'Avengers: Endgame' Deleted Scene Reveals Huge 'Avengers' (2012) Plot Hole

Leave it to Rocket Raccoon to make the Avengers look like less than Earth’s mightiest heroes. As one of the only Guardians of the Galaxy left alive after Thanos’ Snap, the smart-mouthed raccoon served as a source of humor in some of the darker moments of Avengers: Endgame. And in a deleted scene from the film included in the official digital release, Rocket makes a quip about the team fighting the Chitauri army that calls into question the entire plot of 2012’s The Avengers.

When the superhero team faced the Chitauri in the first Avengers movie, it was the first time they’d come into contact with aliens not named Loki and Thor. They fought as best as they could, and, according to Black Widow, it only took a few hours to defeat the alien invasion.

Not bad, right? Well, Rocket has more than a few thoughts about the Avengers’ confrontation with the Chitauri army. As it turns out, they’re the “suckiest army in the galaxy” and all the Avengers had to do was blow up their mothership to destroy them. Ouch.

Though the scene was understandably deleted and served no larger purpose to Endgame’s plot (a film with an already bloated runtime of over three hours), the new information renders the plot of The Avengers moot. In defense of Earth’s mightiest heroes, though, we can say that they didn’t know any better at this point in time. However, from a battle strategy standpoint, taking out the mothership, which was well within range, would’ve been the smart choice, alien or not.

Additionally, S.H.I.E.L.D. was still functional back then (even if it was secretly being controlled by HYDRA), so the Avengers had a plethora of resources and information at their disposal. The fact that Thor himself was already on the team and wasn’t forthcoming with the information comes off as a pretty major oversight.

Heck, even Nick Fury had already come face-to-face with other alien lifeforms (Captain Marvel was set long before the Avengers), so it’s pretty strange that the man who supposedly has all this intel was somehow unaware of the Chitauri’s weak spot. Also, has no one read Ender’s Game?

This deleted Endgame scene doesn’t necessarily devalue the first Avengers movie, but it does bring to light the fact that, despite Marvel’s best efforts, these films can have major plot holes. This is especially true as retcons may happen or a bit of logic is lost amidst the spectacle of a great battle. The team (and the studio) has clearly grown a lot since their first fight. They’re more organized, a bit more tactical, and as Endgame has shown, they are also no longer jumping to action without first coming up with a proper plan.

Rocket’s inclusion, however, just goes to show that having extra help when dealing with the unknown is never a bad thing. 

Avengers: Endgame is currently out on digital and available on Blu-ray/DVD August 13, 2019.