SPOILER ALERT FOR AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
Last chance...
Okay, let's go.
Let's be honest; right after Thanos snapped his fingers in Avengers: Infinity War and caused half of the population of the universe to disintegrate, including most of the Marvel superheroes gathered in the film, I'm fairly certain only the members of the audience who had never picked up a comic book in their lives, or had never seen a single Marvel Cinematic Universe film truly believed that they were dead for good. The rest of us knew better. With respect to the four characters who died before then, however, even some seasoned comic-book veterans may not be quite so sure about their eventual return, and we all have one movie to thank for that: Twentieth Century Fox's Logan, in which a major Hollywood studio killed off arguably one of their most valuable intellectual properties, played by a bona fide superstar in Hugh Jackman, all in the service of a genuinely moving story.
While Marvel and Disney rattled off one box-office hit after another, they could never quite escape the criticism that their films had no real consequences or stakes, and that people would always be back for the next installment. It was even the case after they had quite clearly killed off Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron. For some reason, some people thought that Superman's death in Batman vs. Superman, which was going to quite obviously be undone in Justice League, carried more weight than the ideological and emotional rift that had torn apart the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War. Such was the reputation Marvel had garnered for itself.
It might have remained that way, as well, had Logan not shown us what was possible. Sure, it was produced not by the family-friendly Marvel but by Twentieth Century Fox, who also brought us the potty-mouthed, ultra-violent Deadpool, but it showed us that even studio execs could have the balls to put the kibosh on cash-cow characters. As a result, while there are a number of deaths which will undoubtedly be undone in next year's as-yet untitled Avengers sequel, it's now treated as an inevitability that there will be definitive casualties, most likely from among the original six Avengers.
And so, as we await the final chapter in the ongoing saga of Thanos, I can't help but wonder aloud who will get the "Logan" treatment from among the six original team members.
Conveniently, just about all of the original Avengers live in, or come from extremely dysfunctional situations. Captain America is a man out of time, Iron Man had his parents murdered by a brainwashed assassin, and he was held hostage by terrorists, Hulk has a nine-foot, super strong monster living inside him, Black Widow has an extremely checkered past as a former Soviet assassin (though I honestly have a hard time doing the math on that one, considering that the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, when her character was still seven years old, according to Captain America: The Winter Soldier), and Thor's lost his mom, dad, brother AND the evil, murderous sister he only just met one movie ago, as well as most of his people in a huge fireball. The closest thing they have to a "normal" character is Hawkeye, who's also got quite a bit of blood on his hands, though at least he's got a family.
Of the six, only Thor and Hawkeye have several people in their lives who need them. Thor is now King of what's left of Asgard, while Hawkeye has a wife and three kids. By no means does this mean they're safe from getting "Logan"ed (and in fact it might for even more compelling drama if Hawkeye gives his life to save his kids from the ultimate destruction of the world, or if Thor lays down his life to save what remains of his people), but it does give the filmmakers some incentive to have them survive the carnage ahead. If it were up to me, Thor and Hawkeye would live, though Thor would "retire" from superheroing to help his people rebuild. Hawkeye's already sort of "retired" to take care of his family, so he could go back to that, especially since Avengers 4 will introduce a freakin' cosmic superhero and a guy with a bow and arrow will just be a little too out-of-place.
For my money, I'd say Iron Man, Cap and Black Widow are basically toast. In the first Avengers, Iron Man seals his bona fide hero credentials by showing willingness to make the supreme sacrifice and blow himself up along with the Chitauri fleet. There'd be something fitting about giving him the chance to make that sacrifice one more time, and for him to take it. Cap is a lonely, old man whose old flame died two years ago and who basically doesn't have anyone or anything left in his life to fight for except "what's right." Black Widow, who will never be able to settle down and have kids, having been sterilized (as was established in Avengers: Age of Ultron), and who has a lifetime of bloodshed she'd probably like to redeem herself for, was all ready and set to bite the big one in A:AoU, and, I'm guessing, has been for some time.
I'm not sure Marvel would want to kiss Bruce Banner goodbye, considering that there has yet to be a definitive, truly satisfactory standalone Hulk movie, but at minimum I suspect this is the last time Mark Ruffalo will be playing this character.
So I'm betting at least two, with an outside shot of three, of the original Avengers will get to ride off into the sunset come May 2019, though really, thanks to Logan you can't really be sure of anything.
On an unrelated note: one major upside to all the death in Avengers: Infinity War is that for the first time in the whole series, the team's name actually makes sense, as they now have people to avenge.
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