Why Thanos Took So Long To Attack

If you have not seen Infinity War then first, how have you not seen it? Are you a caveman? It is now also available to buy on DVD so there really is no excuse. I pre-ordered it and it arrived yesterday (the 3rd) and I've seen it twice already. This blog is an elaboration and extension of an article I read which theorises why Thanos waited the length of 18 films to attack (see article here). Here's where I'd normally do a spoiler warning for the following content but seriously if you haven't seen the film you need to sort out your priorities .....

The article basically said that the main threats to Thanos are Odin, Ego the Living Planet and The Ancient One and that Thanos had to wait until all three were no longer in the way. 

His first real threat to retrieving the Time Stone was The Ancient One. She died in Dr Strange. Her age was not revealed but we can only assume, as is the case for Odin and Ego the, that she was alive long before Thanos was born. This means that Thanos had the chance to know his enemies his whole life, hence knowing how hard they would be to defeat. The Ancient One drew power from the dark dimension. Although Thanos probably couldn't have been able to observe a different dimension like I believe Thanos does with Earth (which will be explained throughout this blog), his hatred toward The Ancient One may not have only been because she had the Time Stone (The Eye of Agamotto) but because he somehow knew she was using the dark dimension. Thanos could have considered this a huge threat if used against him. By not trying to retrieve the Time stone from her, Kaecilius killed her leaving the Time Stone more vulnerable in the hands of Dr Strange.

The second threat was Ego the Living Planet. He died in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2. Ego was not an allie of  Thanos. As we are informed in Guardians 2, Ego was a celestial who was in the universe before it was possible to remember. Ego searched for the perfect mate to have a celestial child with so together they could take over the universe. Peter Quill, child of Meredith Quill and leader of the Guardians happened to be that baby. Ego searched the universe for Peter and mysteriously found him escaping from the Sovereign fleet. Was that luck, or a little interference from Thanos to set up the meeting? Now you may be thinking, if Thanos talked  to Ego he might as well've tried to kill him. First he would've taken that risk, if him interfering is true than he would've done it in a non face to face way, maybe he used the Black Order to do his bidding. But why would he want Ego to find the Guardians? There are two explanations to that. One is that he foresaw that Quill, with him being a half celestial, would see what evil thing Ego was planning to do and he would face him and defeat him, but the reason I believe was so that the Guardians would be led to the other side of the galaxy leaving Xandar and the Power Stone unguarded. Arranging their meeting was still a risky strategy as if Ego's plan had worked it would have stopped Thanos in his tracks. Maybe it was just luck for Thanos that Ego was defeated  but either way it meant one more threat was out of the way making his barbaric attack on the universe more likely but there was still one big threat that stood in his way.... Odin.




Odin died in Thor Ragnarok. In the run-up to his death he was under Loki's spell and Loki had previously worked with Thanos. In Avengers he sent Loki to invade New York with the Chitauri. He was only mentioned in this film. The Avengers didn't get to see him face-to-face. Loki failed, but after that Thanos could've easily killed him or invaded NY himself. I believe the reason he didn't kill him was because he noticed his mischievous manor and most of all, his connection and ability to get close to Odin. I believe he predicted that Loki would do something barbaric for the throne that would cost Odin his life.  With Thanos keeping Loki alive he was able to take Odin off his kill list which left the Space Stone (tesseract) easier to steal.

This still doesn't completely answer why he waited so long. Other than waiting for his biggest  enemies to be eliminated another factor was the element of surprise. I briefly mentioned this earlier, but all the stones get put into a more vulnerable state due to other villains during the 10 years of the MCU.  As mentioned already the Space Stone was no longer guarded by Odin, similarly the Time Stone by the Ancient One, the Power Stone was no longer guarded by the Guardians but also the Reality Stone went from the Aether to the untrustable collector in the Dark World. The Mind Stone arguably became less vulnerable because it went from the to being embedded in Vision's head. With the five of the Time Stones within reach all Thanos needed was the location of the last one - The Soul Stone. Once Thanos discovered that Gamora knew where it was, Thanos was in the perfect position to try to execute his attack. He knew Gamora better than anyone and if anyone was going to get the location from her it was going to be him. He had his window of opportunity and he had to take it. The Avengers were always going to be a threat but not interfering with them previously and not really making his presence known to them until Infinity War meant Thanos's entrance was unexpected, leaving the Avengers completely unprepared.

