QUESTION #1. WASN’T LOKI ALREADY ON EARTH?
In the post-credits scene of ‘THOR,’ we saw Dr. Erik Selvig meeting Nick Fury under, what we can assume was, the underground facility of S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury showed Selvig the Tesseract and told him about its unlimited power. In the wall reflection next to Selvig we suddenly saw a brusied and battered Loki step into view. We soon learned that Loki was controlling Selvig’s mind, which led me to believe he would use Selvig to gain access to the cube in AVENGERS. However, the opening of AVENGERS showed Loki meeting with the other and receiving the spear before returning to Earth. My question is, how did he travel across space from Earth without the Tesseract or the Bifrost? It seemed a little confusing to me since I assumed he was already on earth to begin with. I figured that was the point of showing him in the ‘THOR’ post-credits scene.
ANSWER: I do agree that this is probably one thing I'm not completely sure about either as I don't feel they explained it that well myself, we do see Loki on Earth at the end of Thor but how he ended up in space with The Other or why he needed the Cosmic Cube to teleport back I'm not quite sure myself. The only answer I can think of is how at the beginning of Avengers Hawkeye makes a comment about how the Cube is a door way and that its open on both sides, which I guess is possible that Loki has been using that door way this whole time without S.H.I.E.L.D. even noticing and that the final time he just wanted to make a dramatic entrance. Really, I don't know for sure though.
QUESTION #2. WHAT DID TONY STARK HAVE TO DO WITH CAPTAIN AMERICA’S SHIELD?
In both ‘IRON MAN and ‘IRON MAN 2’ we got glimpses of Captain America’s shield in Tony Stark’s work room, more so in the sequel. It looked as though Tony Stark was designing a new upgraded version of the shield for Cap, but we never saw any of his prototypes in AVENGERS. It looked as though Steve Rogers was using the same old shield he used in ‘CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER.’ But based on the appearance of the shield in the two IRON MAN movies, I was hoping for a cool new design; maybe lock-on targeting for shield throwing or a retrieval device that calls the shield back if its fallen or thrown somewhere. Marvel had a perfect chance to tie those appearances in with this movie, especially considering that Stark’s father, Howard Stark, was in charge of designing Rogers’ original shield.
ANSWER: I honestly believe this was just an easter egg for the fans and a tease to Captain America, having nothing to do with the story but simply being a little tease for the fans to enjoy. So short answer: Tony had nothing to do with Cap's shield, the shield we saw in IM1 and IM2 were just for the fans.
QUESTION #3. HOW DID THOR GET BACK TO EARTH?
It seems there are a lot of questions regarding how the two Asgardians, Thor and Loki, got to Earth. When Thor was stranded on Asgard at the end of ‘THOR,’ I, like most people, wondered why Marvel chose to do this. A lot of people said that if Marvel spent any time in AVENGERS bringing Thor back to Earth, it would be a waste of precious movie time. Well, fans got their wish, and Thor magically appeared on the wing of the aircraft carrying Loki.
When Loki and Thor had their little exchange shortly thereafter, Loki asked Thor how much dark matter the All-Father (Odin) had to conjure up to send him back to Earth…and that was it. I assumed that Marvel’s decision to leave Thor on Asgard was because there was going to be a scene in ‘AVENGERS’ devoted to bringing him back. After all, we saw Jane Foster and her team gathering data and star maps at the end of ‘THOR’ in an attempt to find him. It would have been nice to see S.H.I.E.L.D. use her research to find another way of opening the portal between Earth and Asgard. Having Thor just appear because of “dark matter” felt like a cop out. How come when Thor asked Heimdel if Earth was lost at the end of ‘THOR’ the Asgardian gate keeper didn’t reply, “Heck no. We got dark matter, baby!"
ANSWER: The answer they provided in the Avengers wasn't a cop out. Thor got back to Earth because, as Loki mentions, Odin conjured up dark magic to open up a portal and allow Thor to return to Earth to bring Loki back to Asgard. This is actually mentioned in Thor as Loki brings up to Heimdal that there are other ways of traveling in and out of Asgard that not even he knows about, which it's to be assumed that how Odin was able to teleport Thor back to Earth was through one of these other ways Loki had mentioned.
QUESTION #4. HOW DID THE HULK FINALLY CONTROL HIMSELF?
What made this character great was Mark Ruffalo’s interpretation of Bruce Banner. He finally brought a depth to the character we didn’t get from Eric Bana and Edward Norton, the two previous actors who portrayed Banner. Ruffalo was the star of the film, I felt, and Marvel would be nuts not to give the Hulk another solo film with Ruffalo leading the way. Having said that, I was torn at the end when Banner returned and became the Hulk to fight alongside the rest of the Avengers. On the one hand, I was amped to finally see the Hulk portrayed as a true hero. Yes, we got that in ‘THE INCREDIBLE HULK,’ but I didn’t feel as satisfied then as I did this time around. Maybe because in this one we finally saw the Hulk protecting people from a true enemy, whereas in the last film I felt it was more of a cage fight between Hulk and the Abomination. But the one thing I was curious about in this recent film was how the Hulk was finally able to control himself at the end? What stopped him from smashing fellow Avengers like Captain America or Black Widow? I’m not going to harp on this because I loved having the Hulk portrayed as a hero, finally, but it was still something I left the theater wondering.
ANSWER: How Banner got control of the Hulk was explained in the Incredible Hulk. Nearing the end of the movie Bruce mentions how he could possibly "aim" the Hulk towards a target, which is how he was able to simply fight Abomination and not go crazy on the rest of New York City. But it's fully explained at the end of the movie as we see Banner meditating and suddenly his eyes open revealing his eyes now green as he smiles, alluding that he may have found a way to control the Hulk; which was later fully established in the Avengers as Banner mentions that he now has the Hulk under control.
QUESTION #5. WHAT WAS WITH THE HANNIBAL LECTER MASK?
This is a minor thing, but one I couldn’t help wonder about. At the end, when Loki and Thor go back to Asgard, why is Loki wearing a Hannibal-Lecter-type mask? While Loki is the god of mischief, we’ve seen no evidence in these films that he can cast any spells or curses, so was it just to shut him up? Most likely. It was a cool mask, but I wasn’t sure if it served any purpose other than to look cool.
ANSWER: To shut the little freak up. Period.
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