It’s taken eleven years and 22 films to get to Avengers: Endgame, where the events and characters of every film in the MCU converge in one momentous finale. But beyond that, there have been five decades, and hundreds of comics worth of source material to support it. Endgame brings to a close the epic Infinity Saga, a storyline interwoven among dozens of films with a single common plotline; stopping the Mad Titan Thanos from using the powerful Infinity Stones as part of the Infinity Gauntlet.
A stone was carefully placed into the backdrop, in one way or another, of every film in the MCU, forcing the Avengers to assemble against Thanos and his desire to destroy half of Earth’s population. And while there were gut-wrenching moments born from their overarching mission, they were made all the more poignant because many of them were taken straight from the pages of their respective comic books.
HAWKEYE BECOMING RONIN
Hawkeye lost his entire family in “The Snap”, which we tragically see play out when he’s with them at a family picnic. His wife and two children are gone in an instant, leaving him the sole survivor. Months later, during a briefing between War Machine and Black Widow, he informs her someone has been killing cartel members, and the slaughter looks like Clint Barton’s handiwork.
Comic fans may have already guessed the loss of his family would be the impetus behind Clint Barton becoming Ronin, his masked alter ego from a series by the same name. He tragically spent the 5 years since “The Snap” hunting druglords and murderers who, in a cruel twist of fate, were not killed when Thanos used the Infinity Stones.
TONY'S RECORDED MESSAGE TO MORGAN
In Avengers: Endgame, Tony Stark is initially hesitant to help the Avengers undo Thanos’s destruction. Tony has everything to lose when he agrees to go on one last mission to save the world - his world, Pepper Potts and his daughter Morgan, if he doesn’t come back safely. But away he goes, traveling back in time to collect the Infinity Stones, ultimately sacrificing himself to use them on a past version of Thanos.
After he dies, a message he recorded for Morgan is played, where he gives her advice about life in his absence. This hearkens back to the comics, where Tony once downloaded his own consciousness into a computer system so that it would always be there in times of need, ensuring he was never truly gone.
PEPPER POTTS' RESCUE ARMOR
Though we got a glimpse of Pepper Potts and an Iron Suit in Iron Man 3, fans of Rescue, the comic series depicting her character and custom Iron Suit would have to wait until the very end of Avengers: Endgame to see it in action.
There were clues along the way leading up to her appearance, however - her daughter Morgan is seen playing with a portion of Rescue’s mask, not Tony’s, in the front yard of their cabin. When Rescue finally makes her grand entrance, it’s flying in to fight alongside Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and give Carol Danvers the assist with the Infinity Gauntlet.
THE TOWN OF TONSBERG
Though a significant number of Asgardians survived Thanos’s destructive forces, Asgard itself was not so lucky, and based on an early ‘00s storyline of Thor, Thor decides to settle his people in Oklahoma. The town is called Tonsberg, or “New Asgard” as it comes to be known, and the Asgardians live as Earthly citizens.
In Avengers: Endgame, New Asgard is decidedly not in Oklahoma but seaside, where Asgardians have become a fishing community. Seeing them work together to move on with their lives is poignant, not only because it exemplifies their strength, but because they do so in a town named after the location where the Tesseract was first discovered by Red Skull.
CAPTAIN AMERICA'S HAIL HYDRA
During his trip back in time to New York City circa 2012, Steve Rogers finds himself in the exact same elevator full of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that he was in during Captain America: The Winter Soldier. When one of the high ranking agents, Jasper Sitwell, declines to let Rogers take the case containing the Tesseract, Rogers leans down and murmurs, “Hail Hydra”, the slogan that he knows will signal to Sitwell (who’s secretly a HYDRA infiltrator) that he’s on their side.
This is a reference to one of the most controversial Captain America comics of all time, in which it was revealed that Cap was secretly a HYDRA agent all along. He declares “Hail Hydra” and promptly turns his back on the Avengers and America.
ROSCOE SIMONS
In search of the Space Stone after a bungled first attempt in 2012 New York City, Tony Stark and Captain America go to New Jersey in the ‘70s, where the LeHigh Army Base was being used by S.H.I.E.L.D. for Strategic Scientific Research. To enter, they have to adopt disguises, and Captain America wears an army uniform bearing the name “Roscoe”.
While it’s a brief reference, it’s an important one that refers to Roscoe Simons, a young man in the comics who took on the mantle of Captain America in Steve Rogers’ absence. Red Skull tortured him, killed him, and strung him up to make an example of him as a failure. It’s a fitting reference to a brave soldier.
CAPTAIN AMERICA'S BROKEN SHIELD
Made from Vibranium, the strongest alloy on Earth, Captain America’s shield is nearly indestructible, except perhaps against Thanos. During the climactic battle at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Captain America stands against Thanos wielding nothing but his shield, and in the ensuing combat, Thanos shatters it.
This is a direct reference to the Infinity Gauntlet series, when the broken pieces of Captain America’s shield signaled the broken pieces of the First Avenger’s spirit. As far as symbolic moments go, it packs a powerful punch, but isn’t enough to stop Cap from continuing to bring the fight to Thanos. Especially when he also wields another nearly indestructible weapon - Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir.
CAPTAIN AMERICA WIELDING THOR'S HAMMER
During an amusing scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Avengers conclude that Thor isn’t the only one that can wield his mighty hammer Mjolnir, so he challenges each of them to go around the room and try to pick it up. He declares that only someone whom Odin deems worthy can lift it.
As each Avenger struggles in vain to lift Mjolnir, only one Avenger even comes close - Captain America. In his hands it shudders, and only though it’s a small sign, Thor acknowledges it. This is true to the comic books, when Captain America has indeed proved worthy enough to wield Mjolnir and did so in epic fashion during his ending combat with Thanos in Avengers: Endgame.
CAPTAIN AMERICA FACING THANOS ALONE
Nothing was more nerve-wracking than watching Captain America face Thanos alone in single combat. Though Captain America has been genetically altered far beyond a normal human, and he wields a Vibranium shield, he was facing a Titan who, in the comics at least, could rip limbs off of Spider-Man and crush Wolverine’s Adamantium spine.
But it was destiny, because one of the most emotional panels in all of the Infinity Gauntlet featured a lone Captain America standing before Thanos and declaring that “as long as one man still stands”, Thanos would never win. Even without knowledge of that legendary panel, however, the scene (without dialogue) still carried a lot of weight.
CAPTAIN AMERICA GROWING OLD
One of the most poignant moments in Avengers: Endgame came at the end, after Steve Rogers had gone back in time to return the Infinity Stones to their rightful time periods. He had decided to spend a few decades living the life that was deprived him when he was frozen in ice years ago, with his one true love Peggy Carter.
He was an old man by the time he returned to the present day, which is true to the comics, in a roundabout way. There as an instance where a villain removed the Serum from his blood, causing him to rapidly age like a normal human. Old and frail, he passed the mantle of Captain America to Sam Wilson.