Like most people, I went to see the Disney/Marvel super-epic Avengers: Endgame a couple of weeks ago. It was good; I give it an A overall. This post isn't a review or analysis of the film. It's just one question.
The question is this: during the Big Final Battle with all the heroes against the villain's legions with the fate of the Universe at stake (again) . . . where are the U.S. armed forces?
Now while the battle might well have ended while ground units were still rolling down the New York Thruway, there should at least have been some aircraft overhead. It's especially odd given that three of the Avengers are current or former Air Force officers themselves.
This isn't the first Marvel movie in which major military forces have been conspicuous by their absence. The climactic battle of the previous film, Avengers: Infinity War, took place in central Africa — but there was time for various superheroes to reach the scene and prepare for battle, which means "mundane" military forces have could been involved. However isolationist the rulers of Wakanda may be, they surely wouldn't turn down outside help in the face of an invasion by aliens bent on destroying half the Universe. Ethiopian Air Force MiG-21s could show up, or U.S. Marines in Ospreys from Djibouti, or carrier-based planes from the Indian Ocean.
No doubt the fictional, "in-universe" explanation is that the conventional military units simply couldn't arrive in time, or were engaged off-screen, or something. But why didn't the moviemakers at least acknowledge the existence of real-world armed forces?
After all, the trailer for the upcoming Godzilla: King of the Monsters shows the big G stomping into battle against King Ghidorah with an escort of F-35 fighters. (As I commented to my family, the only thing cooler would be if Godzilla was riding a Harley and holding a big American flag. Maybe they're keeping that for the sequel.)
I think Godzilla provides a clue. Real-world military forces are very powerful. A couple of A-10 Warthogs can turn a column of tanks into scrap metal. A B-52 can rain down 70,000 pounds of bombs in a single sortie. Compared to that, even a mighty hero like Thor or the Incredible Hulk seems kind of redundant. And the more human-scale heroes like Hawkeye or Black Widow become simply insignificant. What can a guy with a bow, or a woman with a Beretta pistol and a taser wristband do when there's serious firepower around?
Godzilla, at least, is an indestructible city-sized monster with atomic fire breath. He's in the same weight class as a military force. So he won't be overshadowed by some jet fighters. They can join in the fight without reducing his star power. Superheroes get left in the shade. So the armed forces have to stay off-screen in Marvel movies.
Still . . . just a couple of computer-animated jets in the background, or a line about the army being half an hour away, would have satisfied my nitpicker's soul.
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