The time journey guidelines established in Avengers: Endgame have been damaged on some notable events within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Avengers: Endgame didn’t simply ship the Infinity Saga’s finale – it additionally laid out the MCU’s official time journey guidelines. Since 2019, nonetheless, a number of Marvel motion pictures and reveals have contradicted or bent these guidelines.
In response to Good Hulk in Endgame, altering the previous doesn’t rewrite the long run. As a substitute, actions up to now generate an alternate branching timeline, whereas the traveler’s authentic timeline stays unaffected. This method was intentionally totally different from Again to the Future–fashion paradoxes, avoiding inconsistencies and ripple results. Nonetheless, since Endgame, the MCU timeline has ignored or immediately contradicted this.
Let’s be clear, this listing isn’t a criticism of Marvel’s dealing with of continuity. Contradictory lore and retcons are a traditional staple of the comedian books, the MCU needs to be no totally different. If something, these are areas that merely should be addressed. Extra apparently, although, a few of them might immediately arrange Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Previous Man Cap Ought to Be In A Completely different Timeline
One of the crucial hotly debated Endgame moments comes on the very finish. After returning the Infinity Stones, Steve Rogers chooses to remain up to now with Peggy Carter. Whereas one of many biggest ultimate scenes in superhero historical past, this breaks the film’s personal logic.
In response to the foundations established earlier within the film, this determination ought to have created an alternate department actuality the place Steve lived out his days. Previous Man Cap would due to this fact have been in a special universe when he handed the protect to Sam. As maybe probably the most infamous instance of the MCU’s time journey logic, many have recommended it has a better significance.
Some theorize that Steve’s remaining up to now is the occasion that triggered the incursion in Physician Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity, prompting Doom’s emergence. This might clarify why Evans has been confirmed within the solid. Nonetheless, the most important unanswered query is how Cap returned to Earth-616 to cross on the mantle.
Alternatively, Steve might have lived his life with Peggy in an alternate universe after which returned to Earth-616 as an outdated man. This might clarify why Steve took 4 Pym Particles in the course of the Time Heist, preserving two for his return journey. Nonetheless, this does not fairly clarify why he appeared on a bench slightly than the time journey platform.
Eyes Of Wakanda Despatched A Black Panther Again In Time
Disney+’s Eyes of Wakanda created one of many clearest contradictions of Endgame’s guidelines. Eyes of Wakanda episode 4 depicts a Black Panther from lots of of years sooner or later who travels again to the 1800s to change historical past. Her mission is to stop Earth from falling to an alien parasite centuries later.
By Endgame logic, this act ought to have created a brand new department actuality, along with her current unchanged. Nonetheless, the episode implies that altering the previous immediately impacts the long run. This “butterfly impact” strategy is nearer to conventional depictions of time journey (even inside Marvel Comics), the place small historic shifts have large ripple results down the timeline. That is exactly what Good Hulk insisted could not occur.
Ms Marvel Someway Created A Time Loop
In Ms. Marvel episode 5, Kamala Khan finds herself pulled again to Nineteen Forties Partition-era India. There, she saves her grandmother Sana, serving to her board the practice that results in her household’s survival. This creates a bootstrap paradox – a causal loop the place Kamala should exist within the current with a view to guarantee her grandmother survives up to now.
This in flip permits Kamala to be born. In response to Endgame’s guidelines, Kamala’s intervention ought to have merely branched a brand new timeline. As a substitute, the present frames it as a closed loop the place her presence was all the time needed, creating an origin story with no true starting.
This “time loop” paradox has no place below Endgame’s multiverse system and immediately contradicts Hulk’s lecture. Whereas narratively satisfying, it muddies the MCU’s general time journey logic. Whether or not intentional or not, Ms. Marvel provides one more layer of complexity to Marvel’s timeline guidelines.
The Infinity Stones Do not Management The Circulate Of Time Anymore
In Endgame, the Infinity Stones are handled because the pillars of time and actuality. The Historic One explains that they management the circulate of time and eradicating them would doom a universe. But, originally of the film, Thanos destroyed the Infinity Stones.
