We’ve finally had our first look at Avengers: Infinity War. It was an incredible few moments. We finally got to see Thanos do something other than sit in a floating chair or menacingly pick up a metal glove. As intimidating as the Mad Titan is, Marvel really needed to begin convincing their audience that this threat was big enough to warrant all of the Avengers and more coming together to combat him. It’s a storyline that’s been building for literally years. We’re nearly ten years into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we’ve nearly been introduced to all of the Infinity Stones, and we’re approaching the moment where Thanos assembles the Gauntlet.

Hopefully it’s going to be a jaw-dropping film that will shock and surprise even the most knowledgeable of comic book fans. But with a cinematic universe spanning a huge 17 films, Marvel were bound to drop the ball occasionally with their stories. And in the long running story that is their Universe, some of these facts and plot points begin to conflict and leave holes big enough for Jane Foster to fall through. Hopefully, with the madness of Infinity War and the Infinity Gauntlet, they can rectify some of them. Here are 15 MCU plot holes Infinity War can repair.

15 SPIDER-MAN HASN’T SIGNED THE SOKOVIA ACCORDS

Remember how amazing it was to finally see Spider-Man become part of the MCU when Stark enlisted him as part of his team that were fighting for the Sokovia Accords? They were fighting to ensure their superheroic activities were regulated and by the book, so there was a level of accountability. The United Nations would say when these heroes were allowed to act or not.

So unless the United Nations sanctioned his mission to Washington D.C. or his fight against The Vulture, Spider-Man definitely isn’t abiding by the Sokovia Accords. So that makes his entire inclusion on Stark’s team feel hollow, because now Tony isn’t even enforcing the very thing that he was so desperately fighting for during Captain America: Civil War. Best get those papers signed before Thanos rolls around.

14 BOR HIDING THE AETHER

Cast your mind back to Thor: The Dark World. The film began with Odin’s Father, Bor, fighting off the Dark Elves and pushing them to the brink of extinction so they couldn’t get their hands on one of the Infinity Stones. Once the battle had been won, Bor decided to hide the Aether in a dimension so nobody could steal the powerful weapon again.

The only flaw in his plan was that this dimension IS accessible at in an industrialized area of London. It bent the laws of physics, but Jane stumbled through into the ‘Dark World’ without too much difficulty. And a simply touching the Aether meant she absorbed the Infinity Stone. Doctor Strange needs to use that time gem to hide the Aether a little better.

15 Behind-The-Scene Facts About Avengers: Infinity War Actors That Most Fans Don't Know

Before you get angry with us, we’re fine with Bruce Banner always being able to change into the Hulk whenever he needs to. It was a great moment at the end of The Avengers, “That’s my secret Cap, I’m always angry”. Fantastic. But that wasn’t exactly true, was it Bruce?

Towards the end of Thor: Ragnarok, Bruce tries a similar technique as he leaps out of a ship expecting to transform into the Hulk mid-air, only to fall flat on his face. Whilst it worked well in the comedic effect it had on the scene, it wipes away some of the Hulk mythology that Marvel have cultivated this far. Sure, he does transform a few moments later, but the impact is lost by that point. With rumors of Hulk and Banner being separated during Infinity War, we may not have to worry about the transformation any more.

12 THE POWER STONE

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When we were first introduced to Star-Lord, he’s shown as a reckless but lovable rogue who comes across like a combination of Han Solo and Indiana Jones. He unknowingly retrieves the Power Stone to sell to his contact, and fights off some of Ronan the Accuser’s henchmen to do so. It’s a fairly easy retrieval.

But if it was that easy to gain the stone, why didn’t Thanos just go and get the stone himself? Sure, he sent Ronan (and Ronan sent his henchmen), but it seems naïve to think that a warlord like the Accuser wouldn’t try keep it for himself. Maybe, Thanos has just gotten used to sitting in his chair and being lazy. He needs to start being proactive. Maybe if he even headed to Earth at some point. Where’s that Infinity War trailer again…

11 VISION AND ULTRON

vision in captain america: civil war

When Age of Ultron gave us the unrelenting evil A.I. robot attempting to rid the world of humanity, it also gave us the Vision. They were both born out of the same stone that was encased in Loki’s Scepter. It’s the Mind Stone that gave life to them both. But how is it that Ultron is inherently evil, yet Vision is “on the side of life”?

Yes, we know that Tony and Bruce plugged J.A.R.V.I.S. into the Vibranium body, but that doesn’t mean that he would be given a sense of right and wrong -- just knowledge. Ultron and Vision are two sides of the same coin. Hopefully, during the scenes with Scarlet Witch and the Black Order, Infinity War teaches us more about how the Mind Stone works in terms of the Vision being a person.

10 THE DEFENDERS

defenders cast

The Netflix Marvel television series have proved highly popular. They’ve finally given classic characters their moment in the spotlight. We’ve seen just how capable they are as a team as well as by themselves. They’ve taken down a centuries old group of ninjas for starters. So why don’t the Avengers get in contact?

We know that the series are all set after the first Avengers film, but what’s to stop Tony or Steve reaching out for help during Age of Ultron or even Civil War to help boost the ranks of each side. And don’t say there’s no way of getting in contact, Jessica Jones is easy to find, so is Luke Cage and Danny Rand owns a company. If Tony can find Spider-Man, he can find Daredevil, so just bring The Defenders into the MCU already.

9 VOLSTAGG AND SIF GIVING THE AETHER AWAY

When Thor: The Dark World rolled around, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had already established that the Asgardians were used to dealing with incredible artifacts of immense power as well as battling monsters and large threats. But for some reason they see fit to give away the Aether for someone else to look after. It’s less of ‘this will be safer here’, and more ‘it’s your problem now’.

