During Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos and Iron Man finally come face to face, relatively alone on the blasted surface of Titan when Thanos greets Tony by name. “Hello Stark”, and he replies, “Do you know me?” Thanos continues, “You’re not the only one cursed with knowledge,” and Tony replies, “The only thing I’m cursed with is you,” and that’s when things got decidedly derailed. . Before Infinity War, it was like there was a black box of information that everyone in armored stretch pants knew about, but the general public didn’t have the level of pay to see the intricate details of the story up close. ‘Mondial economy. It’s gotten to the point where every dog walker in Minneapolis and golden mimester in London has access to the world’s best-kept secrets with no explanation of how they found that information.
This isn’t meant to challenge Thanos’ presumably wordy cosmic Rolodex. He had watched the Avengers and Earth for years and years, manipulating them from afar, exploiting their strengths and weaknesses to his advantage, it would be strange of him if he didn’t know Tony’s name. However, it’s in most Marvel Cinematic Universe properties that followed. Avengers: Endgame where the firewalls fell, and it seemed like the entire planet was cursed with knowledge.
During Wanda Vision, SWORD agents arrived at the outskirts of Westview and began to assess what was happening within the Hex perimeter after Monica Rambeau disappeared inside without contact. Eventually, Wanda kicks her out of the simulacrum for interfering with her simulation time, and she lands at the edge of the investigation encampment. After a debrief where Rambeau takes the very generous stance of giving Wanda some grace, the triad of FBI Agent Jimmy Woo, Darcy, and Rambeau begin to casually discuss how Wanda was the only one who nearly eliminated Thanos. and guesses she would have made it on her own if he hadn’t called for an all-out blitz. Wong pushes back with the counter that Captain Marvel also got close and Darcy offers that she also got her powers from an Infinity Stone.
Darcy later goes on to explain to the fake Vision, who has no real memories of Vision, that back at the Snap he died because he asked Wanda to kill him. She also let him know that Thanos had arrived and had gone back in time to retrieve the Stone, pulling the Mind Gem from his head and killing him twice. Darcy was also aware of Vision’s basic Jarvis programming and the role of his vibranium body in Ultron’s plan to destroy all life on Earth. There is some understanding that can be applied to these incredibly specific sets of facts presented for easy consumption in this case because they are agents of SWORD Sentient weapons are their specialty, so perhaps it There is a justified justification for this entry circulating in their collective head.
The real problem with this data dump is the timing. Wanda Vision takes place three weeks after the Blip. 21 days is a long time to have collected so much information, checked it, distributed it to several agencies and memorized it. This is however not a problem in the grand scheme of things. Marvel is a machine that delivers content in an instant, and it can’t wait for every agent with the alphabet on their jacket to get up to speed realistically on the issues they need to interact with to keep the narrative engine on schedule. . It’s hard to ignore the initial questions like, who told them all this? Have there been group interviews? Who sat down for that? How were the stories corroborated? Again though, it’s not something to break the elasticity of the suspension of disbelief. It just feels like there could have been a line or four of dialogue to fix the problem.
It’s far from serious Captain America: The Winter Soldier handled the issue. Immediately after Hydra insurgents attempted to co-opt SHIELD’s terrifying helicarrier technology, congressional hearings took place. Natasha Romanoff was there in a smart suit with some confident banter and walked out with a very, you need me on this kind of wall energy. Anything about the specifics of the Winter Soldier program or government infiltration or Nick Fury’s dead eye imagery is fair game. The same is true for the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. The Sokovia Accords were a comprehensive document that associated with 117 countries. There is a clear implication that prior to writing such a document, there would have been some data collection that would have helped produce the flagship piece of diplomacy which also represented an investment of time. Since Captain America: Civil War stems from a rather verbose response to the Accords, anyone on Earth who speaks confidently about these events should be allowed.
However, why is Doctor Nic West asking Stephen Strange if he’s sure he made the right decision or not when it comes to the Time Stone? The Time Stone he left behind on Titan, after being defeated by the alien god known as Thanos who had just finished throwing moons at people. There were only a handful of people on Titan, more than half of them rarely in the solar system, which leaves Spider-Man, Tony Stark and Doctor Strange? Why would any of them specifically share that Doctor Strange gave Thanos the Time Stone? On a human level, why is Nic questioning a plan that restored half of all life everywhere and casts a shadow over the Sorcerer Supreme’s greatest achievement?
In Hawk Eye, there’s graffiti in the bathrooms saying “Thanos is right”. How does anyone know what Thanos was right about? Did he write a manifesto? Have any of the Avengers published memoirs? How does Yelena have enough details to even plot against Clint in the first place? There are advertisements in some of the films for documentaries or dramatizations of what happened, but the implication is that they are all from an expert source because the questions or statements of fact that come out of people’s mouths match what happened. The question for the MCU to answer is, who provides these details? There’s a rich history in the comics of dogged journalists stalking the superhero crowd like paparazzi to figure out why a monster from another dimension ate that school bus or other random hijinks. Benjamin Urich, Trish Tilby, and Cindy Moon are all here, ready for the scoop, and it would be satisfying if they played a role in alleviating the need for a touch of informational accountability on behalf of the MCU.
