Does Strange see past his dusting? As such - knowing him and Spidey go kaput and Thanos gets the stone he bargains for Tony to live? Or did the Tony bargain tip the odds so he did not get dusted? I don't see how Strange could see that as the path to success if he can't see past his death (which he should not right?).
The instant I saw Panther go poof I knew these "deaths" weren't going to last. No way they blow up that cash cow. Then when Spidey goes I was just irritated that none of the "deaths" will matter in the end. Kind of pissed off at the end - not because they killed everyone off but because I knew they were going full comic book - nobody ever REALLY dies.
I was dancing around it trying to express why the finger-snap kind of bothered me, and this is it. They NEEDED to do it, because it's a core part of the story. But the stakes needed to be greater by getting rid of some of the core guys in that instant, rather than everyone that is clearly going to have to come back.
It's fine in the comics. Sliding time scales, alternate universes, "What If" scenarios, etc. You need all of those to continue publishing comics and to keep things fresh.
But you have to think the MCU is a one-off in a way that the comic books are not... 'Black Panther 2' isn't going to take place on Earth 2736 in some alternate timeline. It's going to be connected to the real-world earth in the MCU, and so you KNOW T'Challa is coming back. Same with Spider Man. Same with Starlord.
The only way they reveal alternate timelines and universes in the MCU is if their existence is a central thread in one of the stand-alone films, and resolving/eliminating those competing timelines is part of the action. Otherwise, introducing that idea on a large-scale, and making audiences wonder "what's real?" and "what's going to stick and what isn't?" during every film and every crossover event would be a true "jump the shark" situation.
Maybe that's how Captain Marvel ties in to Avengers 4? She alters the timeline after Nick Fury calls for aid? Idk what her powers are, or who she's friends with, so idk. Just spit-ballin' now.
(I could also see, in the post-credits of the very last MCU film before they hang up the cleats or decide they are going to take a 10-year break prior to rebooting everything, that Stan Lee meets 87 other version of Stan Lee in some grand assembly, and they all start talking about the Wonky Shit that's happening on their versions of Earth, and we learn that some catastrophe or giant cliffhanger that closes the MCU, and everything in the MCU that came before it, is just a tiny blip on the cosmic scale. Kind of a "Men in Black" moment where you see the Earth is part of a universe that is inside of a single marble being used as a toy by an alien.)
