WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Marvel's Avengers.
Marvel's Avengers begins with a pretty shocking twist. Just as players are getting accustomed to the game's version of the Marvel Universe and Earth's Mightiest Heroes, all hell breaks loose. The team's new helicarrier explodes and, as a result of the catastrophe that follows, the Avengers disband. However, the biggest surprise is that Captain America himself is seemingly killed in the blast right at the start of the game. This is a huge loss for the rest of the team, and it weighs heavily on them for five years.
But thankfully, Captain America isn't actually dead. Late in the game's story, Tony Stark discovers that Steve Rogers is alive -- and the two end up recreating a scene from Avengers: Endgame that turns out even better than the Marvel Cinematic Universe film.
When Kamala Khan deduces that A.I.M.'s secret laboratory isn't anywhere on Earth, Tony Stark suits up in his space flight armor and travels to the evil organization's satellite base orbiting Earth. While exploring the laboratory, Iron Man finds a cryo-chamber where Steve Rogers has been kept in stasis all this time. After freeing him, it isn't long before A.I.M. security drones attack them. Soon after that, the base is enters a self-destruct sequence, and Tony and Steve rush to an escape pod to return home.
When they finally get to the pod, they are safely blasted away just in time. However, their ship doesn't have any power. As a result, both Iron Man and Captain America end up floating in the dead of space, contemplating death. It's a quiet moment between the two of them, one that shows how close they are in this universe. Tony is clearly relieved that his friend is actually alive, and Steve jokingly reveals that he just doesn't get Iron Man's jokes.
But in the nick of time, just as the two are facing the fact that they will die in space in a few moments, a bright light shines through the window -- the God of Thunder himself appears to save his fellow Avengers.
The entire scene is reminiscent of Tony Stark's opening scene from 2019's Avengers: Endgame. At the start of the film, Stark is in the Guardians of the Galaxy's spaceship, which is rapidly running out of power. When it's all but dead in the water, Tony contemplates dying in space while looking through the window as he falls asleep -- that is, until a bright light wakes him up to reveal that Captain Marvel has flown to his rescue.
While there are obvious parallels between the two, the scene in Marvel's Avengers is even better because it's used to bring Tony and Steve closer together. It gives players everything they need to know about the heroes' friendship with one another. What's more, having Thor come to the rescue instead of a superhero unknown to Tony is even better because it cements the bond between all three characters. Iron Man, Captain America and Thor are essentially Marvel's holy trinity of superheroes, and having them reunited in the game at this very moment makes for a triumphant, cheer-worthy scene.
Marvel's Avengers is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia and PC.