I couldn't help but have peculiar, disturbing flashbacks, as I watched Avengers: Endgame.
The movie has been long gone from theaters and has been on the shelf in Blue Ray or DVD form of many fans for a while (and of course in digital libraries of streaming accounts). I have hesitated to mention my Endgame flashback experience for all these many months.
But now I finally will make an attempt to express the haunting, Apocalyptic associations that assaulted me during my viewing of the cinematic culmination of a decade of Marvel Super Hero story telling.
The specific nature of what I'm calling "flashbacks" is based on my upbringing in Evangelical/Protestant Bible traditions and context relating to prophecies of the End Times cited in the last book of the New Testament, Revelation. This included being taught that Jesus Christ (who died for the sins of the world in as much as people would place their trust in Him and also resurrected from the dead) would return to Earth to make a new Earth and Heaven. I'm leaving out a lot of details but it's the return part of the story that is crucial to my point.
There is a part of the Biblical prophecy in which the all-powerful, resurrected Christ comes to Earth with an army of saints (who have gone to heaven prior to his return). Coinciding with Christ's return is a final showdown battle of Earth's ruling governments and nations who bring their armies to the Valley of Megiddo near Israel in the Middle East. In this scenario, as the world's armies converge to fight, they all notice Christ and His armies arriving and resolve to join together and repel the Heavenly Invasion. All-Powerful Christ makes short work of the armies, of course, and calls the birds of the earth to come to a "Great Feast" of the bodies of these vanquished armies.
As I watched Endgame, you might say that my flashback of these teachings was more like a "reversed perspective". I began to feel that Thanos was the alternate or "reverse" version of the Returning Christ. That if Christ were returning, He would NOT be viewed by Earth's "heroes" as a good guy or savior but as a threat. Just like Thanos with his all-powerful Infinity Gauntlet.
Jesus, just like Thanos, in Endgame, intends to re-make the Earth and Universe (Heavens). He'd change things to be "perfect" and memories/sentiments/values of the Old Earth would be eradicated. A more literal existential threat could hardly be imagined.
In response to this threat, he armies of the Earth would fight to preserve the status quo of the planet's existence. They would be the heroes.
And that is all I could think of while watching that final battle in Endgame. "This is all wish fulfillment service for the End Times to play out as a victory for Earth's status quo." is what was going through my mind at the end of the movie.
Now I have that off my chest. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
BTW -- My take on Avengers: Infinity War was much more sedate.
UDATE: DC Cinematic Universe version:
Although the DCU Justice League did not have the elements to make as strong of a connection with End Times scenarios as Avengers: Endgame, the concept of Earth's heroes fighting a cosmic invader still overlaps with Apocalyptic plot points.
The new, direct-to-dvd, animated Justice League Dark: Apokoplips War actually captures the same "End Times" feel as Avengers: Endgame.
Arguably the "End Times" story arc that started comics on that path:
37 Years ago, 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' changed #dccomics (and #MarvelComics ) forever. https://t.co/YoyXdRuARs via @inversedotcom
— O. Douglas Jennings (@odouglasj) April 18, 2022
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