The New Avengers remembers why the MCU works, but is it too late?

There were plenty of reasons why 2008’s Iron Man was successful. Near the top of the list was the post-credits scene with Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, uttering his iconic line: “I’m here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative.” Nearly two decades later, a fresh superhero team has debuted in the MCU in The New Avengers (fka Thunderbolts*), alongside a thrilling post-credits tease of the next Thanos-level threat. In many ways, the latest MCU entry seems to remember why the MCU works. But is it enough to save the Multiverse Saga?

As we enter the final phase of this saga and race toward the explosive conclusion of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, I’m increasingly concerned that Marvel didn’t put in the work necessary to earn a crossover of this size and scale.

*SPOILERS for Thunderbolts*/The New Avengers follow below.*

By this point in the Infinity Saga, the stakes were clear. A giant intergalactic warlord was lurking behind the scenes of the standalone adventures, waiting to cause havoc for every character we had been introduced to up to that point.

The same simply can’t be said of the messy, confusing Multiverse Saga.

The “classic” Avengers no longer exist, and as of Captain America: Brave New World, very little progress has been made on reforming the super-team. Let’s do a quick check-in on the heroes that saved the universe the last time around, shall we?

The last time we saw Doctor Strange, he was sprouting a new eye and screaming into the void. We can assume Thor is out there fighting evil with his adopted daughter in the cosmos. Spider-Man has been wiped from everyone’s memory, Shang-Chi and the Eternals have been ignored, Captain Marvel headlined the MCU’s biggest box office bomb to date, and Ant-Man beat the big villain that was supposed to be the focal point of the next two Avengers movies.

Meanwhile, even though it’s a result of issues out of Marvel’s control, we still don’t really know what the New Avengers, the old Avengers, or any future superhero team is actually up against. That’s despite the fact that Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters in 360 days.