any way you try to spin it, the Avengers probably win if the U.N. doesn’t try to interfere. What gives them the right anyway? The U.N. fucks up basically non-stop but thinks they can take control of the Avengers because of one measly, country-destroying mistake? Fuck those guys.

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