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Show 04 | MyWeberMedia.com| September 08, 2020 By NIC MURANAKA Copy Desk Chief By DARYN STEED Managing Editor Remember us? Last time, we gave you some first impressions on “Crimes of Grindelwald” after that bomb dropped. This time, in the wake of Chadwick Boseman’s sudden passing, we’re here to offer our thoughts and opinions on some of the primary members of “Avengers: Infinity War”’s bloated cast. We’re ranking the five best characters and the five worst characters from “Infinity War.” You might be thinking, “that movie is two years old and irrelevant,” but we know you’ve watched it at least once this year. Since we hardly ever agree on anything, this seemed like a good idea. To begin, the five best characters from “Infinity War:” 1. Black Panther Daryn: There is no final battle sequence without the Black Panther. My man sacrificed his country for the chance to defeat Thanos. Without Wakanda, this final battle is just Captain America, Black Widow and a very-delayed Thor against 500 undead werewolves. Nic: Excuse me. A very-delayed Thor, Groot and Rocket. D: So… like I said, a very-delayed Thor against 500 undead werewolves. N: But seriously, Black Panther carries the final fight. He realizes he has to let the zombie space dogs in so that his people can sacrifice themselves in order to give the Avengers the smallest of chances to stop an omnipotent purple guy. All this after Captain America asks the Black Panther to house the Russian killbot who murdered his father. D: Let’s not jump the gun in talking about how terrible Captain America is. His time is coming. There’s really no overstating how much Chadwick Boseman brought to this role. He was the first Black superhero in the MCU and inspired an entire generation. He created the Wakandan accent, thought of that brilliant ancestral line from Killmonger and nailed every scene. The Avengers are worse for him being gone, and so are we all. 2. Scarlet Witch D: If we’re ranking based on skill alone, Wanda is clearly the superior Avenger. She is the only one who could fight Thanos alone — and not only did she fight him, she beat him. In “Endgame,” Thanos was forced to rain fire on his own troops to save himself. But since she didn’t have an army at her disposal, Black Panther is more helpful to this cause. N: Top five, maybe, but Wanda is not the superior Avenger. Yes, she stalls Thanos in “Infintiy War” long enough to destroy the mind stone, and yes, she technically 1v1s Thanos in “Endgame,” forcing him to blow up his own army. But Captain Marvel also 1v1s Thanos. Currently, Wanda is Dr. Strange-lite: almost as powerful, and with about as much screen time. D: Wanda saves Vision at the beginning of this film, and deals with mansplaining on all sides about what she should do with him next. Never mind that Wanda is the only one who cares about Vision as a person. Let’s let Captain America and his crew of nincompoops decide the best path forward. N: In the words of Okoye, why was she up there all this time? If the good guys had deployed Wanda earlier in “Infinity War’s” final battle, maybe they could have better fought off the space dogs and given Captain America and the ex-Avengers more time to come up with a better plan when Thanos arrived than “on me.” 3. Thanos N: Thanos is the greatest Marvel villain to date. His rationale — that the universe’s finite resources are stretched too thin — is a real-world concern scaled up for cinematic effect. D: Thanos is not the best Marvel villain. I like a villain that makes sense. Take Killmonger in Black Panther for example. He was genocidal, but with reasonable limits. He had specific targets in mind for understandable reasons. Thanos murdered trillions, and we’re supposed to think that’s theoretically rational? N: His solution addresses the problem of overconsumption efficiently, if brutally. Thanos is no sneering, gloating villain bent on world domination; he sees a problem destroy his homeworld and sets out to correct the problem on a universal scale. That fans have debates about whether or not Thanos was correct points to the intricacy of the character, as does his willingness to give up the stones and lose his omnipotence. D: My biggest bone to pick with Thanos is over the Soul Stone. I’m sorry, but someone prepared to murder trillions is not capable of love. And certainly not someone he has tortured for her entire life. Thanos did not love Gamora. There is not a plausible explanation for how he earned the Soul Stone. This was writing for the plot. Thanos is not funny, he’s ridiculously overpowered, and I don’t believe his intentions. Don’t get me wrong, he’s fine as a villain, but he’s nowhere near the best. I want to feel something for the villain, and I never felt anything for Thanos except annoyed that he got the Soul Stone. N: The character isn’t without flaws. That he sacrifices Gamora to obtain the Soul Stone does feel like a point where the plot simply had to move independent of fully-realized logic — although, I think we’re supposed to believe Thanos only tortured Nebula? He hates Ronan partly because Ronan, quote, “estranges (his) favorite daughter, Gamora” in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and Nebula only describes the hellish process Thanos subjected her to in “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. II” with no mention of the same for Ga- mora. D: He forced his two “daughters” to fight each other over and over. This would be like arguing that forcing your two dogs to fight is only torturing the dog who loses. N: Great, now I’m the asshole. Also, it takes him years to locate the Power Stone after “Guardians of the Galaxy” and then he obtains all the other five in a matter of days? Hours? (does anyone have a timeline for this movie?) D: The timeline is like: oh, Thanos is here and he’s killing everyone and now he has five of the Stones, so maybe we should do something about this? Oops, too late. N: Still, Thanos provokes thought and discussion. I don’t hear anyone talking about Ultron or Dormammu, other megalomaniacal villains lacking the same depth as Thanos’ character. Plus, in “Endgame” he takes on the three principal Avengers without the Infinity Gauntlet and wins the fight, so that’s pretty cool. Actually, maybe he is just overpowered. D: There is absolutely no reason Thanos should have won that Endgame fight. Why are all of the Avengers able to kill hundreds of people in fights (i.e. Thor wiping out the revenant wolves in “Infinity War”) but unable to fight 1v1? This is my biggest Marvel pet peeve. 4. Captain America D: Let the record show that I am writing about Cap in protest. He is not one of the best characters in “Infinity War.” He is barely even a character in “Infinity War.” He has a beard. That’s it. This is not “Endgame” Cap, who can hold Mjolnir and has the weight of the world on his shoulders. His “Infinity War” rendition is lackluster at best. He is self-righteous as ever, and don’t even get me started on his “we don’t trade lives” business. We don’t? What if the one life could be traded for TRILLIONS? I swear these people need to take three seconds to think over their decisions. N: I find it hard to argue that Cap is self-righ- |