Avengers: Age of Ultron is sometimes pointed to as the lowest point in the Avengers franchise, but the film at least did one thing better than other Avengers films regarding the superhero team. After 2012’s The Avengers changed the way audiences perceived not only the MCU but comic book adaptations in general, the expectations for Age of Ultron could not have been higher. However, the film did not manage to replicate the magic of the first Avengers movie – which doesn’t mean it did not have some interesting ideas.
By the end of 2022, the MCU will have released 30 films – and yet only four of those are Avengers movies. The reunion of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is supposed to be the pinnacle of the MCU, which helps explains the long waiting for the Avengers films. In fact, more than three years after Avengers: Endgame, not much has been heard about Avengers 5. Instead, the franchise is focusing on introducing new heroes like Shang-chi and Moon Knight through both theatrical films and Disney+ TV shows.
Between all four of the Avengers movies and Captain America: Civil War, Age of Ultron is the only one in which the Avengers were a team for the entirety of the movie. The Avengers (2012) was an origin movie that only saw the Avengers getting together in the third act, Civil War saw the team being split apart due to Captain America and Iron Man fighting, and Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame focused on every hero in the MCU – Avenger or not – uniting to fight Thanos. The small missions in Age of Ultron, such as storming into HYDRA’s fortress or going after Klaue, may not have been as exciting as the battles that would come in future films, but they managed to show the MCU’s original Avengers acting as a team going on missions around the world.
The serialized nature of the Marvel comics helps with the idea of the Avengers going on different missions every week. However, in the MCU films, that is not so simple, and the story has to advance faster to catch up with the passage of time – often three our four years between each installment. That is why the Avengers got together and then disbanded relatively so quickly, and it is why Age of Ultron is even more important. The 2015 film did not have to introduce many characters nor had to conclude the decade-long storyline of Thanos and the Infinity Saga like Endgame, and was able to focus on the Avengers as a team from start to finish. MCU movies and shows will often reference the Avengers and their in-universe popularity, but Age of Ultron is the only Avengers film to actually show the group on missions other than the usual third-act ending battles.
Despite not having the same impact as The Avengers (2012) or Infinity War and Endgame, Age of Ultron is an important MCU movie, at least in regards to how it portrays the group. The MCU’s Avengers sometimes seem like a response team rather than an active superhero group, and Avengers: Age of Ultron offered an alternative to that. With the Avengers franchise most likely getting a fresh start in Avengers 5, future films could focus on the smaller scale missions before an inevitable major event like Secret Wars.
