Nerd Processor

The Avengers Messed Up

How our favorite superheroes ruined the world they meant to save

© Marvel Studios

It’s no spoiler to reveal that in Avengers: Endgame, the good guys end up defeating the bad guys. That’s just how superhero stories work — at least in the second half of a two-part film series. But the Avengers don’t seem to realize that they’ve created many more problems in the process. The end result: The Earth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is still totally screwed.

(Major spoilers for Avengers: Endgame follow. But come on — you’ve already seen it.)

Oh, those Avengers. Both individually and together, they’ve saved the planet many times over. Sure, sometimes they accidentally create a robot that freaks out and decides the best way to protect Earth is by destroying humanity, which is, admittedly, not technically incorrect — but the Avengers mean well!

After Thanos wiped out half the life in the universe during Infinity War, the Avengers finally have a chance to live up to their name and actually, you know, avenge something in Endgame. Unfortunately, it takes them five full years to do so — five years during which the remaining population of Earth is forced to live with the loss of countless loved ones, in a world where every aspect of civilization is suddenly half-staffed. Endgame doesn’t really linger on the horrifying effects this must have had, emotionally and socially, other than to briefly show how many people still can’t cope with their losses, and how the survivors have tried to consolidate their lives in a much emptier world than the one they used to live in.

Literally every single person who disappeared would have lost their jobs as companies, industries, consumers, and profits adjusted to the new normal.

This makes sense, because it’s pretty dark stuff. So when the Avengers manage to figure out how to travel through time, you’d probably expect them — I certainly expected them — to prevent Thanos from snapping his fingers at all, erasing the half-decade of suffering and chaos from ever happening. Nope. Because of the very specific time travel rules Endgame establishes (which are dodgy!) the…