Attention: SPOILERS follow. There’s a scene in Avengers: Infinity War, amidst a colossal, kinetic action sequence, where Peter Parker / Spider-Man (Tom Holland) saves the Guardians of the Galaxy as they’re falling. “Got you…and you…and you… Sorry, I don’t know everyone’s names…”
This scene is not only amusing, but also highlights his character as a quintessential representation of individualism. This is one of the key facets of Peter Parker / Spider-Man across the history of the character: he struggles with believeable problems, making him empathetic, and he genuinely cares about individuals.
Similarly, Avengers: Infinity War deals with the theme of the tension between saving individuals that you care about, and saving the world. Thanos (Josh Brolin) sees himself as the hero, and is prepared to sacrifice literally half of the entire universe, in order to save the universe (as he sees it).
(Spider-Man: Homecoming spoilers)
By contrast, Peter Parker / Spider-Man (who Thanos dismisses as “Insect!”–he’s literally the little guy) doesn’t see himself as a hero, but just wants to help and keep people safe. At the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, he put aside his dreams of becoming an Avenger, in order to be present and content where he was at, and care about the people around him.
Now, with half the world at stake, he instinctively wants to help out. When Tony Stark / Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) urges him to go back and stay safe, Peter responds, “You can’t exactly be a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man if there’s no neighbourhood.” When he’s stuck on the spaceship with no way back, Tony ‘knights’ him and finally makes him an Avenger. And at the end, just before he dissolves – “Mr. Stark? I don’t feel so good…” – Peter actually apologises. At heart, Peter Parker is humble and truly heroic.
On Vormir, Thanos is faced with the choice of sacrificing what he loves in order to obtain the power of the Soul Stone. In a highly dramatic scene, Thanos kills his adopted daughter Gamora (Zoe Saldana), sacrificing love for power. The scene is so moving because it humanises Thanos: he actually cares about someone, but he’s prepared to kill her anyway.
This is in stark (no pun intended) contrast to the painful, reluctant attempts by Peter Quill / Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) to sacrifice Gamora and by Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) to sacrifice Vision (Paul Bettany), in both cases the former being urged by the latter to do so in order to stop Thanos.
By contrast, Thanos is clearly wrong, and the associated pain he feels is a result of that, rather than an obstacle to overcome self-sacrificially. Perhaps he realises this when he admits that it cost him “Everything.”
With several months to wait until Avengers 4, we have plenty of time to speculate. Could Thanos even have a redemption arc, with his regret over Gamora leading him to realise that actually, individuals matter, so he uses the Infinity Gauntlet and Infinity Stones to try and undo his devastating mistake?
Of course, it was devastating for the entire rest of the universe – half of them died, and the other half had to watch someone they cared about die – but now Thanos knows this and can empathise on a personal level. That would be a really interesting storyline to explore.
(Doctor Strange spoilers)
Perhaps this may have been what Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) was alluding to when he gave the Time Stone to Thanos in order to save Tony Stark / Iron Man. Some speculate that he saved Tony for a specific thing that Tony had to do (“It’s the only way.”), but was Strange simply referring to the strategy of ‘losing’ to win; which he’s employed before in order to beat Dormammu?
It’s too early to say for sure what Avengers 4 has in store, but maybe the “the only way” is one of self-sacrifice and individuality and redemption.
See also:
Marvel Avengers: Infinity War | Thanos – a Mad Titan or Saviour?