Thank you for reading my blog. It is not an original idea of mine but has been added onto by me. Hope you enjoyed it and was interested by it. If you have any comments then please leave them below. I hope to write more blogs on Infinity War now I have it on DVD. Anyway thanks again for reading and enjoy Marvel whilst it lasts!

Also why is there still not a Captain Marvel trailer????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MCU phase one recap

As you must know, upcoming this Thursday, is Infinity War and I know it seems a bit late coming, but I'm going to (as best as I can) sum up the MCU phase one (Marvel cinematic universe first six films) for those who aren't up to date. But first...

Spoiler warning! I recommend you watch these films before reading but if you're in a rush as you've booked Infinity War tickets then read on! This is aimed as a recap!

Iron man

The first film, Iron man was released in 2008. It cast Robert Downey Jr as millionaire playboy Tony Stark, from New York who sells weaponry for money. One day he gets attacked by terrorists (ironically using his weapons) and held hostage. They replace his hear with an Arc Reactor as they want him alive to build them a missile. Instead (unbeknown to them), he creates the first Iron Man suit (mk 1) and busts out where he's being held hostage and escapes home. He then modifies the suit to make it more humanoid (with more functional weapons). The terrorist group also try to re-create the suit. Tony finds this out. The terrorist leader is revealed as his well known friend Obadiah who has an even bigger Iron Man suit and we see them battle until Obadiah dies in the end. Tony goes home and reveals to the world he is in fact Iron Man, sending the media to go wild.

  The Incredible Hulk

Seven-time PhD holder, nuclear physicist (and big, green, raging beast), Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is living in the shadows as no-one knows that he is the infamous hulk. The Hulk is a beast that Bruce forms into when he is angry due to a gamma radiation exposure years back. Since then he has been trying to find an antidote to cure it although, some others have different plans. War Mongers would like to use his power by making their own Hulk. Bruce is blackmailed by threatening his love for the secret to his power. The War Mongers think they get all his Hulk-capabilites, making 'The Abomination' but Bruce Banner still carries the hulk inside so we see an epic showdown of the two hulks fighting to the death. Bruce Banner wins ....

  Iron Man 2

We join Tony Stark again in the sequel of Iron Man as others try to recreate his tech, failing miserably. One man, Justin Hammer, succeeds and creates an army of remote-controlled Iron Men recruiting Whiplash - an enemy of Iron Man. One day Tony gets drunk and is acting foolishly wearing the suit. His friend, James Rhodey (later to be called War Machine), steals another of Tony's suits to stop him before he does something stupid. James then goes away and uses the suit to help the military. We are later introduced to Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) and Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), sent by S.H.I.E.L.D who notice a weird pattern on Tony's chest, showing the Arc reactor is giving him a disease, motivating him to create a triangle shaped arc reactor to cure himself. Eventually, Iron Man and War Machine join forces to fight Whiplash and Jimmy's army in a showdown and surprise, surprise... they win.

 Thor

The fourth film in the MCU is about the Norse god of Thunder Thor (Chris Hemsworth) who is son to the King of Asgard, Odin and is about to take over the throne. The rivals of Asgard, the Frost Giants, from Jotunheim, disturb the ceremony in an attempt to steal the Tesseract (the Space Gem). To enact revenge Thor leads a small group including his brother Loki, Lady Sif and the Warriors Three to Jotunhiem. They battle and are saved by Odin. He had given strict orders to Thor not to battle and as punishment banished Thor to Mid-guard (Earth) where he is separated from his mighty hammer (limiting his abilities). Only a man/woman who is worthy of Asgards throne can wield it. He is then found by Scientists Jane Foster, Darcy and Prof. Erik Selvig in a storm. They investigate his weird entrance whilst S.H.I.E.L.D investigate why no-one can lift Thor's hammer. Thor eventually finds the hammer but realises for the first time he can no longer wield it. Loki appears to tell his  brother he can never return because Odin died and his mother forbids it (Loki, god of Mischief is, of course, lying). Loki wants the throne of Asgard, therefore he sends a metallic giant called the destroyer to earth to kill Thor. It almost succeeds but in the nick of time Thor is seen as worthy again and the hammer flies to him in his moment of need and he destroys the destroyer. Then he confronts Loki, destroying the bi-frost, which can get people from realm to realm to stop Loki from sending the Frost Giants to Asgard. Loki jumps off the bi-frost and is not to be seen until Avengers. But now Thor can no longer return to Earth to see Jane (who has become his girlfriend).

