Avengers, re-assembled
How you're responding to COVID determines which Avenger you are
Jack Hughes, the Canadian sensation, is back with his analysis of the thoroughly meta reunification of the Avengers to fight COVID. As he writes, “The parallels between how the different Avengers dealt with their new normal and how we’re all dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic are striking..”
by Jack Hughes
Actor Chris Evans recently accepted the ‘All in Challenge’ – a fundraising initiative in support of Feeding America, Meals on Wheels, World Central Kitchen, and No Kid Hungry – which has become very popular among celebrities during the COVID crisis. Evans’ offered donors a chance to win a virtual hang-out with him and his friends Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, and Mark Ruffalo – the original six Marvel Avengers.
Avengers vs. COVID is pretty much the most perfectly meta thing I can imagine.
Exactly a year ago, the top grossing movie at the box office – on its way to being the top grossing movie of all time – was Avengers: Endgame. Having recently watched the Marvel superhero epic again with my son, I was amazed at how spot on it was in terms of predicting how the world would cope with a huge global crisis. The parallels between how the different Avengers dealt with their new normal and how we’re all dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic are striking.
Endgame begins with the immediate aftermath of ‘the snap,’ the tragic end of the movie Avengers: Infinity War when Josh Brolin’s Thanos dispensed with half of all living things in the galaxy with (literally) a snap of his fingers. Very quickly, however, the plot jumps ahead five years to show the varying degrees to which all the original six Avengers have adapted – or not – to the new world order. I think all of us can find something oddly familiar in those opening scenes.
Maybe we empathize with Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, holed up in her home office on a videoconference with other heroes scattered across the universe – her dyed blonde hair having grown out to reveal natural scarlet roots. Maybe it’s Chris Evans’ Captain America, who tries to encourage others by pointing out the thin silver lining – such as whales returning to a much cleaner Hudson River – even though he, himself, has yet to accept it all or get on with life.
What about Jeremy Renner’s angry Hawkeye – the Avenger who suffered a deep personal loss and is now lashing out at others? More likely, I hope, it’s Chris Hemsworth’s Thor – the Norse God who sports a surprising paunch thanks to couch-bound days full of beer, pizza, and playing online video games with strangers. Over the past eight weeks I’ve had mostly Black Widow days, some Thor-like days, the odd Captain America days – but, mercifully, no Hawkeye days.
As in real life, there were also some Avengers who thrived. After a period of deep introspection, Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner came to terms with his (actual) inner demon – the Incredible Hulk – and, having found a measure of balance, is now at peace. Last, but certainly not least, is Robert Downey Jr.’s iconic Tony Stark / Iron Man – who walked away from his stressful suit-wearing day job and has finally settled down and started up a family in idyllic self-isolation.
In the end (spoilers), the Avengers band together to thwart Thanos in the hopes, as Stark hauntingly records, “something like a normal version of the planet is restored – if there ever was such a thing.” Much as in our current COVID reality, Earth’s heroes defeat their enemy thanks to incredible acts of courage, sacrifice, and innovative solutions discovered on the leading edge of science. All told then, what we once applauded as escapism can now be appreciated for its realism.
If that’s not meta enough – actors who played the Avengers in a movie where they dealt with something that’s no longer so foreign to our lived experience are coming together to help us deal with this in real life – in some countries where movie theatres have re-opened Avengers: Endgame was brought back to the big screen to help save those businesses where so many new releases were postponed due to the pandemic. It’s life imitating art – imitating life imitating art.
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