Avengers: Old Guard

[Part of Superhero Stories]

When Barton and Romanoff kicked open the doors to the main lab, they got the drop on MODOK, the Abomination and lead AIM scientist Monica Rappacini sometimes known as the Scientist Supreme. Clint immediately put one bullet in the oversized head and two in the tiny body of the Mechanized Organism Designed Only For Killing, which put an end to this over rated villain while Natasha gracefully dodged the charge of the Abomination while sticking him with a small round adhesive disc.

He's a pretty big target.

"Courtesy of Hank Pym," she said calmly while she pressed a trigger button in her gauntlet which instantly shrunk the Abomination to ant size, but due to his lack of a protective suit - he was squished into a piece of mushy flesh. Before she could enjoy the justice she doled out for Kate and Kamala, Dr. Rappacini had suddenly crossed the chamber in the blink of an eye and jabbed the Russian with a syringe.

"NO!" yelled Clint as he made a desperate lunge for Monica and her belt that most obviously housed the Tesseract on its buckle - the gem giving her the ability to teleport. He succeeded, and despite Monica warping back the distance she came from - his grip ensured he went with her. Without hesitation he grasped the Tesseract and yanked it out, burning his hand in the process. "Stop! You don't know what..." Monica began but Clint didn't care.

With the Cosmic Cube under his control he warped both of them to the only place that would stop the Scientist Supreme for good: inside the gem itself. By breaking the already fragile physics of teleportation by putting the Tesseract into itself the pair of them and the gem included imploded upon themselves with loud and sickening cracks as they folded into each other repeatedly into smaller and smaller portions until they were completely erased from existence.

Meanwhile Natasha had fallen to all fours, crying out in agony as she felt her insides melt while managing to read the label on the discarded syringe used on her: "Polonium+". As if it needed the extra plus she thought to herself. With the last of her willpower she threw out a few more small explosives just like the ones she had been setting on the way down here, and then she pressed the trigger to detonate.

Avengers: Powerless

[Part of Superhero Stories]

Advanced Idea Mechanics, the same group currently waging war against Wakanda. What were they doing having a hidden outpost right in the middle of the city and why did this information come from digital data pulled from a lone arrow near the crashed Helicarrier? Natasha Romanoff's questions would soon be answered as she casually made her way right past security under the guise of a lowly laborer. Hawkeye had been missing off comms for awhile now, could he be in here somewhere?

A quick side step down an unpatrolled corridor she wasn't meant to be in and a flash of a security card she had lifted from the goon outside was all it took to find her answers. There in an isolated cage was her friend - Hawkeye, beaten and broken. He had a clear line of sight to the tables against the opposite wall atop which were the stripped corpses of the Winter Soldier, Kamala Khan, Kate Bishop and what was left of Captain America. Quickly composing herself, Natasha forced herself forward to unlock his cell as she whispered a reassuring "Let's get you out of here."

"Nat? Is that you?" Barton said weakly. "I failed them Nat. I failed them. I... I told MODOK how to open the Tesseract box." Romanoff looked at him in disbelief as he continued. "Yeah. They pried it from T'challa's cold dead fingers, but they couldn't open it... not until I... I told them how. They used Steve's hand Nat. Only four people could open that box and they... they..."

"Then we'd better go get it back," Natasha said sternly as she offered Clint one of her Glock 26s. With an exchange of silent nods, Hawkeye took the firearm and followed her lead deeper into the facility. 

He's always happy to see her.

Avengers: New Blood

[Part of Superhero Stories]

"Thanks for coming with me Kate," said Kamala over her shoulder as the pair made their way through the wreck of the crashed helicarrier. "Oh please, I'm pretty much an Avenger already," replied Kate, composite bow at the ready just like how her mentor, Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye) taught her. All her gusto left as the pair made their way past the next bulkhead to the twisted center of the wreck and came across the corpse of the Winter Soldier. While Kamala instinctively covered her nose, Kate grit her teeth and searched his pockets to find any sort of clue as to why he was here in the first place.

She had just bagged a small phone when she heard Kamala tearfully gasp "Oh my god." She was staring at the shattered shield of Captain America, still connected to his bloody dismembered arm. "Your god can't hear you," laughed a menacing deep voice as the opposite end of the wreck suddenly bent apart - revealing the Abomination as he stepped into their space and addressed Kate directly. "Give me what you took little thief!"

"RUN!" yelled Kate as she bolted back the way they came with Kamala close behind but their monstrous foe was gaining on them. At a T-junction the Abomination had to pause and rub his eyes as he saw two Kate Bishops run in opposite directions so he charged headlong after one of them and cornered her in a dead end... only to then see this Kate transform back into Kamala. "Oh you're good..." he grinned as he cracked his knuckles. "Good is not a thing you are. It's a thing you do," she replied defiantly.

Outside, Kate fired a special arrow containing the bagged device far away with a tracker for any Avenger or SHIELD agent to recover, then hastily made her way back to find her friend but it was too late. "Give me a real fight!" challenged the Abomination as he casually tossed Kamala's battered and bloody corpse aside. Kate drew her bow and fired... and it did not go well for her either.

Based on the official stats from the Marvel website.

Hawkeye and What If...?

Marvel continues to go hard with TV shows.

Right after the multiverse lesson in Loki, What If...? (season 1) invites us to see a few of these diverse existences in an animated format. While the art and animation is generally good, the plot in each episode varies in quality. Thankfully despite seemingly being one shot instances they are all tied together in the end making for a decent series. As this one has been renewed, hopefully it just improves on its next go around.

Hawkeye (season 1) returns us to live action which sees Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) have his Christmas plans ruined by wannabe vigilante Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) whose entire life seems inspired by Clint. Surprisingly I enjoyed this more than the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which was my previous top Marvel TV show. Definitely recommended!

Avengers: Endgame

There is only one way to win.

In this continuation of Avengers: Infinity War, the heroes band together once more to "avenge" what happened previously. It's safe to say you probably want to watch Infinity War first despite the decent Hawkeye opening that fills in what happened for new comers.

Like the previous movie, there are a lot of characters here and all but the main ones get very few lines or do one move then leave the scene especially at the end. I didn't mind it, and was quite entertained by the high budget "everything" that we've come to expect from the Avengers movies.

The gang's all here!

I did feel that there needed to be a higher body count though, especially on the good guys side. I guess everyone is wearing plot armor? Or perhaps they couldn't really dismember people (one exception that was sort of take backsies) viscerally on screen in a Disney backed film? Whatever the case, that weakened it a bit for me, and that bit where all/most of the female heroes manage to group up mid fight was literally bull-cheese. As if Captain Marvel needed back up anyway... lol!

All up I give this 4.5 power stones out of 5 and highly recommend to watch it (provided you've at least seen Infinity War). I'll definitely want to see it again. :)