  Captain America: The first Avenger

The last Avenger in phase one - yet known as the first Avenger - is Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). This film is set in WWII and little Steve wants to join the army but is not physically inclined to. He is later accepted into the army by Dr Abraham Erkine who sees he is good on the inside. Howard Stark (Tony Stark's dad) creates a formula to make Steve strong. Steve goes along with it and becomes muscly Captain America who then tries to find Red Skull of HYDRA who went through the same process as Steve but got a Red Skull out of it (hence the creative name!). Cap and his army friends, including his best friend Bucky, go on a mission to find Red Skull, Bucky sadly dies. Cap goes into a one-on-one fight with Red Skull for the Tesseract on a HYDRA plane mid-flight (to stop him having the ability to make powerful weapons). The plane has bombs and was meant to bomb America but Cap flies it into the North Atlantic, freezing himself in the process and is later discovered. The Tesseract plummets deep in the sea. When he wakes from his deep freeze he finds out the war is well and truly over and he has in fact been asleep for 70 years!

  Doesn't look like you're the only one with catching up to do!

  Avengers

Finally, the first team up in the MCU happens. Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D came up with an idea to form a team of the world's mightiest heroes consisting of Iron Man, Captain America, Bruce Banner (now Mark Ruffolo), Black Widow and Hawkeye (who is briefly in Thor).

 Falling from the Bifrost, Loki emerges in S.H.I.E.L.D HQ with the Scepter (Mind Gem). The Scepter can hypnotise people to follow the wielder, Hawkeye and Prof Erik Solvig are two of his victims and they escape HQ. Nick Fury uses Agent Carson to get Tony; Black Widow to get Banner; and he sets off to enlist Cap, to defeat Loki.They join and find Loki in Germany. They them take him back on their jet but get put on hold by the thunder as Thor appears trying to capture his brother himself to take him home. Tony suits up and stops Thor but then Cap breaks them up after battling. They convince Thor to let them take Loki and they all return to S.H.I.E.L.D. Tony and Banner investigate the scepter with Loki held hostage. Loki starts to cause division within the team with his mind tricks and as Hawkeye (still under Loki's spell) attacks S.H.I.E.L.D, Loki manages to break out. In the process he throws Thor from the plane into the middle of nowhere, getting Bruce angry (we all know what happens when he gets angry), he also falls from the plane and turns back to Banner. At the start of this film we saw mad Titan, Thanos give Loki the Scepter. Loki then gets Prof Erik Solvig (also still under his spell) to open a wormhole which allows Thanos's army into Earth. The army attack NY but the Avengers protect by fighting a huge battle, defeating the army and re-capturing Loki, sending him back to Asgard with Thor. They go their separate ways but all get blamed for the NY damage (even though they saved the Earth!).

 And that's phase one.

 Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Leave a comment if this has given you a good recap or if you've booked your tickets. I've got mine for opening date then next day at 4DX, can't wait! I hope you now watch or re-watch phase one as it is my second favourite phase after the incomplete third phase. But for now, go ahead and book your tickets for Infinity War - I hope you love it am I'm sure I will. Also take notice of the Gems mentioned as they are key to phase 2-3 and mostly Infinity War! Goodbye!

Doctor Strange timeline

The latest MCU release-Doctor Strange-was a great success, and all Marvel fans enjoyed Benedict Cumberbatch playing the well known Stephen Strange. The film answered the question of wheres the Time Gem but we're still wondering what the actual year Doctor Strange is set in.

Evidence and references.

There has been many references to the film in previous Marvel movies, like in Captain America the Winter Soldier where a Hydra agent says "Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange" and in Toby Mcguires Spider-man 2 when there listing names for Dr Octopus. They say Dr Strange as one of the options but J.J Jameson quotes "Taken". Some even believe its set in the future because of an incident before the car crash in the film. Stephen is talking to his work mate about upcoming patients and one is a young girl with a spine injury and most think that shes Captain Marvel. Ignoring all of this evidence, on Doctor Stranges' watch it says 2016 so it could be set in the actual time it was released. What do you think?