Also, let’s look at who they give the Aether to. Taneer Tivan, aka The Collector, is not the most morally sound person in the Universe. After all, he keeps living beings locked up in cages as part of his collection. The Asgardians have incredible artifacts locked up in their vault, wouldn’t the stone be safer there? It just doesn’t make sense why Volstagg and Sif pass the stone on.

8 TONY’S UNREMOVABLE SHRAPNEL

One of the key things about Iron Man in the MCU was that he was a grounded version of the comics character. His billionaire, playboy, philanthropist role had to be realistic. And adding a piece of shrapnel taken to the chest during an attack in Afghanistan was a clever way of bringing it to the 21st century. And the main problem for Tony was that they couldn’t remove it.

Cut to three films later and in an extremely brief epilogue, they suddenly decide that these pieces of shrapnel were easily removable thanks to surgery. There’s no explanation given as to if Tony’s medical condition had improved, or if there was a new technique or even some new technology. It was just fixed and that’s that. Don’t treat the audience as stupid, please.

7 THE GUARDIANS KNEW YONDU ONLY HAD ONE SPACESUIT

Don’t get us wrong, the scene where Yondu sacrificed himself for Star-Lord was an emotional one, strapping the only space suit he had to Peter so he wouldn’t die. We saw Peter pull a similar stunt during the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie to save Gamora, but he survived. That’s likely because of his genetics thanks to his Father, Ego the Living Planet.

But the Guardians could have quite easily saved Yondu since they were already in their ship by this point. Even if Peter had taken a huge lungful of air and swapped the suit over to Yondu just before they were rescued they could’ve saved him. He lasted a while in space without a suit before. Now, who’s got that Reality Gem?

6 THOR DIDN’T FIND THE NOVA CORPS

At the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, they handed the power stone over to the Nova Corps for safe keeping. That’s a relatively safe decision rather than just keeping it onboard the Milano or somewhere isolated. The Nova Corps are a huge galactic enforcement agency after all.

So why didn’t Thor end up coming across them when he went hunting for the stones at the end of Age of Ultron? He even says during Thor: Ragnarok that he was searching for a long time for the stones. He clearly wasn’t looking hard enough to A) come across the Guardians by that point or B) find Xandar or even someone who knew about the corps. Let’s hope Thor tells us exactly where he was looking.

5 THANOS AND LOKI

The first Avengers movie seems like such a long time ago in the grand scheme of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s almost quite easy to forget that Loki laid siege to New York in an attempt to take over the world for Thanos. But let’s not forget that Thanos gave away one of his precious stones so that Loki could have some power and gain the Tesseract, another Infinity Stone.

That’s a gamble to take in itself. But if Loki knew about Thanos and the Infinity Stones, why didn’t Thor question his brother about the Mad Titan’s intentions when he became aware of them? Thanos was somebody Loki clearly feared, but we don’t think he’d have kept galaxy ending knowledge away from Thor. The relationship between Loki and Thanos needs to be shown further.

4 RED SKULL

Hugo Weaving Red Skull

The most iconic villain that Captain America has gone up against, the Red Skull, was dispatched so quickly in the Marvel Universe it’s a near disservice to the character. He’s been the archenemy of Steve Rogers for decades. But at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger, he disappears into the Tesseract.

And although it looked like he had died, we’ve all seen heroes and villains come back from worse fates. The stone is inside the cube after all, so perhaps Red Skull is trapped in the Tesseract itself, and will reappear when Thanos adds the stone to his Infinity Gauntlet. With Samuel L. Jackson teasing ‘the Skull’ in an interview this year, it’s hard not to expect his return. Whether that includes Hugo Weaving in the role again remains to be seen.

3 EGO

Guardians of the Galaxy has been one of the most successful group of characters that Marvel can boast about. And part of that is down to their character development. Seeing Peter finally connect with his Father was actually quite touching. Until it’s revealed that the celestial is out to expand and take over the Galaxy planet by planet.

Okay, so the plot itself is a little clear cut but it’s not too bad. We see part of Ego begin to swallow up part of Peter’s hometown on Earth. So why wasn’t this addressed on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (the show usually does a tie in episode with the films) or even in an Avengers movie? After all, a huge alien substance taking over a town is quite big news. There were no heroes rushing in to save civilians or anything.

2 FINE, I’LL DO IT MYSELF

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When Thanos first debuted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he began sending various agents to do his bidding, like Loki and Ronan the Accuser. They would make an assault on a world in order to get revenge for something, and Thanos would get an Infinity Stone in return to add to his Gauntlet. That makes sense. And in the post credits scene from Age of Ultron, he reaches for the Gauntlet saying “Fine, I’ll do it myself”.

But, who was he referring to? Because even though the Mind Stone was a huge part of Ultron’s creation, it wasn’t as if Thanos had willed Ultron to life. There was no manipulation from the Mad Titan whatsoever. There didn’t seem to be anybody stood around with Thanos either, so who was he talking to? Please Kevin Feige, clear it up.

1 INFINITY GAUNTLETS

Yes, Gauntlets. Plural. Two of them. Everyone spotted the initial Infinity Gauntlet easter egg during Thor, as it was sitting in Odin’s vault. It was a nice nod to things in the comics and potential live action storylines. But to clear up the confusion, Hela pushed it over, calling it a fake.

So, A) She’s been trapped in a dimension of her own for the last 5000 years, how does she know for definite that it’s fake? B) How does she know what the real thing looks like? And also, for it to be kept in Odin’s vault, the fake Gauntlet must have been incredibly convincing for them to at least think it was real. Even if it’s through a throwaway line of dialogue, that first Gauntlet needs explaining somehow.