Oh Marvel, What Have You Done Now: Avengers: Infinity War 2018/19

Well, we knew this was coming. The papers haven’t even completely rested on the ground from DC’s big movie release news a couple of weeks ago and Marvel sends the comic book nerdsphere into another hurricane. Announcing movies for new and familiar characters all the way through 2019, you know the crew had some thoughts about that. It didn’t take long for Marvel Studios to overshadow the momentum that DC had built up after announcing their films for the next six years. Previously, Marvel had only revealed a handful of dates with no titles. Now? They put all of their cards on the table and announced their entire Phase 3 line-up, which includes a long line of films to keep fans busy for a while, then gave everyone  the “now what?” smirk. Culminating at the end of Phase 3, we’ll have the two-part Avengers: Infinity Wars, expected for May 2018 and May 2019 releases.

This comes as a confirmation that the Marvel films are going in the direction we were all pretty sure they would–the introduction of the Infinity Gauntlet. The Infinity Gems, crystals that individually are pretty badass and make the possessor the same, have appeared in films like”The Avengers,” “Thor: The Dark World” and most recently “Guardians of the Galaxy.” When these are all placed together on a golden glove they make the possessor *cough* Thanos *cough* something between a demi-god and the unmatched ruler of the universe. Given that this is still five years in the making, there are plenty of directions that Marv…