The first 3 phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe were gradually building up for the famous “Infinity War”. And when Thanos made his inevitable arrival on earth, he won the first battle and wiped off half the universe. However, our Mighty Heroes defeated him in the second war and retrieved every one. This was a moment of celebration until we realized how a Marvel rule prevented them from winning at all.
How Did The Avengers Defeat Thanos?
As the MCU proceeded with the movies through the years, it introduced the concept of time travel and mystic arts. The whole hustle of time-travelling was incorporated by the end of phase 3 post the events of the Infinity War. In between all this, the Avengers and Captain Marvel had managed to pay a visit to Thanos, only to discover how futile it was. They aimed to collect the Infinity Stones but sadly, the Mad Titan had destroyed all of them. Five years had passed since then but the world and the dejected Avengers never moved on. It wasn’t until Scott Lang showed up from his 5-hour trip to the Quantum Realm and brought a new hope by introducing time travel. Time travel was the only way to retrieve the stones and bring back everyone. As we know, our heroes eventually succeeded in doing so. But if we follow the rules of time travelling laid down in the Marvel comic books, this victory shouldn’t have been possible.
How Does Time Travel Work in Marvel?
In “Avengers: Endgame”, Hulk explained to everyone the rules of time travelling followed by the MCU. He specifically mentioned that they never travel back to their past. Instead, going back in time would make their past, their future, but not change what happened in the past. It means that the heroes were travelling to an event from their past in an alternate universe. That’s why killing baby Thanos or the escape of Loki wouldn’t have any impact on the ones we knew in this universe.
This implies that the Infinity Stones brought by the heroes belonged to a different universe. Marvel comics have established in many instances that the powers of the Infinity Stones are confined within their universe. So, no matter how powerful and destructive these elements are, they will have no impact outside the realm of their universe. Once the heroes took them out of their home universe, the Stones were supposed to be powerless and useless.
It was first proved in JLA/Avengers when Darkseid took hold of the Infinity Stones to destroy both the universe of the heroes. But he rather had an embarrassing defeat when the stones failed to transfer any energy. That’s when DeSaad confirmed that the Infinity Stones had power over reality only in their origin of the universe. This phenomenon appeared again when Captain America summoned the Infinity Gauntlet to prevent an alternate Earth from crashing into the original. Even when the realities of the Earths almost collided, the Stones could only perform from their territory. Hence, the gauntlet made by Avengers to bring back everyone in “Endgame” should have rendered ineffective. It shows that the rules of time travel and Infinity Stones from the comic books were bent to adapt the movies.