In doing so, Thanos ought to have absolutely ensured Earth-616’s destruction. Because the MCU continues to unfold, the Infinity Stones presumably are now not needed for the circulate of time. Nonetheless, this might additionally as soon as once more be important for Secret Wars.
Thanos destroying the Stones would be the apocalyptic occasion that triggers Doomsday and the multiverse to merge as within the second “Secret Wars” funny story. It might have additionally prompted the incursion in Multiverse of Insanity. If the stones are really as necessary because the Historic One claims, their absence should absolutely influence one thing within the MCU’s future.
Loki Season 2’s OB Scenes Break The Endgame Guidelines
The celebrated Loki season 2 breaks Endgame’s guidelines in a very blatant manner. In episode 1, Loki suffers from uncontrollable time-slipping, bouncing between the previous, current, and future. When he and Mobius go to Ouroboros (OB), Loki meets him within the current, then instantly slips to the previous.
There, Loki tells OB easy methods to resolve the problem. OB remembers the dialog in real-time, immediately making a Temporal Aura Extractor within the current. This implies Loki’s actions up to now modified the current. But in response to Good Hulk in Endgame, altering the previous shouldn’t have an effect on the current in any respect – it ought to solely department a brand new timeline.
By displaying a personality immediately rewriting the long run, Loki upends Hulk’s lecture solely. Whereas it makes for enjoyable paradox-driven storytelling, it erases the consistency that grounded Endgame. This may very well be defined as a TVA anomoly. Because the TVA exists exterior the conventional bounds of time, it might have its personal guidelines that don’t influence the timelines.
Cable Tried To Change His Future In X-Males ’97
The animated X-Males ‘97 continues the time-travel traditions established within the authentic X-Males: The Animated Collection. In episode 5, Cable (in his conventional method) returns from a dystopian future to warn mutants about an impending hazard, hoping to stop the horrors that formed his timeline. That is immediately at odds with Good Hulk’s guidelines.
Cable’s whole existence will depend on attempting to rewrite historical past, echoing his comedian guide arcs. Not like Hulk’s multiverse-based framework, X-Males ‘97 treats time journey as a software for altering future – a way more conventional strategy. What makes this fascinating is that Marvel now considers the collection canon inside its multiverse framework.
Meaning Cable’s actions are taking place throughout the broader MCU continuity. That is basically contradicting Endgame. Except later reframed as Cable hopping throughout branches, X-Males ‘97 is one more occasion the place Marvel storytelling favors traditional tropes over Endgame’s fastidiously outlined guidelines.
Thanos Touring Ahead In Time Means That The Avengers Did not Save Earth-616
One in every of Endgame’s most ignored contradictions comes from Thanos himself. In 2014, the Mad Titan learns of the Avengers’ plan and makes use of Nebula’s time-travel system to leap ahead into 2023. By Hulk’s guidelines, this ought to have created a branched timeline when Thanos disappeared in 2014.
Because of this the Avengers didn’t save Earth-616 – they saved the timeline 2014 Thanos created by way of time journey. This paradox undermines the core stakes of Endgame’s ultimate battle. It’s an interesting contradiction, as a result of the film by no means addresses the results of Thanos leaving his authentic timeline.
The choice is that the 2014 Thanos was himself a variant from the multiverse. He might have travelled from one other timeline to Earth-616, utterly impartial of the mainline Mad Titan. What was as soon as a triumphant ending might now be reframed relying on how Marvel ultimately explains the multiverse fallout within the years after Avengers: Endgame.
Avengers: Endgame
9/10
- Launch Date
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April 26, 2019
- Runtime
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181 Minutes
- Writers
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Keith Giffen, Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck, Jim Starlin, Joe Simon, Steve Englehart, Jack Kirby, Steve Gan, Invoice Mantlo, Stephen McFeely, Christopher Markus