Spoiler questions, now that we've seen 'The Avengers
What happened to The Avengers Initiative? And isn't the SHIELD helicarrier kind of a boondoggle?
- Courtesy of Marvel Studios
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WHAT HAPPENED TO THE AVENGERS INITIATIVE? At separate times, both Nick Fury and Tony Stark mentioned that "The Avengers Initiative" had been scrapped. Did we miss something? Fury famously brought up the Initiative in the last seconds of the first Iron Man, Stark told General Ross "We're putting a team together" in the last seconds of The Incredible Hulk, and Stark's participation in the Avengers Initiative is a topic of minor concern in Iron Man 2. (Fury and the Black Widow conclude that he'll be a consultant.) So wha' happened? Was some kind of pre-Avengers team assembled between the films? And why even bring it up, since it seems to have no bearing on the plot?
WHO ARE NICK FURY'S SHADOWY BOSSES? That's the World Security Council, which oversees SHIELD, but I can't imagine why they look so shadowy and ominous. Theoretically, SHIELD's government bosses should be aboveboard - apart from the whole trying-to-nuke-New-York thing - but these people look like Emperor Palpatine sending sinister holograms to Count Dooku.