A lot of us who weren’t aware of the Marvel universe, suddenly found that it was a vortex of unending questions. The difference between the Lord of the Rings world and the Marvel world is that, you might have thought that the latter was connected but it really was just about different superheroes indulging in a whole lot of self-importance.
Now, if you suddenly started watching Thor without having watched anything else in the Marvel series ever, you would have a bunch of questions that even Thor 2 won’t be able to answer. It’s like watching Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix and asking yourself; why is Harry so upset that a guy named Sirius died? So, this piece is for those who want a basic understanding of the marvel world.
CNet.com has a very very useful and accurate timeline of the Marvel vortex. Here it is:
In order to understand the purpose of this continual warfare with super weapons we first need to get a basic idea of how it all began. Well, before the universe existed there were six singularities that existed in the forms of ingots, which were then combined into one infinity stone. This infinity stone was the axis of all the action because it had the power to control the entire universe.
The problem began 5000 years ago, when the Elves of Svartalfheim decided to use the aether of the infinity stone to destroy all the nine realms. Because, you know, that’s what Marvel baddies do in their free time. Oh, and these elves are no Legolas.
Now, the nine realms are connected by a cosmic tree called Igdrazil and Asgard is the protector of the nine realms. So, when Odin, the King of Asgard found out that Malekeith and his evil elves were about to destroy the nine realms, he went to war.
That was to give you an idea of what could happen if the infinity stone was in the wrong hands. So, a couple of hundred years later, Oden went to war with the frost giants of Yodenheim because they were about to take over mid-gard aka Earth. After almost destroying them, he found a little frost baby whom he adopted – Loki. Suddenly, the Tesseract, which was another infinity stone found its way to Norway, which was on Earth. Actually, Odin hid it there, so that no one can find it. But, obviously somebody found it. Not just anybody, a Nazi official. Whoops.
Then begun the story that is Captain America : the First Avenger. This was set in the 20th century where humankind was looking for a higher form of weapon during the first World War, and hence created Captain America (buff soldier who danced through the first half of the film. Period.) So, you’re probably asking – ok, where is the problem? Here it is. Captain America was a Jewish scientist’s second experiment and that turned out successful, but what about his first one? Well, he had created a super soldier serum way back in 1935 and had to use it on a Nazi commander whose name was obviously, Schmidt. That first experiment didn’t go so well, and turned the Nazi commander into Red Skull instead of a handsome and buff super soldier. Red skull found the Tesseract that was hiding in Norway, and Captain America had to get it back. Here, watch the trailer :
The film didn’t end with captain America either dead or alive, he had gone into hibernation and during this time his fellow comrades – Howard Stark (Iron man’s father), Peggy Carter and Chester Phillipps created S.H.I.E.L.D, otherwise called – Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
But soon, SHIELD got infiltrated by the remnants of hydra that were left behind after the defeat of Red Skull and then SHIELD found Captain America’s best friend who was supposedly dead, and created the Winter Soldier. During this time, Howard Stark started creating this super armour which eventually went on to be used by his son Tony Stark aka Iron Man.
Then America needed some more super soldiers, so there was the experiment gone wrong, otherwise also called – the Incredible Hulk. The Hulk goes into hiding because of a minute accident, that involved his hand getting cut, his blood finding it’s way into a soft drink and a little innocent boy dying. Obviously, the American government was hunting for him. So, he went into hiding to some South American country. Watch the trailer below, in order to get an idea of the “Hulk-hunt.”
Now, after announcing himself as Iron Man, Tony Stark went on to open up the Stark Expo 2010 and did other cool things like meeting senators etc. During that time he also met a certain Natalie Rushman, got attacked by a Russian man (Vanko) during the Grand Prix, found a new ‘element’, and finally defeated Vanko aka Whiplash. Don’t heave a sigh of relief yet, theres more.
Let’s move on to Asgard now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNQowwwwYa0
Odin’s son Thor was about to get coronated as the next King of Asgard, but was interrupted when the Casket of Ancient Winters, from which the Frost Giants could restore their power, got stolen. Thor, who is the strongest man in the realm with a huge lightning hammer and equally huge muscles (basically has everything except for a real brain), saw this as an act of war and immediately went over to attack the Ice Giants with his possy of four or five. This didn’t go down too well and so he was exiled to mid-guard aka Earth. There he met Jane Foster and fell in love with her, got captured by S.H.I.E.L.D, got tricked by his brother Loki (who found out that’s he’s not really an Asgardian but is actually a Frost Giant), and finally he also destroyed the big evil monster that Loki sent down to earth in order to destroy Thor. But, love-struck Jane Foster was left behind on Earth, more about that later.
Now is the confusing bit – when all the Avengers come together to destroy the ‘abomination’. Yes, that’s the name of the monster that becomes of Emil Blonsky – the guy who fought Hulk in Incredible Hulk. After turning into the Abomination he fought Hulk and lost, Hulk then moved to Bella Coola. Then Tony Stark met a man named General Ross, who had been looking for Hulk too and Nick Fury approached Captain America (who is now awake) about The Avengers. During that time Loki infiltrated SHIELD and stole the Tesseract and Nick Fury decided to assemble The Avengers in an attempt to defeat Loki. Loki escaped and the avengers split up.
Meanwhile Jane Foster (Thor’s earthly lover), was obsessively trying to find a way to be with Thor, and instead came across the aether of the infinity stone that was hidden by Odin. The dark elves awakened from their slumber and decide to attack Asgard. Thor eventually defeated them and went to his father to decline the throne of Asgard. But, we soon found out that it wasn’t even his father he was speaking to, it was Loki in disguise of Odin. Mind = Blown.
Now in the real world, Aldrich Killian (that guy in Iron Man 1 whom Tony Stark kind of forgot to meet) came back with some neat powers and he’s obviously had to do evil things with it. Meanwhile, a terrorrist named Mandarin threatened Iron Man and attacked his bodyguard. Tony Stark then gave his address to mandarin, and soon found out that the real Mandarin is not the guy on TV, it’s Aldrich Killian.Tony obviously defeated Killian and then underwent an operation to remove the arc reactor from his chest.
Captain America, was meanwhile working for SHIELD. Suddenly, there appeared an assassin named Winter Soldier who wanted to kill Nick Fury. Captain America soon found out that Winter Soldier is none other than his best friend Bucky, who fell off the cliff and apparently died back in the first film. He also found out that SHIELD had been infiltrated by HYDRA (Nazi division led by Red Skull in the first film), so he defeated Hydra but did not kill his friend the Winter Soldier.
Moving on to a boy named Peter Quill who was at some point abducted by aliens, grew up into an intergalactic thief. He stole something that Gamora (daughter of Thanos) was sent to get. Gamora however, was planning to betray her father and his servant Ronan, and ended up trying to steal the power ball from Quill on a planet called Xandar. They teamed up with a couple of other misfits in order to stop Thanos and Ronan.
And finally, the recently released Ant-Man – a small creature who can communicate telepathically with insects and such. Not too sure about the connection, but if you watch it you’ll definitely find one.
Obviously you still have tons of questions, therefore, for best results, you can actually just watch all the films. It’s an entertaining journey, which thankfully is not yet over.
